Harmony CDD - IMPORTANT! - Majority Residents 2 Years Early! - May 19th Deadline!

I suspect that Harmony Development Company has made an important
oversight. In Monopoly parlance, I think we have a bank error in our
favor!

It seems that in the developer's rush to fill a vacant seat with a
"token resident" on the CDD board last year (or perhaps the year
before), they may have overlooked which seats are actually up for
election this year.

Before continuing, I need to clarify the "token resident" remark.

Currently, of the five CDD board members only one person actually
lives in Harmony. That person is Nancy Snyder. I have never met Nancy,
but I suspect that she was selected by the developer because she is a
serious real-estate investor in Harmony (she owns or has owned at
least four houses here). Although Nancy is a resident, I am sure that
the developer figured she would likely go along with whatever they
suggested to help sell houses. In fact, Nancy did go along with the
recent CDD tax hike (she even initiated the motions to increase our
taxes), much to the chagrin of most of our neighbors. Hopefully with
more residents on board, Nancy will be inclined to think more like a
long-term resident.

Anyway, on with the story.

Each CDD board member is assigned a "seat" number. According to the
CDD district manager, the seats are currently assigned as described
here:

http://www.harmonycdd.org/Supervisors.htm
http://tinyurl.com/3mtq97
(The latter is a graphic snapshot in case the original gets changed.)

From the above you will see that Nancy sits in seat #2. If you take a
look at the middle of the same page you will notice that seats #3 and
#5 are up for general election in November. This means that once two
residents get elected to the CDD in November, residents will actually
hold a majority on the board!

Thus contrary to popular belief, Harmony residents have the
opportunity to control the CDD board this year. We need not wait until
2010 to have a majority!

This is great news! But bear in mind one important caveat.

We MUST find two residents who are willing to sit on the board and
attend these board meetings on behalf of all of us. We need to find
two kind souls willing to submit themselves as candidates for what is
in fact a public office. Here is the CDD candidate form:

http://tinyurl.com/6aqqj9

Please read it and seriously consider submitting your name as a
candidate. If you choose to submit a petition, your deadline is May
19. If you choose to pay the $25 fee, your deadline is June 20 (noon).

I would like to add one more thing.

I hope there are folks out there who want to represent us, who also
plan to be long-term residents in Harmony (rather than just short-term
real-estate investors). I hope we have candidates who want to live
here for many years to come, who have no special relationship with the
developer.

That's it! Please pass the word.

Contrary to what Shad would have us believe, the CDD election has not
been publicized in Harmony. When I called the Welcome Center, Todd
Haskett could not say that this information has been disseminated at
all or if it will be. Why? Because it is in the economic interests of
the developer to keep control of the CDD (and the HOA) for as long as
possible (my conclusion, not Todd's).

To date (this year anyway), Harmony Notes has published nothing about
the CDD elections, or more importantly, the deadlines in May and June
for CDD candidates to register. Likewise, the Welcome Center has sent
out no fliers about this event so important to Harmony residents. The
developer was hoping that these deadlines would quietly pass
unnoticed.

Bear in mind folks, the same reason that Bob Evans (Starwood's
temporary consultant on the ground in Harmony) likes to have CDD
meetings at 9am on Thursdays applies here. Let's keep those pesky
residents out of our business!

Starwood / Harmony Development wants to minimize the participation of
Harmony residents in the decision making processes in Harmony. Why?
Because they fear that once residents get control of these boards, the
developer will no longer be able to force us to pay for new
infrastructure. Such infrastructure is used to develop new phases of
Harmony that the developer, in all fairness, should have been paying
for all along. The developer directly profits from these new phases.
The developer should therefore incur all of their development costs.
Residents should incur only the costs for maintaining existing phases
in Harmony (where people actually live).

Do you believe that residents would have voted to raise their own
taxes this year to help save Harmony Development money ($200,000+) on
the development of the new phase 3 in Harmony? (See "Taxation Without
Representation" posted 9/5/2007.) Of course not! Likewise, we would
not have voted to subsidize development costs in past years either.

This kind of decision making can only happen where democracy ceases to
exist.

Think about it. If we had another $200,000 to work with, instead of
paying for new phases perhaps we would have found a way to get more
recreation in Harmony for existing phases. We might have used that
money to rent some unused space in Greensides, the Welcome Center or
the old Pro Shop building for a rec center. We could have bought pool
tables, foosball tables, ping pong tables, etc. Bill Fife might have
organized tourneys and perhaps even set aside some rec room time
dedicated to our overly bored teens.

A democratically elected board might have made decisions like these
rather than forking over money to pay developer infrastructure costs.

This is why I implore all of you to get out there and knock on your
neighbors' doors. Get the facts out! If you can't run for a CDD seat
yourself, please ask your neighbors if they can.

The "Qualify for Harmony CDD Elections.pdf" document has been added
to:

http://HarmonyFLcommons.com

Please send anyone interested there to read it. I already have
business cards printed out with the above URL. Let me know how many
you need.

I will be doing this myself very soon. I hope to meet many of you in
the process.


(Shad, as I suggested to you last month, you are welcome to join me
and introduce yourself to all of the residents.)
> http://www.harmonycdd.org/Supervisors.htmhttp://tinyurl.com/3mtq97

THANK YOU TO ALL THAT ATTEND OUR 5TH ANNUAL DARK SKY FESTIVAL APRIL 5TH...

Harmony's Dark Sky Festival Was Out-of-this-World

Approximately 2,000 people from all over the state attended the 5th Annual Dark Sky Festival at Harmony on Saturday, April 5th.

"It was nothing short of a miracle that there was not a drop of rain during our entire event," said Greg Golgowski, Harmony's Conservation Director and a key member of the Dark Sky Festival Planning Committee. "When the main element of your event is outdoor and contingent on the sky cooperating with you, you can imagine everyone's sense of relief when the clouds parted and a few stars and planets could be spotted."

In addition to having a variety of telescopes set up by the Central Florida and Brevard Astronomic Societies for the general public's viewing pleasure; the newly added indoor Education Zone was a big attraction and had a steady flow of traffic.

Brevard Community College's mobile planetarium, StarLab, located within the Education Zone was also a huge hit. Twenty-five people at a time climbed into the unit and were rocketed into the fourth dimension, at least in theory.

The Cosmic Kids Zone was packed with children of all ages playing glow in the dark mini golf, making smores, brushing miniature horses, jumping in two Moonwalks, and creating their own telescopes.

Part of this year's Cosmic Kids Zone included a special demonstration from Florida's Best Student Robotic Team, the St. Cloud Storm Cats. They showcased their award- winning robotic demonstrations and coordinated a raffle to raise money for their World competition in Atlanta, Georgia.

From a "harmonic" perspective, the Festival kicked off with local favorites, the Silver Clouds Community Orchestra, who played a medley of space-inspired music.

Following the orchestra was legendary band Rare Earth, who came from Detroit to be a part of the celebration. The buzz in Harmony has been non-stop on how great this band was. From small children to senior citizens, Rare Earth got everyone up and dancing.

Approximately 75% of the Festival's attendees were not from the Town of Harmony, which was a goal of the Festival organizers since it has been the developer of Harmony's wish from the conceptual stages that other communities will follow Harmony's lead and become dark sky compliant. By attending the Dark Sky Festival, seeds were planted in the minds of the attendees about the wonders of the universe and what an incredible amenity the dark skies are for us all.

2009 is the "International Year of Astronomy", therefore, Festival organizers said to expect the 6th Annual Dark Sky Festival at Harmony to be even bigger!

To view photos and a video from the event, visit www.DarkSkyFestival.com.

Although the Dark Sky Festival seems somewhat off-topic here, it was a
nice event. It's a great way to bring people to Harmony.

Shad, I guess this is your way of confirming that Harmony Notes has
been silent on the upcoming CDD election. Likewise, apparently this
also means that you are not likely to send out thousands of fliers to
advertise the CDD election like you did for the Dark Sky Festival.

Since we're a little off-topic anyway, perhaps I should also take this
opportunity to respond to your previous claim that I talk down to
people. This is not true Shad. Anyone who reads my posts can see that
I don't talk up or down. I talk straight ahead. To your face, I tell
it like it is.

I am sorry if the facts are sometimes less than complimentary to your
employer, but that's the choice of Starwood / Harmony Development
Company, not mine. I have never attacked you or anyone else on a
personal level. I simply state the truth which is abundantly
documented.

In a previous post you suggested that I should read Harmony Notes (I
have, this is how I know there is nothing about the CDD elections
there), speak to neighbors (I do, often), open eBlast (I signed up a
week or two ago) and contact Severn Trent (I have, several times over
the years), all meant to suggest that doing any or all of this would
somehow inform me that Harmony residents now have the opportunity to
hold the majority on the CDD board.

I think my fellow residents would agree that, like this off-topic, you
are off-base to suggest that this information is common knowledge in
Harmony. It isn't. But just in case, I'll be sure to ask my neighbors
as I canvass the neighborhood.
> > That's it! Please pass the word.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Earnt!!!

"Would you like to move onto the bonus round where the points really double?"

With every post you make your fellow residents email me one-by-one to tell me how THEY really feel and to remind me that YOU do not speak for the masses.

Each of them have given up on your site and have encouraged me to do the same.

Tick-tock....
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

-----Original Message-----
From: Geo <IIDIMG...@spammotel.com>

Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:24:17
To:HarmonyFL <Harm...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [HarmonyFL:193] Re: Harmony CDD - IMPORTANT! - Majority Residents 2

Oh BTW... Until several weeks ago YOU did not receive eBlasts because you admittedly did not provide us an email address to send these notices to.

Contrary to what you think your simple pay is not the communication portal for the Town of Harmony.


Happy Wednesday George.
Subject: [HarmonyFL:193] Re: Harmony CDD - IMPORTANT! - Majority Residents 2

Shad, it seems to me that the more questions I ask or the more facts I
present, the more your responses are inclined to randomness or
resentment.

I wonder, have you ever tried to understand any of this from my
perspective? Perhaps if you did, you would come to realize how
misplaced your anger is. If you were in my position, you SHOULD BE
angry indeed.

Maybe this will help. I make computer software. So imagine this.

Let's pretend that you came to me for some custom software. First you
give me some specifications. Then I come back to you with a list of
everything the software will do (say 30 features). I tell you how long
it will take to deliver the 30 features (say 2 years) and I quote you
how much you will pay (say $420,000). I tell you that you can have 7
features now, but you must pay the full amount up front, plus $7000
per year for maintenance. You are a little leery, but you want the
software and you decide to trust me. So you pay the full $420,000. You
then wait a year while paying the annual $7000 maintenance fee. A year
has past and you have only the original 7 features (23 are still
missing). You are patient, so you ask politely when the software will
be done. I tell you not to worry. Your features are on the way!
Another year passes. You pay another $7000 maintenance fee, yet none
of the remaining features have been delivered. You notice that I am
putting your maintenance fee to good use selling software to other
people, but you still don't have what you paid for. This goes on, year
after year. Then I sell the software company to someone else. You hope
that the new owners will fulfill the original commitment I made to
you, but they don't. What's worse, they actually remove many of the 23
features from the list without a word to you. You start to lose hope
that you will ever get what you paid for. It's five years later. The
software company has all your money, yet they don't seem to care that
you will never get the software that you were promised all those years
ago.

How would you feel if you were in this position Shad? How would you
feel if, after all those years, your software vendor refused even to
answer your questions? How would you feel if they ignored every
request for an estimated delivery time of the remaining features?

Now can you understand how I feel Shad? Can you understand how long-
standing Harmony residents feel?

What you seem to forget, Mr. President of Harmony Development Company,
is that WE ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS! We feel like your company has screwed
us out of what we collectively paid millions of dollars for. WE should
be indignant, NOT YOU!

Can't you understand this Shad? Or will you continue pretending we are
playing some kind of game here?

I know that a few of my fellow residents would rather remain silent
than confront you in public. They continue to hope for the best from
you, the developer, even after 5 years of disappointment. They are
willing to trust whatever you say without questions. But you must
know, most who tend to disagree with my brash approach also tend to
have a special relationship with your company or they have houses to
sell. Anyway, I doubt that any of my neighbors would appreciate being
referred to as "the masses" by you, even if they disagree with me.

I don't pretend to speak for anyone other than myself Shad. Others may
hold similar views or different views. Either way, they are perfectly
capable of speaking for themselves. Every member of this group is free
to post messages or have themselves removed. No one needs to send you
secret messages of support. They are free to support you publicly in
this open forum or in any other medium of their choosing. All views
are welcome. No one is excluded. If more people expressed themselves
openly, I think much more would be accomplished here, in less time.

Contrary to your claim that people are leaving with each of my posts,
after 136 messages there are now 32 members of this group (up from the
original 6). So by your analysis, we should now have -130 members. Yet
no one has actually left in more than a year.

Regarding the eBlasts, why did you feel the need to reiterate what I
already wrote? "I signed up a week or two ago" meant just what you
restated. Somehow I miss your point.

I don't know what "your simple pay" was supposed to mean, but this
forum is meant to serve two purposes: 1) an accurate source of facts
about what has been going on in Harmony for many years and 2) an
unrestricted way for Harmony residents or anyone else to express
themselves on issues relevant to Harmony.

This forum is not like your "official residents only" section of
HarmonyFl.com. That forum is under your control. You decide who will
or will not participate and what participants can write. This forum is
completely open to Harmony residents or anyone else. Each person is
free to add themselves or remove themselves from this group at any
time without permission from anyone. Unlike the HarmonyFL group on
Yahoo, here there is no censorship imposed by someone who works for
your company. Messages are not moderated. They are posted freely by
members directly. Only personal attacks or unrelated content is
removed. Anything else is fair game.

So while this forum may not be the "official government sanctioned"
outlet for community expression in Harmony, it serves that purpose
none-the-less. It serves freely without your consent or your
permission.

All that said, we appreciate your participation here Shad. I just wish
you could see fit to answer questions so relevant to all of us.
> > > suggested to- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -...
>
> read more »

George

I freely elect to remove myself from this group. Effective Monday 4/21 at 9am I will be removed.

With CDD Board meetings monthly; HOA meetings quarterly; a resident only website; eBlasts; Harmony Notes; www.harmonycdd.org; and a Sales Gallery that is open 7 days a week I am very sure we are more communative and available than communities alike.

Regards
Shad
From: Geo <IIDIMG...@spammotel.com>

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:53:51
To:HarmonyFL <Harm...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [HarmonyFL:196] Re: Harmony CDD - IMPORTANT! - Majority Residents
2Years Early! - May 19th Deadline!

This is no surprise Shad.

As you know, you had yourself added to this group so that you could
secretly monitor its activities for more than 5 months. You only
started posting in this forum when you apparently realized that you
accidentally replied to one of my posts while thinking that you were
replying to an email that I sent to you privately (see Shad's response
to "Truth in Advertising" posted 3/21/2008). In response to my follow-
up post about the false advertising of "quality education" in Harmony,
you wrote "I saw this as well and it is scheduled to be revised".

So what exactly did you do to correct the false advertising on the
Harmony website? Did you correct the half dozen documented misleading
statements? No. You revised the one item that you accidentally posted
about. You went so far as to change one word on your website from
"quality" to "well-rounded":

"Education - Ensure that your child enjoys a quality education, in a
school classroom within easy sight of the front yards of Harmony."

was changed to:

"Education - Ensure that your child enjoys a well-rounded education,
in a school classroom within easy sight of the front yards of
Harmony."

So while our children don't have a quality education in Harmony,
apparently they have a "well-rounded" education instead, whatever that
is.

Now that your secret monitoring of this group has been exposed you
want to bow out Shad?

Now that I have reminded you that Harmony residents are your customers
rather than just your annoyances you want to go into hiding again?

If this is the best that we can hope for from the president of Harmony
Development Company, I think the residents of Harmony may be tough out
of luck.

BTW, I assume that you will be removing yourself Shad. Just let me
know if you need help with that.
> > > Brevard Community College's mobile planetarium, StarLab, located within the Education Zone was also a huge hit.  Twenty-five people at a time climbed into the unit and were rocketed into the fourth- Hide quoted text -

I did nothing secretive and knew excatly what I was replying to when I did. You are incorrect.....
From: Geo <IIDIMG...@spammotel.com>

Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:54:36
To:HarmonyFL <Harm...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [HarmonyFL:198] Re: Harmony CDD - IMPORTANT! - Majority
Residents2Years Early! - May 19th Deadline!

One last thing George; walk lightly with the personal attack. You don't want that fight. You may be able to belittle others but I am not about to be on that list.
From: st...@birchwoodacres.com

Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:05:09
To:Harm...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [HarmonyFL:199] Re: Harmony CDD - IMPORTANT! -
MajorityResidents2Years Early! - May 19th Deadline!

The secretive thing had nothing do with your reply. Adding yourself to
this group and then silently listening in for 5 months without a
saying a word seems secretive to me Shad, just like the unannounced
secret meetings you held with two small groups of residents shortly
after you took your position as president of Harmony Development.

"knew excatly[sic] what I was replying to when I did"

OK, I apologize for concluding that your response was accidental. This
means that you really intended to modify exactly one word on the
website while leaving all other misrepresentations intact. Thank you
for clearing this up Shad.
> > With CDD Board meetings monthly; HOA meetings quarterly; a resident only website; eBlasts; Harmony Notes;www.harmonycdd.org;anda Sales Gallery that is open 7 days a week I am very sure we are more communative and available than communities alike.
> > > Since- Hide quoted text -

Regarding personal attacks, please reread your own recent attack
filled posts.

I have not belittled you Shad (or anyone else), I have simply reported
what anyone can see from the facts. You joined this group on October
19, 2007, yet you didn't make your first post until March 21, 2008.
Apparently everything I was writing for 5 months was OK with you,
until now.

I hope that you are not threatening me with some kind of legal action
Shad. This ploy was already tried by Roy Walbridge two years ago (see
"Response to Starwood - The Bad Water at Harmony" posted 8/24/2006).
I'm not sure what you are threatening, but whatever it is, this tact
will not likely help you increase your sales of houses in Harmony. It
may even scare people away.

Are you now trying to suppress my reporting of what has really been
going on in Harmony? I certainly hope not.
> > With CDD Board meetings monthly; HOA meetings quarterly; a resident only website; eBlasts; Harmony Notes;www.harmonycdd.org;anda Sales Gallery that is open 7 days a week I am very sure we are more communative and available than communities alike.
> > >  Years Early! -  May 19th Deadline!- Hide quoted text -

Well Shad, here we are a week later. I am glad to see that you didn't
follow through with your stated intention to leave this group. I am
also sorry that I couldn't persuade you to join us in a more
productive exchange here. At least we have the satisfaction of knowing
that you are still listening.

I must also apologize to my neighbors. I have failed to engage either
Starwood (Bob Geimer) or Harmony Development (Shad Tome) in a good-
faith dialog on the issues in Harmony. That was always my intention.

As you know, all of this started with the list of missing amenities in
Harmony:

Previous Proposed
Amenity Delivery Date Delivery Date
------- ------------- -------------

"Ball Fields" Not Provided Not Provided
"Businesses in Town Square" Dec. 2005 Not Provided
"Camping" Not Provided *Mar. 2008
"Campsites" Not Provided *Mar. 2008
"Clubhouse Facilities Not Provided Not Provided
for Recreation"
"Clubhouse" Not Provided *2004
"Equestrian Club" Not Provided Not Provided
"Equestrian Facility" Not Provided Not Provided
"Farmer's Market" Not Provided Not Provided
"Great Education" 8/06, 8/07 Aug. 2008
"Horse Riding Stables" Not Provided Not Provided
"Horseback Riding" Not Provided *2003
"Kayaks" Not Provided *2006
"Lake Club" Not Provided Not Provided
"Launch Area for Sailboats" Not Provided *2003
"Open Access" Not Provided Not Provided
"Organized Field Sports" Not Provided *Feb. 2008
"Outstanding Charter School" 8/06, 8/07 Aug. 2008
"Sailing" Not Provided *2006
"Sports Fields" Not Provided Not Provided
"Thriving Commercial" Dec. 2005 Not Provided
"Town Entry Spring House" Not Provided Not Provided
"Vibrant Town Center" Dec. 2005 Not Provided

* The amenity was delivered on the given date.

I have often wondered why Bob Geimer or Shad Tome can't answer our
questions in this public forum. Why can't they give us estimated
delivery dates on everything they've advertised over the years? Why?
Because unlike each of us who is accountable to the people we work
for, Harmony Development will not be held accountable to the residents
of Harmony, customers who have paid so many millions of dollars over
the years.

Reasonable people understand that no one can always guarantee delivery
on a particular date. That said, imagine the goodwill that would be
engendered if Harmony Development would at least make the attempt. If
the developer says that ground breaking on the new "Equestrian Club"
will commence by the summer of 2009 and the actual start date doesn't
happen until the following fall, we would certainly be understanding
and hopeful that more accurate estimates would be forthcoming. If a
deadline slips, just let us know why. Don't pretend that we are
unaware of the issues at hand or that we are unable to understand the
developer's problems.

Reasonable people have reasonable expectations. Never knowing what is
really going on with the developer causes most of the frustration that
we have felt in Harmony.

All that I have ever really hoped for in this regard is transparency
and accountability on the part of the developers of Harmony. As their
customer, is that asking too much?

Why would anyone else want to buy a house in Harmony (way out in the
middle of nowhere) knowing that the developer can lure new buyers in
with any sort of advertising without ever having to follow through
with what has been promised? Sadly, that's what Harmony Development's
website disclaimer gives them license to do.

If anyone believes that my approach is lacking, please say so. I am
always open to suggestions. How else can we engage the developer in a
meaningful good-faith Q&A of Harmony issues in an online forum like
this, one that is uncensored, easy-to-use and free and open to
everyone?