Fort Myers, FL
On the surface the Stoneybrook "No Street Parking" sign issue seems like such a minor thing to be talking about, writing about and wasting your time with.
However, day after day, week after week it has highlighted how ridiculous it is to have so many layers of government, just looking for ways to intrude upon your lives. It does, however, help me highlight why H.O.A's and mini notsie government's like CDD's should be declared illegal. And the people should be freed of the shackles of over-bearing government do-gooders.
Here we have three layers, Lee County, the CDD and the Stoneybrook H.O.A. Together they are unable to agree whether the signs are legal or not. And, installing signs that impact an entire community without consulting the residents or getting proper approvals goes far beyond "enforcing the covenants" which is what every H.O.A. board member always hides behind when we criticise them. It's dictating how people will live according to rules of the few. In the case of Stoneybrook, the covenants do not say certain board members or the CDD can install any signs they want, willy nilly.
Yesterday the Stoneybrook Liason committee met with Gateway Operations Manager Bill Knight. This is a direct quotes from an e-mail Knight sent to Supervisor Ed Sichel. "We have had no complaints on this matter, the Stoneybrook HOA has had minimal complaints. Additionally, in case you didn’t know…..this situation was driven by the Stoneybrook HOA NOT THE DISTRICT". Knight never mentions why the full GSD board did not approve a resolution to install the signs which is his responsibility, by the way.
The thing that always bugs me about Government, big or small, is the mentality that it doesn't really matter if what they did was legal or not, it's that they didn't get any complaints. And if you don't call them out on these things, they will just take one step after another. Hey Mr. Knight maybe people are too busy working 3 jobs to know whether or not those that are elected follow the proper rules and laws. You can compare it to the CDD raising water rates $10.00 per month, without justification, then saying we only received 14 complaints and with 4,000 residents we've concluded the people are in favor of a water increase.
I always compare these idiotic brain-fart theories with my time on the Park committee. We went out of our way to reach out to the community when considering the addition of a dog park. That included public hearings, e-mail blasts and as many other ways that we could reach out to the residents. There would be no way people could come back and say they did not know. Here, neither the CDD or Stoneybrook did anything of the sort. There was no survey sent to SB residents asking them if they believed the community had a parking problem. It's always better to have more information so when you get caught like this you don't have to duck and dodge the issue which is what everyone involved is doing.
The mentality is "forget about the law". Let's just do what we want and see if anyone notices. Let's build a $7 Million tennis complex and see if anybody notices. It's so arrogant to say they've gotten no complaints. But why should Knight give a rats ass, it's not coming out of his $100,000 salary. How about a clear explanation from our over-priced and under-performing engineer about which law was followed and why.
Think it's just me bitching again? John Jack is a newly elected Stoneybrook board member. Here is how he responded to Knight's no complaint nonsense: "I really do not care if people are complaining or not. No one has been fined or issued a citation. So my question is, if you enact a rule but no one enforces it, what good is it. It is another example of wasted money and people do care about wasted money. I am here trying to prevent it".
On top of all this is the total lack of communication between all parties. These are all direct quotes from the people involved:
"Okay guys..enough is enough...frankly, I'm tired of this sign issue and all the unanswered questions. If any of you know, I would appreciate knowing the following: who has met previously with Bill Knight/tetra tech on this issue? Who's authority was used to state that "no street parking" was the final answer? Was it Knight alone, tetra tech, was it GSCDD, was it an SB Board member, was it a joint decision?
"If the signs were installed without SB board approval or GSD board approval, these signs are illegal and should be taken down immediately".
"While I am not an attorney nor do I pretend to be. I do believe that if you have a brain tumor you should not be going to a proctologist. That being said I for one would feel better if it were reviewed by our attorneys as none of us are"
It all comes back to the same issues for me. We have too many layers of government. We pay too many people to do too many useless tasks. We need landscaping, we need water and we need a clean pool. Everything after that is busy work. Can anyone say Wetland 47?
This sign situation is a classic example of a self-created issue. Without any real reason signs were installed. And now you have people wasting time (and money we pay them) having meetings to decide if the signs are legal, who decded to put them up and who's going to pay to take them down. It's amazing to me that any of these people are able to go to the bathroom without someone else having to zip up their fly.
