Letter to the Editor: FCSA Annual Meeting 2025

The annual meeting was held with election results perpetuating the constant churn of the board membership, with the “Make the Fort Great Again” candidates from the last election having failed to meet the expectations they set with their “MFGA” agenda.  As our longer-term residents know, the board and management are turned out every 2-3 or so years.  They all come in with “Bright and Shiny” faces, combed hair, polished boots and a list of pet projects they promise to complete for the electorate. “Election Promises”

They then encounter the lack of any meaningful (truthful) financial statements, without which they have no idea what the future obligations are, and what the revenues might be.  So, they fall back onto, “how much cash is in the checking account?”  Hence the cash accounting system.

Two years of audited financials were released at the Annual Membership Meeting at the end of March, which were available before the election, but not released to the serfs (members).  Not disclosing disappointing truthful reporting, 18 and 6 months old did not favor the hopeful incumbent.  In the intervening 6 months, releasing only unreliable (fake news) P&L’s, promoted by Triumvir, did not satisfy management’s needs, so a mysterious negotiated sales number was “accrued” to bolster Triumvir’s “cash” reporting. 

Jenn Fedde, with Triumvir, defended the cash reporting in a “Financial Q&A” at the membership meeting, as the accrual system was too complicated for the simple-minded residents of FCSA. By the way, the audited financials use the accrual system…Jenn went on to hand out loosely veiled blows about the archaic accounting system that hasn’t been replaced, despite Triumvir’s big promises and paychecks to overhaul the FCSA financial department. She significantly discounted the value of Jason Long’s donated work, which likely saved FCSA at least $50k, with a dismissive tip of the hat, and gave herself and Triumvir several pats on the back for being transparent, creating a “beautiful system” (a description which she used multiple times in the presentation of an audit completed by an independent auditor, who for some reason was not asked to present his own findings) and providing the work that resulted in a “beautiful audit.” Of note, the “beautiful audit” of her own work, was provided to her to review, before the Board voted to approve it, and before members had a chance to see it. She went on to generously accept questions about the audited financial statements, which no one in the audience has seen. 

During the Q&A, Travis Huey (the only person to ask a question) asked Jenn, as a CPA, which statements she would want to see provided to members, and they danced around agreeing that a P&L, Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows would helpful, despite her not being a CPA, and David Mosberg, her Triumvir boss, chiming in to say that a statement of cash flows or balance sheet is not really important. This fell a bit flat when he had to clarify that the golf cart lease payments would only be found on the statement of cash flows. Note: One of Alan Peterson’s (2.5 GM’s ago) first actions in 2021/2022 was to purchase new golf carts for the golf course, approximately $120k.  The purchase is only disclosed in the footnotes of the audited statements and the payments are shown on the Statement of Cash Flows which we received once again 18 months or so after the due date.  $35k is FCSA’s materiality disclosure basis so the golf cart purchase disclosure was required in the accrual based audited financials prepared according to GAAP.

 So back to P&L’s. Lisa Vale had been “working on a P&L by category” for months before she was voted out, but largely dismissed all requests by multiple members for the report. Triumvir could have produced one in 10 minutes, especially for the $3200/month they were getting before the raise. I believe that it was this contempt for the membership that turned her out of office. Mr. John Wylie took over at some point during this tennis match of talking points, and preached about there not being fraud, shifting the focus to guessing how many millions it would take to “Make the Fort Great Again.” It was a lovely sermon. He expressed his disappointment that there were not more questions during the Financial Q&A, about financials which were not provided to members. It occurred to me how over the course of their terms, the MFGA talking points had changed for Lisa, John and Tony. At their respective beginnings, we heard things like, “Money is being wasted everywhere,” “We are going to be totally transparent,” “We are going to re-open the par-3 golf course,” (Apparently they didn’t know that they couldn’t afford the existing 18-hole golf course), “We are going to sell more Recreational Memberships to the residents of Brackettville,” (What?) “We will increase lot sales,” “Superior management" and bright and shiny marketing & motivational speeches will prevail.” Additionally, Lisa and Memo promised no increases in the assessments ever, stated that the employees do not deserve a raise, and voted against or abstained from the increase of approx. 9.3%. Then he walked back his statement after he was re-elected. Lisa felt that a 3% increase in wages and assessments was acceptable and voted against the approx. 9.3% increase. These two sat by numbly, during the “Grand Inquisitor & Prosecutor Foghorn” tongue lashing of all previous board members (volunteers) since the Fort’s inception, for not appropriately raising the assessments to the level necessary for the two saviors to complete their vision. However, they did make an ethics pledge not to criticize any former or current board members… apparently not realizing that 2 of their sitting compatriots/conspirators voted against increasing the assessments.  I would like to have heard that pillow talk. 

And so, the Grand Inquisitor brought the meeting to a close on a sour note.  Probably due to too much sanctimonious practice along with Prosecutor Foghorn ferreting out the last evil witch on the board and repeatedly conjuring ways to burn that thorn in their side pointing out every egregious sin and immorality committed.  

Each new turn of the board promises to clear the sins of the past management and recreate the Elysian Fields. This is not unique to the past or current board members. FCSA’s biggest issue is the constant 2-year churn of the mostly unqualified managerial people, and unqualified board members sticking their noses in and hiring friends and family and running the operation. If FCSA is to move forward, this continual house cleansing must stop, and invest in qualified management. Fort employees have no idea who they are or will be working for. They forge on, in an air of uncertainty, with lack of supervision, support and constant directional changes.

In reality, there is not enough money for all of these “new” or “past” amenities and marketing programs.  Today’s marketers are mathematicians, programmers and Guerilla Marketers, not graphic artists.  The quest for the perfect coupon is futile. FCSA’s future assessment revenues as they stand today are limited by its founding documents, and due to secular changes, timeshares, vacation memberships and lot sales, are no longer viable business models.  FCSA’s paying membership has dropped from 6,500 at the peak to approximately 1,600.  Memberships continue to decline at a declining rate. Residential assessments have been stable at 831 or so over the same period.  This is our reality. Deal with it. Stop sniveling!

This is one of the finest places to live in this country.  I have lived in most corners of the USA.  FCSA will survive.