We can't pay condo fees in the office because Mexicans might steal, right? Our Treasurer offers proof with "...our previous administrator walked away with a lot of cash." Wasn't quite that way but a matter of missing checks. The accused administrator was fired but not prosecuted. That seemed somewhat strange. Now caution goes beyond distrusting Mexicans with their own currency.

Their banks don't fit our ways either. Actinver-Lloyd, a Mexican bank, wouldn't modify its way of doing business to fit our treasurer's Quick Books computer program. He moved El Parque condo accounts to what he calls a "real bank". That is Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation, or HSBC, British owned and based in London.

The major problem with this is not that some might object to sending a piece of each peso to aid the richest welfare recipients in the world, the Queen and family. There is a bigger catch.

HSBC charges $25 US for each foreign check deposited. El Parque will pass that to the depositor. It might come as surprise to some, but Canada and USA are foreign. Can you see the gathering of tar and feathers?

Our treasurer avoided a Texas style ride out of town by leaving a loop-hole. Actinver-Lloyd doesn't charge for foreign checks. So, he kept that account but tells us it is only for foreign check deposits. Everyone else is ordered to do a Quick Book bow to Her Majesty at HSBC.

What works for one should for any. Many in El Parque have Actinver-Lloyd accounts. Transfer from those or other payments to El Parque's Actinver-Lloyd account should continue to work just as in past practice. Inquiry to Actinver-Lloyd ensured it will. Receipts will show payments safely in an El Parque account no matter how it got there and whether or not Quick Books throws a tantrum.

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The "NOT SO FUNNY MONEY" blogger has made some very astute statements that should be(but probably will not be) thought- provoking for most El Parque homeowners. Our Treasurer has clearly made the allegation that our previous administrator absconded with a lot of cash. The rest of the board and a few homeowners, without any proof that I am aware of, spread that allegation to ALL the El Parque homeowners. The vast majority of the homeowners simply accepted these allegations as fact and supported the board. I am in no way, supporting the previous administrator but, neither am I willing to accept the allegations as they were presented to the homeowners. Like the blogger, I am convinced that "our previous administrator walked away with a lot of money (not cash)". That money was composed of the money the board paid to keep her quiet and make her go away. That money was also clearly the money that I was assessed the following year (not an insignificant amount in my opinion).

If the policy at that time was to NOT allow cash payments to the administrator, how on earth could she have walked away with a lot of cash. Think about it!!! My suspicion is that at least most of the MONEY they blatantly accused our previous administrator of stealing was quarterly fees money that Lloyd's had in their possession but could not tie to any specific homeowner. Was it a coincidence that shortly after the previous administrator was fired the board minutes announced that the treasurer had heroically identified some previously unidentified funds from Lloyds?

There is little to be accomplished by revisiting the above issue, but the arbitrary, unapproved establishment of an HSBC account and the laying down of new required procedures for homeowner fee payments is clearly a grievous violation of the bylaws and Jalisco condo law. The treasurer simply told the homeowners that they would, naturally, be required to pick up whatever the cost might be. WOW!!! That is sickeningly arrogant but, somehow, not at all surprising to me.

I, for one, will not be complying with the new payment mandates. I strongly suspect that those homeowners who have gleefully paid the board's incompetence assessment of $35,000 USD this year will disagree with my action, but THIS concession I will not give them. At some point, arrogance and incompetence must have a cost.

posted by Jim Hill : 9:17 PM, July 05, 2012

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GOOD NEWS FOR ME, EVERYONE.

This morning I checked my quik-books report and I would like to report that I am a MILLIONAIRE. This may be somewhat misleading, however, because the value of a couple of my bank accounts have not yet been reported. I'll keep you advised.

El Parque's regular board treasurer's reports consistently report that we are right on target with the budget. They also consistently add a caveat that this may be misleading because we have some outstanding obligations that have not been taken into account. The amounts of these outstanding obligations are conspicuously absent from the reports but the homeowners are expected to assume they are minor and insignificant.

OOOOOOOPS!!!!!! I just got my unreported bank account balances and I have to retract my statement about being a MILLIONAIRE. It seems I am only $951,000 short of being a millionaire. Keep in mind though, that I did tell everyone in the above report that my millonaire statement may be a little misleading.

It makes me wonder a little about the board treasurer's caveat about his reports being a little misleading.

posted by Anonymous : 7:51 AM, August 20, 2012

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