CURRENTS Hearn steps down as CCGYC president

Will stay on as a director, hopes resignation will trigger decision by Birckhead plaintiffs to drop lawsuits

By TOM STAUSS Publisher

In a shocker of an announcement following a special meeting of the Board of Directors on June 20, directors announced that Tim Hearn was resigning as president of Captain’s Cove Golf and Yacht Club.

Also resigning was Roger Holland as a corporate vice-president.

Hearn is continuing as a member of the Cove association’s Board of Directors. Holland had resigned as a director in November of last year.

“CCGYC has prospered and thrived under the guidance of both gentlemen,” the Board said in a statement. “Just over a decade ago, the Association was flirting with bankruptcy; today, the value of the Corporation is almost $12 million. This remarkable turnaround results from the leadership that has been in place.”

The statement said the Board “is grateful that Mr. Hearn will continue to be on the Board to provide guidance and support.”

No successor to Hearn was immediately identified, but the statement said the topic of a new president would be discussed at an open meeting “in the near future.”

As a corporate vice-president and the only remaining one on the Board of Directors, Director Mark Majerus will be fulfilling presidential responsibilities pending appointment of a replacement, in accord with CCGYC by-laws and Virginia non-stock corporation law.

Colby Phillips, the CCGYC’s senior general manager, is also a corporate vice-president, one of the two with Majerus.

Hearn has been president of CCGYC for about ten years since 2013, with the exception of one year when Jim Silfee succeeded him. Hearn then returned as president when Silfee bowed out.

In an interview with the Cove Currents, Hearn said that he and directors Mike Glick and Silfee would be stepping back from participation in Cove affairs. He said they would be recusing themselves from votes, leaving the remaining

Tim Hearn

directors as the Cove’s primary policy-makers. Directors whose votes will control outcomes are Frank Haberek, Pat Pelino, George Finlayson, and Mark Majerus, with alternate Dave Felt also voting.

During the June 19 Board of Directors meeting, Hearn, who was presiding for the final time as president, announced that the directors with former or current ties to CCG Note, the Cove’s declarant/developer, would be seeking the advice of a working group of Board members and members of the Property Management Team on how to allocate CCG Note votes in the annual Board election.

The working group would be asked to recommend how CCG Note should allocate the 1080plus votes in its inventory in the annual election.

Hearn suggested that it might take a little time for a successor to emerge, especially if a prospective new president senses that he or she “might be a target” of critics in the way that Hearn often has.

Hearn said he was stepping down as president in the hopes that it would lower the po- litical temperature in Captain’s Cove and help persuade those who have been engaged in litigation against CCGYC to drop the association as a defendant, enabling cost savings from escalating legal expenses from three separate lawsuits, all handled by the same Virginia Beach lawyer.

“It is my hope that [the voting Board members] can convince” Concerned Citizens of Captain’s Cove members that “their actions are causing long-term damage to the community. Those CCCC members may make a lot of noise, but their lack of strategy and planning is just creating a ‘murder-suicide’ financial event for themselves and CCGYC.”

He said that dues-paying lot owners are the “murder-corpse,” while the “suicide corpse” is comprised of homeowners who he said “will bear a larger percentage of future assessments as more and more of those dues-paying lot owners default as the community takes many steps back.”

But Hearn said that CCCC members are miscalculating if they believe their actions are taking a toll on the developer/declarant.

On the contrary, “those same actions are just making the Declarant’s profitability more likely, as it lowers the value of the unfinished lots CCG Note continues to purchase as it assembles blocks of lots to sell to builders.

“In addition, the CCCC faction seems to have no appreciation of how the collaborative discussions between the declarant and non-declarant property owners have led to lower operating costs, fewer capital expenditures, and increased cash flow for CCGYC over the past nine years, even though all of them were discussed and approved in open session,” he said.

Hearn said that if these lawsuits against CCGYC and CCG Note are not dropped, “I don’t see any willingness by the Declarant in continuing those [cooperative] efforts, as they will deploy those resources towards continuing its winning streak in the courts, where the bluster and disinformation campaign by CCCC and the Birckhead et al group continue to be exposed for being empty threats with no legal basis.”

Hearn said should the plaintiffs voluntarily drop their suits, CCG Note would be willing to step up and make land it owns in Sections 14 and 15 available for use as a dredging spoil site, either as a location for the transfer of spoil from Treasure Island, which has reached capacity and can no longer be used, or as a new dredge spoil disposal site.

Conversely, if the litigation continues, the developer won’t be willing to make its land available, thereby forcing the association to incur

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Directors vote to change recount rules

At the June 19 Board of Directors meeting, the directors voted unanimously for a by-laws change that will preclude CCGYC members during a recount of the annual Board election from reviewing other member ballots, an inspection process previously allowed by the bylaws.

Also at the meeting General Manager Justin Wilder reported that for the first time, the property management team will send a proof of the ballot in the annual Board election later this year to CCGYC auditors for a review before the ballots are sent out.

The Cove’s audit firm, Rosen, Sapperstein & Friedlander, LLC, will be handling the counting of ballots in the election.

Director Tim Hearn announced that CCG Note would like a recommendation from a work group that would be established to make recommendation on how votes associated with the developer’s 1,080-plus properties in Captain’s Cove should be cast in this year’s Board election.

The working group as proposed would be comprised of members of the property management team and the Operating Committee.

The proposal is part of a new effort by the developer to cede more control of CCGYC affairs to residents with no ties to CCG Note.

The developer has not had its officers as a majority of CCGYC Board members for quite some time.

Tim Hearn

From Page 51 substantial cost in finding an alternative, Hearn said.

Hearn informed his and Holland’s intentions to resign as CCGYC officers in an executive session following the June 19 meeting.

The resignations were announced following another executive session on June 20, after which the Board’s statement was released.