Welcome to Eastpointe Community and Club Information

Forward

Fellow Eastpointe Residents and ECC Members, 

 My purpose is to inform the Eastpointe community (residents & members) and seek their support in engaging the HOA Board of Directors and ECC Board of Governors to make smart decisions based on real information. There are a lot of issues & information so I have created this Website that provides the following information:

• What's Happening & latest Update
• Legal Opinions
• Requested Amendments to Governing Documents
• Proposed Member Initiatives
• More Info such as :
• Bad Policies that contribute to Clubs failing
  • Recent Survey Results
  • Fee Impacts
  • Proposed Initiatives
  • BOD Conflict of Interest
  • Bad Club Policies
  • Bad Club Governance
  • Open Communication
• Recalling a Board of Governor

I believe Eastpointe Country Club should be a member friendly club providing enhanced services at a reasonable price. Eastpointe Country Club should focus on becoming the hub of social activity in the community. Our community consists of residents and non-residents, young and old, enjoying amenities including golf, aquatics, fitness, tennis, pickleball, and food services provided at our multiple restaurants and banquet facilities. Their are many member initiatives that should be discussed and adopted to enhance member experience. (See the proposed initiatives Tab above)

Somewhere along the line the ECC and HOA Boards have lost focus on Eastpointe being a residential Country Club. Over the last year the ECC Board has implemented polices and increased costs that have driven 198 golf members out of the club with 110+ of these being resident Golf members. This has cost the club over $2 Million in annual revenue loss. 

New policies and new ECC Board members are needed to reestablish our Residential Country Club status. Instead of driving out older members, we should create a new membership category ,i.e., "Golden Membership" where older golfers who meet the criteria discussed on the initiative tab, to retain their golf status and increase the annual revenues of the club. Initiatives should be adopted to enhance member experience, keeping in mind that Eastpointe is a club for the Residents, to enhance quality of life and property values. Non Resident Golfers should be invited into the club to augment the residential membership, not replace it as is happening now. Initiation fees for residential golfers should be lowered to attract and retain new residential golf members. Recent surveys have shown that 80% of residents do not support the current Bi-Party Agreement and 75% of residents support legal action against the HOA Board. We need change! 

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UPDATE 12/18/2024

On December 12, 2024, the HOA delivered a letter through the US Postal system to all Eastpointe property owners that contained many factual errors, half-truths, and misinformation concerning the efforts of a large group of Eastpointe property owners to address several grievances / issues with the HOA Board. Therefore, we residents feel compelled to respond to this HOA communication to point out the inaccuracies and differences of opinion. Please read the Letter to Eastpointe Residents posted on the TAB at the top of this page.

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UPDATE 12/02/2024

There has been a few back and forth exchanges between the HOA Board, their legal counsel, and the residents lawyers. The HOA finally provided their rationale for not allowing a member vote on modifications of the last two Bi-Party agreements, and to why they rejected and failed to act on our Petition by over 200+ property owners to modify the governing Documents. The HOA contends that they do not require a vote of the membership to authorize future modifications because the Bi-Party agreement authorizes them to make future modifications. Our lawyers have stated that the contention by the HOA that the EHOA and ECC are free to design, create, and adopt agreements on behalf of the community, without community input or properly noticed voting, …” is therefore apparently based upon a gross misreading of the applicable governing documents. The Board of Directors of the EHOA is not granted unfettered authority to act on behalf of its constituent members on matters that are explicitly called out by the applicable Florida statutes and governing documents”,  and also stated  “the governing documents of the ECC and the EHOA are crystal clear in their directive that these types of amendments to the By-Laws are subject to strict member voting requirements”. 

For several months, we residents have engaged legal counsel to understand what Florida Statutes, and our governing documents, require for the HOA Board to approve a Bi-Party agreement and what the property owner’s rights are within our community. Our lawyers have stated that the last two (2) Bi-Party Agreements. approved in July 2021 and recently in Mar 2024. were significantly flawed, improperly noticed, were not done with the voting consent of the members, violated several state laws, had grotesque conflicts of interest, and that any fees collected above the amount of the original Tri-party agreement, should be returned to the residents.  (See Legal Opinions Tab Above for Details)

This is important because it was mostly the same few HOA Board members who, over the last three (3) years, improperly forced through both Bi-Party Agreements, which significantly increased annual fees on Resident Social Members (RSM), added initiation fees on new property buyers, reduced benefits, and increased user fees for golf and fitness center classes, without allowing the property owners to vote on and approve the proposed Bi-Party agreement as required by Fl Statute and our Governing Documents.

And they can do it again! 

In fact, the ECC General manager, at the “coffee with the GM” on 18 Nov, with a few HOA Board Directors present, stated that he believed “the club needed higher RSM annual fees and RSM Initiation fees, closer to what Golfers pay, to be more in line with the surrounding clubs”. There are persistent rumors that discussions are going on between the 2 Boards to again raise RSM fees. During the last negotiations one HOA Board Director still on the Board,  stated that…,”sometimes people do not know what’s best for them and so we have to make decisions for them!” This is the arrogance that exist on the Board that has stated they do not require a vote of the membership to authorize future modifications.

During the last Bi-Party negotiations in Feb-Mar ’24, the HOA Boards actions were so egregious and not in the best interest of property owners, that one (1) HOA Officer resigned from the Board in outrage and 1 Director opposed to these actions, was forced off of the HOA Board. The negative impacts on the property owners have been significant. These include financially stressing many residents, reducing quality of life for many, forcing several property owners to move or attempt to sell their homes, and depressed real estate values. This HOA Board must be stopped before they raise fees again!

The only way to prevent further abuses by the HOA Board, to prevent further increases in fees, is for the residents to join and take legal action to force the HOA Board to follow the law and our Governing Documents. Our legal actions to date have been fact finding, validating our legal strategy, and engaging with the HOA to put the property owners first and correct the illegal actions of the past. We thought the HOA, once faced with the facts of the law would be willing to engage the residents and allow our 7 modifications to the Governing Documents to be voted on. Now we realize that, with the current Board, they believe that the Eastpointe residents are apathetic and will take no legal action. Therefore, there is, in their opinion, no reason to change. 

Now we must take the next step and take legal action against the HOA Board. Please donate to our legal fund by clicking on the following Go Fund me link:

https://gofund.me/0520dd1c

If you prefer, you can also donate by sending a Zelle or Venmo funding transfer or by sending a check. Contact me for instructions.  We need your support!

The HOA Board believes that the residents of Eastpointe are too apathetic to take legal action. We must band together to end the improper actions of the HOA Board.  

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UPDATE 11/24/2024

Over the last several months over 200+ (25+%) of the Eastpointe Property owners have legally petitioned the HOA Board to address several grievances with the Eastpointe HOA Board’s actions surrounding the improper approval of the recent Bi-Party Agreement. The intent of the petition was to force a special meeting of the Eastpointe property owners (residents) to vote on 7 modifications of the governing documents, addressing our grievances, and to recall the HOA President. The HOA has rejected our petition and refuses to act on allowing the residents to vote on the modifications to the Governing documents and ignored the recall petition for the HOA President.

For several months we residents have engaged legal counsel to understand what Florida Statutes, and our governing documents, require for the HOA Board to approve a Bi-Party agreement and respond to the property owner’s petition. Our lawyer has extensively reviewed the HOA Board’s actions, numerous email exchanges and testimony regarding the process used by the HOA Board surrounding the approval of the Bi-Party Agreements, and finally the HOA Board’s actions rejecting the Property owners’ petitions and the finally revealed rationalization for their rejection.

The property owners legal counsel stated to the HOA Board in a letter dated November 20,2024 that while the Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions and the terms laid out by the original Tri-Party Agreement, provides authority to enter into agreements with each other on behalf of their respective constituencies, ” this power is limited to the executory authority to enter into contracts. Given the function of the original Tri-Party Agreement and the Bi-Party Agreements that followed, the governing documents explicitly forbid the EHOA and ECC from approving such “legislation” internally, amongst their constituencies, without voting membership approval.” 

Our legal counsel has provided painstaking detail on the strict requirements for passage of such amendments under both Florida Statutes and governing Documents. 

The bottom line is that both the first and second amended and restated Bi-Party agreements were improperly approved.:

• The vote to approve was improperly noticed (required      14 days noticed) & was not done with the voting consent of the      members 
• The Process used to approve the Bi-Party violated several      state laws & our Governing Documents
• Had grotesque conflicts of interest  
• Compelling evidence that the conduct of several HOA and ECC Board      members and key committee leads constitute clear departures from their      duties to act within the limits of their authority under statute and      by-laws and constitute breaches of contractual and fiduciary duties owed      to residents of Eastpointe. Accordingly, the entire process used to      approve the first and second amended and restated Bi-Party Agreements was      arbitrary, capricious, and in bad faith.

Our legal Counsel further stated that the “contention by the EHOA and ECC that they are free to design, create, and adopt agreements on behalf of the community, without community input or properly noticed voting, on the grounds that “the EHOA operates by and through its Board of Directors” is therefore apparently based upon a gross misreading of the applicable governing documents. The Board of Directors of the EHOA is not granted unfettered authority to act on behalf of its constituent members on matters that are explicitly called out by the applicable Florida statutes and governing documents, both of which are clear in outlining the fact that the governing bodies exist to represent the will of the members, rather than to act unilaterally on their behalf.

Additionally, our legal counsel stated that our “petition was properly submitted in compliance with all Fl State statutes and the requirements of the governing documents,” and it is now clear that the EHOA Board’s denial of this petition is based on a gross misreading of its own governing documents.” 

The HOA Board stated that the reason for rejecting the petition for recall was because FL Statute 20.303(10)(a)2., provides the following: 

“When the governing documents, including the Declaration, Articles of Incorporation, or Bylaws, provide only a specific class of members ts entitled to elect a Board director or directors, only that class of members may vote to recall those Board directors so elected.”

The HOA Board state that Ira Berger was elected by West Village and therefore only West Village property owners can recall him. Therefore, a special members meeting cannot recall Ira Berger. Likewise, the proposed amendment regarding the recall of Directors is legally invalid for the same reason.

Our legal counsel went into great detail explaining to the HOA that. “the EHOA Board’s denial of this petition is based on a gross misreading of its own governing documents as applied to Fla Stat. 720.303(10)(a)(2), which itself only applies to Board directors, not officers. Further, only one class of membership is contemplated by the governing documents, which define a member of this sole class as anyone who owns property within the association, under the EHOA Amended and Restated Declaration of Restrictive Covenants, Article II(B):

Membership in the Association is limited to the record title Owners of Residential Units or Lots in the Eastpointe Community, and is automatic with such title record, even though the Owner may also be a member of a Condominium Association or a Village Association, incident to the ownership of a particular Lot or Residential Unit. No other persons may become members.

The respective Village Associations only exist as informal administrative bodies, in an advisory capacity, and do not create classes of membership. ARTICLE XIII VILLAGE ASSOCIATIONS, section A. General states “Each Village as defined in Article I herein, may form, or cause to be formed, or has heretofore formed, an unincorporated association which may administer certain affairs of that Village. It is the intention in having Village associations to provide an informal administrative body which shall act strictly in an advisory capacity. The Village association shall not be vested with any authority other than as provided by the Association, or by the Eastlakes POA or the Eastpointe POA, as applicable, by duly adopted resolution.” Finally, on its face, the EHOA’s apparent position that a recall petition for Mr. Berger would require a petition of 200 property owners from the West Village is patently unreasonable, as there are only approximately fifty homes in the West Village.

Ultimately, the process for modifying the governing documents is clear. Once a petition of 200 or more residents has been submitted, the board has a responsibility to facilitate a membership vote on the petition. The Board of the EHOA is bound by the rules of the governing documents, and by Florida statutes, to take action when it is requested of them by the community. Further, the EHOA Board is not vested with any authority whatsoever to amend or otherwise modify petition items before they are submitted to the residents for a vote.