YORKTOWN & 2025 BUDGET PREPARATION!

WOW! If you tuned in or attended the July 25 Board meeting you heard some really fascinating comments and suppositions.

First of all, let me acknowledge that all board members clearly have the best of intentions and are searching prudently to create a solution that is right for the Community.

You can sense from current board members comments the shift of focus. Yorktown was first approved in a 4-3 board vote claiming that the restaurant would breakeven in 5 years and become profitable. The Community was duped with false assumptions. They were negligent. Sandy Seddon was negligent. All you need to prove that is:

1. VP BARRY RUBINSON stated that he and Donna Griffith had recently done some homework and concluded that nearly all restaurants in HOA’s lose money. Rubinson communicated with Sandy Seddon now in Arizona at a Community half our size and the restaurant loses $400,000 annually. Summerlin Sun City has three restaurants two of which are owned by HOA and they lose $700,000. Looks like the folks who approved Yorktown were negligent and duped homeowners with lies. And some of the current board members seem to want to justify the losses and change the concept so that they can continue approving the huge deficits. That is a betrayal.
2. Homeowner Tom Holt raised the issues of catering and marketing. David Berman mentioned marketing including adding signage” Open To The Public.” That’s a good idea but too little, too late. The WHG contract states that the business plan includes a marketing plan jointly developed by SCA management and WHG. Never happened. It was just lip service combined with negligence. As it relates to catering let’s remind board member Bruce Stanley that it was Steve Anderson and past board members that put into the contract prohibiting catering to outside folks. Stanley didn’t know his history and couldn’t understand why WHG would allow that. The answer was and is simple. The were guaranteed a monthly $9,000 management fee escalating 3% a year and SCA was responsible for all costs.
3. They still don’t have a marketing plan but President John Marshall wanted authority to negotiate with WHG as it was a board agenda item. And to accomplish what? It seems he wants to lower the annual deficit to manageable number and perhaps downsizing the current operation.
4. The 2025 Budget is approved in October 2025 with a ratification meeting in November 2025. The WHG contract requires either side a 6 month notice period after August 2025 if they want to terminate. There is a budget workshop in the coming week and the board members stated they really haven’t formulated any plan for Yorktown. Time is of the essence. The previous board was negligent when they approved only a $200,000 restaurant loss for 2024. It will probably be between $400,000 and $500,000 not including utilities and insurance.

So where is all of this leading? Unfortunately for 2024 we have a LOSE/LOSE on the restaurant. Some of the restaurant losses may be offset by other 2024 events impacting the 2024 budget as payroll might be less due to personnel changes together with a large income tax refund and a misapplication of 2023 surplus funds as checks should have gone to homeowners of record in late 2023 or early 2024. Certain homeowners who sold their homes were screwed out of their refunds. Current homeowners will benefit.

For recent years the boards have squandered and depleted Main Reserves to compensate for more spending on pet projects and a bloated payroll while utilities and insurance costs have sky rocketed. There ought to be a bigger contribution in 2025 for the Main Reserves.

Until next time…Robert