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May 2009
We do not make jokes, we simply watch the LA Times, the Orange County Register and CID/HOA board of directors and report the factsDAnge
LETTERS
Levitt Goes Public with New Leisure World Occupancy Agreement
"They need to change their ways, or their addresses"- when confidential information is too confidential
Posted
by CotoBlogzz 04/28/2009 04:00 PM
Leisure
World's Mutual Number Four President and Seal
Beach City Councilman Mike Levitt wrote an alternately
whiny and self-congratulatory letter to the editor
published by The SUN NEWSPAPERS in its Thursday, April
23, 2009 issue.
Titled
"Rebuttal to Joe Q. Public," Levitt
complains in his letter that he is the "target of
a smear campaign" and then uses a "poison
pen" to smear a "Joe" who is known to
many in Leisure World as a "Good Joe."
The man
who failed to recuse himself from voting on a zoning
variance in Old Town, which would have benefited his
own son, a contractor who sought to build three-story
townhouses, even has the "chutzpah" to rail
against "unethical behavior." This
obvious conflict of interest is described by Levitt as
having "fought the City Council to protect the
rights of property owners."
Also
galling is Levitt's statement that he "helped
update an inadequate Occupancy Agreement" that
has been drafted, at the instigation of a group known
as the Presidents Council, to be applied to the
residents of Leisure World.
Until
Levitt's letter was published, this "update"
of the Occupancy Agreement-- essentially a lease--has
been tightly guarded by the Presidents Council as a
"confidential document." The contents
of the document have even been kept secret from two of
the sixteen members of the Presidents Council, the
presidents of mutual numbers one and fourteen.
Levitt
complains that "Joe criticizes me for trying to
alter the automatic three-year renewal of our
occupancy rights," and then brags
"Absolutely!" He justifies this by
citing some extreme and relatively uncommon examples
and states, "They need to change their ways, or
their addresses." Is this not the attitude
associated with "dictators and despots"
cited in the first sentence of Levitt's letter?
The
Presidents Council has proposed that the Occupancy
Agreement be amended to provide for a vote by a
mutual's board of directors as to whether or not to
renew a resident's Occupancy Agreement at the end of
each three-year term. If they decide not to
renew the agreement, the resident will be evicted.
Has Levitt
or any of the other mutual presidents not considered
the potential impact of such a change upon the value
of our apartments and condominiums in Leisure World?
Who in their right mind is going to spend from
$90,000 to $500,000 plus monthly "Carrying
Charges" of more than $300 per month for the
right to live in a home where they will be faced with
the prospect of eviction every three years for some
perceived infraction of the rules imposed upon them by
their mutual's board of directors?
It is not
rational to expect that Americans, especially seniors
seeking a secure retirement, would pay any amount of
their hard-earned money to live under such a degree of
tyranny as the revised Occupancy Agreement touted by
Levitt would impose upon them. This revised
document, already approved by Mutual 15, is far more
frightening to my neighbors than anything Joe has said
to date.
Something
that Levitt failed to mention in his letter is that he
has been actively encouraging the Golden Rain
Foundation (GRF) to provide an RV washing facility to
the northwest of Clubhouse Number Two on El Dorado
Drive. This project is reported by GRF to be
ready for groundbreaking next month. It is
expected to cost in excess of $120,000. The
actual total cost may be closer to $250,000 by the
time the facility is completed.
Once the
RV wash facility is completed, it will cost GRF at
least $1,000 per month to operate and maintain. All
of these costs will be paid from the Carrying Charges
paid by all Leisure World residents to subsidize the
hobby of fewer than 150 owners o f RV's who live in
this development. It is worth noting that the
members of the RV and travel-trailer club are among
the more affluent members of the community.
Mike
Levitt has been an active member and officer of the
Leisure World RV club for several years. One has
to wonder why all residents of Leisure World are to be
required to pay for this facility to serve the
convenience of the RV owners. Can't they afford
the gas money to drive to the nearest commercial RV
wash?
It is even
questionable why GRF continues to provide more than an
acre of Leisure World property for RV parking and
storage, when these oversized, gas-guzzling vehicles
are expected to go the way of the dinosaurs in the
decade to come. Surely there are better uses for
that land that would be beneficial to far more
residents than its current use which is restricted to
a small elite group.
If anyone
believes that Levitt only has altruistic motivations,
think again. Although he has been a resident of
Leisure World for about six years, he has already
"flipped" his first apartment in Mutual 4
for what is said to have been a significant profit.
Soon after occupying his current apartment, he
persuaded his fellow board members to grant him
permission to have an outdoor patio that at least
partially extends into the "common area" of
the mutual.
Apparently
it doesn't trouble him or other members of the Mutual
4 board of directors that state laws applicable to
common interest deve lopments do not allow for such
conversion of "common area" to exclusive
use. Such disregard for compliance with law is
disturbing to find in one who is in a position to
decide upon rules and policies for the rest of us mere
mortals.
Another
example of Levitt's disregard of law, and perhaps
contempt for a published court ruling, is the fact
that he presided over a meeting of his Mutual 4 board
of directors on April 8, 2009 at which the board
resolved in Executive [closed] Session, "That
Mutual Four elect/continue status quo as a General Law
Corporation for litigation purposes=2 0in the
future."
In a
summary of the meeting attached to the minutes it was
stated, "...Mutual Four will continue to operate
as a General Law Corporation (not Davis-Stirling)."
This is, at best, a poorly worded resolution
that gives a false impression. First of all, the
"status quo" over at least the last twenty
years has been that all Leisure World mutuals were
managed and operated under the provisions of the
Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act. Second,
there is NOTHING in the law that precludes a General
Law Corporation from being subject to the provisions
of the Davis-Stirling Act.
Simply
put, it is a false dichotomy to present being a
General Law Corporation and complying with the Davis-Stirling
A ct as an "either/or" proposition. Furthermore,
it is quite possible that Levitt and his fellow board
members have breached their fiduciary duty to the
mutual corporation and its shareholders by taking an
action that invites future litigation.
Levitt and
his board have a fidu ciary duty is to avoid the
potential for unnecessary legal liability, not to make
it probable. Also, since they have staked a
position that they "elect" to not comply
with the Davis-Stirling Act, will they disclose that
fact to potential buyers or risk even more lawsuits
for failure to provide "full disclosure"?
Is such
behavior born of arrogance or ignorance? Sometimes
that is a tough call to make, especially with many of
those in leadership positions here in Leisure World.
David Lyon
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