Think Twice Before Placing Blame on Owners

You may want to think twice before pointing the finger at other owners in your HOA.  My HOA has falsely accused owners of damaging common areas.  Doing so causes owners to get suspicious of others and causes fighting within the community.  This is when cameras start going up. 

Maintance of Existing Common Ground Before Doing Projects

Maybe it's a gender thing, maybe it's excitement, maybe it's being to worried about the project getting canceled, maybe it's lack of help, maybe it's the intentional but, it's a problem for many HOA boards.  Once the focus is shifted from maintenance of common areas to redesigning or redecorating projects they neglect to maintain it and everything else.

Timeline and Map of Events Leading to Zimmerman Shooting Trayvon Martin

This is the best visual aid that allows people to see the big picture. 

http://www.miamiherald.com/trayvonmartin/

Defense: Zimmerman judge biased - Trayvon Martin - MiamiHerald.com

Zimmerman wants a new judge because he feels that the judge is biased based on the things the judge wrote in the July 5, 2012 bond order.  I posted the actual order written by the judge and the Miami Herald article below.
The judge isn't bias against Zimmerman.  Zimmerman and his wife lied in the first bond hearing.  Then decided to argue his case at the second hearing.  If he could convince the judge that the states case was weak against him the bond would have remained the same.  He could also determine the direction the judge was leaning in the trial.  If Zimmerman didn't want the judge to respond to his argument he should not have raised the issue.   Although this is just my opinion. 

Read the article and judges order using the links below and tell me what you think.


Defense: Zimmerman judge biased - Trayvon Martin - MiamiHerald.com33

http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2012/07/05/13/18/1h9ymt.So.56.pdf

Medical records: George Zimmerman had black eyes, painful broken nose but no head trauma - Trayvon Martin - MiamiHerald.com

Although this isn't new news I found it interesting that Zimmerman suffers from so many conditions and is over weight yet was still able to run.

Medical records: George Zimmerman had black eyes, painful broken nose but no head trauma - Trayvon Martin - MiamiHerald.com

Zimmerman changes details, makes claims inconsistent with other evidence

Zimmerman changes details, makes claims inconsistent with other evidence

By Rene Stutzman and Jeff Weiner, Orlando Sentinel





6:22 p.m. EST, June 27, 2012

George Zimmerman talked to Sanford police a half-dozen times, going over what happened the night he killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. In the retelling, parts of his story changed. His account also does not line up with other evidence.



Here are some of the most prominent inconsistencies:



Where the confrontation happened



In his first recorded interview with police the night of the Feb. 26 shooting, Zimmerman said Trayvon popped out at him from "the bushes."



By the time he re-enacted the shooting less than 24 hours later, however, Zimmerman was much more precise, and the spot he pointed out had no bushes nearby.



As he walked police through what happened where, he said Trayvon approached him from his left rear and at a spot near the intersection of two sidewalks.



What Trayvon said



In that first taped interview with Sanford police Investigator Doris Singleton, Zimmerman said that when he and Trayvon came face to face on that sidewalk, Trayvon said, "What the [expletive][is] your problem, homey?"



During the next 24 hours, Zimmerman's version of what Trayvon said would change slightly, becoming less offensive with each telling.



In another interview later that night, he told Investigator Chris Serino that Trayvon said, "You got a problem?"



During the re-enactment the next afternoon, he told police that Trayvon yelled, "Yo, you got a problem?"



Also, a 16-year-old Miami girl told prosecutors she heard something different. She said she was on the phone with Trayvon at the time and heard him say, "What are you following me for?"



Dispatcher asked him to find Trayvon



After first spotting Trayvon and dialing a nonemergency police number, Zimmerman parked his truck while he talked with the dispatcher, asking that an officer come to the scene.



While still on the line, he drove a short distance down the street before parking again.



Why did he move his truck?



During the re-enactment the day after the shooting, Zimmerman told detectives it was because he had lost sight of the 17-year-old, and the dispatcher asked him to find him.



A review of Zimmerman's recorded call with the dispatcher, though, shows there was no such request.



Did he follow Trayvon?



In his call to police before the shooting, Zimmerman can be heard huffing and puffing as if he had been running or walking fast.



"Are you following him?" the dispatcher asked.



"Yeah," Zimmerman answered.



"OK, we don't need you to do that," the dispatcher said.



"OK," Zimmerman said.



But after the shooting, he offered a different reason for getting out of his truck. Serino pressed him for an explanation three days later.



I was "just going in the same direction he was," Zimmerman said. He had exited his truck, he said, to get a street address for authorities.



"Did you pursue the kid? Did you want to catch him?" Serino asked.



"No," said Zimmerman.



Serino challenged him further: "How do you not know the three streets in your neighborhood [where] you've been living for three years?"



Zimmerman replied that he had a bad memory and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.



Other inconsistencies



Investigators also pointed out to Zimmerman in a Feb. 29 interrogation several other discrepancies, but he did not clear them up:



•He had said that during their struggle, Trayvon covered Zimmerman's nose and mouth with his hands, but in a recorded 911 call from a neighbor in which someone can be heard screaming for help, none of the cries sound muffled.



•Zimmerman had injuries but not ones that matched the severity of the attack he described, according to Serino. If Trayvon had been banging Zimmerman's head on the sidewalk, the Neighborhood Watch volunteer should have had skull fractures, not just cuts, Serino said.



•There were no defensive wounds on Zimmerman's hands and just one small scrape on a finger of Trayvon's left hand, Serino said — little evidence of life-and-death struggle.



rstutzman@tribune.com or 407-650-6394. jweiner@tribune.com or 407-420-5171.



Copyright © 2012, Orlando Sentinel

Reducing Utility Expenses is Easier Than You Think

Take a look at your communities electric bills.  You probably see several meters being billed to the community.   Now take a closer look. 

How many meters are billed for small dollar amounts?  Something in the neighborhood of $15.00 to $30.00 per month.  Now look closer.  How many are billed for 3 to 5 KWH each month?  I found 5 meters being billed for small amounts of usage.  In fact the taxes and usage costs were around $1.50 per month for each of the 5 meters.  The meter rental fee is more than the cost of the electricity around $17.00 per meter. 

If these are meters running to the irrigation system then get controllers that use batteries.  It could add up to a savings of around $900.00 per year.   

Look at the Soil in Your HOA as the Source of Landscaping Problems

The soil in which you are cultivating dictates the plants that will grow and how much water needed to grow them.  Soil that is good for growing sugarcane is considered to be poorly draining soil for growing wheat.  Growing plants purchased from a nursery may be grown in the area but, aren't growing in native soil.  These plants are growing in rich black soil that drains well with organic matter and lots of nutrients. 

Scottsdale Water Rates Increase July 1, 2012 Updated

Some board members have been using the scare tactic that if we don't reduce usage the city will go to a tiered billing system.  Scottsdale has always been on a tiered billing system for water.  The base fee is based on the meter size and the usage is based on gallons used and has been for many years. 

Information Missing from Your HOA Budget

A budget is more than just determining how much will be spent based on historical costs. It's more than just numbers on a paper to use as a guideline. It provides the information needed to make economical decisions and determine what is a bargin and what is not. The only problem is that most budgets are missing the information nessasary to know bargin shopping.