 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Westchase bitterly chooses management company
By LOGAN D. MABE, Times Staff Writer WESTCHASE -- After a five-month search for a property management company, the new boss will be same as the old boss in Westchase. Westchase Community Association board members voted 5-4 to retain the current management company, Greenacre Properties, and agreed to a three-year contract averaging $168,000 a year. The decision did not come without hand-wringing and infighting. Most of the dissension was among members of the five-person committee created to scout the companies bidding for the job. For example, bid committee member Kirk Sexton did an exhaustive cost analysis of the proposals submitted by Greenacre Properties, Management and Associates, and Sentry Management, the three finalists. He determined that Greenacre offered the better deal, cost-wise. But fellow bid committee member Harold Hackney , who also sits on the community association board, found fault with the study and questioned its methodology. "The committee seems to be disagreeing on the result," said association president Chuck Schroeder. Community association member Harriet Meier wanted to "go back to the drawing board," because she thought the Management and Associates proposal was "misinterpreted." Meier came to that conclusion after she and Hackney visited Management and Associates after the company had already submitted its bid. "That was very inappropriate and totally unacceptable," association member Ruben Collazo said of the visit. As the members continued to hash out how the search was done, and who did what and when, association member Leroy Sullivan snapped. "I can't tell you how upset I am about this," Sullivan said. "There should be no debate about how the committee did its work. We're supposed to come to these meetings to make decisions, not to debate. I don't know why we're changing the game so far into it." For her part, Meier said her name should not have been on the committee report endorsing Greenacre, and Hackney was in Europe when it was drafted. Abbe Krasner, a voting member from Berkeley Square, had volunteered to do some of the research for the bid committee and was furious that the work was being questioned. "To start nit picking after the fact, we look unprofessional," Krasner said. "There's an element of subjectivity here and I'm disgraced by it. I am absolutely appalled." "I didn't mean to cause all this extra trouble," Hackney said. Collazo, Schroeder, Sullivan, Kris DiGiovanni, and Carlos Quiros voted to accept the recommendation of Greenacre Properties. Hackney, Meier, Jon Stein and Kathy Thomas voted against it. -- Logan D. Mabe can be reached at 269-5304 or at mabe@sptimes.com
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times |
