Deer Ridge Owners - Deer Ridge Mountain Resort - Gatlinburg, Tennessee » Full Time Residents

Deer Ridge Lawsuit: Judge Orders GGRC To Mediation

Robert — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 21:19:06 +0000

Mediation

During the court hearing that was held on December 9, 2011, Judge Rex Ogle ruled that the parties would be required to participate in court ordered mediation.

Unfortunately, this mediation, while court ordered, is not binding. If history is any indicator, the “board” will not participate in good faith which will mean that the mediation will be a complete waste of time and money.

My strong preference would be to turn this over to binding arbitration so these matters could be cost-effectively finalized. But the “board” has no interest in this – and the judge cannot order this. So, we are stuck with probable meaningless mediation.

While we had tried to short circuit this whole process with our motions for summary judgement, the judge made it clear during the hearing that he was not going to rule on any of the issues – and he seemed relieved to find out that we had requested a jury trial. So be it.

Jury Trial

We will do what we can to expedite the mediation so that we can quickly get it out of the way – and move to set a trial date as quickly as we can - once our interrogatories and depositions of Joe Thomas, board members and current and past employees are completed.

We are actually looking forward to showing 12 jurors our proof of the multiple violations by this “board.”

We can’t wait to show how the “board” has squandered 40% of every year’s HOA fees for 16.5 years on RML’s negative cash flow.

We can’t wait to show the jury how the “board” has wasted an average of $116,000 a year, EVERY YEAR, on feeding the negative cash flow of an illegitimately formed RML for a total of nearly $2 million.

We believe that a jury of our peers will see the ongoing bias and discrimination against any owner who does not use RML.

We believe that the jury will see from the evidence that Joe Thomas and the “board” have slandered and libeled me for years, including portraying me in a “false light.”

We believe that the jury will see the self serving benefits that Joe Thomas, board members and other “insiders” have enjoyed at the expense of other owners, including the “trade out” use of units that were not owned by these insiders.

We believe that the jury will see that the strained interpretations of the Master Deed by Joey and the Gang are transparent abuses of power that ignored the requirements of our governing documents.

We believe that the jury will see the ridiculous requirements for reviewing the books and records for what they are: Intentional, multiple road blocks that are fully intended to actually keep the GGRC books and records out of the hands of owners – all an intentional and flagrant violation of the Tennessee Horizontal Property Act.

We believe that the jury will empathize and share our anger at how this “board” has arbitrarily and capriciously run Deer Ridge as their own private fiefdom for years.

We genuinely believe that 12 jurors who are all our peers will rule in our favor on all counts – and will require ALL the changes we have sought at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort – along with awarding us damages, interest and a return of all of our overcharged HOA fees and assessments.

For these, and other reasons, we very much look forward to this jury trial.

New Derivative Action Lawsuit

In addition to all of the above, we are currently preparing a new derivative action lawsuit against Joe Thomas and all individual board members.

This lawsuit will be brought by at least seven current Deer Ridge owners.

These owners will sue the Gang of Six on behalf of GGRC as a way of forcing this renegade “board” to shut down the money losing RML and force them to abide by the multitude of Master Deed and Bylaws that the “board” continues to violate. More about this derivative action lawsuit in the near future.

They Started It – We Will Finish It

As one owner stated in a posting here on this blog, “The board started this. They sued Robert first. And they are wasting all of our money for their own agenda and vendetta.”

I obviously agree – but we will do what we need to do to finish this – and finish it right.

Stay tuned!

Presentment Of Demands To Individual Board Members On Behalf Of GGRC HOA

Robert — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:08:55 +0000

To: Luther Parker and All Other Individual “Board” Members

Re: Presentment Of Demands To All Individual Board Members On Behalf Of GGRC

Date: November 10, 2011

On behalf of, and representing, Gatlinburg Golf and Racquet Club, aka GGRC, I hereby demand the following from all individual board members of GGRC and Ridge Management, Ltd. (“RML”).

That RML be immediately shut down to stop the hemorrhage from massive cash flow losses that are jeopardizing GGRC’s financial future.
That the 2012 budgets reflect no activity for RML.
That Joe Thomas be fired for cause as a result of ongoing massive losses caused by his management of RML and the inability of GGRC to pay his excessive and above market compensation.
That the 2012 budgets reflect that all HOA monthly fees be cut by 50% as a result of no longer losing money from operating RML and no longer paying the above market compensation of Joe Thomas.
That an insurance escrow account be established and funded in full accordance with the GGRC Master Deed, Article X, entitled “Insurance”, that provides in Section 3 that all owners are to pay a separate check for their pro rata share of the Common Expense for insurance so that it can be deposited into a separate trust account.
That all discrimination against resident owners cease immediately.

The above points are more fully described below.

However, the bottom line: If these demands are not immediately and fully implemented, we intend on pursuing an emergency request for the Judge in our case to place a court appointed receiver in charge of all aspects of Deer Ridge Mountain Resort and remove this board and Joe Thomas from any and all decision making.

If these demands are not met, we intend on presenting motions for this and other actions, during the scheduled December 9, 2011 hearing on our motion for partial summary judgment.

Immediately Shut Down RML And Fire Joe Thomas

You admitted in the August 2011 board minutes that RML lost over $58,000 for the first six months of 2011. You admitted you were arbitrarily shifting approximately $16,000 in RML expenses to GGRC in order to “cook” the books and misrepresent the real cost of operating RML.

This admitted loss extrapolates to a nearly $120,000 admitted loss for RML each year. By my calculations, the real loss with honest cost accounting is over $150,000 a year. This represents over HALF of all HOA fees collected each year from all Deer Ridge owners.

As a consequence, by shutting down RML, our HOA would no longer have to pay these monies out to support RML and could cut all HOA fees in half – which is the best thing for ALL owners.

As you know from prior correspondence, I have successfully negotiated a rental management deal with Cobbly Nob Rentals. They are bigger, more experienced, generate better results for owners in gross collections and is significantly less expensive than RML. RML is, in fact, charging all Deer Ridge owners a rental management fee that is 43% higher than the Cobbly Nob Rental deal.

As a consequence, all owners are better off using Cobbly Nob Rentals than RML for two reasons:

They get to deposit that extra 43% in their own bank accounts
All owners save half of their annual HOA fees that are currently being squandered on supporting RML’s huge negative cash flow.

RML has always lost owners a lot of money. By my calculations, over $1.3 million. By Joe Thomas’ own accounting, even with improper cost accounting, RML lost GGRC home owners over $359,000 over a ten year period from 1995-2004.

Again, these are numbers from Joe Thomas showing at LEAST a $359,000 loss that was paid for out of the pockets of every Deer Ridge owner during this 10 year period.

Irrespective of the fact that I believe that RML is totally illegitimate according to our Master Deed and Bylaws, the above numbers show how incredibly stupid it is for GGRC to be in the motel business.

There are only massive losses and no upside potential for Deer Ridge owners. And, with the deal that I successfully negotiated with Cobbly Nob Rentals, all owners who want to rent their unit now have a much more cost effective solution by a better, more established and successful company that let’s them keep 43% more money in their pockets.

How can you all, as individual board members, even recommend that any owner waste 43% more of their money by using RML when there is a better alternative available to all owners who want to rent their unit at no cost and no risk to GGRC?
How can you all, as individual board members, even recommend that RML be continued when it is clearly NOT in the best interests of GGRC and all owners when HALF of all HOA fees are going to feed the huge RML negative cash flow?
How can you all, as individual board members, even recommend that RML be continued when you are wrongly charging at least 20 owners who do not use RML services – and still get charged pro rata for the massive cash flow loss of past years and even the first six months of 2011?

As a consequence, prudent management requires that RML be shut down immediately and certainly before the end of calendar year 2011 so that GGRC and all owners do not continue to hemorrhage massive losses from the bank account of GGRC and the pockets of all owners.

Every month of delay is costing GGRC nearly $10,000 right out of our bank account – and those funds are lost forever. And, each month that goes by where more and more Deer Ridge owners give RML their 60 Day Termination Notice so they don’t have to pay the 43% higher fee – the negative cash flow for RML will skyrocket.

For every two dozen owners who are smart enough to change from RML to Cobbly Nob Rentals, RML will lose another $120,000 a year or more.

This would DOUBLE the current $10,000 a month negative cash flow to $20,000 a month – or nearly $250,000 a year LOSS from RML!

As a result, any budget projections shown by Joe Thomas for RML for 2012 will be based on smoke and mirrors since he has no way of knowing how many of the 63 owners that started the summer with RML will stay with RML. As I understand it, Cobbly Nob already has signed contracts or indications of intention from a DOZEN owners.

Are you going to DOUBLE everyone’s current assessment to cover this huge negative cash flow and keep us all in the motel business, no matter what?

What happens if or when three dozen or even four dozen owners are smart enough to keep that extra 43% in their pockets?

How much will you lose us between now and the inevitable end when you will have no choice but to shut down RML?

It is past time to shut down RML. Shut it down!

On behalf of GGRC, I hereby demand that the individual board members vote during the November 11-12, 2011 budget board meeting to shut down RML before the end of 2011. This presentment is to officially put each and every board member on notice that you are considered to be guilty of gross negligence and gross mismanagement by continuing to squander GGRC assets through your ongoing operation of RML.

As such, you may not be afforded any protection under the indemnification clauses of our Master Deed and Bylaws and may be held personally accountable for the repayment of these squandered funds.

Part of this shut down also includes firing Joe Thomas who is directly responsible for the abysmal results of RML for the past two decades.

GGRC does not need his services nor his exorbitant pay package that is significantly above market. On behalf of GGRC, I hereby put all individual board members on notice that you are guilty of gross negligence and gross mismanagement by continuing to squander GGRC assets through your ongoing employment of Joe Thomas.

Cut ALL HOA Fees In Half

As the arithmetic shows, without RML and without the huge salary package of Joe Thomas, over half of our annual HOA fees could be cut so that ALL owners benefited from these reduced costs.

On behalf of GGRC, I hereby put all individual board members on notice that you are guilty of gross negligence and gross mismanagement by continuing to squander GGRC assets by overcharging all owners for their monthly and annual HOA fees and demand that the 2012 budget for GGRC properly reflect HOA fees that are HALF of the current amounts charged to ALL owners.

Insurance Escrow

It is clear that you all, as individual board members, have not established and maintained the required insurance escrow account that is mandated by the GGRC Master Deed.

To protect all owners, the Master Deed (see below) requires that all premiums are escrowed in a separate escrow account to ensure that the funds are available when the annual premium becomes due…and that the full amount of the premium is required to be totally escrowed at least 60 days prior to the due date of the annual insurance premium.

I am highly concerned that there has never been any attempt of any kind by Joe Thomas and the “board” for any owner to abide by this requirement since my purchase in 2005.

I am further concerned that all owners at Deer Ridge are not being afforded the economic protection provided by Article X Section 3 of the Master Deed. I believe there may not be any separate escrow account established and properly funded in accordance with Section 3 of Article X.

Since the annual insurance premium is substantive at approximately $50,000, my calculations show that approximately $5,000 should be escrowed each month so the amount of the account balance should be sufficient to pay the annual $50,000 sixty days prior to the due date as required by the Master Deed.

On behalf of GGRC, I hereby demand that the individual board members vote during the November 11-12, 2011 budget board meeting to form and fully fund this required insurance escrow before the end of November 2011.

This presentment is to officially put each and every board member on notice that you are considered to be guilty of gross negligence and gross mismanagement by continuing to jeopardize GGRC assets through your ongoing violation of the above insurance article of our Master Deed.

Likewise, as required by the above section, I hereby demand on behalf of GGRC that the 2012 budget and payment schedule required of each owner reflect that a separate payment be made by all owners that is properly written for direct deposit into this separate and dedicated insurance escrow account.

Discrimination Against Resident Owners

We believe that Joe Thomas and some, or all, “board members” have conspired to discriminate in both overt and subtle ways against resident owners and others who do not use the motel services of RML.

These include:

Instructing and rewarding certain “guests” to intentionally make as much noise as possible in units directly above a resident owner’s unit. We know as a fact that this has happened numerous times and intend on requiring current employees to provide their depositions and/or sworn interrogatories with regard to their knowledge and participation in said harassment as well as having our attorney contact those “guests” who were present during those times of intentional noise harassment. We believe that neither employees or past guests will risk the consequences of perjury to protect known instigators of this activity.
Limiting the use and contents of owner’s balconies and landings in ways that are clearly aimed at resident owner’s use as differentiated from balcony and walkway landing use and needs of tourists who only stay a few days.
Limiting the use of the common area parking lot in ways that are clearly aimed at resident owner’s use as differentiated from parking lot use and needs of tourists who only stay a few days.
Interfering with, or delaying, mail delivery.
Attempting to control property sales to only those new owners who indicate a willingness to use the motel services of RML.
Requiring resident owners to notify the office if they are going to be absent from their own unit for even one night.
Interfering with the use of common areas by resident owners and their guests.
Etc.

On behalf of GGRC, I hereby demand that the individual board members immediately take whatever steps are necessary to stop the ongoing harassment and attempted intimidation of all resident owners and to ensure that it never happens again.

Court Appointed Receiver To Take Over All Operations And Decisions Regarding GGRC, RML and Deer Ridge Mountain Resort

If the above demands are not met during the November 11-12, 2011 board meeting, we intend to file emergency motions with the Court during our scheduled hearing on December 9, 2011.

The first will be to require that all monies be paid to the Court by GGRC that are supposed to be in a separate escrow account for the property insurance that equals approximately $50,000 a year. Our Master Deed requires this separate escrow account to protect all owners. Our “board” has chosen to ignore this part, and so many other parts, of our GGRC documents, with the result that they have put all owners at significant risk. By requiring the funds to be paid into the Court, these monies can be protected.

An emergency motion for the Court to appoint a receiver to take over all management and control of GGRC. The “board” continues to keep our HOA in the money losing motel business. According to their own board meeting meetings in August 2011, they were forced to admit that they lost over $58,000 of OUR money during just the first six months of 2011. This is money that is gone forever from our GGRC reserves. This amounts to almost $120,000 a year. On top of this, they are trying to fool all owners by wrongly allocating an additional $16,000 a year in RML expenses by showing them to be GGRC expenses. If all cost accounting were done properly, RML would be shown to lose over $150,000 a year – or more than HALF of our HOA fees that all owners pay to GGRC each month. I successfully found a better management company for all owners who want to rent their unit. RML charges 43% more than Cobbly Nob Rentals – so there is no need for RML by any owner. Since the “board” is unwilling to shut down RML, and continues to mismanage and negligently operate GGRC, we will immediately seek that a court appointed receiver take over all operations – and remove all decision making from Joe Thomas and every member of the “board.” If we don’t do this, GGRC is at significant risk of being forced into bankruptcy.

These are just two of the additional motions we intend to aggressively pursue in court on December 9th.

Additionally, if the “board” tries to implement ANY changes to the rules and regulations that are deemed to be discriminatory against resident owners, including new limitations regarding balcony use or the like, we will also document this ongoing and flagrant pattern of discrimination before the Court.

It is our strong belief that the Court will take into account the many ways that the current “board” is both blatantly ignoring the governing documents of Deer Ridge and GGRC and creating the financial peril that has resulted from the board’s continued operation of its motel business through RML.

As a consequence, we are confident that the Judge will agree with our motion that a court appointed receiver immediately take over ALL decision making for GGRC – including shutting down RML and making all books and records required by the Tennessee Horizontal Property Act available to ALL owners who want to see exactly what has been happening on this property for the past decade.

Updated Derivative Action Lawsuit

In addition, this document is presentment of these issues on behalf of GGRC to all individual board members. It is our intention to incorporate these demands, including the discrimination against resident owners, in our updated derivative action lawsuit against Joe Thomas and each individual board member.

We expect this updated derivative action, showing at least SEVEN Deer Ridge owners as co-plaintiffs, to be filed with the Court in the very near term.

You Have Been Warned

Individual board members, you have been warned. Govern yourselves accordingly as an individual who can be held individually liable for both gross mismanagement and gross negligence.

On behalf of GGRC,

Robert Goodman, Owner
———————————–

Legalese On

GENERAL DISCLAIMER FOR ALL PAGES AND POSTS AND EVERYTHING ELSE I DO OR SAY REGARDING DEER RIDGE AND ANY AND ALL RELATED PARTIES:

Note: This email, and the information on any and all other posts and pages by me about General Manager Joe Thomas, GGRC, RML and /or the Board of Directors and its members, or any related topics, are my personal opinions based on my ongoing investigation into the actions and inactions of the GGRC and RML Board of Directors and / or Joe Thomas, General Manager.

While I believe these allegations to be true based on my objective analysis, these opinions remain as only allegations until I, or others, prove things in court.

My goal is to offer all owners all the information and evidence that I have available so that everyone can reach their own conclusions.

Please note the obvious:

Everything I ever say or write in person, via emails, or on my blog, about Deer Ridge or any and all related entities and organizations or any and all affiliated personnel or owners, is strictly my own personal opinion of course – based, in part, from my owning a unit at Deer Ridge for over five years – and on my own personal history.

That history includes earning a Presidential MBA degree, being awarded a Bachelor of Science, With Honors, in Engineering Physics from UT, working for NASA as a rocket scientist at Marshall Space Flight Center, 30 years of CEO experience directly employing and managing many hundreds of people at multiple companies I personally started and operated (including one that I took public), 15 years experience buying and selling over $100 million of property and managing more than 45,000 rental units – AND being able to read and do four-function arithmetic.

Legalese – And Powered Wig – Off

More Resident Owner Discrimination At Deer Ridge: Two Letters Regarding Our Handling Of Noisy, Obnoxious Tourists

Robert — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:34:15 +0000

Below is a copy of an email that was sent to Joe Thomas and the “board” at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.

We believe that Joe Thomas continues his attempted harassment, intimidation and discrimination against any and all resident owners at Deer Ridge who in any way reduces his income from the illegitimate RML motel rental activities.

Judge For Yourself

To: Joe Thomas and “Board”
Re: Two Letters Regarding Our Handling Of Noisy, Obnoxious Tourists

We received your specious letters of August 5, 2011 and August 24, 2011 complaining about my approach to handling noisy, obnoxious tourists who stay in Unit A-302 at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.

Neither of your letters are worth my time to point out the countless factual errors and false allegations and spurious assertions that have zero merit…but let me clarify some points for you and the “board” that pertain to this subject:

I view these letters for what they are: part of an ongoing pattern of attempted harassment and intimidation by you and the “board” in order to continue your discrimination against any and all resident owners at Deer Ridge who in any way reduces your income from the illegitimate RML motel rental activities.
We have been told by four tourists in the past six weeks that you are offering a “reward”, incentive or other kinds of compensation in exchange for those tourists generating a positive, glowing report on their stay at Deer Ridge. Besides the clear lack of any ethical moral compass in your even attempting to bribe tourists to give these glowing reports, it strongly emphasizes what I personally believe to be fact: That you continue to flood travel sites with these kinds of bogus reports in order to bury the many negative reports that honest tourists file regarding their stay at Deer Ridge.
Likewise, because of what we see as proof of your tourist report manipulation, we believe that the one that you included in the August 5th letter could have been equally manipulated to misrepresent the truth in order to harass me as a resident owner. I even find that the wording of the tourist complaint smacks of being coached for compensation.
I do continue to note that when the property is almost completely vacant, all the tourists seem to be magically clustered in the A Building, based on parking hangers in the windshields…whereas almost all of C and D Buildings are completely vacant.
Once we get the books and records, we plan on investigating the statistical spreads of rental nights to see if there is, indeed, a pattern of dumping as many tourists as possible in units close to resident owners. If this is, indeed, being done, it is not only more proof of ongoing discrimination against resident owners…but it is also robbing owners in the C and D Buildings of their proportionate share of rental income.
We have also been told by three recent tourists that stayed in Unit A-302 that they knew we were owners. We find this highly suspicious since there is nothing whatsoever on our door that indicates in any way that we are owners. Hence, the only way these tourists could have known that fact was that they were told that during some kind of discussion with the office staff or with you. Besides the obvious increased risk factors to us and the safety of our home created by this kind of inappropriate disclosure, we see this as signs of yet more slander and discrimination against resident owners.
This further supports our strong suspicion that you are willfully and intentionally placing tourists above us who may be instructed, and rewarded, to be especially obnoxious when it comes to being noisy. This would be consistent with what we have been told by prior resident owners here at Deer Ridge that were equally convinced of your attempted harassment and intimidation in order to discriminate against any and all resident owners.

Additionally, we are not constrained by your methodology to deal with obnoxious tourist behavior.

Your “quiet hours” are only a subset of our quiet hours. As a disabled, senior citizen who is home most of the time, my quiet hours are more extensive. As such, I am investigating my legal rights under federal and state fair housing laws that prohibit any discrimination against the disabled and the elderly by you and the “board.”
In fact, I have the legal right to the peaceful and quiet enjoyment of my home ALL the time.
We find that the tourists at Deer Ridge pretty much follow the usual 80%/20% rule. 80% of the tourists are considerate and accommodating once we let them know that the foot fall problem is so bad here due to design issues of the entire property.
We find that knocking on the ceiling once or twice is usually sufficient for reasonable parents to keep their kids from running and jumping around in A-302.
Other times, we find that giving them the one page note that you found so objectionable solves the problem. (Since you erroneously consider it a “sign” that somehow violates the Master Deed and Bylaws, we will either hand it to them directly or leave it as a letter in an envelope for them. Frankly, this same note should be framed and hung in every rental property so that tourists understand the problem since so many complaints regarding foot fall noise have been listed on Trip Advisors, Expedia, etc.)
When the above does not work, I will continue to pound harder and more frequently on our ceiling and I will be forced to increase my direct confrontations with these obnoxious, inconsiderate tourists as I see fit in my sole discretion within the legal constraints of local and state law.
Since you find my one page note so objectionable, I will, from now on, immediately call the Pittman Center Police Department for help in cases of someone as objectionable as the tourist mentioned in your August 5th letter.
We have never benefited from any noise relief by calling the office and will not waste our time with that approach any more. We have received immense help and support on Deer Ridge noise problems with the Pittman Center Police.
Our objections to noise are not solely focused on tourists. As you know, there is another resident in our building who is notorious for noise and a blaring radio on her balcony. When other approaches would not work, I finally called the Pittman Police Department on May 24th. I had recorded the incident on video and the police officer graciously heard our complaint and immediately dealt with this owner. In the nearly 100 days since the police call, there has been zero noise problem from this other owner. If she causes a problem again, even once, we will not hesitate to immediately call the police again, including filing a complaint for prosecution. (You are welcome to view the filed police report if you wish.)
The police officer made it clear that it is part of his job to deal with noise issues at Deer Ridge and urged us to immediately call regarding ANY noise problems we have at this property.
As a consequence, from now on, if we ever have another obnoxious tourist above us who does not immediately cease and desist their noise causing activities, I will once again call the Pittman Center Police Department.
Likewise, if you EVER rent to a group who hires a band to play in the pavilion again, we will immediately call the Pittman Center Police Department. We don’t care how many drunken golfers you may have rented units to. We don’t care what you may deem to be quiet hours. We don’t care how much money you or RML make from the pavilion rental. It will never be tolerated again.
Whether you like it or not, the above is OUR legal and legitimate methodology for dealing with noise issues at Deer Ridge.

I hereby demand that you and the “board” immediately:

Stop any and all harassment of any and all resident owners at Deer Ridge.
Stop trying to unethically manipulate reviews of Deer Ridge.
Stop any and all slander of us or other resident owners to tourists. No tourist has any need to know who is an owner here.

We also demand that you stop any intentionally noisy or potentially noisy tourists from staying in Unit A-302. With all the vacancies at Deer Ridge, it is easy enough to direct them to units above empty condos.

After all, I doubt you want to have a police officer, with uniform, badge and gun, show up knocking on doors at Deer Ridge – or showing up at some drunken party at the pavilion.

Who knows what kind of reviews those kinds of confrontations might generate?

Joe, now that you know MY methodology on noise control, and MY approach to ensure that I have peace and quiet in my own home, I hope you will begin to govern yourself accordingly.

And, if you can’t seem to control yourself, I hope that the “board” will help you understand the implications of all of the above.

cc: Deer Ridge Owners Blog

PS: Naturally, all of the above is my own personal opinion. Please see disclaimer below.

———————————–

Legalese On

GENERAL DISCLAIMER FOR ALL PAGES AND POSTS AND EVERYTHING ELSE I DO OR SAY REGARDING DEER RIDGE AND ANY AND ALL RELATED PARTIES:

Note: This email, and the information on any and all other posts and pages by me about General Manager Joe Thomas, GGRC, RML and /or the Board of Directors and its members, or any related topics, are my personal opinions based on my ongoing investigation into the actions and inactions of the GGRC and RML Board of Directors and / or Joe Thomas, General Manager.

While I believe these allegations to be true based on my objective analysis, these opinions remain as only allegations until I, or others, prove things in court.

My goal is to offer all owners all the information and evidence that I have available so that everyone can reach their own conclusions.

Please note the obvious:

Everything I ever say or write in person, via emails, or on my blog, about Deer Ridge or any and all related entities and organizations or any and all affiliated personnel or owners, is strictly my own personal opinion of course – based, in part, from my owning a unit at Deer Ridge for over five years – and on my own personal history.

That history includes earning a Presidential MBA degree, being awarded a Bachelor of Science, With Honors, in Engineering Physics from UT, working for NASA as a rocket scientist at Marshall Space Flight Center, 30 years of CEO experience directly employing and managing many hundreds of people at multiple companies I personally started and operated (including one that I took public), 15 years experience buying and selling over $100 million of property and managing more than 45,000 rental units – AND being able to read and do four-function arithmetic.

Legalese – And Powered Wig – Off

Deer Ridge Summary Judgment Motion And Other Motions For April 26 Hearing

Robert — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:30:19 +0000

Summary Judgment And Temporary Injunction

As you know from one of my recent postings, we finally have a hearing date set for my litigation against Joe Thomas, Luther Parker, Larry Ohm, Margie Duncan, David Barone and Tom Reise. Copies of all four motions that will be heard on April 26, 2011 are shown below. Click on each photo to download the entire Acrobat file for each document that has been filed with the Court.

We are covering several issues during this hearing that will be pivotal for this case that could cause a major, consequential and immediate impact to the way that Deer Ridge Mountain Resort is operated. We are asking that the judge issue an immediate ruling on his interpretation of the Deer Ridge Master Deed and Bylaws which we believe have been grossly and purposely misinterpreted by Joe Thomas and the rest of the Gang of Six.

The changes resulting from a favorable ruling could include:

The Judge’s ruling could determine, once and for all, how everyone’s monthly assessment is calculated, including HOA fees, water and cable TV bills. If we win this one point, all 30 of the 1-1 units should no longer be overcharged 82% every month on their HOA fee!
The Judge’s ruling could determine, once and for all, how much, if any, will be owed by each owner on the current “special assessment” and the right amounts that should have been charged on all prior “special assessments.”
The Judge’s ruling could determine, once and for all, whether the current charge to all owners for this year’s portion of the “special assessment” will be blocked by our motion for temporary and permenant injunction.
The Judge’s ruling could determine, once and for all, whether RML and RRR (Ridge Resort Realty) are legitmate or not…and whether they were created as ultra vires acts by “board” members, making them possibly personal liable to repay all costs associated with RML and RRR for the past several years. (My calculations show that RML alone has cost owners at least $118,000 a year…so multiply this by The Six years we’ve owned and that equates to over $700,000 that might be owed back to GGRC by the individual “board” members.)
The Judge’s ruling could determine, once and for all, that all improvements and alterations require both a positive vote by 75% of all owners AND 90% of all mortgagees. If the judge rules in our favor on this, that means that about $82,000, or 23% of the entire $353,500 Asinine Assessment were illegally spent by the “board” since they adamently refused to follow the Master Deed and Bylaws on this point, even knowing it was required. If this ruling goes in our favor, the “board” can be judged, again, to have been acting ultra vires…which means that each of the “board” members could be held jointly and severally liable for the full amount of the illegitimate expenditures.
This same ruling should make the “board” members also personally liable for all those past improvements and alterations that were done where they ignored my demands for the past 6 years to solicit the required 75% vote of all owners. These include:
- Joe’s Folly – The $80,000 picnic pavillion that should have never been built.
- New pool decking – $30,000
- Reception area and office improvements – $25,000
- Maintenance building improvements and addtions – $15,000
- Chairs for weddings, etc. - $3,200
- Playground equipment – $3,000
- New computers and office equipment – $5,000
- Vehicles, golf carts, etc. ???
- Game room equipment ???
- Commercial laundry room equipment for RML ???
- All of these monies were spent by the board without proper authority and approval by the owners at Deer Ridge.
Some of these amounts are guesses and I am sure this list of improvements and additions is not comprehensive. But once we are finally allowed to see the real books and records as provided by Tennessee state law, we expect that we will be able to add lots more to this list and correct the numbers here.
Even without the addtions, the above list adds up to more than $161,200 that would be ultra vires violations by the “board.”
All totalled, this could make the “board” members individually responsible to personally pay back over $940,000.
If we divide this amount by the 5 board members, that would equal $188,000 that each would be responsible to pay. However, it is my understanding that all board members are “jointly and severally” liable for this amount…which means that each board member is fully responsible for the whole amount if and when one board member or another doesn’t pay. If this happens, I can easily envision lawsuits being filed by one “board” member against another demanding that they pay their fair share of any court ordered reimbursements back to GGRC. If lawsuits between “board” members were to happen, all kinds of “smoking guns” disclosures might be uncovered.

The Other Key Motion

We also filed a Motion to Compel so that this Despicable Gang of Six is forced by the Court to finally turn over the Deer Ridge books and records.

It’s been nine months since we filed our motion for production of documents with the Court — but so far Joe Thomas and the “board” have not complied.
We have been waiting for nine months for Joe Thomas to turn over the books and records on GGRC that all owners have a right to see.
Joe Thomas keeps adamantly stating that he has properly maintained the Administrator’s Book as required by Tennessee state law. Joey keeps saying they have this information, in the right format — but they don’t seem to be able to produce it.

I wonder why?

Now, Joey and the Gang are trying to mark all of Deer Ridge’s books and records as “confidential‘ to keep us from sharing them with YOU – all past and present owners At Deer Ridge who also have a right to see and thoroughly study the books and records concerning OUR investment in our property at Deer Ridge.

They claim these books and records and the emails between the six Gang members “… may cause injury, prejudice or [particularly] embarrassment” to Joe Thomas, Luther Parker, Larry Ohm, Margie Duncan, David Baron and Tom Reise.

As our Motion states, these “embarrassing” consequences fall in the category of “sometimes the truth hurts.”

Additionally, our motion to block their “protective” order stipulates we completely agree that obvious information such as Social Security numbers, credit card numbers and the like will be treated as confidential….but NOT all the rest of the information that we will find in these documents.

We fully expect to find all kinds of “embarrassing” actions and statements, done and made, by this Gang of Six.

We fully expect to also find all kinds of other questionable activities that have been committed by these individuals.

And, we, and several other Deer Ridge owners, plan on looking VERY carefully and diligently for any and all signs of any potential civil and/or criminal malfeasance that might have, just maybe, been committed by any, or all, members of the Gang. As of now, we’ve not seen any documentation that proves malfeasance — but then again, we have yet to get the full books and records we’ve been requesting for over five years. Right now, we only have our overwhelming intuition that screams about ongoing malfeasance.

Maybe we won’t find any such malfeasance — but if we do, any and all guilty parties will suffer a whole lot more than simple “embarrassment.”

Maybe that’s why the Gang members are continuing their desperate FIVE YEAR long attempts to keep this information secret. They seem terrified their secrets are going to finally see the light of day.

We believe that’s one of the reasons that Joe Thomas and the Gang have fought so hard, for so many years, to keep this information out of the hands of the owners who deserve full visibility, full disclosure and full accountability from those who have been handling over $1 million a year on this property for a decade.

What IS it that terrifies them so much about what we will find in those books and records?
We ARE going to get to the bottom of this.
We ARE going to get access to all the books and records that Joey and the board have tried for years to keep secret.

And, we intend to do everything we can to block their motion for “protective” order — so that we can share ALL of this information with EVERY owner At Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.

Note – Temporary Injunction To Block Special Assessment Payment – Should You Pay?

Notice that Section 4 of the Motion For Summary Judgment includes wording that we “seek a temporary and permanent injunction prohibiting and restraining the Board from attempting to make any alterations or additions to the Common Elements except in compliance with the seventy-five (75%) percent and ninety (90%) percent requirements of Article XII subsection 2 set out above, including the $340,000 “Special Assessment .. currently being billed to Association members.” (The $340,000 is a typo that is being corrected to reflect the full $353,500.)

Bottom line: We believe this wording blocks any and all collection by GGRC for the “special assessment” if the judge agrees with our motion. You should be your own judge of this document and its intent and decide for yourself if you are required, in light of this pending court action, to make the currently due special assessment payment. We believe it is germaine that 23% of this special assessment is for walkway railings and lighting improvements that did not have the required 75% / 90% vote. Also, germaine is that the calculated amount for every unit does not abide by the Master Deed Percentages – which means that the amounts of all payments due from all owners would be significantly different.

This seems like two very good reasons to me that the Judge should award both a temporary and permanent injunction against this Asinine Assessment.

Lots More Info

Please check out the following links for more information on these issues – and what we hope to gain from our $3 million lawsuit against Joe Thomas, Luther Parker, Larry Ohm, Margie Duncan, David Barone and Tom Reise.

Copies Of Motions Filed with the Court

Motion For Summary Judgement & Temporary Injunction - Click For Document	Motion To Compel - Click For Document
Motion To Dismiss and Judgment on Pleadings - Click For Document	Motion For Protective Order - Click For Document

Stay Tuned!

We live in interesting times!

Tick…tick…tick.

PS: I am not an attorney and these opinions are my own. Please be sure and refer to the full disclaimer language in the side bars and the Terms of this website.

PPS: Be sure and watch this blog for upcoming news about our new domain name: HOABoardAbuse.com and our two new video channels on YouTube.com: DeerRidgeOwners.com and HOABoardAbuse.com. In-depth videos are being produced to fully explain, to all Owners and the World, exactly what is happening both at Deer Ridge and at other abusive HOA Board run properties across the Nation. These videos will be posted on both DeerRidgeOwners.com and YouTube.com.

Stay tuned – you never know what videos might go viral!

Videos on Deer Ridge Owners Litigation Coming To This Blog AND To YouTube!

Robert — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 15:29:57 +0000

Videos on Deer Ridge Owners Litigation Coming To This Blog AND To YouTube!

I understand how complex all this litigation stuff can be to many folks. There are so many issues involved – and then you add the noise from all the spurious claims and misinformation generated by Joe Thomas and the rest of the Gang of Six – it’s no wonder that some owners here at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort get confused.

As time permits during the next few weeks, I plan on starting a series of narrated videos that will discuss:

Details of both the $1 million lawsuit against me – and my $3 million lawsuit against Joe Thomas and the “board” of Gatlinburg Golf and Racquet Club, GGRC, the HOA here at Deer Ridge. This “board” is comprised of Luther Parker, Larry Ohm, Margie Duncan, Tom Reise and David Barone.
The upcoming hearing in April on the Summary Judgment on several of our claims – and exactly what we expect to gain in the short term. This Summary Judgment, alone, could have massive, pivotal, impacts on Deer Ridge.
The ongoing litigation regarding a variety of issues where we will be seeking damages, interest and penalties. In these cases, depositions, interrogatories and testimony from the stand will be required from past and current employees of GGRC and RML to prove our case along with the same from Joe Thomas and the “board.”
RML’s “Continued Viability” as “board” member Larry Ohm described it in his letter to all owners. We plan on doing a video on this subject – including all the negative comments we are hearing from tourists who visit Deer Ridge - and all the negative reviews posted on Trip Advisor, etc. – that all point to how Deer Ridge is not a competitive motel property in the Gatlinburg / Pigeon Forge area.
Other detailed videos to better explain some of the operational and managerial issues that occur at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.
Multiple videos on a variety of general HOA issues, abuses and injustices that are negatively impacting millions of homeowners nationwide that now live in HOA communities.

The format of the videos will probably be a combination of PowerPoint slides, photos, other video — usually accompanied with narration.

YouTube.Com

In addition to posting these videos on this blog, we have already set up a new Deer Ridge Owners account, and channel, on YouTube.com so that I can post these same videos for the entire world to see.

While the entire world may not care that much about what is happening specifically at Deer Ridge, I believe there is a huge audience for the kinds of video described above in Point 6.

HOABoardAbuse.Com

One of the many things I’ve learned from having operated this blog for DeerRidgeOwners.com for the past 17 months is that we are not alone in suffering under a board of directors that does not operate in accordance with either state law or the governing documents of our property.

I’ve received a massive amount of emails, and other communications, from owners who live in HOA communities that are run like fiefdoms – just like Deer Ridge Mountain Resort – where owner’s rights are being either ignored or trampled – or both – and worse.

I can tell you that there is a growing outcry and demand for justice from many of these HOA board-abused owners.

Many, like me, believe that it is way past time that the federal government, and individual state governments, finally get involved in overseeing and controlling these quasi-government agencies called HOAs.

As such, we now own the domain name HOABoardAbuse.com and have also set up it’s own channel on YouTube.com. Right now, the domain links back to DeerRidgeOwners.com – but we plan on developing separate content for that domain that will, hopefully, provide an effective forum for change of HOAs across the country.

I greatly dislike the idea of big government and wasted tax dollars.

However, there is SO much HOA abuse out there, nationwide, that there desperately needs to be much more government control, monitoring, oversight and punishment of out-of-control boards like we have at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort. With over 20% of the USA population now living under HOA controls of some kind, we need new laws and government agencies that can ensure that state laws like the Tennessee Horizontal Property Act are followed to the letter so that individual homeowners, like me, are not required to spend tens of thousands of dollars to get abusive HOA boards. like Deer Ridge, to do what they’re supposed to do in the first place.

Increased Visibility For A Nationwide Problem

It’s my hope that by posting all these videos, including the ones specifically about Deer Ridge Mountain Resort here in Gatlinburg, on YouTube will help ignite a nationwide movement for HOA reform and justice. Because of the growing uproar about HOA injustices across the country, it’s my hope that one or more of these videos might even go viral. The good news is: if one goes viral, it will draw a larger audience to the other videos. And even a minor viral video could generate a lot of local and national press coverage with newspapers, magazines, radio and TV picking up the story and the issues.

Additionally, each of these videos will contain links back to DeerRidgeOwners.com and HOABoardAbuse.com. This could have the effect of greatly amplifying the audience of this blog which, hopefully, will include local, state and federal officials who will finally be motivated to help solve this growing problem.

Date Set For Summary Judgement And Motion To Compel Filed Against GGRC, Joe Thomas And Board

Robert — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 05:24:19 +0000

News Flash:

Hearing Date Finally Set For Summary Judgement And Motion To Compel Filed Against GGRC, Joe Thomas And The “Board”

We finally get this case before the Judge on April 26, 2011. This is a copy of a letter sent by our attorney to the Court:

This first court date is not for everything – but it is for some very pivotal motions and especially for a Summary Judgment on THREE issues – instead of just the two issues that we originally included in our first motion for Summary Judgment that was filed back in November:

The Master Deed Percentages must be followed – that these clearly stated ratios contained in the Master Deed must be followed for all assessments and common expenses for all owners at Deer Ridge.
Establish the Illegitimacy of RML and Ridge Resort Realty – there is no provision whatsoever in our Master Deed for owners at Deer Ridge to support and fund, and be exposed to the business risks of operating two small businesses. This is not the purpose of a real estate investment in a residential home.
Article XII of the Master Deed must be followed - it requires that the board must have both a 75% vote by homeowners AND a 90% vote by all mortgagees involved with the ownership of Deer Ridge units before any alterations, additions or improvements are made to the common elements of the property.
We have also filed Motions to Compel Joe Thomas and the “board” to finally provide us the books and records of Deer Ridge Mountain Resort in the exact format that is required by Tennessee state law.
We have also filed a Motion for Temporary Injunction to block the currently due second phase of the Asinine Assessment payment.

We believe that the Three Summary Judgment issues are clear cut interpretations of the Master Deed and Bylaws – and do not require findings of fact. As a consequence, a Summary Judgment can be pursued on these three issues.

As such, we are asking the Court to read the controlling documents of Deer Ridge Mountain Resort and rule on the spot on the proper interpretation of the GGRC controlling documents and Tennessee State Law. Since many of our claims rests solely on the proper interpretation of the master documents, there is no need for discovery, depositions or testimony for this part of our litigation. Instead, the controlling documents speak for themselves — and only require the Court to read the 90 pages of our Master Deed and Bylaws and make a ruling based on the Judge’s sole interpretation of these documents.
We are highly confident that our interpretations will prevail — and the strained, manipulated and flatly wrong interpretations that Joey and the Gang have depended on for years will be denied by the Court.
The first issue for Summary Judgment will be that the Master Deed Percentages MUST be followed for all cost allocations and assessments — instead of being based on the “arbitrary and capricious” methods that Joey and the “board” use to illegitimately overcharge all 30 1-1 units by a whopping 82% every single month!
If we win on this one point, this means EVERY assessment – including the monthly assessments and the expenses for water, cable TV, etc. - for EVERY unit has been wrongly charged for YEARS – including, of course, the amounts for the Asinine Assessment and all other past assessments.
If we win on this one point, we believe that this will have FAR reaching consequences to EVERY current owner at Deer Ridge – especially all 30 of the 1-1 unit owners who have been victimized for years.
If we win on this one point, ALL the current, and many past, 1-1 unit owners should be owed a SUBSTANTIAL amount of money refunding the gross monthly overcharges that Luther Parker amazingly stated, “were fair and equitable.”
We would expect that these 1-1 unit owners would also be awarded interest and penalties. All of these refunds, interest, penalties may also be owed to dozens, if not hundreds, of past owners, thereby making the claims against the counter defendants even more substantial.
If we win this one point during our Motion for Summary Judgment, it should stop all future violations by The Gang of Six as well as any new board from trying to circumvent the GGRC documents.
Likewise, we are asking the Court to rule that RML and RRR are illegitimate – and all the monies that have been squandered over the years supporting these companies are not admissible Common Expenses. We believe that a review of the controlling documents by the Court will quickly establish that there is NO provision in our Master Deed and Bylaws for all homeowners at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort to be subjected to the costs and risks that are inherent with starting and running small businesses.
If we win this one point, we will take expedited legal steps so that RML and RRR will be immediately shut down and disposed of by selling those companies to the highest bidder out of any and all potential buyers with the proceeds paid to those owners who were not a part of RML.
By winning this one point of Summary Judgment, we get rid of RML and RRR, and the hemorrhage of HALF our current monthly assessments will be finally stopped — and we’ll finally be out of the motel business. This one point alone will dramatically change the way GGRC and Deer Ridge Mountain Resort have been managed, or rather mismanaged, for over a decade – and allow for a MAJOR reduction in the HOA fees for most all homeowners.
Article XII of the Master Deed clearly provides that there shall be no alterations or additions to the common elements or any part thereof except as authorized by the Board of Directors and approved by not less than 75% of the total vote of co-owners AND not less than 90% of the mortgagees. First, I had to fight the Gang of Six with regard to the requirement that a 75% vote of the total co-owners was required for any alterations or addition or improvements at Deer Ridge. I finally won this point during a board meeting in which the board’s attorney, Chuck Sexton, was present. However, the Gang of Six continues to refuse to pursue the 90% vote of the mortgagees as required by our Master Deed.
If we win this one point during our Motion for Summary Judgment on April 26, we intend to aggressively and immediately pursue forcing reimbursement directly from the members of the “Board of Directors” for their ultra vires acts of illegitimately squandering over $120,000 of owners’ money…including all monies recently spent on the walkway railings. Even as recently as the vote on the walkway railings, Luther Parker and the rest of the “board” categorically refused to even pursue the required 90% vote of all mortgagees and gaveled me out of order at a board meeting to stop my insistence that the governing documents required it. If we win this one point during our Motion for Summary Judgment, it should stop all future violations by The Gang of Six as well as any new board from trying to circumvent the GGRC documents.
It will also be interesting to see what happens to the defense of Joe Thomas and the “board” by the insurance company if we are successful in proving that this Gang of Six was acting ultra vires since all indemnifications of them defined in the Master Deed and Bylaws are null and void. This would make all members of the Gang of Six jointly and severally libel and fully responsible for their own legal costs in defending themselves against our $3 million lawsuit…along with them being jointly and severally libel and fully responsible for any repayments, penalties, interest, punitive damages, etc.

These are just the first three issues for Summary Judgment. If we are successful with these, we expect to move for Summary Judgment on other fundamental interpretations of our Master Deed and Bylaws that will stop the Gang’s abuse of it power.

We believe that pursuing the Summary Judgment is in the best interest of all parties, including all homeowners, to expeditiously resolve some of the more outstanding issues regarding our litigation.

Other Ongoing Litigation

We intend to continue to pursue our litigation on all other areas of our lawsuit too…some of the other areas will entail findings of fact that will require depositions and testimony and, as a consequence, are not subject to Summary Judgment. These will require in-depth litigation and may include damages, interest and penalties, along with payment of all of our legal fees, as we continue to pursue this matter.

We expect, in the near term, to be taking the depositions and interrogatories of Joe Thomas, Luther Parker, Tom Reise, Margie Duncan and other members of the “board.” Depositions and interrogatories will probably be taken from past and current employees and past “board” members.

(I personally can’t wait to get Joe Thomas and Luther Parker and some of the other “board” members to testify under oath – and ask some very specific questions concerning their decision-making process and ask them for very detailed explanations about several entries in the books and records!)

So, all you Gang Members — get ready to give your depositions and interrogatories — and get ready to testify in Court.

Joey And the Gang Are Worried About Being ”Embarrassed”

We also filed a Motion to Compel so that this Despicable Gang of Six is forced by the Court to finally turn over the Deer Ridge books and records.

It’s been seven months since we filed our motion for production of documents with the Court — but so far Joe Thomas and the “board” have not complied.

We have been waiting for seven months for Joe Thomas to turn over the books and records on GGRC that all owners have a right to see.

Joe Thomas keeps adamantly stating that he has properly maintained the Administrator’s Book as required by Tennessee state law. Joey keeps saying they have this information, in the right format — but they don’t seem to be able to produce it.

I wonder why?

As our Motion states, these “embarrassing” consequences fall in the category of “sometimes the truth hurts.”

We fully expect to find all kinds of “embarrassing” actions and statements, done and made, by this Gang of Six.

We fully expect to also find all kinds of other questionable activities that have been committed by these individuals.

Maybe we won’t find any such malfeasance — but if we do, any and all guilty parties will suffer a whole lot more than simple “embarrassment.”

What IS it that terrifies them so much about what we will find in those books and records?
We ARE going to get to the bottom of this.
We ARE going to get access to all the books and records that Joey and the board have tried for years to keep secret.

And, we intend to do everything we can to block their motion for “protective” order — so that we can share ALL of this information with EVERY owner At Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.

April 26, 2011

The Court date is set. April 26, 2011. After nearly 9 months of litigation, this will be our first hearing before the Court. We now have a fixed hearing date – less than two months from now.

If the Court agrees with us on these motions, we may be able to short circuit a lot of the Gang of Six BS and delays — and finally get rulings on these issues and effectuate major changes at Deer Ridge.

If Joey and the Gang really want quick resolution of this, they should be all in favor of getting an expedited ruling on the three issues in the Motion for Summary Judgment.

What do you want to bet that they will do EVERYTHING in their power to drag this out — and try their best to delay any ruling of any kind?

If so, that is just more proof to me that they KNOW they are NOT doing things the right way.

I will try to make the time this week to post copies of the new motions we have just filed so all of you can review them in detail.

What will be interesting will be the report that the Gang has to made at the “annual meeting” on April 30th, which is the weekend immediately following the Court date. Will they prepare two different meeting agenda and presentations – depending on what they may win or lose a few days earlier?

Resignations and “Retirement”

Also, we have overheard gossip that Joey and other members of the Gang of Six believe that they can simply walk away from being held responsible for their past acts and actions by either resigning or retiring…or even selling their unit at Deer Ridge.

Just to be clear, resignations and retirement will not absolve ANY wrongdoings by Joey and the Gang…and if we discover ANY malfeasance of ANY kind by ANY “board” member or employee, we will do everything we can to enforce ALL appropriate justice.

Stay tuned — We Live In Interesting Times!

The rulings on the upcoming Motion for Summary Judgment on April 26, 2011, along with our other motions, could end up drastically changing the current way virtually everything is done at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort. Plus, once we finally get the books and records on this property….well, we fully expect to find all sorts of “interesting” facts about actions and monies paid that might not have been in the best interests of ALL owners.

Hey Joey and the Gang…less than two months until our Court date….when, as Galatians 5:1 sort of states, ”Deer Ridge Owners shall know the truth, and the truth shall set us free.” Of course, the freedom of The Gang of Six might depend on what we find once we finally get to see the books and records!

Tick…tick…tick.

PS: I am not an attorney and these opinions are my own. Please be sure and refer to the full disclaimer language in the side bars and the Terms of this website.

Stay tuned – you never know what videos might go viral!

Judgement By Deer Ridge Board Against Me – Overturned And Set Aside

Robert — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 21:25:24 +0000

As you know, it is my personal opinion that neither Joe Thomas nor the “Board” at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort are trustworthy. I personally consider them totally unethical too.

Want Some Proof?

Of course, all of the above is my personal opinion. But let me show you some recent court documents that might convince you.

The illegitimate “board” at Deer Ridge had threatened to file suit against me and others who objected to, and did not pay, the equally illegitimate ”special assessment.”

Our attorney notified Chuck Sexton, attorney for GGRC, that we had filed a $3 million countersuit against GGRC, Joe Thomas and each individual “board” member. He made it clear to Sexton that there was a prior pending suit. Sexton acknowledged the suit during a phone call with our attorney who then followed it up with a June 17th letter to Sexton (see copy of letter below.)

In spite of this knowledge, and Sexton’s specific agreement to not pursue the July 12th hearing for judgement against me, the Despicable Gang of Six went ahead and got a summary judgement against me on July 12th for $2,230!

Note that this was almost a full month AFTER notifying Sexton. Talk about untrustworthy and unethical!

“Gee, We Didn’t Know The Gun Was Loaded…”

This breach of ethics was discovered by me on August 2nd when I went to the courthouse and requested a full history on all the litigation between me and Joey and the “board.” (See copy of Court Docket Summary below.) Needless to say, I was surprised, though I shouldn’t have been, that the Gang of Six had done something THIS unethical. Neither I nor my attorney had showed up for the July 12th hearing since Chuck Sexton had assured us that the issue would be dropped due to the precedence of our $3 million lawsuit.

We had believed Chuck Sexton – but clearly shouldn’t have.

When Sexton was confronted regarding this issue, his claim was that this was just an “accident” and should not have happened.

HOWEVER, if you notice on that same Court Docket Summary below, they ALSO had filed a writ of execution to attach my bank accounts for payment of this illegitimate judgement on July 26th – two weeks AFTER the default judgement.

In spite of what Sexton said, this kind of writ of execution does NOT happen by “accident!”

To me, this is clear evidence of Joey and the “board” unethically attempting to grab money out of my bank account with an illegitimate judgement.

We are considering sactions, and other legal recourse, as a consequence of these reprehensible actions by GGRC et al.

Joey And “Board” FORCED To Set Aside The Judgement Against Me

The following court documents show how Joey and the Board were forced to set aside their entire judgement against me and that our countersuit against them has taken complete precedence over any claims that they may think they have against me.

This time Joey and the “board” were stopped.

If you are also being sued by these people who are illegitimately manipulating GGRC, I invite you to join in our $3 million lawsuit against them. This way, you may be able to probably gain the same level of protection from their lawsuit against you that I have.

The bigger point to all Deer Ridge Owners: If Joe Thomas and the ”board” are THIS untrustworthy on something as clear as this – then what actions and decisions, just maybe, might be going on by them that are at least as unethical as their actions have been with this illegitimately attempted judgement?

The other issue: All of that work by Sexton on behalf of the Gang of Six cost GGRC, and ALL owners, more money for legal fees. And, every bit of OUR money spent on this was wasted by Joey and the Gang.

Are these the guys that you REALLY want handling a MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR of our money at Deer Ridge?

Documentation Proof

The below court documents are the written proof on the above allegations, statements and opinions. (Just click the small thumbnail image to get the BIG picture.) As always, all of the above is just my personal opinion. Please see the left sidebar for the full disclaimer.

Also, let me know what you think by posting your own comment below.

Deer Ridge Board Attempting Again To Illegitimately Control Property Owners’ Rights

Robert — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 20:03:18 +0000

Have you all noticed the items on the agenda for the “board” meeting coming up on November 12, 2010?

Here’s a clip from the GGRC web site of part of what they have planned for next Friday:

“Acting In Concert…”

This illegitimate “board,” and general manager Joe Thomas, are once again trying to control freedom of expression at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.

This despicable Gang of Six apparently believes that Deer Ridge Mountain Resort is not part of the United States of America – and, as such, we as residents do not have any constitutional rights to freedom of expression.

Not only has this illegitimate “board” filed a $1 million lawsuit against me in a blatant attempt to squelch this blog and my right to free speech…they are now “discussing” bringing action against other owners at Deer Ridge who have had the courage and conviction to voice opinions in opposition to Joe Thomas and the ”board.”

This is just another overt attempt at intimidation of those Deer Ridge dissents who are insisting that this property be operated legally.

Many other owners here object to the fiefdom approach used by this despicable Gang of Six- and how the Gang want to illegitimately run this property the way they want…even when it is in direct opposition to the Deer Ridge Master Deed and Bylaws and in clear violation of Tennessee state law.

If you are a Deer Ridge owner –
and object to this attempted intimidation of your fellow owners,
please comment below.

If you are one of those brave owners who may end up being accused of “acting in concert…,” I invite each and every one of you to join with me as a co-plaintiff in our $3 million lawsuit against Joe Thomas and the “board.” The more of us who are plaintiffs, the stronger our voice will ring true in Court.

Together, we will have the Court force this property to be run legitimately…and without this kind of attempted intimidation.

Storage Of Firewood On Balconies

If you notice the second yellow-highlighted section from the upcoming “board” agenda, it states that they intend to pass a regulation stating that firewood on our balconies is prohibited.

This despicable Gang of Six continues to do all that it can to illegitimately keep operating this property as a motel in spite of the restrictions of the Bylaws and Master Deed of Deer Ridge. As such, Joey and the Gang have an ongoing plan to intimidate resident owners since we interfere with their visions of Little Joe’s NoTel Motel operation.

The only folks affected by this new “regulation” would, in fact, be those of us who live here full time. The motel guests come for a day or two and pay the rip off price of $4.00 for a four stick parcel of wood that RML sells at the desk. Since they are only here for a few days, it doesn’t make sense for them to have a stack of firewood delivered.

For full time owners, paying a dollar per stick for wood makes little sense – so many of us arrange to have firewood delivered to us and have it stacked on our balconies.

Joey and the Gang want to do anything they can to hassle and intimidate those of us who live here full time. So, we see this new prohibition against firewood on the balcony as discrimination…and more proof of the steps they take to aggravate resident owners…and the ongoing pattern of discrimination against full time residents by Joe Thomas and the Gang.

As such, if Joey and the Gang attempt to pass this new regulation, we intend to file an immediate motion with the Court, as part of our lawsuit , to block ANY implementation of this arbitrary regulation.

Hey Joey and the Gang: You guys are put on notice that you WILL have to defend this regulation before the Court…and explain WHY, after TWENTY FOUR YEARS, this regulation is NOW necessary for the first time. This goes for the firewood issue – and for ANY other constraints you try to impose regarding the reasonable use of our balconies!

Not only will we justifiably claim discrimination – we will use this issue to request the Court to issue a restraining order against these proposed changes – and OTHER current or proposed assessments, policies and procedures.

Additionally, we will immediately file a motion for summary judgement for the Court to rule that the current “board” is illegitimate and without power to do anything, including implement rules and regulations, since there was no election of all Board members held in accordance with the Master Deed and Bylaws.

As such, we will also ask that the summary judgement include an immediate appointment of a receiver to take over the operation and management of GGRC and ALL aspects of Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.

Nota Bene: All of these Court focused actions can be easily, and immediately, incorporated into our current $3 million countersuit against GGRC, Joe Thomas, Luther Parker, Larry Ohm, Tom Riese, Margie Duncan and David Barone.

Independent Legal Opinion: GGRC Board Guilty Of Numerous Violations / $353,500 Assessment Is Null And Void

Robert — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:45:42 +0000

Independent Legal Opinion: GGRC “Board” Guilty Of Numerous Violations / $353,500 Assessment Is Null And Void

The following is a copy of an email sent to Luther Parker, other “board” members and Joe Thomas on February 18, 2010 describing the legal findings of a real estate law firm concerning Gatlinburg Golf and Racquet Club – GGRC – and its subsidiaries RML and Ridge Resort Realty.

The findings of the law firm will probably change EVERYTHING about the way Deer Ridge is operated and managed.

Luther and the Board:

As I mentioned during the Special Meeting of February 6, 2010, I had personally hired a Knoxville-based real estate law firm to review many of the major conflicts and issues that have arisen between myself (and other owners) versus the Board, Joe Thomas and the decisions and policies you have been attempting to implement.

My instructions to the law firm, Howard and Howard ( www.howardhowardlaw.com/ ) and Senior Partner Lewis Howard, Jr. were to objectively and candidly evaluate these issues with the goal of determining the legal validity and the merits of our pursuing a lawsuit against GGRC and/or the individuals who make up the current board along with Joe Thomas, the general manager. This firm does not currently represent us for any pending litigation – but may be hired should we move forward.

The full legal opinion I received from them is attached to this email – with each and every part shown and discussed below – with my comments for each section. Note: I am not an attorney and do not practice law – so these are my interpretations of the sections of the attorney’s letter – trying to convey the realistic meaning from the necessary legalese.

Executive Summary Of Attorney’s Findings

For those who prefer to start with an executive summary, here are the bottom line findings by the attorney with regard to GGRC and the actions of the “Board” and Joe Thomas:

You are REQUIRED to charge all owners ONLY in accordance with the Master Deed Percentages for everything: monthly assessments, water, cable TV, etc. This means no more 82% overcharge to all 1-1 owners.
You are REQUIRED to provide all owners with COPIES of everything they request including invoices, check stubs, bids, etc.
You are REQUIRED to get BOTH the 75% positive vote by owners AND the 90% positive vote by mortgage holders of all condo loans at Deer Ridge. Therefore, ANY monies you spend on walkway ramps will be your personal responsibility to pay.
You are NOT allowed to ever have ANY special assessments – hence, the Asinine Assessment of $353,500 is NULL and VOID. No owners are required to fund a penny of this money – and any monies received MUST be returned to those owners who have already paid.
You and other board members are going to be liable to repay ALL overcharges to both current and past 1-1 owners, along with interest. (This means you will be required to pay us back over $10,000 in our case – and more or less the same to other 1-1 owners – past AND present.)
RML and Ridge Resort Realty are NOT legitimate – and must pay back every penny of GGRC’s money ever used for them – and these companies must be expeditiously sold.
All “annual meetings” held in April are not official Annual Meetings – hence, all decisions, and votes made, INCLUDING board member elections, are NULL and VOID. This means that Luther Parker and every other member of the “board” are, in fact, NOT members of the Board and have no power whatsoever including setting assessments, making special assessments, setting rules and regulations, agreeing to any contracts about anything, etc. We will sue to have a special master appointed by the court.
No board member or committee member may receive ANY compensation INCLUDING reimbursements for travel, meals, maid service, free storage or special remodeling of board member’s OR committee member’s units. When we do our review of the books and records, we are going to add up every penny that has ever been paid and individually sue each of you for the full and complete reimbursement of all of this money.
The entire current “board” has committed multiple ultra vires acts that were outside the scope of authority granted you by the Master Deed and Bylaws even if you were a legitimate board. As such, these acts show gross negligence on your part and on the part of your “unified board that speaks with one voice.” As noted in the attorney’s answer to Question 12, these illegitimate acts of yours are actionable with all monies recoverable from you and all other “board members” and Joe Thomas personally – probably on a “joint and several” basis. That means we are going to go after the FULL amount for each illegitimate act from you and each of the board members until we collect EVERY penny that was spent on decisions that were outside the scope of authority. Based on my prior blog postings, I have already identified over $120,000 that has been spent without the proper Article XII approvals.

Those are pretty much the highlights – and as you can see, most of the above will have a MASSIVE impact on GGRC, RML, Ridge Resort Realty and each member of the “board” personally. It will also rightfully put $10,000, more or less, back into the pockets of all PAST AND PRESENT 1-1 owners who join with us in the lawsuit against those responsible for our gross overcharge of fees.

The above issues are the way things SHOULD have been done all along – and we WILL hold those accountable who have capriciously and arbitrarily chosen to ignore the controlling documents of Deer Ridge and GGRC Regime.

You all will NOT be able to claim ignorance on these issues – all of these issues have been brought to your attention multiple times over multiple years.

What Say You Luther?

You are hereby put on notice to immediately resolve all of the above issues.

If you do not, one of our expected remedies will be to file a derivative action suit on behalf of GGRC naming each of you, individually, as defendants in that lawsuit. This particular lawsuit will allow us to recover funds from all of you, individually, and require that the entire board be fired, with cause, for gross negligence. And, since this will be GGRC suing you, none of you will be able to use any past or current attorney who has represented GGRC.

Another legal action we intend to take will be to immediately gain an injunction blocking the special assessments and inter-pleading any and all funds already received to a court controlled account. Another legal action we intend to take will be a declaratory judgment suit over the above interpretations of the Master Deed and Bylaws.

Another legal action we intend to take will be for multiple past and current 1-1 owners, such as myself, to sue the board members, individually, for the 82% overcharge of all costs going back for years. Other, additional litigation is planned as needed. Bear in mind that we intend to also sue each of you for full recovery of all of our legal and court costs – and since it is fairly apparent we will win the issues, we expect to win on the legal fee recovery too.

Discovery motions will be immediately made that will require GGRC to turn over COPIES of ALL books and records related to GGRC and RML, et al.

So, Luther, are you going to continue to try to self-servingly block full and complete implementation of all of the above issues – or do you want to save everyone time, hassle and money by settling all of these issues here and now before we take the next steps? If you attempt to delay the above by squandering GGRC money for legal fees to protect yourself and other board members and Joe Thomas, you will be held accountable for this waste of money also.

You have THREE DAYS to satisfactorily respond to this email before I move forward with the necessary steps to accomplish all of the above. This process will start with a postal mailing to all owners, providing them with a copy of the attorney’s letter, advising them that they should not make any assessment payments and asking for them to join with me as co-plaintiffs against you and the rest of the “board.”

So, what say you, Luther? How do you want to get to the inevitable Point B?

The Attorney Letter – And Analysis

The following dissects the letter from the attorney with snapshots of each part of the entire document.

This first image shows the law firm, date, attorney and that it deals with GGRC issues. The letter responds to 13 sets of questions I posed with regard to Deer Ridge and the operation and management of GGRC, the property and with regard to RML.

This point discusses that all owners have a right to COPIES of all the books and records. Wanting to make sure it was even more clear, I received the following email from the attorney:

This makes it crystal clear that ALL owners have a right to COPIES of books and records related in any way to GGRC. Period.

Bear in mind that as soon as we file any of our planned litigation, we WILL produce a motion for discovery FORCING you to turn over COPIES of all of these documents.

Also, bear in mind, Luther, if we have to litigate this and go for a declaratory judgment, you will most certainly lose on this point. This should not even be a point of issue with a Board that was open, transparent and honest.

So, based on the above, are you and the Board going to continue to interfere with the owners have their legal rights to copies of the GGRC et al books and records?

Luther, this is the crux of most of the intolerable abuse of power by Joe Thomas and the Board. You all have claimed reliance on these two sections to blatantly ignore the requirements of the Master Deed and Bylaws. As you can see, the attorney is saying exactly the same thing I have been telling you – Article III, Section 9(c) does NOT let you get away with your “arbitrary and capricious reallocation of ownership in the common elements or the common expenses.” Likewise, the same thing for Article V – which means you cannot simply charge the same amount to all unit sizes for any of the expenses.

Luther, ALL allocations and common expenses, including the HOA fees, the water, cable TV, telephone, etc. MUST be charged in accordance with the Master Deed Percentages. Period. You all do NOT have a choice. You all CANNOT be arbitrary and capricious. You MUST abide by the Master Deed Percentages. This should not even be a point of issue with a Board that was open, transparent and honest. So, based on the above, are you and the Board going to continue to be arbitrary and capricious – or are you going to IMMEDIATAELY adjust all costs to reflect the Master Deed Percentages?

Point 3 relates to your statement in the November budget meeting that, “an 82% over charge to the 30 1-1 owners was ‘fair and equitable.’”

Clearly, it is NOT.

So, based on the above, are you and the Board going to continue to be arbitrary and capricious – or are you going to IMMEDIATELY adjust all costs to reflect the Master Deed Percentages – and stop overcharging all 30 1-1 owners by 82%?

Uh oh. Trouble in River City for the Board. Could it be that special assessments are NOT authorized whatsoever??? See the interesting details below.

As you can see, all of those overcharges you guys have made for years can be recouped by me and all the other victims of your “arbitrary and capricious” wrongly calculated assessments. For me, that adds up to over $10,000 and I want all my money back with at least interest. It doesn’t look like I can get monetary damages – at least on this point – though it may depend on what type of litigation we pursue.

NOTE: All 1-1 owners now, and in the past, will have a CLAIM for the board’s arbitrary and capricious overcharges – to get back your money and interest and probably legal fees to sue them! If you want to join with me as a co-plaintiff, please email me ASAP!

Here is a BIGGIE – RML and Ridge Resort Realty are NOT legitimate, just as I have claimed for years. RML was illegally formed by the board in 1987 with zero vote of the owners for one thing – but even beyond that point, it is NOT an appropriate use of any funds as described above.

We expect to file a derivative action suit, as GGRC, against you, individually, and all the board members and Joe Thomas, individually, to force the IMMEDIATE divestiture of both RML and Ridge Resort Realty and for reimbursements of any and all costs associated in any way with the formation and operation of these two illegitimate companies.

I personally want every penny of MY money back that was ever spent in any way to support RML and Ridge Resort Realty.

If you would like me, with my 15 plus years of real estate experience to help with the quick and IMMEDIATE divestiture of these companies, please let me know.

As I have claimed, all Annual Meetings held in April are NOT Annual Meetings as defined by the Master Deed. And, since the Master Deed REQUIRES that the Board of Directors is ONLY elected at the Annual Meeting, you, Luther Parker, and the rest of this current “Board” were NOT properly elected and any and all decisions made by you all are null and void and without effect. As such, I intend to file suit to have the Court appoint a Special Master to oversee all operations of GGRC and the immediate divestiture of both RML and Ridge Resort Realty.

Now, if you really hurry, since this is February 18th, you COULD get a quick 30 day notice out to all owners moving the April “Annual Meeting” to the first quarter as required by the Master Deed. That would allow for the proper election of the new board without the need for a court-appointed Master. However, if you wait or still try to hold the “Annual Meeting” in April, and I am successful with my point of law, this means that the Master would be running GGRC until the first quarter of NEXT YEAR.

So, what say you Luther? Are you going to quickly try to abide by the controlling documents of our Regime – or are you going to toss it all into the court appointed Master’s hands?

There are SEVERAL very interesting parts to the attorney’s response to this Question 8.

First of all, just to be clear to Tom Reise – you guys are NOT in the “driver’s seat” and you cannot simply ignore the provisions of Article XII REQUIRING you to get the 90% vote of the mortgage holders of all condo units at Deer Ridge! If you all proceed in ANY way with the demolition or construction of your aluminum walkway railings, you will be in direct violation of the Master Deed. Period. You have been WARNED.

The second interesting concept here is the one mentioned in one of my recent blog postings: ultra vires acts. I warned you all in that posting that you had each better talk with your individual attorneys because ANYTHING you do, or HAVE ALREADY DONE, that are outside the scope of authority granted you by the Master Deed and Bylaws, subjects EACH of you personally to be grossly negligent. This means that you will NOT be able to rely on the D and O insurance to protect you, nor to use legal counsel of GGRC to defend you.

It also means that some owners, me included of course, can name you all individually in a derivative action suit. You all need to really understand how a derivative action suit works – since that means we can sue each of you, on behalf of GGRC as our plaintiff. Now, that sounds interesting. And, it means that all the owners would get paid back from your pockets – not from GGRC’s bank account. For me, that will be most fitting – considering the long term abuse of power that has existed at Deer Ridge.

Now, are you SURE you want to start spending YOUR money replacing those walkway railings?

Alas, this was the one point that did not YET go our way. We are still investigating ways to get this one to happen too, but we may have to wait until we replace three of the current board members. We also expect that Tennessee and other states will follow Nevada’s lead in REQUIRING all HOA board meetings be digitally recorded.

Now, things get very interesting.

NOTE TO ALL – BASED ON INDEPENDENT LEGAL OPINION,
IT LOOKS LIKE NO ONE IS REQUIRED TO FUND ANY PART
OF THE $353,500 ASSESSMENT!

That felt good to say. This part was so amazing that I even went back to the attorney and asked for clarity. He assured me saying he stands by this answer. What this means folks is that the board, even if they were properly elected – which this one is NOT – can never do a special assessment. They can only raise the monthly fees to properly build a reserve fund (the monies that were in the reserve fund as recently as three years ago have seemingly disappeared – probably in covering the negative cash flow from operations of RML.)

Additionally, even if it had been legal, the Board’s unwillingness to provide us copies of all the records tied to this Asinine Assessment would have invalidated the assessment.

If you would like to join with me in blocking your upcoming assessment, please let me know ASAP. We intend on filing an injunction against GGRC and the Board from even attempting to enforce this assessment until full resolution of our lawsuit(s).

Clearly, the “Board” has not acted fairly and equitably with regard to me, or other full time owners at Deer Ridge. Stay tuned for a LOT more about this.

Luther, we believe that there will be a massive amount of evidence that will show that you and the other “board” members and Joe Thomas have repeatedly committed ultra vires acts that were outside the scope of authority granted you by the Master Deed and Bylaws. As such, these acts will hopefully show gross negligence on your part and on the part of your “unified board that speaks with one voice.” As noted in the attorney’s answer to Question 12, these illegitimate acts of yours are actionable with all monies recoverable from you and all other “board members” and Joe Thomas personally – probably on a “joint and several” basis.

That means we are going to go after the FULL amount for each illegitimate act from you and each of the board members until we collect EVERY penny that was spent on decisions that were outside the scope of authority. Based on my prior blog postings, I have already identified over $120,000 that has been spent without the proper Article XII approvals. I am sure as we dig into the records, we will discover a LOT more. Would you like to write us a check for the full $120,000? Or, would you rather have Margie or David pay all of that for you?

This Question 13 answer is pretty crystal clear Luther. No one gets a penny for serving on the Board. This means NO reimbursement for anything including travel, meals, maid service, free storage or special remodeling of board member’s OR committee member’s units. When we do our review of the books and records, we are going to add up every penny that has ever been paid and individually sue each of you for the full and complete reimbursement of all of this money.

For example, let’s talk about Margie since she seems to have been on the Board for years. If she got $300 per meeting for travel and attended 5 meetings a year, which is $1,500. Let’s assume other stuff added up to another $500 a year for a total of $2,000 a year in illegitimate benefits. If she had gotten these ill gotten gains for say 10 years, this means that Margie will immediately owe us $20,000.

If this same amount was paid out to ALL board members and some committee members, the total amount that could be owned back could exceed $200,000. That’s almost enough to get all the work done at Deer Ridge that REALLY needs to be done.

Of course, my personal intuition is that she and other board members have received a LOT more quid pro quo that will have to be paid back – but we will see.

Have You Noticed A Trend Here?

I assume you have noticed that I have been spot on RIGHT on everything I have been saying for years on my blog – and that your vilification, slander and libel contained in your diatribe letter you recently mailed to all owners was obviously full of lies and disinformation as a way to attempt to falsely discredit me. This objective legal opinion validates virtually EVERYTHING I have been saying for years. And, if need be, we will take the board members to court to prove it with finality.

I, along with many other owners, are sick and tired of the board’s “arbitrary and capricious ways” of illegitimately running GGRC and Deer Ridge – and I continue to be highly motivated to resolve these issues once and for all so that this property is finally properly governed by its Master Deed and Bylaws.

Luther, if you want these matters settled, you have three days. The clock is already ticking.

Govern yourself accordingly.

Robert
A-202

Deer Ridge History – Historical Documents And Smoking Guns – Coming Soon

Robert — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:03:36 +0000

We have just been presented with two massive notebooks of historical documents on Deer Ridge that date back to about the time the property was built!

This 11″ stack of papers make absolutely fascinating reading – board minutes, incorporation papers for RML, annual meeting presentations, promises, excuses, provisional hiring, political force outs, side deals – the list goes on.

We have already begun the process of scanning ALL of this in as an Acrobat file that will be available to ALL owners.

This is a massive and time consuming project for both Jan and me – but we are doing this as a service to all owners at Deer Ridge – and will be adding this file to our “Documents You Can Download” section on the blog in the next couple of weeks – as soon as our schedules allow.

We have already found a couple of MAJOR “smoking guns” that will be used in our upcoming litigation. The great thing about it being totally digital is that it is easy for all owners to have a copy – and also easy for us to send a copy to our attorney and to the Court.

Another great thing, in case you don’t know this: Once it is scanned into Acrobat, it performs a complete OCR – making every bit of the documents keyword searchable! (You have to download the file and open the file with the free version of Acrobat to use this function – but it works GREAT!)

That means that, on any of the Acrobat documents I have done for Deer Ridge, you can type in whatever keyword or key phrase that interests you – and immediately find all occurrences of interesting phrases like, Joe Thomas, assessments, walkways, master deed, etc.

Try it, you will like it.

Anyway, just wanted to give everyone a head’s up for these coming attractions.

Watch for the smoke – so you will really know “who done it.”

(Click the headline to leave comments.)

Knoxville Law Firm Hired – Retainer Paid

Robert — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:38:18 +0000

We have just hired an established real estate-focused law firm in Knoxville to begin our legal pursuits against GGRC, Joe Thomas and the current Board of Directors of Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.

We have already paid the necessary retainer – so watch this blog closely for upcoming developments.

Do YOU believe that ALL owners of Deer Ridge deserve the following from their General Manager and Board of Directors:

Transparency?
Full accountability?
Open and responsive communications?
Right to audio recordings of all board meetings?
Genuine access to copies of all books and records (except credit card info)?
Copies of documents that prove that $353,500 is needed for the upcoming assessment (including $50,000 for “nuts and bolts”)?
Genuine and through auditing?
No special favors and illegal compensation for board members?
Fair assessments and HOA fees?
Adherence to all aspects of the controlling documents under which ALL owners purchased their units – The Master Deed and Bylaws?
Fair treatment for all owner types: RML owners, non-RML owners and residents?

If these are reflective of your belief system, then I invite you to help us achieve these goals.

The consistent and predictable actions of Joe Thomas and the current Board make it clear that they are opposed to every one of the concepts described in the above bullet points. As a consequence, we have no choice but to pursue the above goals with legal action.

If you would like to help us achieve these goals, your contribution to our legal fund would help accelerate our success.

With enough in donations, we can hire BOTH an attorney AND a forensic accountant for the whole process through the Court in Sevier County to make absolutely certain we win EVERY point – and never have to fight Employee Joe and the Board on this stuff again.

Even a $100 contribution will help show that you are in favor of an open and FULLY transparent homeowners’ association at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort!

Thanks so much to those of you who have already contributed! Just click the button below to donate to the cause.

New Official Mail Tampering Complaints Filed Against Joe Thomas At Deer Ridge

Robert — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:08:21 +0000

This is an open letter to Luther Parker and the Board regarding what we see as ongoing mail tampering at Deer Ridge.

As a result of this blog, and the efforts of other full time residents at Deer Ridge, we were able to finally force Joe Thomas and the Board to erect private postal boxes like most multi-family residents have.

As a direct consequence of a conversation that we had with the Gatlinburg Postmaster, he saved a postal box pedestal for Deer Ridge so that the property had zero cost for adding this badly needed acquisition.

(The Board and Joey never gives us any credit for this stuff – but we invite you to ask the question directly of the Postmaster for the truth of our direct efforts. Postmaster Scott Genseal told us at the time that if he did not save the one he had currently on hand for us at Deer Ridge, the property would have to wait a year or two for another free one – or would have to go out and buy a new one for several thousand dollars.)

Joe Thomas fought these private mailboxes as long as he could because he doesn’t want to lose any CONTROL at Fiefdom Deer Ridge. Please see our other posting on this subject by clicking Postmaster Says We Have A Right To Demand Individual Mailboxes that I posted on September 20, 2009.

As a result of this forced action, Joey has once again reacted in his typical petty way: attempted retribution against anyone who holds him accountable or interferes with his perceived fiefdom.

The following is a copy of our email about this latest Joe Thomas incident.

To: Luther Parker and Deer Ridge Board

We attempted to get our mail the past two days. Some of it was delivered properly into the new mailbox. However, the postal person is also delivering to the front desk any mail that does not have our unit number.

Obviously, we still have a right of delivery of our mail to the front desk, along with any oversized parcels that come addressed to us at Deer Ridge whether it includes our unit number or not. As you know, a vast majority of Deer Ridge owners have their mail addressed to 3710 Weber Road without any unit number – and most of this is forwarded by the office staff to their home address.

However, as part of the ongoing harassment and attempted intimidation by General Manager Joe Thomas, he has intentionally and willfully interfered with the timely delivery of our mail, and the mail of other residents at Deer Ridge. We are fully convinced personally that we have not received some of our mail at Deer Ridge as a result of mail tampering by Joe Thomas.

We believe his actions are a criminal violation of federal law and that Joe Thomas is attempting the same violation with regard to every permanent resident at Deer Ridge.

Joe Thomas is attempting to falsely claim that if our unit number is not on the mail, it cannot be delivered to us. It appears he has even returned some of our mail, marking it as undeliverable. Other mail has been held up in his office for no reason whatsoever. This alone is a criminal violation of federal law. When our mail is delivered to the front desk, the office person is fully capable of seeing that the mail is addressed to us and put it in our slot for mail in the office.

Instead, our mail is being routed to Joe Thomas’ desk for “review.” Joe Thomas has no right or authority to “review” our mail or delay its delivery to us.

Please see the attachment with Joe Thomas’ handwritten signature evidencing his illegal actions.

We have already taken these letters with Joe Thomas’ notes and presented them along with an official complaint to the Gatlinburg Postmaster, Scott Genseal, asking that federal authorities fully investigate Joe Thomas for these alleged violations of federal law. As of today, we have also file a formal complaint with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service with copies of the below hand written notes by Joe Thomas.

Scott assured us that we, and all other residents, have every right to receive our mail at the Deer Ridge office if it arrives without our unit number and that Joe Thomas’ actions are in fact intentionally delaying our mail. Delaying and otherwise tampering with mail is a federal crime.

This Is A Violation of Federal Law: Destruction, Obstruction and Delay of Mail (18 USC 1700, 1701, 1702 & 1703)

These laws state:

Sec. 1701. Obstruction of mails generally

-STATUTE-

Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail, or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

The full law on this matter can be viewed by clicking TITLE 18 – CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE PART I – CRIMES: CHAPTER 83 – POSTAL SERVICE

We will not tolerate these actions by a petty tyrant like Joe Thomas – and will do all we can to ensure that it no longer happens to us or to any other Deer Ridge resident. We will also do all we can to see that Joe Thomas is fully prosecuted for these ongoing acts of retribution.

You, as the Board, are responsible for the actions of your employee. Act accordingly. Now. Or, be held liable.

Robert

We recommend that all residents at Deer Ridge double check on their mail to make sure Joe Thomas is not doing the same thing with your mail.

If he is, and he probably is, then I recommend you also file a complaint with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service by clicking Complaint Against Joe Thomas.

You are welcome to reference our complaint we just filed with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Reference number is: 14953047.

By connecting the dots between your complaints and the one we have already filed, the common thread of abuse by Joe Thomas can be clearly identified by the Postal Inspection Service – and they can quickly initiate their criminal inquiry into Joey’s intolerable, despicable actions.

Investment Analysis For A Single Rental Condo Unit At Deer Ridge Mountain Resort, Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Robert — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:56:52 +0000

Will you really lose $40,000 cash if you buy a rental condo at Deer Ridge and use Ridge Management Ltd?

As an owner-occupied home, Deer Ridge is an incredible value with THE best view in the Smokies and great amenities.

However, several owners and would-be owners of Deer Ridge condos have asked me if these units are a good investment or not. To help answer that question objectively, I had to analyze the real moving parts of buying and owning here.

The following is my detailed investment analysis based on buying a 1-1 condo unit at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The numbers for the other sized units at Deer Ridge are very similar, bottom line.

Here are a few pages of the analysis to show you the format. Click any of the following pages to immediately download the full report.

The Main Assumptions – Using RML To Lease and Manage:

$50,000 purchase price with $2,000 for initial improvements and $2,000 for closing costs.
Down payment of 25%, with a mortgage of $37,500 at 7% fixed for 30 years.
Total resulting initial investment of $16,500.
28% marginal tax bracket, 15% long-term capital gain and no state income tax.
The current $3,400 special assessment for 2011 and 2012, with an additional, average $1,000 per year assessment per unit starting in Year 3 and required for other things like roof, parking lot and “oh, by the way…” ideas from Joe Thomas and the Board.
Annual appreciation rate of 3% per year, as an average, over the next 10 years.
Selling costs of 10% – to cover brokerage, closing costs, etc.
Rental income per night averaging $90 per night after accounting for specials, packages, Hotels.com / Expedia / Etc. discounts with rental rates increasing, on a net basis, by 3% per year.
Continuation of the historical Joe Thomas and RML 39% economic occupancy for all units on average at Deer Ridge across the entire year. This equates to a 61% economic vacancy rate. (This is the historical average across the past 8 years – with no signs of any improvement.)
40% RML management fee. (RML has upped this fee several times in the past – but this is the current charge.)
$270 per month for the HOA fee (the highest per sq ft. charge in the entire Gatlinburg, Knoxville area.) This represents an 82% overcharge compared to the amount that should be charged for 1-1 units according to the Master Deed. This is expected to be a major point covered with upcoming litigation filed against GGRC and / or its Board of Directors.
Water at $116 per month. This represents double what should be charged for 1-1 units according to the Master Deed.
Contents and liability insurance of $300 per year, $500 per year for internal maintenance and/or forced upgrades required by RML and another $500 per year for repairs. Maid service is shown at only $100 per year for spring cleaning. Also shown is the RML pass through costs for credit card fees of about $250 per year.
Cobbly Nob taxes of $668 and Sevier County taxes of $400 per year.
Electricity of about $1,000 per year on average along with charges for cable TV and telephone.
Expenses increasing 5% per year.

The Projected Numbers – Using RML To Lease and Manage:

Negative Net Operating Income for all ten years after all income and expenses. This means, even without a mortgage of any amount, the property loses money every year. Over 10 years, this adds up to a loss of out of pocket dollars more than $31,000 – excluding any net proceeds from sale.
With the 75% mortgage described above, the numbers are a lot worse. Over 10 years, your loss of out of pocket dollars would be almost $68,000!
Taking appreciation into account, if we sell after 10 years and sell the unit for $67,200 after buying it for $50,000 with 75% financing, then the loss after all benefits of every kind would still be almost exactly $40,000!
That is a $40,000 LOSS – Not Gain – With everything taken into account after 10 years!
This means after owning at Deer Ridge for 10 years, there would be zero net profit – and it will end up costing you $40,000. This equates to costing you $4,000 a year in order for you to have a place to use and enjoy as a vacation home – assuming you are not “RML Abusive” and want to actually use your unit during the summer or holidays or during the peak foliage time in October.
If you were to actually hold for longer – say 20 years, it gets even worse. In that case, it would end up costing you over $86,000!

The Conclusions – Using RML To Lease and Manage:

Using RML to manage your property, it makes zero sense to buy a unit at Deer Ridge strictly for investment purposes, as a rental unit, expecting any kind of positive ROI whatsoever – EVER.
The exception to this would be if you are able to buy for HALF the current asking prices. At some point, the market will PROBABLY recover and possibly go back to this current asking level per square foot. If that happens, and you able to buy at half price, then you can make money – but will never have a positive cash flow at any time during the holding time – no matter how little you pay!!!
If you were able to buy for $25,000 instead of $50,000 and still financed 75%, then you could make SOME money from investing in Deer Ridge. After five years, you would NET less than $3,000 total. Even with this low price, if you held for 10 years, you would LOSE over $10,000. Even though these are not great numbers, you could more easily justify the cost per year as an alternative vacation cost – assuming you could really buy a 1-1 for $25,000.
The HOA fees and the water costs are outrageously high as a result of Joe Thomas and the Board not abiding by the Master Deed Percentages for cost – and this contributes significantly to these numbers not working.
If you can cost justify on average $4,000 per year to pay for your vacation location (not counting other vacation related costs), then your ownership at a $50,000 purchase price is at break-even with zero ROI as an investment compared to alternative investment opportunities. Of course, for $4,000 a year, you could afford a very nice vacation in other locations without the hassle of ownership at Deer Ridge.
If you can use Deer Ridge as your primary home, it is a genuine bargain – compared to other alternative living costs per month in the entire Knoxville area. With a spectacular view and great amenities, and the relatively low cost per square foot, it can be an ideal primary residence with total monthly costs for everything under $1,000 a month.
Likewise, if you are in a position to highly utilize the unit for personal use and not worry about rental abuse, the same numbers can apply as for a primary residence.
Bottom line: Buy at Deer Ridge to own and use – not to rent – if you are going to use RML.

If You Don’t Use RML To Lease and Manage:

Historically, over the past 8 years, Joe Thomas and RML have been unable to average anything higher than a deplorable 39% economic occupancy at Deer Ridge. No matter what marketing steps he takes, no matter how much or the owners’ money is spent on those marketing steps, he appears incapable of doing better with the owners’ units.
If you were to buy at Deer Ridge and use another, more experienced and qualified management company that could cut that 61% vacancy in half, the investment returns from Deer Ridge are astoundingly better.
Even if you keep all of the other assumptions exactly the same, the same rental rate per night, the same management fee, the operating expenses, even the 82% gross overcharge of the HOA fees that violates the Master Deed – even if all of that stays the same, and you just solved the vacancy problem that seems to have eluded Joe Thomas for years, then you can make money with a rental property at Deer Ridge.
You no longer have a Negative Net Operating Income for all ten years after all income and expenses. Instead, without a mortgage of any amount, the property now makes money every year. Over 10 years, this adds up to a gain in-your-pocket-dollars of more than $38,000 excluding any net proceeds from sale. This means you have gone from a negative $31,000 to a plus $38,000 – a net swing of $69,000!
With the 75% mortgage described above, the annual cash flow each of the ten years is right at breakeven. Instead of the $68,000 loss you would have using RML, the positive cash flow over 10 years would now be $1,140 if you use someone else that can average a 30% vacancy rate – instead of the Joe Thomas 61% vacancy! Note this is a swing of almost $70,000 of money in your pocket.
Taking appreciation into account, if we sell after 10 years and sell the unit for the same $67,200 after buying it for the same $50,000 with the same 75% financing, then we have a net gain of $9,800 – instead of the Joe Thomas loss after all tax and cash benefits of $40,000! This is almost a $50,000 better benefit in your bank account if you don’t use RML!
This means after owning at Deer Ridge for 10 years, there would be zero net cost to you for having 30% use of your condo per year – over 15 weeks a year – and you end up with about $10,000 in your pocket – plus getting back your $16,500 down payment.

Another ROI Benefit Of Deer Ridge Not Being In The Motel Business

Right now, Joe Thomas and the Board push all owners to belong to RML, complete with warm-hearted stories that include prayers, motherhood and apple pie – and that you are downright un-American if you don’t donate nearly full use of your condo to the good of RML.
But Joe Thomas and the Board are playing Pied Piper – not caring if the Deer Ridge owners drown in their losses – as long as RML can keep hanging on by a thread and pay Joe Thomas all his various approved and unapproved compensation.
The problem is that the more units available for rent at Deer Ridge, the more competition YOU have for renting your unit.
While a more competent and professional management company could most probably improve occupancy at Deer Ridge, most owners here continue to use RML – no matter how little sense it makes.
The current low economic occupancy rates at Deer Ridge shows that Joe Thomas has only been able to create a small rental demand for the units compared to all the competitive, newer, less expensive properties in Gatlinburg and especially Pigeon Forge.
Since there is such low current demand, the more units for rent at Deer Ridge, the less yours will be rented.
If more units at Deer Ridge are used for personal use or for full time residents, the fewer units there are that will compete with yours for the current narrow niche demand for these units.
This means your occupancy should rise, and with rising occupancies, rental rates could rise – both of which should make you more money.
Either way you look at it, Deer Ridge is a LOT better off without RML – and Joe Thomas and the Board have been lying to owners for years that the opposite is true. Don’t listen to their Pied Piper tune. Find someone else to solve your vacancy problem.

Want Proof?

Please see the two sets of detailed analysis that follows – the first assuming RML’s use and historical performance – the second with only the vacancy rate changed from Joe Thomas’ abysmal 61% average to a 30% average vacancy using a more competent and professional management company. Just click Investment Analysis for your own copy of the full report.

Once you have downloaded the full report, you can email it as an attachment to anyone you wish to have a copy, such as your broker.

The good news is if you buy at Deer Ridge, no matter what Joe Thomas may tell you, you have a right to use whatever management company you want to use.

My Response To The Board’s Attack Letter

Robert — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:33:52 +0000

Thank You!

I want to thank the growing number of owners at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort who are supporting this blog and its primary goals. Those goals include making GGRC and RML transparent, accountable and compliant with the controlling documents of our property: The Master Deed and Bylaws.

These documents are the “law of the land” for Deer Ridge – and these “laws” have been systematically, substantively and repeatedly violated by Joe Thomas and the current and past boards of Deer Ridge. As more of you have become acquainted with these laws and your rights as owners, as a result of this blog, your sense of outrage over these ongoing, intentional violations by Joe Thomas and the Board has joined with the voices of other owners who are now demanding long needed changes be made immediately at Deer Ridge.

This growing, vocal demand has finally gotten a response from Joe Thomas and the Board.

You will be receiving an unsigned letter purportedly from the GGRC / RML Board of Directors concerning some of my efforts to accomplish the above goals. Not surprisingly, their 8 page letter is solely focused on their ongoing villainization and disinformation about me that has been going on for years – attacking me and my ever constant demand for implementing the above goals.

Fortunately, so many of you have started to call, email and otherwise voice your own demands to Joe Thomas and the board that the Deer Ridge Owners Blog goals be met, that they have felt compelled to generate this most recent attack letter in an attempt to deflect the growing complaints against the old way, their way, of doing things.

Here’s a hint for Joey and the Board: Your attempted deflection won’t work. Your violations of Deer Ridge Law will no longer be tolerated.

Joey And The Board Have No Authority To Be Thought Police Overseeing All Owners At Deer Ridge

Joey and the Board continue to believe that they are the ONLY people who can have an opinion about Deer Ridge and its operations…and they consistently set out to attempt to discredit and alienate ANY owner who does not agree to abide by their warped sense of proprietary and priorities.

My guess is that many other owners would agree with me that the board is completely out of line trying to censure ANY owner from expressing their rights to freedom of thought and expression. For some reason, Joey and this board think it is alright to try and tell an owner how to think and behave – even when they have no authority whatsoever to do so.

Thought Police is NOT one of the authorized duties of either the general manager or the board.

The board members, as individual owners, have a right to their own ideas and opinions – but have ZERO right as the board of directors to use HOA fees to prepare and mail out any document on GGRC letterhead attempting to censure individual owners for expressing their opinion.

If individual board members wish to mail all owners their PERSONAL opinion about me or anything else, they are welcome to do so – WITHOUT using GGRC letterhead and without HOA fees being used for the postage.

Here’s another hint for Joey and the Board: A growing number of us will no longer tolerate your attempts to control and intimidate owners.

Your lies and secretive actions will see the light of day and be fully exposed for the coordinated deception they are. Each owner is fully entitled to their own ideas and opinions regarding Deer Ridge – and no one is required to follow your dictatorial wishes with regard to their opinions about Joe Thomas and the board and use and enjoyment of THEIR property as long as they abide by the Master Deed and Bylaws. And no where in those controlling documents are you empowered in any way to be Thought Police for every owner at Deer Ridge.

However…all owners have a right to demand COMPLETE transparency about the way their investment is being handled – and to demand that the elected board provide that transparency AND that the board abide FULLY with the controlling documents that are part of the purchase documents for each and every condo at Deer Ridge. Every owner has the right to demand full accountability of Joe Thomas as general manger and every board member to account for every penny – and follow every article and bylaw of our controlling documents.

As such, I demand that Joe and each board member reimburse GGRC for the time, postage and all other expenses incurred as a result of them sending this completely inappropriate attack letter to all owners and to go on record apologizing for completely overstepping their authority with their letter of attempted intimidation and censure.

If you want to send the same letter to every owner again, fine – but have the forthrightness to send it yourself, under your individual signature, using your own postage. Don’t hide behind some unsigned letter and charge all owners. Or, set up your own private blog at your own cost, unaffiliated with Deer Ridge management, and rant away to your heart’s content.

Welcome To New Visitors To This Blog

Most of you who are regular readers of this blog are already aware of the multitude of mistakes, errors and misrepresentations, intentional or otherwise, that are contained in this most recent attack letter. However, since their letter references our blog so many times, I am hopeful that many of you now reading this posting are here for the first time, trying to find out for yourselves if the claims in the attack letter are true. If you are here for the first time…or the first time in a long time, welcome!

I invite you to read all the postings and all the many dozens of comments made by your fellow owners at Deer Ridge. I also invite you to join in the dialogue by registering and adding your own comments to each individual posting that interests you.

Unlike the new Joe Thomas and Board Blog, where they do not allow ANY comments and discussions by owners, but only post their own propaganda, this Deer Ridge Owners blog is specifically set up to give ALL owners a voice in their property and investment in Deer Ridge.

In the last three months since it started, this blog has had over 2,800 unique visitors, many visiting multiple times, with over 20,000 page views, 7,200 search engine robot visits and over 3,400 feeds. We continue to average about 1,500 visits a month to the blog. Not bad for zero advertising and a small 84 unit property!

Some Points of Issue With Their Current Attack Letter

There are SO many errors, false statements, half-truths in the board’s attack letter, I won’t bore you with refuting them all except to ask you to explore this massive blog to find your own answers. However, some of the points are so flagrant, I will respond to the following, along with providing specific links where you can get more information to make your own decisions.

“Robert’s emails questioned the actions of the Board and Manager and he demanded that he be provided detailed financial records so he could advise the Board and Manager the correct manner in which to run the day to day operations at Deer Ridge.
“That statement is mostly true.

As an owner, I have a right to receive copies of ALL the books and records concerning MY ownership and investment at Deer Ridge. ALL owners have this right.

The current and past boards have adamantly refused to provide copies to any owner.Instead, all they offer is to let an owner set up an appointment with Joe Thomas to quickly VIEW whatever documents Joe Thomas is willing to show (they are unwilling to even show many underlying documents) while Joe is looking over your shoulder. They know that forcing this approach, they can’t be held accountable – and any analysis is all but impossible. It is also unworkable for all the folks who own at Deer Ridge who do not visit often. How are they supposed to see the books and records if they can’t have copies?

This one point is the crux of a majority of my complaints – and that complaint has been there since Day 1 and continues to this day. For me, this is such a critically important issue, it is worth filing a lawsuit over – so ALL owners can see what is going on with their investment in Deer Ridge.
“He earlier wanted RML sold, and that is still one of his goals.”
Absolutely. In my opinion, RML and Ridge Resort Realty are operating companies that put all owners at risk of running small companies – and is a violation of the Master Deed and Bylaws. Everyone who needs rental income would be better served by selling RML to a larger, better property management company – plus if sold correctly, could generate several hundreds of thousands of dollars to GGRC.

Should Deer Ridge HOA Sell Ridge Management Limited?

Sale of RML To An Unaffiliated Company Pro / Con List

What Is RML REALLY Worth If We Sell It?

Marketing Steps For Selling RML

Joe’s Gypity Do Dah Song to Deer Ridge Owners

“He wants the current Board and Joe Thomas fired.”
Absolutely! There are SO many reasons that Joe Thomas should be fired – and I read the whole list to his face during the last board meeting. Please see:

Deer Ridge Board Meeting Motion – Fire Joe Thomas For Cause

Deer Ridge Mountain Resort: Who IS Responsible For Multiple Violations of Article XII of the Master Deed?

File A Complaint Against Joe Thomas With Tennessee Real Estate Commission

Joe Thomas Butchers Deer Ridge Trees For Benefit Of Non Deer Ridge Owner

Open Letter To Luther Parker and Board: Joe Thomas Accosts Owner In Laundry Room

“He has indicated he would like to take over our HOA and run it on his whim of the moment.”
This is false. Completely false.

I have zero interest in running the HOA, being on the board or having Joe’s job. Zero interest.

Joe has always been threatened by me since I have significantly more real estate and property management experience than he does. Even though I’ve gone out of my way to make it clear that I don’t want his job, his apparent paranoia over this has been the root of a lot of his conniving and devious behavior toward me since we bought at Deer Ridge.
“Without a single substantiating fact he posted the picture on his website with the accusation that the Board was preparing to run a “secret” test for the demolition and replacement of the railings at one of the buildings and that Deer Ridge had already spent monies on parts for this test run.”
Actually, there were several substantiating facts.

One, is the long history of Joey and the Board spending over $120,000 of OUR money on unapproved projects without having the same kind of vote they are currently having on February 6th about the ridiculous and completely unnecessary Walkway Railings replacements. Joey and current and past boards have often moved ahead with projects with no authority whatsoever, such as The Joe’s Folly Pavilion.

Secondly, there is the magic wording in the Board’s own minutes from the November budget meeting that were sent to all owner around December 1, 2009. This is the section about the test run and timelines for the walkway railings:

Now, please note several things in the board’s own minutes:
- “Joe Thomas mentioned that contractors want to do a test run on a walkway in January.” Hmmm…I guess we all didn’t just imagine that January test run date after all, huh?
- They already knew and were taking into account that I had forced them to abide by the Master Deed and Bylaws, so they had to have the damn 75% vote.
- Even if the owners decide it makes no sense to spend over $49,000 to replace perfectly good walkway railings, we are being warned by El Presidente Luther that our assessment won’t go down! How is that for Joey and the board trying to railroad something through – even if the owners vote they don’t want it? The cost of this boondoggle is 14% of the total assessment. But hell or high water, Joey and the board need all that money – even if it isn’t going to be used for its stated purpose! Does anyone else see this as outrageously unethical as I do?
- But wait…there’s more: Even knowing that the vote was not going to occur until February 6th, Point 5 repeats their intent of doing a test run AND having all walkway railings DONE by the April Owner’s Meeting. Now, not the ambiguous parenthetical (if approved). If you diagram the sentence, you will see that the wording meant approval of the whole project, not the test run. Which is exactly the intent of the board.
- Also, look at the timeline. If they were really going to do the test run AFTER the vote…and then do all the demolition and complete reconstruction AFTER the test run was tested, there wouldn’t be time to do it right. However, if they were going to do the test run in January, as the plan shows above, then they might be able to get it all done in time for the meeting.
- Also, Point 5 even WARNS the owners: “Ownership be cognizant that the Building and Grounds committee, Board and Management, contractors and maintenance staff would like to do a test run on one walkway.” Now, to me that wording speaks volumes. They are telling us that they are illegitimately moving forward NOW with the test run BEFORE the vote. Otherwise, why should the owners be cognizant?
- Maybe it is just me, but I think the above minutes make it CRYSTAL CLEAR that Joey and the boys were going to move ahead with the secret test run in January. What does your intuition tell you?
But, wait there is more….proof.

Thirdly, Neil Blair received the following email from Luther Parker, El Presidente regarding this project:

Date: Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:15:37 -0600

Subject: RE: Questions

From: parker.luther@gmail.com

To: openroad12@hotmail.comCC: mickmargie@zoomtown.com; DavidBarone@optonline.net; larryo@skdocpa.com; tomtrip@verizon.net; manager@deerridge.com

Neil,

The Buiding and Grounds Committee had identified the walkway problems prior to Mr. Novak’s presentation to the Board. The project of replacing the walkway railings and up-dating the lighting is well underway. Presently, the general manager has been given the task of taking precautionary measures until the walkway project gets underway.

Neil, I must conclude that you are clearly saying to me (e-mail) “We will let a judge decide”. Additionally, you stated that you would be contacting the FBI for an investigation of the Board.

Since you desire representation by a third party, I will respond to those agents representing you.

Sincerely,

Luther

Now, how would YOU interpret that email – especially the part in red – especially considering the long history of costly, illegitimate projects at Deer Ridge? That is why I got a panicked telephone call from another owner asking me to please do whatever I could with my blog to stop this illegitimate act before it was too late.

Note that this email was sent by Luther Parker on December 24th – exactly a week before our posting about the dumpster. From what we have been told by insiders, our posting did, indeed, keep their illegal walkway railing test from happening. Please also see: Deer Ridge Board: What Part of No Do You NOT Understand? and Deer Ridge Mountain Resort: Who IS Responsible For Multiple Violations of Article XII of the Master Deed?

So, let’s look again at the Board’s attack letter claims, “Without a single substantiating fact he posted the picture on his website with the accusation that the Board was preparing to run a “secret” test for the demolition and replacement of the railings at one of the buildings and that Deer Ridge had already spent monies on parts for this test run.”

I think we have triple and quadruple “substantiating facts” to believe Joey and the boys were moving ahead, spending OUR money on their ridiculous pet project – even before the owners voted. And, I believe that the ONLY thing that stopped them was this blog posting – and they are especially aggravated by it.

In spite of the protests by Joey and the board in their attack letter, do you think that I might, just maybe, be right about their illegitimate test run and why that first dumpster showed up on property after all?

Uh huh. Talk about Doublespeak.

Irrespective of whether they were going to use the actual dumpster shown in the photo or some other dumpster, I think it now surely seems obvious to God and everybody that not only were Joey and the boys going to violate the Master Deed once again by spending our money without the proper vote and approval – they are now CLEARLY guilty of trying to cover it up with a LIE.

Joey and the boys have been hoisted with their own petards and documentation. Maybe we can call it JoeGate instead of WaterGate.

And, consider this: if Joe Thomas and Luther Parker and the rest of the board are willing to manufacture lies like this in their attack letter against me, it kind of makes you wonder how many more outright lies all of them are trying to tell all the owners in the rest of that attack letter.

AND IF THEY ARE LIARS – WHAT ELSE ABOUT DEER RIDGE ARE JOE THOMAS AND LUTHER PARKER AND THE REST OF THE BOARD LYING TO THE OWNERS ABOUT – ABOUT THE ASSESSMENT? ABOUT THE BUDGETS? ABOUT THE REAL OPERATION OF RML? ABOUT BOARD COMPENSATION? ABOUT EVERYTHING?
“How can this man state that he has the support of many owners in his quest to completely destroy the beautiful mountain resort that has been more than 23 years in the making?”
Read the blog to see some of the support. See the proxies that I will bring to the February 6th meeting on the Walkway Railings Vote. Read the emails you are getting from other owners complaining about how you are not abiding by the Deer Ridge The Master Deed and Bylaws. Read the other, upcoming letters from other owners that will be mailed to all owners in the next few weeks. There are now many of us owners who are joining together to bring about long needed changes to Deer Ridge that will do just the opposite of destroying our beautiful mountain PROPERTY.
“On December 23, 2009 he stated on his website his intention to file a complaint against Joe Thomas with the Tennessee Real Estate Commission.”
This is true – although it just went in the mail in the last couple of days since the official complaint had to be notarized. You can read all about this complaint at File A Complaint Against Joe Thomas With Tennessee Real Estate Commission. If you agree with the reasons given, I invite you to join me and other Deer Ridge Owners who have filed this same complaint about Joe Thomas with the State of Tennessee.
“On December 12, 2009 he stated on his website that he had filed an official request to the FBI to investigate alleged criminal activity by Deer Ridge Manager and Board for suspected crimes of: white collar crime; corruption; financial misappropriations, kickbacks, embezzlement; illegitimate Board member compensation; and securities fraud.”
This is true. You can read all about this complaint at FBI – Official Request Made to Investigate Alleged Criminal Activity By Deer Ridge Manager And Board. If you agree with the reasons given, I invite you to join me and other Deer Ridge Owners who have filed this same complaint about Joe Thomas with the FBI.
“The Board has made the decision to not provide,nor allow to be made, copies of detailed financial records which could be disseminated to parties that might use them to the detriment of the orderly operation of GG&RC and/or RML.”
Again, this is the crux of the problem.

ALL owners should be able to have copies of ALL books and records related in any way to the operation of their property and their investment.

If we have to go to court over this, we WILL go to court over this. Additionally, exactly what detrimental consequences does the board fear from these financial records? The ONLY ones I can think of relate solely to any malfeasance and misuse of HOA funds – which is exactly why I believe the Board and Joey are fighting, tooth and nail, to keep these copies out of the hands of owners. Please see: Yes Or No, Luther Parker? An Open Letter To Luther Parker, President of Deer Ridge – GGRC and RML.
“It is for this very same reason that the Board has made the decision to not allow audio recording of any of the Board meetings…”
Again, this is another case where the board refuses to be transparent and accountable to all owners.

Interestingly, the State of Nevada just implemented a new law affecting all HOAs that now REQUIRE them to audio record ALL board meetings and keep those recordings available to all interested parties for at least 10 years. Other states are expected to follow suit. So, if so many state governments see this as a requirement that is to the benefit of all owners, why does Joey and the Board at Deer Ridge fight it so much?
“On November 15,2009, on his website, he posted pictures along with the allegation ‘Joe Thomas Butchers Deer Ridge Trees For Benefit of Non Deer Ridge Owner’ …What his cursory investigation failed to reveal was that one of the cabin owners on Moonshine Ridge, which overlooks Weber Road, also wanted some trees topped that were located on the south side of the road. Through the Maintenance staff, Joe contacted the landscaper that does contract work for Deer Ridge and referred him to the persons wanting the trees cut. The property line is very close to the road at this point and GG&RC only owns a 25 ft right of way from the center line of Weber Road. The topped tree closest to the road is 33 ft from the center line. Therefore, it appears that most, if not all, of the trees topped in this area were not on GG&RC property.”
From our analysis of the plat, the above “convenient” calculations by Joey and the Board appear to be very wrong and these trees are, indeed, on our property.

Do you believe it a coincidence that these trees were butchered at virtually the same time that this one cabin, the ONLY one that benefited from the butchering, signed on to be managed by RML? Please see: Joe Thomas Butchers Deer Ridge Trees For Benefit Of Non Deer Ridge Owner, Joe Thomas Butchers Deer Ridge Trees For Benefit Of Non Deer Ridge Owner – Chapter 2 and Tree Trimming At Deer Ridge: A Guest Post By Tina.
“On September 20, 2009 he filed a complaint with the local US Postal authorities.”
True. Many of us have had way too much mail tampering.

However, I am please to say that I have now been successful at forcing Joey and the Board to install private mailboxes where keys will only be given to the individual owner and the US postal person who delivers the mail. Please see: Postmaster Says We Have A Right To Demand Individual Mailboxes and Major Successes At Deer Ridge Board Meeting – Four Total – One Major Win! We should get our individual keys personally delivered to us sometime this week by Scott, the Gatlinburg Postmaster.
“On December 21, 2009 a copy of an invoice mailed by the Cobbly Nob Property Owners Association to Deer Ridge Mountain Resort appeared on his website and his cry is “Deer Ridge behind in payments to Cobbly Nob -Over $31,000!…RML is not in arrears to Cobbly Nob.”
Please see: Deer Ridge Behind In Payments To Cobbly Nob – Over $31,000!

Note in spite of what Joey and the Board claim in the letter about being caught up…that Cobbly Nob is offering a payment plan that just happens to start when the Asinine Assessments are due in March! If they are so caught up, why is a payment plan even being offered? Kind of makes you wonder, huh?
“In every instance the (GGRC) attorney did not find fault with the decisions of the Board and rebuked him for trying to micro-manage the Board’s operation when the Master Deed and By-Laws clearly granted the Board the authority to manage the property in a manner which is fair and equitable.
This is false.

We had to fight to get Vic and Joey to release the mailing labels back in 2006 – and the same attorney told them they did not have a choice – that I was right in my demand that they had to provide it!

Also, at the most recent board meeting, the same attorney had to remind Joey and the Board that, again, they do not have a choice about providing mailing labels – which Luther had been denying access to. Also, in the same meeting, the same attorney agreed with me that the board HAD to abide by Article XII and get the required 75% vote of owners before doing ANY alteration or improvement.

This alone is a MAJOR win for all owners – with their attorney in fact finding MAJOR fault with the decisions of the Board. Their current vote on February 6 requiring a 75% vote for the ridiculous replacement of perfectly good walkway railings is an admission of Joey’s and the Board’s GUILT over not requesting the same kind of vote before illegitimately squandering over $120,000 on other projects just as Joe’s Folly Pavilion. I would say that is a clear case of their statement being proven completely false, wouldn’t you?

Please see:
- Deer Ridge Owners Mailing Labels Now Available To ALL Owners
- Major Win On Deer Ridge Article XII Bylaws – Thoughts and Implications
- Major Successes At Deer Ridge Board Meeting – Four Total – One Major Win!
  
  Also, there is the whole issue of all 30 1-1 units at Deer Ridge being grossly overcharged by 82% on monthly HOA fees and all other assessments. When asked in the meeting, Luther Parker said this was “fair and equitable.” We obviously disagree and will take this matter to court and see if the court agrees that an 82% overcharge is fair and equitable.
- Lawsuit Against Deer Ridge GGRC Inevitable And Moving Forward – Despite Gains At Board Meeting
- Deer Ridge Board Meeting: Luther Parker States 82% Monthly Overcharge to All 30 1-1 Owners Is Fair And Equitable
“We believe the majority of owners do not want Deer Ridge Mountain Resort to become another small residential complex as he has suggested and would like it to become.”
Scott, the Postmaster for Gatlinburg has told us that based on trends in this city and specific trends and current pricing at Deer Ridge, within two to five years, he expects that all of Deer Ridge will become a residential complex. This has nothing to do with me – and has everything to do with micro and macro economic trends specific to this geography.

However, think about the statement in their attack letter.

If these units are fairly marketed to all potential buyers, many of those buyers will be interested in Deer Ridge as their primary home. So, “the majority of owners” mentioned in the attack letter do not get a vote on this either – even though Joe Thomas has done all he can to try and accomplish this by only trying to sell units to those who will use RML. This is a MAJOR disservice to those who are trying to sell their units – and his tactics have greatly suppressed prices of all units here for years. This is one of the reasons we filed a complaint against Joe Thomas with the Tennessee Real Estate Boards. You can read all about this complaint at File A Complaint Against Joe Thomas With Tennessee Real Estate Commission. If you agree with the reasons given, I invite you to join me and other Deer Ridge Owners who have filed this same complaint about Joe Thomas with the State of Tennessee.
“He blatantly abused the pooling system, staying in his unit for a month at a time while still collecting rent via the pooling system.”
Our “abuse” was staying in OUR unit, that we own, for the month of October right after we bought the unit in August. However, we did NOT collect rent from the pooling system. We were fully agreeable that no rent was owed. The fact that Joey and the board could even consider this as abuse is almost laughable. However, when RML instituted a “prime time tax” – charging owners an absurd and outrageous daily charge on top of no rental income is why we took our unit out of RML. That is when additional “abuse” occurred by Joe Thomas RENTING our unit AFTER it was no longer in RML. He has done this to other owners too – fully demonstrating his lack of ethics and trustworthiness.

It is this kind of mindset by Joey and the Board that this property and every unit here is for their Little Joe’s Notel Motel empire – and not an aggregation of 84 units with about 80 owners who have varying and totally justifiable reasons to own at Deer Ridge that may have NOTHING to do with renting their units via RML.
“On February 10,2007, a committee formed by the Board to study and make recommendations with respect to Joe Thomas’s group’s offer, met in Luther Parker’s unit (B202). On this day Robert , a member of the committee, focused his contribution to the meeting on selling RML to an outside interest at a future point in time fora great deal of money…The charge would be 7% of the total selling price … “.
The Attack Letter implies I was making money from the sale of RML. Please see the full text, which they conveniently edited, by clicking Marketing Steps For Selling RML. There you will see that I clearly state, out of all available options for selling, that “Using a competent, knowledgeable business broker is probably the best approach for the sale of RML.” I also add that instead of using me, “While this approach is an alternative for the Board, the business broker approach may be the best approach since it is a total third party dealing with no potential for any conflicts of interest.” As you can see, their attack letter is intentionally misleading on this point – and I would suggest that it is equally intentionally misleading on all the other points too.

However, since they brought up the offer by Joe Thomas to buy RML, I strongly suggest you read what really happened by clicking: Joe’s Gypity Do Dah Song to Deer Ridge Owners. There you will see how Joe wanted to buy all of RML for $100,000, 90% financed by GGRC with NO PERSONAL LIABILITY by Joey – and he takes over bank accounts with more than $10,000 in them. That way, he grossly underpays for RML, gets it with no personal liability, can walk away from it when and if it doesn’t work for HIM any longer and drains the acquired bank accounts to pay for the complete down payment. See why I thought this was such a bad deal for the owners at Deer Ridge?

Also, think about this: If Joey thought it was such a good idea that GGRC sell RML, then why is he SO opposed to it being sold for a fair price to a larger management company that has the economies of scale to operate RML and the units in RML at Deer Ridge? The implications of this logic gap by Joe Thomas speaks volumes about how much he doesn’t care about what is good for Deer Ridge Owners!
“Shortly before the April 2008 Owner’s meeting, Robert sent a 9 page; “An Open Letter to the Deer Ridge Board and All Owners”, via email and his website (www.DeerRidgeOwners.com/prediction). The title of this letter was “Deer Ridge Mountain Resort – An Economic Prediction for 2008-2010″.
True. We still have one year to go – but check out my original prediction to see how good a job I did. Click Deer Ridge Mountain Resort – An Economic Prediction For 2008-2010.
“Fellow owners is it a coincidence that much of Robert’s negative commentary materializes as meetings are about to take place? Or is the timing well orchestrated to disrupt, distort, distract, divide and subsequently destroy Deer Ridge as we know it today?”
It is to try and finally get these critical issues on the agenda since the Board has a four year history of NOT answering questions and emails and NOT being held accountable for its actions and inactions.
“Interestingly, during the summer of 2009, Robert became our 7th permanent resident.”
Partially true. We are here as full time residents enjoying the beauty of Deer Ridge – until such time as we can get the goals of this blog accomplished. We decided we have to be here to effectuate change since so much is hidden from owners who do not spend a lot of time here. That is how and why we are seeing so much more going on here like the tree butchering. Our presence here is also required for the upcoming litigation against GGRC and RML. Once these goals are met, we will return home to Clearwater Beach, Florida – whether that takes 3 months or 33 months.

Here’s another hint for Joey: We will not be leaving until AFTER you are gone.
“In a 19 page diatribe posted on his website on October 19, 2009 he is seeking legal representation for his HOA Class Action Lawsuits wrote the following. “All recent annual meetings and the election of officers and board members, approval of all budgets, etc. are null and void.” “That an independent auditor be hired and paid for by GGRC and placed under my administration and direction … ” “That RML and Ridge Resort Realty be expeditiously sold under my administration and direction …Ownership note Robert’s statements, particularly “under my [Robert] administration”.”
Please see the following links for the full REAL story on all of the above sound bites taking out of context:
- Deer Ridge Problems – The Mind Map
- Deer Ridge Mountain Resort: Who IS Responsible For Multiple Violations of Article XII of the Master Deed?
- Major Successes At Deer Ridge Board Meeting – Four Total – One Major Win!
- Lawsuit Against Deer Ridge GGRC Inevitable And Moving Forward – Despite Gains At Board Meeting
- Deer Ridge Board Meeting: Luther Parker States 82% Monthly Overcharge to All 30 1-1 Owners Is Fair And Equitable
“On November 6, 2009, the Board received a letter from Mr. Sexton (the GGRC attorney) responding to Robert’s allegations. The following are excerpts from that letter, ‘The first question regards the Board’s authority under the Master Deed and Bylaws. It is my understanding that he is taking the position that various owners at Deer Ridge are being assessed monthly dues and allocation of common expenses and repairs at a percentage disproportionate to the ownership interest . . The last half of the sentence in Article III, Paragraph 9(c) beginning with the word “however” clearly gives the Board authority to allocate common expenses using a method other than percentage of ownership. The qualifier is “provided such method is fair and equitable”. It is my understanding that Robert is complaining that current owners ‘fees and assessments are being assessed in a ratio different than the percentage of ownership set out in Exhibit 2-1 to the Master Deed. This document clearly assigns to each unit design a specific percentage of the vote to which they are entitled. The percentage of vote likewise corresponds to their percentage of ownership interest in the common elements. “
This is one of two fundamental issues I have with the way things are done and not done at Deer Ridge. This one alone is worth taking GGRC to court over. Joey and the Board make claim to Article III, Paragraph 9(c) as their sole justification for ignoring the real intend and requirements of The Master Deed and Bylaws. It is their intentional misinterpretation of this clause that has allowed Joey and the Board to OVERCHARGE all 30 1-1 units at Deer Ridge by 82% on monthly HOA fees and other assessments. There are several postings at the blog that describe this issue.

The key is that the section they hang their hats on ONLY relates to the DEVELOPMENT PLAN phase of the property that ended 23 YEARS ago.

Even IF the Board were to prevail by convincing the Judge that Deer Ridge is still in the Development Phase after 23 years, we have the other part of Article III, Section 9 Paragraph C: “…provided such method is fair and equitable…”

The fact that all 30 1-1 units are charged 82% more than the Master Deed Percentages would almost certainly be deemed to be UN”fair and equitable” – especially when the 2-2-L should be charged 50% more than they have been charged by the current Board!

And, here we have our fearless leader, Luther Parker, stating straight-faced at the board meeting a few days ago that, “Yes, the 82% IS fair and equitable.” Luther, thankfully, I don’t think ANY judge is EVER going to agree with your logic and math.

And, I bet a VAST majority of the 30 owners of 1-1 units, representing 36% of ALL units at Deer Ridge will STRONGLY disagree that your “82% IS fair and equitable” overcharge for their HOA fees they have to pay each and every month IS fair and equitable.

Please check out the following links on this critical issue:
- Open Letter to Chuck Sexton – Attorney for GGRC – That GGRC and Deer Ridge Has NO Current Board of Directors
- Lawsuit Against Deer Ridge GGRC Inevitable And Moving Forward – Despite Gains At Board Meeting
- Deer Ridge Board Meeting: Luther Parker States 82% Monthly Overcharge to All 30 1-1 Owners Is Fair And Equitable
- We Are * In Play * – As They Say On Wall St. – Attorney Contacts Commenced For Deer Ridge HOA Lawsuit
- Seeking Legal Representation – RFP – HOA Lawsuits
- Class-Action Lawsuits – Coming Soon To A HOA Near You
- RML Is Illegal! Pavilion Is Illegal! April Annual Meetings Are Illegal! More Major Flagrant Master Deed Violations
- Deer Ridge – Your Monthly HOA Fee And Special Assessment Are WRONG! Open Letter to Deer Ridge Board: Lawsuit Being Prepared Against GGRC and RML
  
  Please note that this section of the attack letter refers to an “excerpt.” Since the thought processes seem to abruptly end, it makes you wonder if the parts they left out were in fact critical to understanding what their attorney REALLY said.
“He does not have the right to demand to be a junior board member double checking all the work done by each Board member. ”
I do not want to be either a junior or senior board member. What I want is to have the same rights for all Deer Ridge Owners: Making GGRC and RML transparent, accountable and compliant with the controlling documents of our property: The Master Deed and Bylaws.
“He is working hard to destroy Deer Ridge as we know it today.”
False, Deer Ridge is a beautiful property and the only things I want to destroy are the antithesis of our goals that include making GGRC and RML transparent, accountable and compliant with the controlling documents of our property: The Master Deed and Bylaws.

Well, those are the top points about their attack letter…I personally think this letter was sent to all owners as a smoke screen by Joey and the Board to lower the heat factor they are feeling from all the complaints from other owners over the Asinine Assessment of $353,500 – and the fact they will not provide an iota of documentation and proof that these monies need to be spent – especially $50,000 on “nuts and bolts” and $49,000 to replace perfectly good walkway railings just because Joey wants a different design.

I don’t have time to even address the rest of their trivial points and other lies – but do invite you to read everything at this Deer Ridge Owners Blog and make your own decision of whether you think I am trying to destroy Deer Ridge Mountain Resort or help it finally succeed.

PS: If you haven’t already done so and can’t make the meeting, please mail me your signed proxy to represent you at the upcoming February 6th special meeting about the ridiculous and completely unnecessary Walkway Railings replacements.

Deer Ridge Mountain Resort: Who IS Responsible For Multiple Violations of Article XII of the Master Deed?

Owners Beware: Your Trash Is Being Read By RML Personnel At Deer Ridge?

Robert — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:01:20 +0000

It has just come to our attention that our trash is actually being opened and READ by RML personnel. We are investigating whether this goes all the way to the top or not.

We have heard unsubstantiated reports that Joe Thomas has special software to intercept and read what is being sent and received on the wireless Internet at Deer Ridge. If true, both are massive invasions of privacy for owners and guests of Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.

We will be contacting government authorities over both issues to see what, if any, criminal laws are being broken by this alleged behavior. If criminal laws are being broken, we will push for criminal charges being brought against anyone involved.

In the meantime, we are now either shredding or burning our paperwork. We are already using our own direct high speed Internet connection – partly for this very reason of protecting ourselves from this kind of invasion of privacy.

Be forewarned – protect yourself, protect your trash at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.

Open Letter To Luther Parker and Board: Joe Thomas Accosts Owner In Laundry Room

Robert — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:35:53 +0000

At approximately 3:45 PM on Friday October 16, 2009, Employee, and General Manager of GGRC, Joe Thomas accosted my wife Janet in the laundry room of Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.

Janet had been talking with Janice, head of housekeeping, while she did laundry. A few minutes after Janice left, while Janet was alone in the laundry room, Employee Joe stormed into the room, yelling that she was to NEVER talk with his employees again about anything. Thomas then backed Janet into a corner crowding her personal space by approaching her within inches of her face and body.

Thomas then repeatedly demanded that Janet recite word for word exactly what she had said to Janice. In spite of Janet telling Bully Joe to get out of her face and leave her alone, he continued to act in a threatening manner – continuing to corner her using his big bulk to try and tower over and intimidate my 5’3″ 110 lb wife – and not allowing her to escape his pinning her in the corner.

Fortunately, Janet does not intimidate easily – and she made it clear to Employee Joe that HE was the employee, that we pay his salaries, that he had zero right to talk to her like that, that he has no power or authority to attempt to control who she speaks to….employees, other owners or guests of Deer Ridge…nor does he have any right to control what is said or even to know what was said. She tried to make it clear, even to him, that Americans – and even Deer Ridge owners – are FREE to express their opinions about anything they want, to whomever they want, whenever they want – without dictatorial censorship.

This is not the first time that Employee Joe has attempted to intimidate other owners at Deer Ridge…especially those of us who “do not toe the RML line.” We have been told of several instances where this petty tyrant employee has had delusions of adequacy and importance and feigned authority over owners…even to the point of threatening owners with, “You better watch your back.”

This is also not the first time we have reported bad behavior by Petty Tyrant Joe Thomas at DeerRidgeOwners.com: Please click the following link from March 2007:

Employee Joe Attempts to Enforce Dictatorial Censorship of All Deer Ridge Owners

Luther, this indefensible, deplorable and totally inappropriate behavior by YOUR employee is completely unacceptable in every sense of the word. While we are investigating whether we can press criminal charges against Joe Thomas for his actions yesterday, we DEMAND that you finally do something to control YOUR employee. If GGRC chooses to continue to ignore these antics of its employee, GGRC risks being held legally culpable for his actions.

We demand that you and the Board finally take immediate disciplinary actions against Employee Joe Thomas including providing us with:

A copy of your letter of reprimand to Employee Joe about his deplorable behavior – including language about his immediate termination on the next occurrence of ANY attempted intimidation or threats to any owner or their guests. Also, this letter of reprimand should clearly state that Employee Joe is to NEVER talk with Janet again unless another female employee is present.
A written letter of apology from Joe Thomas to Janet, on GGRC letterhead.
- Stating that he was completely out of line to approach her and attempt to intimidate her.
- Stating that she has every right to talk with any employee, guest or owner that she wishes to without limit.
- That he promises to never talk with her again in any threatening manner.
- That another woman employee will always be present for any future conversation with any woman owner or guest.
A statement of policy signed by you, on GGRC letterhead, clearly stating that:
- Any owner or visitor to Deer Ridge has the total right to talk with, or communicate with in any manner, any other owner, employee or guest of Deer Ridge
  - Without limitation as to when, where or topic
  - Without any need whatsoever to report to Employee Joe
- That any and all employees of GGRC and RML have the right to talk with and communicate with ALL owners – including us. (Apparently, Petty Tyrant Joe has demanded that employees not talk or communicate with us. We both personally very much like the staff at Deer Ridge – all of them are GREAT folks – and we regret that they have been caught in the middle with Employee Joe’s tirades.)

Deer Ridge is our home – and we will NOT allow the hired help to ever do this again – to us – or to any other owner.

Luther, your very questionable impotent management style of blithely overlooking and ignoring serious problems at Deer Ridge cannot be used for this obscene behavior by your employee. Good management would dictate that you immediately terminate Joe Thomas with cause. Please act accordingly.

At a minimum, we demand IMMEDIATE action as described above – or GGRC will bear the legal consequences.

Robert A-202

cc: www.DeerRidgeOwners.com

PS: We encourage other owners who have suffered any kind of attempted intimidation by Petty Tyrant Joe Thomas to post comments to this blog posting below describing what happened. Employee Joe has apparently depended in the past on owners not having a forum to compare his attempts at intimidation. I am hopeful that this blog helps solve that problem – and will let the light of day expose all of the questionable actions of both Joe Thomas and the Board.

Yes Or No, Luther Parker? An Open Letter To Luther Parker, President of Deer Ridge – GGRC and RML

Robert — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:36:37 +0000

This is a copy of an email sent to Luther, The Board of Directors and Joe Thomas on Sunday, October 4, 2009:

Luther,

I have not had ANY response back from you – in spite of my investigation uncovering MAJOR problems with GGRC and RML with the way things have been and are being done at Deer Ridge.

This investigation includes what appears to be either substantive fraudulent behavior or gross negligence by Joe Thomas and / or the Board of Directors affecting an amount exceeding at least a HALF MILLION DOLLARS.

As an owner, I deserve answers to my questions.

ALL owners deserve answers to their questions concerning their property and their investment. Whether you like them or not. Whether you like answering hard questions or not.

Yet, you appear to choose to sit in silence, unresponsive to your constituency. And, you allow Employee Joe to smugly refuse to provide copies of any documents. As I relayed in my prior emails to you, he intolerably wrote on September 30, 2009:

Dear Robert,

My positions stands, no copies. If you disagree with my position please feel free to take it up with my superiors.

Attached please find the current list of Board Member contract information.

Sorry for any inconvenience this is causing you.

Joe Thomas

General Manager

Does Joe Thomas’ despicable attitude and response accurately reflect that of you, Luther Parker, and the rest of the current Board of Directors?

Yes Or No, Luther Parker?

Further, let’s divide this demand into even smaller baby steps for you.

I hereby formally request that Joe Thomas provide me with:

An email attachment of the Word document that you use for printing current mailing labels for all owners at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.
A copy of the most currently completed and immediately available comprehensive financial statements for GGRC and RML showing both current month and year to date information – preferably as Acrobat files although paper printouts will work too. This includes balance sheets, income statements, general ledger, payables and receivables.
A copy of the currently in-force insurance policy for Deer Ridge including the pricing document.

Will you, or will you not, as President of the Deer Ridge Board of Directors, instruct Joe Thomas to deliver copies for my keeping of the above three sets of documents, exactly as requested, to me before 5:00 PM Monday, October 5, 2009?

Yes Or No, Luther Parker?

Bear in mind, your answer may evoke immediate legal action against GGRC and RML – so act accordingly.

Also bear in mind, your lack of any decisive answer will obviously be interpreted – not only as a NO – but also, in my mind and the minds of many other owners, as an ongoing attempt by the President of our Deer Ridge HOA to stonewall and interfere with a justifiable investigation of substantial wrong doings by the Board and Joe Thomas.

What Say You, Luther Parker?

Owners deserve answers – and full access to all books and records of Deer Ridge Mountain Resort, GGRC and RML. Are you, as President, going to interfere with this investigation – or support its goal of finding out the truth about how deep the current half million dollar problem goes?

Robert
Owner, A-202

PS: If you liked the last major news on my blog, please stay tuned for another major news announcement in the next couple of days of even more, SIGNIFICANT, problems that are also, in my opinion, EITHER fraudulent behavior and / or gross negligence by Joe Thomas and / or the Board of Directors of Deer Ridge.

Upcoming Mailing To All Deer Ridge Mountain Resort Owners

Robert — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:28:09 +0000

I have special postcards on order right now that will be mailed to all owners at Deer Ridge.

The goal is to let all owners know about the new Deer Ridge Owners Blog – so they can know what is going on with their property, participate in the online discussions and get to know their co-owners.

You can see the front of the post card below. The back side of the card, well let’s just say, that part is still a secret! Watch your mailbox!

They will also find out about the current investigation that has already uncovered over HALF A MILLION DOLLARS that appears to have been misappropriated from some owners – possibly fraudulently or through gross negligence!

As of today, Luther Parker, President of your Board of Directors and Employee Joe Thomas are still attempting to stonewall the investigation. Part of their “obstruction of justice” is to refuse to provide me with the current mailing labels for all owners.

I have the mailing label information from a couple of years ago – which I will use if I don’t get the current set. I got my current set when I threatened legal action over this issue three years ago. Apparently, their attorney told them then that they did not have a choice – so they capitulated and provided a copy of mailing labels to any owner who requested them.

Now, they have regressed back to their prior stand.

Since they know what the attorney told them before – and they are now refusing to provide this information – kind of makes me wonder if they are SO scared their shenanigans will now be uncovered by the investigation, that they are willing to take their lumps over blocking access to the mailing list – because the alternative is even worse consequences to SOMEBODY or SOMEBODIES.

They sure seem scared about something seeing the light of day, huh?

If anyone has a more current list, please let me know.

Also, I know several other owners are planning on mailings to all the owners too – especially about the current Asinine Assessment. So, if I am successful getting the updated mailing labels from Luther Parker and Joey, I will make them available myself to any and all other owners who want them.

Open Letter to Deer Ridge Board: Lawsuit Being Prepared Against GGRC and RML

Robert — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:19:35 +0000

Luther,

Yesterday, I received the below email from Employee Joe Thomas regarding maintenance on our unit at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort – indicating that:

“At this time, due to reduced staffing in our maintenance department and

their duties & responsibilities to the GGRC common area and the RML

Participants, I am unable to honor your current request for maintenance

services or any future repair & maintenance service request for the interior

of A202. ”

Please note that Joe Thomas does not say that Tom is too busy right now…but that he will never honor ANY FUTURE request – irrespective of whether Tom was going to be busy or not!

Do you think that a court of law might, just maybe, consider that a tad discriminatory?

Firstly, I would like for the Board to explain to Employee Joe Thomas that Tom does NOT work for RML but instead works for GGRC – according to the 2009 Budget that was sent to all owners.

Equal Access to Deer Ridge Maintenance

Therefore, RML does NOT have ANY exclusive rights to use any of Tom’s time to the exclusion of any Deer Ridge owners. Joe seems to have completely missed this critically important point. Perhaps, the Board can explain this to him…and get this problem immediately solved.

As a result of Tom being a GGRC employee, ALL owners – whether they are using RML or not – should be treated EXACTLY the same when it comes to using Tom’s services for the interior maintenance of all units.

This means the SAME priority for all work orders.
This means the SAME charges for all work done.
This means that ALL owners – in or out of RML – have the SAME right to on site maintenance.
This means that any work that Tom does for the non-Deer Ridge cabins should be paid back to GGRC and not RML – since GGRC pays for all of Tom’s salary and benefits.

In other words, I am THE one who pay Tom’s salary and benefits, along with EVERY other owner at Deer Ridge – and ALL of us deserve equal treatment.

In my opinion, anything else is discriminatory.

Period.

Joe Thomas Actions Are Retaliatory and Discriminatory

Luther, please confirm whether you, and the Board of Directors, agree with Joe Thomas’ stated position regarding maintenance and repairs of my unit so that I fully, and unambiguously, understand the legal position of the Boards of GGRC and RML on this matter.

Please note that we, and others, view Joe Thomas’ actions as retaliatory and discriminatory – and actionable in a court of law.

How do YOU think a judge will react to this information about YOUR employee?

In our opinion, we believe this is in direct retaliation for our strong and public recommendation that RML be sold – and that Joe Thomas be fired. The position Employee Joe has taken in the below email is indicative of a long running pattern of slanderous and vilifying comments made by Joe Thomas concerning us, and others, to employees, vendors and other owners.

We have been told of many other past incidences where Joe Thomas has tried to use his position with GGRC and RML to intimidate, retaliate and discriminate against various owners who did not use RML – or otherwise share Employee Joe’s approach, attitude and opinion.

I, for one, will NOT tolerate – even the attempt of this – for one second by the hired help.

I want to know if the Deer Ridge Board of Directors supports, and in any way condones, the retaliatory and discriminatory behavior of Joe Thomas or not – or if you plan on any public reprimand of his actions or termination of his services?

Joe Thomas – Refusal To Allow Copies Of Documents Regarding Asinine Assessment

His despicable actions were grossly amplified again yesterday afternoon when he refused, in writing, to allow me or other owners to make copies of requested books and records concerning OUR property and OUR investment in Deer Ridge.

Be aware that I, along with several other owners, plan to immediately file a lawsuit in Sevier County over this, and any other, retaliatory and discriminatory actions taken, or instigated, by Joe Thomas or the Board – if this intolerable matter is not quickly and satisfactorily resolved by you and the Board.

We have already kicked off a Litigation Fund for other owners to donate to this cause – and we already have contributors.

So, what do you want to do, Luther?

Proposed Lawsuit Against GGRC And RML

This proposed lawsuit that we have in mind will include several Deer Ridge owners as co-plaintiffs and will require a substantive request for production of documents that ALL owners have a right to see.

These documents will include, among others, all past work orders, payroll records, time sheets, employee records, rental records, agreements, contracts, bids, correspondence, emails, etc – so that we can conduct a forensic accounting for GGRC and RML for the past five years.

This will also include a forensic review of all rental history to identify rental favoritism and insider deals and special treatment for board members.

This proposed lawsuit will also include issuing several subpoenas for testimony as to the long running pattern of slanderous comments made by Joe Thomas concerning us, and others, to employees, vendors and other owners.

We also intend to file suit for the free and open access to audio recordings of all Board meetings – along with other steps to insure that all owners have free and easy access to every part of what goes on regarding our investment and our property.

Likewise, and equally abhorrent, is Employee Joe’s position taken today on not allowing copies to be made of documentation regarding the pending and massive assessment that was recently announced by the Board of Directors.

I have offered to copy the documents myself – and to even bring my own copy machine to the office to make copies. Yet, Employee Joe insists that no copies will be made, stating in today’s email:

“My positions stands, no copies. If you disagree with my position please feel free to take it up with my superiors.”

Well, you ARE Employee Joe’s superior. And, I AM taking up this matter with YOU.

What say you?

What Is Joe Thomas Trying To Hide?

What is Joe trying to so desperately hide by not allowing ALL owners to see all underlying documents that provide the basis for a MASSIVE $353,500 special assessment against all owners of Deer Ridge Mountain Resort?

I want to know if the Deer Ridge Board of Directors supports Employee Joe Thomas’ indefensible blockage of document availability that interferes with my right, and the rights of other owners, to acquire copies of any and all books and records related to GGRC and/or RML – especially those related to the massive special assessment?

Luther, if the Board is as transparent as you have professed in prior communications to all owners, then WHY on Earth would you or the Board have ANY reason to object to ALL owners knowing, in detail, what is going on with their property?

Be aware that I, along with other owners, intend to file suit against GGRC and RML with regard to any and all blockage of document availability that interferes with my right, and the rights of other owners, to acquire copies of any and all books and records related to GGRC and/or RML.

Luther, Don’t Waste Deer Ridge Owners’ Money

GGRC and RML cannot afford to waste owners’ money on legal fees fighting a lawsuit trying to defend the retaliatory and discriminatory behavior of Joe Thomas – or his attempts to block access to books and records that should always be easily made available to ALL owners.

If the Board chooses to fight these issues, I believe the Board should be held liable for squandering Deer Ridge assets – instead of simply fixing what is an obvious employee problem and just doing the right thing and provide documents that ALL owners should have easy access to.

So, Luther, what do you and the Board want to do?

Do you want to resolve these issues here and now – and avoid all the wasted time, effort and money defending the indefensible – or do you want these matters to move forward down their apparent path to their obvious Point B?

Now is the time for you to choose.

Robert
A-202

——————————

At 04:16 PM 9/30/2009, Joe Thomas wrote:

Dear Robert,

As I stated to Janet in an earlier email;

At this time, due to reduced staffing in our maintenance department and
their duties & responsibilities to the GGRC common area and the RML
Participants, I am unable to honor your current request for maintenance
services or any future repair & maintenance service request for the interior
of A202.

However, I would like to provide you with a list of a local handyman who may
be able to help; Kirk Ennis- 865-397-6282, cell 865-335-5470 – Handyman,
countertops, kitchen cabinets.

Additionally, I’d like to provide you with a list of local service companies
who can handle your interior repair and maintenance items.

A/C & Heating- Miller Heating and Air- Danny Miller – 865-453-8534, cell
865-604-8534

Carpet and vinyl install and repair- Bruce Williamson- 423-623-2577

Wall Paper – Rickie Taylor- 865-430-9074

Plumbing- Mark and Mona’s Plumbing 865-577-9920

I hope you find this information helpful.

Thank you,

Joe Thomas

General Manager

Postmaster Says We Have A Right To Demand Individual Mailboxes

Robert — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 13:48:05 +0000

UPDATE! – FORMAL COMPLAINT FILED WITH POSTAL INSPECTORS – SEE BELOW

The Board and RML need to understand that this property is trending toward more and more full time residences – and the property’s operation needs to reflect this. We are not sure if our mail is being tampered with – but we seem to be having a problem getting all of our mail here. We are already in discussions with the Gatlinburg Postmaster – and from what he has told us, each owner here has a right to their own locked post box where our incoming and outgoing mail is not monitored and viewed by RML prior to it being distributed. We know, we are personally losing mail that is being forwarded to us from our condo in Florida – and we and all other owners have a right to mail control and privacy. The Postmaster recommends a community-wide mail box similar to what we have at our condo in Florida. Or, we can have individual mailboxes by each of our trash bins. The photo below shows the one that the Gatlinburg postmaster specifically recommended. He even told us that he gets these back from properties so he can give them or sell them to other properties like Deer Ridge – which means we might not have to pay much if anything for this.

Destruction, Obstruction and Delay of Mail (18 USC 1700, 1701, 1702 & 1703) The Postal Inspection Service upholds federal statutes aimed at securing customers’ mail, including those related to the desertion, obstruction, delay or destruction of mail. Postal Inspectors demonstrate their resolve by implementing mail security processes to ensure that customers receive their mail intact and free from outside interference.

The full law on this matter can be viewed by clicking TITLE 18 – CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE PART I – CRIMES: CHAPTER 83 – POSTAL SERVICE.

As more units get sold to those who use it as a full time home, this will become an increasing problem.

We are considering filing a complaint with the United States Postal Inspection Service as a result of what appears to be mail tampering. The way mail is handled by so many different people at Deer Ridge has created a major cause for concern – over and beyond the issues of mail privacy. Just this week, we have had to complain to the Joe Thomas that we are not getting our mail – including $150 worth of tickets to a UT Football game. Now, unless you want to cause a problem – don’t stand in between a UT fan and his football tickets! (Because of this problem, we had to arrange to pick up replacement tickets at the Gate on game day. A hassle – but at least solvable. A bigger problem is not knowing what mail was sent that was never received.)

What do other owners think is the best solution for mail control and privacy that is our right?

Luther and Joe, we need these kinds of private mailboxes NOW for all units – to eliminate tampering and to mitigate future claims of unhandled mail by GGRC and RML personnel.

What say you?

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UPDATE! – FORMAL COMPLAINT FILED WITH POSTAL INSPECTORS

We live at an 84 unit condo complex called Deer Ridge Mountain Resort, Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We have owned this property for over four years – but just recently became a full time resident.

Currently, mail is handled, and mishandled, by the office staff here…there is one large, unsecured mailbox for all incoming and outgoing mail. The office staff retrieves all the mail for everyone from the box once it arrives – and the manager of the property appears to insist on reviewing all of the mail before it is made available for handout to the owners.

On many occasions, we, and others here, are also receiving mail that has already been opened by someone from the office. Clearly, our mail is being tampered with…and we believe intentionally misplaced, lost or delayed in its delivery to us.

We believe that the manager, Joe Thomas, is personally reviewing every item of mail and possibly intercepting some of it. We find him to be highly vindictive against us and other residents here who do not rent out their unit using his property management company.

We understand from the local Postmaster that we have a right to private, securable mailboxes but the manager and the Board of Directors refuse to install proper equipment or allow us to install anything for ourselves.

This is an ongoing problem, affecting many owners, and your help in investigating these issues would be greatly appreciated. Once you contact us, we can give you the names of other owners here who have had the same ongoing, insidious problems.

The manager, Joe Thomas, can be reached at the same address. 3710 Weber Rd. Gatlinburg, TN 37738-6374 / (865) 436-2325