Fort Myers, FL -
Folks, this one is a doozy! I had to go way back into the Gazette archives to pull this story back up. I loved the story back then and I love it even more now. Of course this is a tale of money being wasted by government officials and all at your expense. First, a short history....
On July 13th, I wrote How You Were Robbed of $25G in the Gazette. It details the plight of two residents, Paul Fish (of Pelican Preserve) and Sheri Bucar (of Stoneybrook) and how they convinced the Gateway Services District to "monitor" work being done by Waste Management. W.M. was building a transfer station on property near Gateway but not inside Gateway. That "monitoring" cost Gateway residents, at that time, about $25,000. I'm not sure what the final number was but rest assured it was not less than that.
It was my contention back then that the district (you and me) were paying the legal bills for 2 local residents to sue Waste Management. Our attorney repeatedly references the two (Fish 4 times and Bucaar 16 times) in depositions which you can see again HERE. By the way, if you read those depositions, be ready to laugh. They are extremely funny. Fish and Bucar really had no facts to back up their N.I.M.B.Y position other than the potential "for odor". It was a blip for Waste Management. They got their permits and moved on. But not before inflicting a little financial pain back on Fish and Bucar. Waste Management turned around and sued the two of them for frivolous claims made against their company. And here's where the story gets juicy.
This past Friday, one of my super secret Stoneybrook spies (not Bob Nielson) met me at the back door of my business and provided me with these DOCUMENTS. Bucar has hired attorney Julie Lewis of Fort Myers. It appears Bucar has already racked up $30,000 in fees defending herself and she wants that money paid back. That would seem kind of odd to me if Bucaar was simply acting as a concerned citizen with Fish when they tried to stop a legitimate business from doing business. And, if Stoneybrook residents do not pay close attention they may wind up paying the bill. Bucar is on the Stoneybrook board and as you know HOA's act in mysterious ways at times.
Bucar's attorney is claiming that Bucar is owed the money due to the "gross negligence of Alliant (the SB property management company) in the carrying out of its contract with the StoneyBrook at Gateway Master Association". "Ms. Bucar is essentially claiming that her Waste Management witch-hunt was in the performance of her duties as a Director of the Stoneybrook association.
You poor Stoneybrook residents. I feel bad for you on this one. It looks like, at the least, you will have to pay attorney's fees to defend yourself against yourself. Why would Bucar just sue the management company? She'll most likely come after the association as well. Can you imagine that? She's a board member who has an attorney that could possibly sue the board she's sitting on who will then have to get an attorney to defend itself against a board member? Does that make sense? Of course not. It's an HOA!
But, the rest of us should think about this. If Bucaar is going after Stoneybrook to get her money back why wouldn't she come after the rest of us? Do you think she really cares where the $30K comes from? And remember in May of 2008 your GSD Board of Supervisors passed a resolution authorizing their engineering form to "monitor the situation" putting us right in this mess. We were involved in depositions, which, if you read, clearly look like we are defending Bucar and Fish.
