Horseshoe Bay POA board addresses resort accusations, bans

The Horseshoe Bay Property Owners’ Association Board of Directors took a stand against allegations from Horseshoe Bay Resort owner Jordan Jaffe during its Oct. 18 meeting. Jaffe banned the board’s seven members from resort property, accusing them of failing to meet POA landscaping standards and obligations. The directors said they are totally within their rights and have the documents to prove it.

POA board President Donald Beeman, who is also a candidate for Horseshoe Bay mayor, had his resort membership revoked as well as being banned from resort property. Beeman is in a contentious race against Mayor Pro-tem Elsie Thurman for the Nov. 7 election. 

In an email sent to members of Horseshoe Bay Resort and the Horseshoe Bay Property Owners’ Association on Oct. 6, Jaffe charged that, “The (Horseshoe Bay) POA board had no interest in abiding by or adhering to the bylaws of their charter,” referring to the board’s perceived neglect of maintaining landscaping at entryways and boulevards throughout the POA’s boundaries.

During Wednesday’s meeting, the directors addressed Jaffe’s accusations and cited language from the original 1990 Easement, Covenant, and Declaration of Restrictions that originally formed the Horseshoe Bay POA.

“Section 7 of the (EC&Rs) prevents the resort from charging and the POA from paying above a set formula unless the resort and POA enter into a separate agreement to pay higher amounts,” board Vice President Linda Burling read from a POA statement.

The statement went on to explain that a 2013 POA board did agree with the resort to pay more than the required obligations from the EC&Rs. 

According to Beeman, the POA was contributing about $147,000 of its approximately $800,000 annual budget to landscaping under the 2013 agreement. Beeman said the board combed over the original obligations outlined in the EC&Rs and chose to end the 2013 agreement based on its findings. The POA now pays roughly $47,000.

“It’s totally in (Horseshoe Bay Resort’s) court,” Beeman told DailyTrib.com. “We haven’t asked for anything back. We haven’t made any demands or threats. We’re just trying to get started with something that is going to be more fair to the property owners, which is our fiduciary duty as board members.”

Beeman laid out a timeline, stating that he and other board members began negotiations with the resort in April when they discovered they could reduce their landscaping obligations. He said these negotiations didn’t work out, and the board chose to end the 2013 agreement, which was allowed with 30 days’ notice per the contract. 

By May, the POA board had reduced the landscaping payments by about two-thirds.

All seven members of the POA board and their families were banned from Horseshoe Bay Resort property on Oct. 5, something they learned via an email from attorney Zachary Garsek, who represents “the declarant.” Declarant is a legal designation that, in this case, refers to the person or entity responsible for originally creating the subdivision upon which the Horseshoe Bay POA now resides. 

When the POA was created and its power handed over to a board of directors in 1971, it was under certain conditions set by the declarant, which are the Easement, Covenant, and Declaration of Restrictions.

The concept and definition of “declarant” can be hard to nail down, but in his letter to resort and POA members, Jaffe signed off with: “Horseshoe Bay Resort Development, the Declarant Jordan Jaffe.”

“I write to inform you that you are ineligible for membership,” reads Garsek’s Oct. 5 email to Horseshoe Bay POA Director Karen Calderon-Schweitzer. “You are aware that, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Horseshoe Bay Property Owners’ Association, you acted in a manner that is detrimental to the continued successful operations of (Horseshoe Bay Resort).”

All directors received similar emails on the same day. Calderon-Schweitzer, who is the POA’s event coordinator, was on the verge of tears when she addressed the board and audience during Wednesday’s meeting.

“I’m sorry, I’m emotional,” she said. “I just want to say that I am a proud board director, and I have done nothing wrong.”

The board’s newest director, Rick Overholt, also spoke up during the meeting.

“My first reward after five months on the board was being publicly humiliated,” he said. “My family and my grandchildren and myself are banned from stepping foot on resort property. I just can’t believe what’s happening in this city.”

DailyTrib.com spoke briefly with Garsek, who attended Wednesday’s meeting and asked to explain the specific concerns of the declarant.

“We are continuing our investigation, and we are disappointed in the direction this has gone,” he said. “The declarant takes the rights and benefits of POA members and residents of Horseshoe Bay seriously.”

According to Jaffe’s original letter, Horseshoe Bay Resort has had to pick up the slack left by the POA board’s decision to reduce financial contributions to landscaping.

“We’re volunteers, and we work for the property owners here. We do not work for the resort,” Beeman said during the meeting. “But we can work with the resort. We are all part of the same city.”

dakota@thepicayune.com