The following e-mail was sent to Berenice Liberta as Sailfish Cove President and Master Board member:

Hello Bernice:

I was hoping we could chat prior to my leaving on my trip but it may not be possible to do so. In either event let me share with you some information that you, as our President need to be fully aware of.

As I informed you when we last briefly spoke, the Master Board Meeting, in my personal opinion was a joke and terribly disappointing. I waited patiently for 3 hours until 10:00 p.m. before I lost my patience and left the building, in hopes of being able to discuss and voice my personal opinion about the Clubhouse roof situation and put a few people at the Board Meeting in their place and one individual, in particular, on the "hot seat".

You see Bernice, as far as I'm concerned and while I may not be able to prove it just yet, but there is some hanky panky going on with the roofing situation. For your information, Just prior to the Master Association meeting I personally addressed Brian Welsh about the matter. I sent to him three months ago a proposal from my roofing contractor, who personally walked the entire roof of the clubhouse, spent no less than 2 hours doing so, at Mr. Welsh's request and permission to do so, and a professional quote was generated and submitted to him. The quote was to repair approximately 800 pieces of tile at the clubhouse at a very reasonable price of $30.00 per tile for a grand total of $24,000.00. That price also included resealing over 100 pieces of tile that were loose and needed to be reglued according to Palm Beach County building codes with RT-600 adhesive. That also included doing the front gate house for "free" with the exception of the material (tiles) that needed to be replaced. That's right, Bernice, only $24,000.00 for the entire job and we could have had it finished long before now.

I never heard back from Brian. I called him numerous times, and sent him several faxes. When I never heard from Brian, I was very upset and decided to see, who on the Master Board, was responsible for the roof at the clubhouse. I learned that All Tsacnaris of Heron Cove was supposedly in charge of this committee. I reached out to Al and called him several times and even went to his home, personally, at his request, and dropped off the same exact proposal that I gave to Brian Welsh.

Now, as Paul Harvey would say: "For the Rest of the Story"......

When I approached Brian at the meeting on Wednesday evening and I put my face in his face because I learned that the residents of Baywinds were about to be ripped off by MMI having some adjustor, engineer, or appraiser or what ever he calls himself, tell us that we need a NEW ROOF and the tab was going to be around $375,000.00 I was livid. I know that is a LIE and that the clubhouse only needs a repair and it can be done for under $30,000.00 even with todays escalating roof tile prices as noted in last Saturday's Palm Beach Post front page article. I was appalled to learn that MMI and Brian Welsh were advocating this when I submitted a proposal to do the repairs with a bonded and fully licensed and qualified roofing contractor with 9 years experience in the Palm Beaches and who had done a load of homes all over this area and you know what Brian had the nerve to tell me?

He told me he didn't know what I was talking about and that he didn't recall ever receiving any faxes from me or any quotes or any phone calls. He told me that he would look into it but that the roofing matter was pretty much a done deal and that he would speak with me after the meeting was over about it all. He told me not to make a fuss at the meeting and that we would talk and then he excused himself. Like a fool I stayed around for 3 hours waiting for my turn to speak my piece and got so thoroughly disgusted that I just left shortly before 10:00 p.m.

I will tell you Bernice, when I return from my trip abroad the first week in May I plan to raise holy hell about this roof situation and I intend to engage a lawyer on my behalf and for who ever else in the community wishes to join me in uncovering the deceit and manipulation that I believe is going on regarding the bidding process on the roof and the engineer who claims we need a new roof and the fact that Brian lied to me when he said he didn't recall what I was talking about and now they want to charge us, the homeowners of Baywinds for a new roof that will cost in excess of $375,000 by the time the new prices will be assessed that is coming in July across the board and guess what Bernice? The price today that is quoted will NOT be the price when the material is finally delivered. It will go up dramatically in two year or however long it will take to get the material and labor performed.

This is NO joke. This is serious business and serious allegations I am making. I know the roofing business very well and I know that we are being ripped off. To think that the Board voted to pay someone 10% for whatever he recovers for us over and above what has been already promised by the insurance company is also a rip off. Let me tell you why?

Florida has a state law, if you didn't know this. The law states that when a contractor performs more than one service or trade such as doing the roof but then he subcontracts out at least one or more other services such as painting, cleaning up debris, gutter repairs, screen repairs, fense repairs, etc., the insured (that's us) is entitled to what is called a 10/10 that's 20% over and above the original quote from the insurance company for what is called: "P & O" Profit and Overhead. All insurance companies pay these fees if properly applied for directly to the insured (that's us). Anyone who is a descent roofing contractor knows this. So that means that if the roof repair is $24,000.00 and that will barely cover the deductible, on top of that is an additional nearly $5,000.00 that comes back to us in addition to whatever else we have been approved for.

So for instance: If the insurance company has already supposedly assessed damages of $375,000 for the roof to be replaced we are entitled to an additional $75,000.00 for profit and overhead. Ask any roofing contractor about what I just stated and you'll find that I am telling you the truth.  So therefore, this appraiser or adjustor or whatever he is that we voted to pay 10% of the insurance proceeds just earned his keep at a cost of nearly $40,000 to us for NOTHING but a phone call. He figured he would look great by getting us an additional $75,000 and this way he earned his keep. The truth is that he cost us $40,000.00. Call our insurance company and ask them if they will pay P&O if a claim is submitted for more than one trade from the roofing contractor? The answer will be YES and then ask what is the percent paid and the answer will be 20% more on the already existing claim. It's a common procedure in the field.

Now, what I wish to address before I sign off is this. You as the President of Sailfish Cove have a duty and a responsibility to bring my gripe before who ever you need to address it to, and that includes your fellow board member and Brian Welsh as well. Like I said, I plan to enlist the services of a lawyer to protect my interests as a Baywinds homeowner. What I saw on Wednesday was nothing less than a joke. 25 minutes arguing over whether to keep the tennis instructor, 25 minutes to decide whether to keep the lease or buy the copy machine. A dam shame if you ask me. Makes me want to put my place up for sale and move out of here. And don't kid yourself, many other people I've spoken with feel the same way. $375,000 plus to fix a roof that doesn't need to be replaced but only repaired and it could have been done months ago. And a property manager that is inept as one can be.  He will be at the top of the list for my lawyer to look into before all is said and done. It woudn't surprise me in the least if Brian is in cahoots with the engineer and who ever else is involved in the sham over the roof scenario. This is my personal opinion for which I am certainly entitled to. I don't care who gets the roofing contract, so long as we don't get ripped off.

Too bad I'm leaving during this crucial time frame as I would be on top of this issue immediately. So I will have to defer to you to voice my opinion to the powers that be and find out why Brian didn't submit my roofer's proposal and why are we reroofing the clubhouse when it only needs to be repaired. I would bet that the insurance adjustor, who by the way, gets a percentage of the claim, never got up on the roof nor counted each individual tile, like my roofer did, that needed to be replaced or resealed. It's a joke what is going on. The deductible is $250,000.00 and then we have to pay the $40,000 to the whatever his name is for supposedly saving us money or getting us more money. That's $290,000 out of our pockets. Then we have the other repairs to tend to. When all is said and done we'll have less than $100,000 left over to fix the roof. The proposed Steel Roof (which only one company in Dade County is approved called Decra, a California based company, who I happen to know the regional manager because we spoke a few weeks ago about my becoming a distributor for the product, is going to cost a lot of money. Could be an additional $200,000 or more out of our pockets, plus we'll have to also do the guard house to keep it all uniform looking. My proposal called for doing the guardhouse with like tiles as on there now at no additional cost except for labor at a cost of less than $500.00.

So there you have it in a nutshell, Bernice. I'm leaving Thursday morning early. If you care to discuss this matter further I'd be happy to do so with you or anyone else on the Board, on or off the record. If not, so be it. I will be back in May and I will then look into seeing about a lawyer and what can be done to expose what is going on around here. My son will be house sitting and if need be he'll know how to reach me if you have updates you wish to e-mail me on this matter while I'm away.

Thank you for taking the time to read my lengthy e-mail.

Have a nice day.

Steven A. Silvers