No RV park! No more condos! No jungle! No lakes filled with alligators or pythons hanging from the trees.
Greg Washio, Candidate Master Board
Multi-Family Homes
I recently became a proud grandpa. My daughter and her husband live in Tel Aviv. I was very concerned when they spent night after night in a bomb shelter. I begged her to come back until the war was over. She declined. Last month, Noa arrived healthy. All is well. She was right. Israel had a plan. They didn’t stick their head in the sand. Now I have plans for Boca Delray.
I’m a creative, tech savvy, financial conservative with excellent analytical skills. Always willing to listen and compromise. I served as the BDR webmaster for years, was Captain of the Boca Delray Tennis Team and VP of the Tennis Association. Please contact me to help my campaign. I need your help to make Boca Delray an upscale community again without higher and higher HOA dues. Below is my platform and positive solutions.
1). Freeze the budget in 2027.
2). Record all Master Board meetings again to improve transparency. I’m the owner that persuaded our former Property Manage to start recordings for your convenience.
3). Allow you to ask questions or speak on any community related topic that are not on the agenda, during open forum at all Master Board Meetings. You should be heard.
4). Complete the new Boca Delray 5 Year Reserve and Strategic Infrastructure Study.
5). Determine and disclose the cost of future golf course updates. They start at $150,000 and could grow to $1 million or more.
6). Allow you to vote on assessments for non-infrastructure related projects over $100,000.
7). Keep your future HOA dues as low as possible. Capital improvement projects should not be financed through the operating budget from higher HOA dues.
8). Adopt Brian Eichler and Ray N’s Boca Delray Master Golf Course Plan, or a modest golf initiation fee.
I will work with the Master Board to correct a mortal sin our original development company made in 1986. Their business plan was to sellout fast, then move on. An upscale Boca Delray opened with over 200 owners buying annual golf memberships, but no initiation fee was required. Initiation fees are normally used to finance future golf course improvements and avoid straining operating budgets. The developers blunder created a permanent financial burden on our community and contributed to a rundown Boca Delray.
My intention is NOT to “attack” golfers or divide the community. Simply advocate for the Silent Majority by stating facts.
We should stop being a bargain hunters paradise for golf.There is a natural human tendency to promote one’s own interest over that of others. 8 of the 9 Board members are golfers.
We spend $750,000 to maintain a year round, 18 hole course. We should only allow annual 18 hole memberships. Allowing the most prosperous snow birds cheaper, seasonal passes, is absurd.
This year the Master Board only raised golf rates for owners 3%, while your HOA dues were raised by 6%.
75% of the players at BDR are outsiders. Our escalating HOA dues subsidize a public course.
The 7400 owners at Kings Point only pay $100 each year to support their golf course. We pay $2,000.
The City of Boca Raton’s public golf course 1 mile east of us charges $120 per round for 18 holes during the season.
Born at the end of the Industrial Age in Detroit, Michigan. The second of five. Son of a sailor that was only home when the Great Lakes froze over. All winter the family practiced his thrifty habits acquired during the Great Depression. Dad stretched every dime preparing for a strike that never happened. I became a financial conservative. As an officer, occasionally a lucky sibling sailed with him aboard the big ore boats. In 57, mom drove her crew to the River Rouge plant. We witnessed his company launch the Pride of the American side, the Edmund Fitzgerard.
Detroit was the wealthiest city on earth. Our eternal enclave was six city blocks bordered by a railroad, the city incinerator and highways. Red brick homes stood on fifty foot lots in strait lines with names like Rosemont, Faust and Penrod. Canopies of tall Dutch elms shaded the streets and green lawns. During the sweet summer swarms of playing kids paused for passing Chevrolets, Fords and Chryslers. Snow covered our world from late November to March.
We roamed freely without fear or adult interference. Friends and adventure beckoned. Strangers were noticed. Kids dashed home when the streetlights lit up. The city built a new school featuring a reinforced roof for bomb protection. Students walked to school mornings, Pledged Allegiance to the Flag and went home for lunch. We learned the Golden Rule, the American Way and how to remain calm during air raid drills. I became a Cub Scott and safety boy.
One magical summer mom flew us to visit her dad in Clearwater. Grandpa drove us to unspoiled beaches for days of playing in the surf or nights of fishing. Our hero was a 6 foot 3”, wounded WWI vet and retired Detroit Police Officer. He served on the bunko squad and discouraged my dad from buying Florida land. Dad took his advice and invested in stocks.
Turning eleven, I joined the Boy Scouts. I fondly remember sleep in tents under the stars. Every night I pedaled a bike delivering the Detroit Free Press. Rain, snow and sub-zero cold never stopped me from earning money. A torch was passed to a new generation. We watched Walter Cronkite cry when JFK and his bright future died. My older brother Albert saw the Beatles. A page turned and we wondered why our intercity was on fire. Detroit started to unravel.
My teenage years were spent riding in muscle cars with Motown music on the AM radio. Cody High School looked and felt like prison. I was a greaser that excelled in machine shop. Decades later I forced my daughters to experience Detroit. They grew up in a guarded, gated, West Boca Community. Beetles wiped-out the beautiful Dutch elms. Homes were boarded up. When cruising the enclave, they urged me to “go faster”. Driving pass Cody one remarked, “Dad, you never told us you were in prison”.
The day after I graduated from Cody the family moved to Ft Lauderdale. Leaving a girlfriend broke our young hearts. That autumn I took Eastern back to Detroit for a visit. Still 17, riding with friends, the cops stopped us and found a joint. Arrested, I was barred from leaving the state. Mom kept dad in the dark. I rented a room and enrolled in college. Supported myself stocking shelves all night in a grocery store. Money was tight. Pretty girls were everywhere.
Friends didn’t return from Vietnam. A bad car crash prevented me from military duty. Us cool guys bought motorcycles. My best friend and roommate, a veteran, crippled himself in an accident. My bike was stolen. I broke another heart and moved back home to attend the University of Miami. Detroit was still riding high and I planned to return. Met my first wife and graduated with a BBA. The oil embargo shot Detroit into a tailspin. By then I had sand in my shoes.
A fascinating career path traveled from sales, technology, marketing, analytical analysis, risk management, and business development with leadership stops at Geogia Pacific, Liberty Mutual, Avatar Holdings, BellSouth and AT&T. At FAU I obtained a MBA. I started my own successful on-line business after the AT&T buyouts. Later, I lost my shirt in a failed franchise. Recently I launched MaxVa.com for my lively wife Nilin. She does convenient, at your home manicures, pedicures and enhancements.
Leading teams for BellSouth I routinely visited major accounts with sales reps. We usually saw communication managers. Once I was surprised when the owner greeted us in the lobby. We enjoyed a long chat in his private office. I heard the man was rich but really didn’t know until years later. A school my sister Luann attended, Marymount College was renamed in his honor, Lynn University.
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