I served on the CDD Board from 2016-2020. During my four years on the Board, we assessed an average of $3,624,735 per year, with the final year being assessed at $3,644,871. You can see I kept the assessments consistent over the timeframe.
Tim Nargi has demonstrated that he believes being fiscally sound is not necessary. Over the last two years, he has voted to increase non-debt service assessments from $3,619,782 to $4,309,483. The 2025 budget shows no increase but leaves the reserve fund $370,951 short (see below). In addition, 11 signature medjool palms were cut down over the last four months with only 2 replaced. The Board put aside no extra money to replace the other 9 medjool palms that cost $8,000 each.
Tim’s disregard for your money has caused your taxes to increase substantially over Tim’s term. Here is a chart to show you:
For 2025, the Board got cute and decided to not raise the assessments. To accomplish this, they used money from the reserve fund to pay for items not included in the reserve fund. Tim voted to take $180,000 out of the reserve fund to pay LT Kim $180,000 for maintenance of 11 conveyed properties from Park Square. Also, $150,000 for pickleball courts was approved to be paid from the reserve fund. When I did an analysis of the reserve fund it shows, by taking the $330,000 out of the reserve fund, the CDD ended up with a $370,951 shortfall.
This is simply robbing Peter to pay Paul. It is not sustainable and shows you how fiscally incompetent Tim is. When you take into account the medjools and the reserve fund shortfall, 2025 assessments should have been 10.51% higher. Tim clearly doesn’t care if we maintain Mirabay as a premier waterfront community.
Let’s look at examples of additional egregious waste of money and lack of accountability over the past three years.
In fiscal 2022, Tim voted for $478,000 of increased expenses.
Taking a brief look at fiscal 2022 (running from October 1, 2021 through September 30, 2022), you will see the Harbor Bay CDD hired Governmental Management Services (GMS) at a contracted rate 70% higher than the previous company. That totaled $70K per year. We paid JAH Master Planners $51K for a study which was ill conceived and never used. The Board took the Vesta contract and increased lifeguard hours, café hours and maintenance hours. The fiscal budget was $670K for Vesta; the actual spend grew to $898K. Total landscape was budgeted at $670K; the actual came in at $707K. Keep in mind that $92,000 was withheld from RedTree and the actual excludes that $92,000. Looking at these four items the over budget amount (including the $92,000 that was withheld) totals $478K. Tim Nargi voted for all these items.
In fiscal 2023, Tim voted for $363,910 of fraudulent or wasted expenses.
Let’s look at what the Harbor Bay CDD Board did and didn’t do in fiscal 2023. After firing RedTree, the Harbor Bay CDD Board needed an interim contract for three months from October through December, so they could put out a formal bid for the landscaping contract. The Board solicited offers from contractors and received a bid from Down To Earth and Kim’s landscaping. Down to Earth was selected for the mowing portion at a rate of $26,531 per month to do lawn care only. For the weeding and care of the islands for three months, the Board had a bid of $46,800 from Down To Earth and a bid of $115,500 from Kim’s Landscaping. Per the September 2022 minutes, “Leventry concluded that Down to Earth’s bid was too low. Nargi agreed but went on to say that Down To Earth would maintain the islands, but Kim would make repairs as well.” Of course the Board and Tim went with Kim subject to Mr. Markunas defining a scope and final approval by the Chairman. So what happened with the scope? Nothing changed. In fact, the contract which called for Kim to do every island weekly was never enforced and Kim didn’t even get to some of the islands for two months. In addition, no repairs were done. $68,700 of funds wasted.
In November 2022, the Harbor Bay CDD Board paid L T Kim $3200 for tropical storm cleanup and another $1000 for trimming of trees above the sidewalk. Both of these items are included in the standard service section of his contract. Kim’s contract states, “The contractor shall not be responsible for cleaning after, or removing debris as the result of damage caused by major flooding or hurricanes, as part of this agreement, but otherwise shall be responsible for ordinary clean-up after storms (e,g. picking up palm fronds, leaves, debris, etc.” The contract also says, “Trees shall be pruned over sidewalks so as not to interfere with pedestrians or cars. This includes maintaining a minimum clearance of ten feet over sidewalks.” Total overpaid = $4200.
In November and December 2022, 75% of the assessments were received by the Harbor Bay CDD. GMS put this money in the checking account which earned .1% interest. The CDD’s account in the Florida Investment Trust fund was earning around 5% at this time. Tim and the Board’s lack of oversight cost the district $33,000 in interest. Tim has never publicly questioned GMS about this despite my e-mails to advise him.
In November 2022, after the Harbor Bay CDD Board chose to withhold $92,000 from outstanding invoices owed to RedTree, Vesta explained RedTree had satisfactorily completed the work on $53,000 of the withheld invoices. The Board voted to not pay the $53,000. Dan Leventry, Tim Nargi and Ryan Wick voted to withhold the $53,000. Mike Maurer and Trisha Nesse-Wysbrod voted to pay those invoices.
After Dan Leventry was voted to work as district liaison with counsel on a settlement with RedTree in November 2022, no updates were given and no shade sessions were held until September 2023. Tim never asked what was happening. What did Dan do from November 2022 through September 2023? The Board then settled for $150K with RedTree in October 2023. This was just an incompetent financial decision by the Harbor Bay CDD Board by spending $253,000 ($150K for the settlement and $103K in expenses through October) to settle $92,000 worth of withheld invoices when Vesta said the amount of work not completed appropriately by RedTree was $39,000. You would never be so cavalier with your own money. But Tim doesn’t mind spending your money frivolously. Another waste of $161,000.
Let’s consider 2023 finances. In January 2023, the Board hired Kim’s landscaping to apply slow release fertilizer onto the non turf areas at a cost of $38,000. In February, the Board agreed to a contract with Kim that included fertilizer as part of the standard service. In March, the Harbor Bay CDD Board approved $330,000 for Kim to upgrade the islands and Kim did a good job. The problem is that each island which was refurbished included fertilizer but was not itemized with a specific cost. Allowing for the fact that the majority of the refurbishments happened within two to three months after the $38,000 of slow release fertilizer was put down, it would seem that Mirabay taxpayers were overcharged for this. Considering some of the areas receiving the $38,000 of fertilizer were not islands (like the berm on SR41 or Villemaire) I estimate about 75% of the fertilizer charge was an overpayment. Add $30,000 into the total. Tim said nothing about this.
Upon adopting new landscaping contracts for both Russell and Kim, the Harbor Bay CDD Board hired OLM to rate the work done by each company. The landscaping contracts included a clause that the agreed upon amount would be paid at 75% and, if a score by OLM of 87% effective or higher was received, the company would earn a 25% bonus. In the 5 months OLM served Mirabay (prior to resigning because this Board would not listen), OLM failed Russell and Kim 3 out of 5 months. Russell was the first company to fail. When the discussion of their contract came up, Dean Walters pointed out that a contract is a contract and the Harbor Bay CDD Board did not pay the bonus. The two succeeding times Russell failed, the Board enforced the contract and no bonus was paid. However, when Kim failed, it was a different story. Tim Nargi complained that you can’t expect Kim to clean up everything at once. The three times that Kim failed to earn the score required for his bonus, the Board paid him the additional sum anyway. That totals $31,250 paid to Kim even though he did not earn it. Tim, of course, approved this payment.
In March 2023, the Board hired an attorney to investigate whether I “interfered in government business.” They paid this attorney $5,000. It shows you how far this Harbor Bay CDD Board will go to try and silence someone who understands that this CDD Board is wasting Mirabay taxpayer’s money. No update about my alleged interference has ever been given by the Board.
In May 2023, the Board approved $1755 for a budget workshop that was held a year earlier in May of 2022. The standard service section of the contract calls for an annual budget workshop. They did not have a budget workshop in 2023. So they overcharged us $1755 and then didn’t provide a service that cost $1755. Kim put in marigolds but failed to change out the very front entrance where the Pentas were located. The contract calls for 4000 annuals at $1.50 each for a total of $6000. Kim put in 2500 annuals but charged us for 4000 annuals. This is an overcharge of $2250. Another $5760 overpaid by this Board. Tim said nothing about these overpayments.
Vesta charges us a 12% fee for taxes paid for the contractors who earn their money by giving lessons. Think tennis pro and personal trainers. They also charge this fee for tips and bartending since the salary portion is being paid by whoever is hiring them. The only problem is that the contract says nothing about a 12% fee. The Board is not verifying bills. In addition, the contract calls for a 70/30 split for group exercise, but that split is not happening. We are being overcharged for this as well, and the Board keeps paying it. I have sent this information to the supervisors including Tim but no one seems to care. My best guess, and it is only a guess, is this amounts to a $25,000 overpayment for fiscal 2023. The September 30, 2023 financial statements indicate we had no swim lessons for the year and we paid $3100 in commissions. Has Tim asked about this?
The items I list above total for fiscal 2023 total $363,910.
Through July 2024, Tim has approved $222,862 of fraudulent and wasted expenses. This makes Tim’s total for the last three years of $1.06M.
Here is the detail for fiscal 2024.
Throughout fiscal 2023, Tim Nargi continued to opine that the Waterway rules needed to be amended. At the October meeting, it was noted that the District had spent $70,000 on this, and Tim wanted to change the word “adopt.”
In November and December, money was left in the general fund bank account earning .1% instead of the FIT bank account earning 5.5%. Lost interest totaled $11,000.
In January 2024, the CDD Board approved two invoices from Vesta for November and December. Both invoices were identical with the exception of a $3750 bonus for the general manager. After I complained about the $3750 bonus which was not approved, Vesta reimbursed the CDD. For the December bill, the cover sheet on the invoice said $85,660.07. The detail sheet shows a total of $78,932.37. Vesta put the wrong cover sheet on the invoice, and the Board failed to check and erroneously paid it. This is an overpayment of $6,697.70. In addition Vesta used a gross up of 23% but the contract says 21.71%. This is another overpayment of $798.48. Total overpaid for these items equals $11,246.18. (Click for expanded detail)The Board also approved $45,000 for 3 services of “additional fertilizer” recommended by the landscape contractor Kim’s Landscaping. The contract calls for Kim’s landscaping to determine rates of fertilizer needed and to fertilize 6 times per year. Are we to believe that he needed to fertilize 9 times? This is another $45,000 that should not have been paid. Unfortunately, the Board doesn’t know what is required in Kim’s contract.
In March, the Board paid a bill for property taxes at 606 Mirabay Blvd for $876.32. Now 606 Mirabay is just listed with that address but is not a house. It is the municipal row. Basically it is Mirabay Blvd beginning at Tybee Island and heading west. We were charged for solid waste disposal and solid waste collection. I brought this up at the CDD meeting. The Board did nothing. I called the county and they confirmed the error was on their part. Why doesn’t our Board know this? When will this Board hold vendors accountable?
In June, the Board approved a payment of $3,934.39 for USA Services of Florida for street sweeping. The invoice total was $934.39 resulting in an overpayment of $3,000. The Board approved $4,000 for “heavy trimming” of trees overhanging the wetlands in Admiral Point. This is part of Kim’s contract. The Board approved two $1,100 payments to John Hindman for live music on June 30th. This is a duplicate payment of $1,100.
In July, the Board approved paying Kim’s Landscaping $10,383.34 per month for maintenance of the 11 parcels that were conveyed from Park Square to the CDD. The 2nd addendum to the acquisition agreement which sets the rules for the conveyances, says that Park Square needs to pay for maintenance of conveyed parcels until the new fiscal year. This is an overpayment for 4 months of servcies that Park Square should assume, totaling $41,533.36. The Board also approved $36,000 to mulch the berm on route 41. Kim’s contract indicates all Mirabay areas will be mulched once per year for $82,500. This is a $36,000 overpayment.
At the August meeting, the Board approved a $1,000 payment to Kim for “heavy trimming” on Merritt Island. Kim is required to do trimming according to his contract. The Board approved $1,196 for Republic services. The only problem was that this invoice was originally paid on May 7th. The Board approved $1,050 for Paskert Divers Thompson on an invoice that totaled $140. Through July 2024, these overpayments total $222,862.