BRENDA MUELLER AT HEAD OF "EXECUTIVE BOARD" SO INEPT IT CAN'T KEEP THE LIGHTS ON

A walk through Quail Meadow this past Saturday evening revealed 39 completely dark coach lights (without any lit bulbs) on Quail Meadow Way and an additional 10 dark fixtures on Quail Meadow Trace, totaling 49 coach light fixtures completely without illumination. This tally does not include coach lights that are partially illuminated, i.e., with one or two bulbs working. The Mueller "Executive Board" has killed an in progress effort -- initiated when Toni Leben was president and negotiated nearly to conclusion by Valerie Halaby during her presidency -- to update the community's street lamps. The neighborhood is unacceptably dark at night. What is going on?

The inadequate lighting in Quail Meadow is no mystery. The Quail Meadow board of directors, more accurately the four directors comprising president Brenda Mueller's "executive board," refuses to pay to keep the lights on. That's it. There's nothing more to it. The sun goes down, the neighborhood goes dark. They don't care, they're all asleep anyway.

Well, that's not entirely accurate; it is true that they don't care but it's also that the executive board is covering up the financial wreckage wrought by Tony Chiarello's 18-year reign of utterly incompetent financial management and is concealing the true magnitude of the community's dire financial condition.

If you haven't been tuning in, over his 18-year tenure as treasurer, Chiarello refused to increase the HOA dues even to adjust for inflation, failing to bill an estimated $600,000+ to homeowners over that period for inflation adjustment alone. This allowed homeowners that sold their homes prior to the maintenance increase from $500.00 quarterly to $800.00 over this past year, to escape paying their fair share of the real Quail Meadow maintenance costs accrued over that 18-year period, costs that are now embedded opaquely in the new dues increases. Chiarello -- and the rest of Brenda Mueller's "executive board" -- now wants YOU to reimburse Quail Meadow that $600,000+ because of HIS failure and deliberate refusal to invoice the membership for it as it accrued, insisting that the quarterly dues not increase even a penny. During a recent board meeting, Chiarello denied he had done anything wrong, gaslighting the membership by rejecting the manner of calculating the $600,000+ shortfall and the U.S. government inflation data upon which it is based.

The cost of properly maintaining the coach lighting is one more maintenance item for which Mueller and her crack "executive board" have abdicated responsibility. By refusing to make necessary maintenance, repair and replacement expenditures they hope to conceal the real magnitude of an ever-growing, off-the-books "deferred" maintenance liability that is increasingly likely to include plant & facility replacement expenses.

Even with a 60% increase in dues over 18 months, there still isn't enough money to pay the bills . . . and there won't be until there is an independent audit of (i) the historical Quail Meadow dues shortfall, (ii) the real cost of the accrued, deferred maintenance expense Quail Meadow is carrying, and (iii) the real cost of ongoing repair and maintenance, and a proper reserve study performed by an independent third-party.

During Tony Chiarello's first 18-year term as Quail Meadow Treasurer, when he quietly approved transferring certain association responsibilities to the homeowners in violation of the community documents, the association's responsibility for maintaining the coach light fixtures, their bulbs, wiring, sensors and overall function, among other association maintenance responsibilities, was abdicated and quietly designated to the membership. When exactly this happened is difficult to pinpoint; there apparently are no board of directors meeting minutes reflecting that this was an affirmative decision of the board. But the decision was made, whether openly or not, and de facto became Quail Meadow HOA policy.

The full board in 2021 (as then constituted, before Mueller's tenure as president) reviewed the coach light problem due to several homeowners who were having trouble with coach light wiring and sensors and, after review of the association documents, determined that the entirety of the coach light maintenance and repair responsibility was exclusively that of the association. Mueller and her executives nevertheless refuse to carry out this basic maintenance function, the neighborhood is dark at night and the Quail Meadow property manager whistles Dixie.

What can you do? Engage: A little concern will go a long way. Speak up: Write to the four executive board members and the property manager who are together responsible for this gross mismanagement and rebuke them accordingly. (Brenda Mueller muellercreek@gmail.com, Tony Chiarello tkchi@att.net, Sharon Bross sharonbross@msn.com, Lucy Connery lucyqmhoa@gmail.com, Beth White bwhite@realtimepm.com) Put your foot down: Our $35MM+ worth of real estate is being supervised by incompetents; don't tolerate it any longer.