TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

A Lot Left Untold By Sun 'N Lake Manager

ADVERTISEMENT

By DICK MILLER Guest Column

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 23, 2008

Is it my imagination or has Sun 'nn Lake General Manager Al Grieshaber Jr. just abandoned all pretense of objectivity with respect to management of district affairs in favor of protecting the backs of the large landowners of Sun 'N Lake and their landowner-elected supervisors? What Mr. Grieshaber hasn't told you is:

1. It is the large landowners who are mostly causing the substantial revenue deficits in Sun 'N Lake by not paying their assessments unless forced to do so. An earlier analysis of assessment payments revealed an overall delinquency of 42 percent on the part of district landowners. The homeowner delinquency rate at that time was 6 percent.

2. Since the day they signed a land agreement with the district, National Recreation Properties (NRPI), the district's largest landowner by far, has consistently tried to avoid paying assessments on their district properties. A lawsuit filed by residents three years go charged that the district could not legally suspend or forgive assessments for any landowner, large or small. The case was settled out of court and NRPI assessments were reinstated, but have mostly gone unpaid

3. At the present time our landowner-elected supervisors and Mr. Grieshaber are trying again to forgive or barter away NRPI assessments because this landowner says it can not pay its district bills. Consider what the consequences might be if a small landowner applied for the same relief.

4. The ultimate irony is that most of NRPI's Sun 'n Lake properties went to Highlands County tax certificate sales this year because of tax delinquencies on those properties. Investors bought certificates on practically all of these NRPI properties and as a part of this process paid owed NRPI assessments to the district. Now, and this really gets bizarre, we are told by district officials and by the district's attorney John McClure that NRPI can vote their properties in the upcoming landowner election because somebody else has satisfied the delinquencies on NRPI properties and thus NRPI as the property title holder of record benefits through no effort on their part to own up to their financial responsibilities.

Now I ask you, is this the benevolent landowner-based voting system that Mr. Grieshaber, certain Sun 'n Lake supervisors and district's attorneys have publicly described in recent weeks? At a minimum, any new agreement with NRPI, which is being pushed by the landowner supervisors, must, and I repeat must, include written agreement on the part of NRPI not to vote its properties in the upcoming landowner election in January. If this request seems somewhat arbitrary, one only has to recall NRPI's Mr. Greg Spiro's comments at a board of supervisors meeting a couple of years ago when he stated that NRPI wanted to be a good community citizen and would stay out of district elections.

In fact, most of the larger landowners in Sun 'n Lake are delinquent in their assessments. Two notable exceptions are Florida Hospital and John Greytak's Tanglewood community, which have faithfully paid their assessments each year. On the other side of the coin is Florida International Yachts LLC whose 70 lots are currently under foreclosure procedures. Two of our landowner-elected supervisors are investors in this corporation.

However, one must admit that life has not been dull in Sun 'n Lake since Al Grieshaber Jr. hit town in January of 2007. District assessment rates have been increased 14 percent two years in a row. The district is now facing upward of five lawsuits. Relations with the city of Sebring are at a new low. Relations with Avon Park also leave much to be desired, we have offended at times a number of county commissioners and department heads, and the district is currently experiencing a preliminary audit of district financial and operational systems and procedures.

Dick Miller lives in Sun' n Lake of Sebring.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT