Colleton Skeptic

Many new Owners have invested in our Club during the past three years and it may be worthwhile providing some history. Here are the results of recent Board elections: 2017: the Nominating Committee nominated three candidates. One of the candidates who unsuccessfully interviewed with the Nominating Committee was not selected, but instead ran for election as a petition candidate. The petition candidate and two of the three Nominating Committee candidates were elected. 2018: the Nominating Committee nominated five candidates for three positions. No petition candidates emerged and three of the five candidates were elected to the Board. 2019: the Nominating Committee nominated four candidates for three positions. No petition candidates emerged and three of the four candidates were elected to the Board. 2020: the Nominating Committee nominated three candidates for three positions. No petition candidates emerged and the three candidates were elected to the Board. 2021: the Nominating Committe...

 Since 2019, there have been five Owner ballots relating to the governance of the Club. All ballots required a 2/3 supermajority and all were approved by the Owners: Goodwin Purchase:       Approved with 74.1% of the vote (341 of 460 votes) Builder Programs:           Approved with 86.1% of the vote (348 of 404 votes) Membership Model:     Approved with 89.3% of the vote (377 of 422 votes) Entity Accountability:  Approved with 93.2% of the vote (327 of 351 votes) Amenities:                     Approved with 68.9% of the vote (335 of 486 votes) In every vote, the ballots were sent to the Owners and the vote was mentioned in the daily email blast--at least until the Board believed that the Owners had voted the "right" way. For instance, the ballot for the Amenities closed on March 26, 2021, but the daily email blast stopped reminding people to vote about a week before the vot...

 I think it's hilarious that the likes of Joe Biden would "warn" Putin against invading Ukraine (https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-russian-president-putin-start-call-11638894107?page=1). After Biden's botching of his withdrawal from Afghanistan, does he seriously think Putin will take him seriously? Maybe he's trying to get Putin to laugh himself to death.  

A dispute exists between the seawall lot Owners and the Club. The dispute relates to how the costs of maintaining, repairing, and replacing the seawall are allocated between the seawall lot Owners or the Owners of the Club (i.e., all 560 Owners). The seawall has a replacement cost of about $9 million (which may be higher now in light of higher construction costs). To save you the trouble of doing the math, $9 million (actually around $7.5 million when you take out the portion attributable to the 17th hole of the Nicklaus course and the community dock) divided by 32 is about $235,000 and divided by 560 is about $14,000. So whether the seawall Lot Owners or the Club is responsible for the replacement of the seawall ought to be a matter of concern to all Owners. In 2019, the Club hired the law firm of Nelson Mullins to conduct a title search and review of the facts and governing documents relating to the seawall. By way of background: There are three phases to the seawall: The J-Lots whic...

You know what I love? Gaslighting! At the information sessions run by the Governance Committee, Owners were assured that the proposed changes were “housekeeping” in nature.  Wrong . The proposed changes include several substantive changes among numerous trivial changes, and the substantive changes are both overinclusive and underinclusive. The proposed changes are overinclusive in that they include changes that are bad for the Owners by further empowering the “insiders.” And the changes are underinclusive in that they do not include changes that would ensure that “outsiders” have a level playing field and access to the actions of the Board.   A preliminary word. Colleton River is subject to the "governance documents." A fair number of documents fall under this description, but the two at issue now are the By-Laws and the Declaration of Covenants. Generally speaking, the By-Laws deal with the process of governance and the Covenants deal with specific rights and duties of b...

 The posts in this Blog represent my opinions. I try hard to be factually accurate and will gladly correct any factual errors. Reasonable people can look at the same facts and hold different opinions. If you have a different opinion, put it in the comments. If you find an incorrect fact, let me know and I'll correct it and--if appropriate--revise my opinion. Where possible, I'll provide a citation to my facts, so readers can ensure that I'm not cherry-picking data to to support my view. If you're reading this Blog, it's because you voluntarily clicked through to read it. If you disagree with me, state your reasons--I don't claim to be right all the time. If you just don't like my posts, don't read them--my feelings certainly won't be hurt. But an informed population is important in a democracy like our Club. As much as the Board hates it, the Owners--not the Board--make all important decisions around here. In this Blog, I strive to provide context. A...

One of the proposals of the Governance Committee is that salary information for Club employees be kept secret not only from the Owners, but also from any Board Member who isn't on the Compensation Committee. This, of course, represents a change to the current By-Laws which expressly guarantee each Board Member access to any corporate record. Just out of curiosity, I just spent about 30 minutes online looking for salary information about other people: General Manager of  Colleton River Club (Tim Bakels): ? Beaufort County Administrator (Eric Greenway): $210,000 per year ( https://www.blufftontoday.com/story/news/2021/06/15/beaufort-county-council-approves-administrators-contract/7705388002/ ) Hilton Head Island Town Manager (Marc Orlando): $200,000 per year  https://www.islandpacket.com/news/article248608640--Jan 20 , 2021   South Carolina Governor (Henry McMaster): $106,078 (2018) https://www.businessinsider.com/governor-salary-by-state-2018-1#south-carolina-40   Dan...

 On March 26, 2021, the vote closed on the Board's amenities proposal. The proposal carried with an 11 vote landslide margin. During its campaign to convince the Owners to approve the amenities, the Board published both a Powerpoint presentation and some "frequently asked questions"--each of which contained various promises about the amenities. The last time I looked, both were still available on the Club's website, but I downloaded them just to be on the safe side. Since March 2021, it has become obvious that the amenities projects weren't, in the immortal words of Barrack Hussein Obama, "shovel ready." In fact, notwithstanding the promises made by the Board and the fact that the risks of both COVID and the recent escalation in building costs in the Low Country were well known during the first quarter of 2021, no permits have been obtained, no contracts have been let, and ground has not been broken on any phase of the amenities project.  Given that the ...

 I just got done reading the Club's "Marketing, Real Estate & Membership Update." What great news! Sales are UP! Sales price as a percentage of asking price is UP! Member experiences are UP! What exciting times. But you know what isn't in the Update? Information about how the Club's sales prices doing in the local market. Based upon the victory laps taken by the Board, one would imagine that real estate prices are soaring. So I went looking for data. Through the kindness of a local Realtor, I obtained sales information about Colleton River, Belfair, and Berkeley Hall for 2020 and 2021. As Mark Twain observed over a century ago, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. So people should take statistics (including mine) with a grain of salt. I decided to use sales price per square foot as my metric. I made this decision before I conducted the analysis--I didn't conduct the analysis and then search for metrics that supported a na...

On Monday, November 29, the Colleton River Club Board announced increases in assessments and fees for both the Owners and Invitational Program ("IP") participants. For 2022, the annual assessments will be: Full Members:                  $23,565 Lifestyle Members:          $15,874 IP (Local):                        $18,000                   IP (National):                   $14,625 The assessments for Full and Lifestyle Members do not include the $20,000 assessment approved for the amenities in March 2021. Owners who elected to pay the special assessment under the five-year installment plan will pay an annual assessment of $28,015 (Full) or $20,324 (Lifestyle). Please recall that IP participants do not pay special assessments. Here are some fun facts: Full Dues (2017): ...