It’s time for a change.
turtlerunchange.com
After many years, an election was finally held.
70% of the Estates homeowners voted to change the majority of the Board of Directors. President Chris Kapish, Vice President Lance Morgan and Secretary Howard Seiler were voted off the board after over 20 years of service.
The Estates at Turtle Run homeowners sent a strong message on April 30th that change was needed and it was time for new ideas and new leadership. A new board was voted in following Chris Kapish receiving less than 20% of the total votes cast.
Following the election, the new Board of Directors made a motion to nominate another member to the Foundation Board, immediately removing Chris Kapish from this board as well. After 20+ years of being the president of the Estates at Turtle Run HOA, the Foundation Board and the chairman of the Turtle Run Community Development District, Chris Kapish no longer holds any leadership position here in Turtle Run.
The change didn't stop there, the new board also made a motion to engage with a new law firm. Tucker & Lokeinsky, P.A. Law Offices will now represent The Estates at Turtle Run HOA. This is the same law firm that assisted with the lawsuit to force an election, which was won.
The goal of the new Board of Directors is to take back the HOA, which has been held hostage for many years, and give it back to the homeowners. An election can now be held yearly, as it always should've been, and homeowners can decide for themselves who they want to be represented by.
Meet the New Board
Recent developments on the lack of oversight
regarding a current board member.
We decided to take a look at the Foundation Board financials for March 2024 and what we found is alarming. Current HOA board member Chris Kapish, who is also on the Foundation Board, has been making large financial decisions without board approval.
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Chris Kapish has purchased new mailboxes for every community except The Estates of Turtle Run. While this was suggested by Mr. Kapish at the last foundation meeting, there was never a motion to approve this, nor a vote by the board of directors prior to the purchase of these mailboxes.
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The Estates at Turtle Run homeowners purchased their own mailboxes approximately 5 years ago at the cost of $550 per mailbox. Meanwhile, Chris Kapish decided to purchase $164,893 of mailboxes, without board approval, to give away for free to the other communities.
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While looking at the financials for March 2024, it was discovered that the mailboxes were ordered & that a check for 50% of the total cost was written. This was yet another unilateral decision.
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The purchase of new mailboxes (for everyone except Estates homeowners).
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The purchase of a new nativity set & menorah for the holidays (prior to a board vote).
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The Turtle Run Community Development District has been responsible for storing, setting up, and breaking down the nativity set for the last 10 to 15 years.
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At the April 3rd Foundation Board meeting, Chris Kapish expressed that he wanted the Foundation Board to take possession of the nativity set. The board of directors put a motion on the table and voted against taking possession of the nativity set. Mr. Kapish's request was denied.
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It was later discovered that Mr. Kapish had already purchased a new nativity set and menorah on March 13th, weeks prior to the April meeting. While the board voted against this possession at this meeting, Chris Kapish had already purchased a new nativity set and menorah for a total cost of $37,885.
Update: At the April 23rd Foundation Board meeting, these two purchases were put to a vote. The vote failed. Meanwhile, purchases have already been made on unapproved product.
Chris Kapish abused his position by purchasing these pieces without a board vote and approval.
Is this someone who should be in control of board finances?
Excerpt from the March 2024 Foundation Board financials
These two unilateral decisions cost you $202,778.00
That's $202,778.00 of taxpayer dollars spent without approval from other board members. This lack of oversight & ability to spend money regardless of what was agreed to in a meeting is unacceptable.
It’s time for a change.
It’s also time for the residents of the Estates at Turtle Run to take back control of their homeowners association. Homeowners are not happy, and rightfully so. After 20 years of total control by a couple individuals, the HOA is no longer moving in a productive direction with its current board of directors.
Below are some changes that an updated board of directors is willing to make to provide transparency & to become more community minded.
Addressing Recent Community Newsletters
You may have recently received multiple newsletters following the announcement of the newly scheduled annual meeting...
March publications of the Turtle Run Times, Foundation Forum, and the newly created CDD News were all distributed to homeowners immediately following the announcement of the long-awaited annual meeting.
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All three publications were created & distributed by Chris Kapish, the HOA president who has been pushing off having an annual meeting since 2022. If you notice, there's nothing negative to say about Chris Kapish in any of these publications... that's because they're all written by him!
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This is the first publication of the CDD News. Chris Kapish isn't even on the CDD board anymore. He shouldn't be speaking for, let alone distributing newsletters, for a board he's no longer on.
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We talk more about previous publications of these community newsletters later (click here to view previous publications now), but read them for yourself to see the attempts to place the blame on everyone but on Chris Kapish himself. It appears he's getting desperate as the annual meeting and election he delayed for so long is finally approaching.
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CDD News
(March 2024)
As mentioned previously, a former board member should not be distributing anything regarding a board he is no longer on. CDD board members were not made aware of this newly created newsletter. Each section discussed a different board member, along with false accusations. This newsletter is less about the CDD itself & more about board members Chris Kapish doesn't like.
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Foundation Forum
(March 2024)
Yet another example of a newsletter created to celebrate Chris Kapish. It's been over five months since we had Turtle Run Day, seems a little late to be finally addressing an event that took place in October. These newsletters aren't released on any schedule, just whenever Chris Kapish feels like it.
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Turtle Run Times
(March 2024)
This publication addresses the delayed election as well as repairs to the paved entrances. While the newsletter says "In the interest of transparency," there's nothing transparent about it. They're written solely by Chris Kapish, not telling the whole story. We're going to explain the lawsuit Chris mentions & what really happened regarding the paved entrances next.
Addressing the lawsuit against the HOA & its president, Chris Kapish.
Estates homeowners hire an attorney to force an election.
Since there hasn’t been an annual meeting since 2021 and an election since 2018, a group of Estates homeowners contributed resources to hire an attorney to force an annual meeting/election. The court order was submitted on November 10, 2023, on March 24, 2024 the courts awarded and approved our Agreed Order of Summary Judgement.
Unfortunately, this holds our association liable for all attorneys fees for the Plaintiff and the Defendant exceeding $20,000. This was avoidable & unnecessary. Chris Kapish, Lance Morgan & Howard Seiler, the majority of the board, could have simply scheduled the annual meeting/election avoiding any attorney involvement.
Our annual meeting is mandated in our community bylaws and our HOA should never have been held hostage. This should never happen again.
Turtle Run Times vs the Truth
Excerpt from the March 2024 edition of the Turtle Run Times.
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As stated previously, it wasn't just Skip Carney who initiated this lawsuit as Chris Kapish would like you to believe. Twenty homeowners raised approximately $15,000 to hire an attorney in order to have a judge rule that an election would need to happen as stated in the bylaws.
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"to hold the annual meeting, which is what everyone wanted to begin with." This is not true. This lawsuit never would've happened if Chris Kapish, Lance Morgan & Howard Seiler truly wanted to hold the annual meeting.
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While the lawsuit has been settled, the HOA is not "clear of any pending litigation" & the insurance will not cover the attorney fees from this lawsuit. Chris Kapish & the association are held liable for $15,000-$20,000+ in fees.
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The only reason we finally have an annual meeting scheduled, is because homeowners won this lawsuit, so Chris Kapish doesn't have a choice but to go along with having an annual meeting/election.
The Lawsuit
For the full picture with all details regarding this lawsuit, please look at the Final Agreed Order by the Courts below. This is the official document signed by the judge. We outlined the key takeaways from this document in the next point if you'd rather not sift through the whole thing.
The Aftermath
Key Takeaways
A delayed annual meeting
& how it directly impacts the community.
The Annual Meeting
So what's the purpose of the annual meeting & what happens there?
The annual meeting is where the election is held for HOA board members. This election is held by proxy, meaning if a homeowner doesn't attend the meeting, they can assign someone to vote for them by proxy. This is seen as a form that a homeowner signs and turns their proxy or vote over to someone else to cast it for them. In order for an election to be held, there needs to be 85 voting members or proxy, which is 1/3 of the homeowners.
What happens if the proxy count isn't met?
If the proxy count isn't met, there is no election at the annual meeting and the existing board simply rolls over.
Why the delay?
In order to hold the annual meeting, the majority of the board members need to agree to have it. Unfortunately, three of the five board members declined to have the annual meeting ultimately causing the delay. These three board members are President Chris Kapish, Vice President Lance Morgan, and Secretary Howard Sieler. Chris Kapish has been pretty desperate lately to stay in control of the remaining Turtle Run boards he leads, following his loss in the 2022 general election for the Turtle Run Community Development District to Rob Shipe. No annual meeting means no election, no election means Chris Kapish can continue to act as president of the HOA. Thankfully, this long awaited meeting is now on the calendar for April 30th.
Fact check regarding the delay of the annual meeting.
There hasn't been an annual meeting with an election for the Estates Homeowners Association since December 2021. According to the By-Laws, this meeting should be held every year. The president of the board, Chris Kapish, did not shown any initiative to hold this meeting. In fact, he seems he's done everything he can to continue delaying it from even happening. Chris Kapish was the sole person responsible for putting out the Turtle Run Times publication sent out to homeowners, where he addressed the annual meeting.
Below you'll see both the section of the Turtle Run Times publication addressing the annual meeting as well as the By-Laws for the Estates at Turtle Run Homeowners Association regarding the annual members meeting.
Excerpt from the June 2023 edition of the Turtle Run Times.
Excerpt from the Estates of Turtle Run Official By-Laws.
This publication states "according to the documents, the board has the option to change the date of the meeting as needed." That's not exactly true. Side by side you can see this statement in the Turtle Run Times as well as the Members Meeting section in the official By-Laws of the Estates at Turtle Run Homeowners Association. The By-Laws state that the annual members meeting should take place on the first Wednesday of December of EACH YEAR, if this date happens to fall on a legal holiday, the meeting shall happen the following day. Furthermore, a majority of the Board of Directors at a meeting regularly called may change the date and time of the annual meeting.
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The biggest problem here is the fact that the Board of Directors never discussed changing the date of the annual meeting during a regularly called meeting. This goes directly against the By-Laws.
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Notice how the By-Laws state that the annual meeting shall take place each year? The last annual meeting held was in 2021. The delayed meeting that's being discussed here is the one that was supposed to take place on December 7th, 2022. We should've had a second annual meeting in that time frame.
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The Turtle Run Times states "our annual meeting will not be neglected" & "expect to have the annual meeting in September" these statements are false. This publication was sent out to homeowners in June 2023, it's now 2024 and there still hasn't been an annual meeting. This gap between the last annual meeting in December 2022 to the newly scheduled meeting in April 2024 is unacceptable.
Homeowners speak out regarding the delayed annual meeting.
As detailed in the Coral Springs Talk articles below, The Estates at Turtle Run Homeowners Association has yet to hold its annual meeting mandated by by-laws to take place on December 7, 2022.
Rob Shipe spoke at The Coral Springs Commissioners Meeting on November 1st, 2023. Rob stated that due to The Estates at Turtle Run having not held an annual meeting in two years, the existing Board of Directors and President Chris Kapish is an illegitimate board and should not be able to make decisions on behalf of the Estates.
Courtesy of the City of Coral Springs YouTube channel.
Coral Springs Talk articles detailing the struggle within Turtle Run leadership boards.
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Residents Rally for Reform, Cite Mismanagement and Cronyism Under President
Chris Kapish is also president of the Foundation Board, the master association for Turtle Run, which has been basically unheard of until recently. Not only does Kapish control the finances, signs requisitions & checks, but he's the only board member with bank account access. This lack of oversight speaks volumes regarding any financial accountability.
How taxpayer dollars are being spent
& why oversight involving board members is important.
Below are community forums mailed directly to homeowners that were used to attack political opponents all while being funded by those same homeowners.
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Turtle Run Times (June 2023)
Previously mentioned, the Turtle Run Times is distributed under the guise of being the "Estates Good News Update", this newsletter is anything but that. A community forum paid for by homeowners should be a place for helpful information, not political propaganda. This is not the setting to be accusing fellow board members of violating laws such as the Florida Sunshine Law, or discussing alleged HOA violations for all to see. Homeowners should not be paying for this. Period.
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Foundation Forum (May 2023)
In the 20 years of having the same president lead the Foundation board it's interesting how homeowners are just now receiving this Foundation Forum. Interestingly enough, three out of the four stories in this forum directly attack political opponents. Check it out for yourself. Let me remind you that you, the homeowner, are the ones paying for this Foundation Forum.
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Foundation Forum (August 2023)
The Foundation Forum decided to distribute a second volume, three months after its debut release. While information regarding the details of Turtle Run Day would be considered important knowledge for the homeowner, CDD encroachment concerns on the other hand are not. Interesting how each of these homeowner newsletters focus in on the political opponents of Chirs Kapish. How would you feel if every violation you received (true or not) was published for all to see along with an aerial photo of your home?