"THE FOUNTAIN OF INFORMATION", Saturday, December 10, 2005
Headline - AND NOW...THE REST OF THE STORY... (My regards to
Paul Harvey)
I still do not know for certain if the OVER $519,000.00
worth of checks is for the front courtyard or rear courtyard
but here is how it all happened... THE REST OF THE STORY...
OF HOW ONE OWNER CAME INTO POSSESSION OF OVER FIVE HUNDRED
THOUSAND DOLLARS WORTH OF CHECKS MADE OUT TO FCCA.
The below time-line is from my best recollection at this
time and is subject to minor time-line errors. THE REST OF
THE STORY IS MESHED WITHIN THIS TIME-LINE AND CONCLUDES AT
THE END.
8/29/2005 - Monday Morning - Hurricane Katrina hit FCC -
Lenny and 8 others rode it out in the rear courtyard. Many
others rode it out in the front courtyard. The power and
running water were knocked out for both courtyards. I had
my tub full of water for flushing my toilet and taking
nightly "baths". I also had my freezer full of frozen
gallons of water and my frozen meat.. hamburger, hot dogs,
roasts, pork chops, etc.
9/1/2005 - Thursday Morning - The water receded to the point
where we could finally walk out to Veterans Blvd. Seven of
the nine people in the rear courtyard had decided to leave
at that point and left by Friday morning or shortly before.
"Boo" and I walked up to Veterans that Thursday morning and
immediately ran into a CBS News Crew who interviewed both of
us. I started doing some clean-up around the courtyard
once the water receded. Charlie showed up during this time
and I told him that I would be willing to work for the
Condo's doing hurricane cleanup at a very affordable daily
rate. Several days later Chet Hingle showed up and told me
I was hired. Charlie was spending most of his time on the
front courtyard and I was spending most of my days cleaning
the rear courtyard. We would work together some days on the
really big projects.
9/2/2005 - Friday - My eight gallons of frozen water had
finally started to allow my fifteen pounds of frozen meat to
defrost so I barbecued all of my meat and the last of us in
the rear courtyard ate freshly barbecued meat before it was
just "Boo" and I left to hold down the fort. I brought half
of the meat up to the front courtyard and distributed it to
the people staying up there.
9/3/2005 - Saturday - "Boo" finally evacuated also...
leaving only me (Lenny) living in the rear courtyard. Every
night I would board up and blockade all of the entrances to
the rear courtyard to keep out any possible looters. At
night, it was so dark, quiet and eerie.. AND HOT.. but by
that point, I could not leave if I wanted to, since I was
like Dr. Doolittle.. baby-sitting my own two fish tanks, a
Betta bowl, a Cockatiel, two cats, three turtles and a four
foot iguana.... and a partridge in a pear tree! :-D (Of
course, the partridge in a pear tree is in honor of the
Christmas season.. but we did have six parrots staying in
the magnolia trees in the rear courtyard. They still come
around on a regular basis.)
During the two weeks of no power, that damned iguana would
sometimes make a racket in the middle of the night when it
would climb to the top of its cage and then fall down. I
would wake up thinking that looters were trying to break
through my barricades. It took several nights of these loud
noises and me sneaking around to see where the noise was
coming from, and checking all of the barricades, before I
figured out it was the iguana in the courtyard making this
racket! I'll have to tell ya'll about the JPSO/shooting
incident at another time!
9/5/2005 - Monday - FEMA had set up a distribution point
over on David Drive near Airline Drive.. in the JET Bus
Headquarters area. I started my daily treks to get Ice,
Water and MRE's. I had no transportation, so I would walk
or hitchhike there and back every day and get two cases of
water, two cases of MRE's and around 40 pounds of ice and
bring it back to FCC in a shopping cart or on my flat bed
cart. I would give most of it away to people in the front
courtyard and save enough for me and any returning residents
in the rear courtyard.
Thank you Charlie... for the many rides there!
9/7/2005 - Wednesday - Entergy came out and decided to NOT
turn on our power for either courtyard and I went up and
begged them to reconsider. The supervisor said they would
be out the next day to inspect and only turn off the power
to the seriously affected units. They never showed up and I
spent hours each night on the phone with Entergy reps. and
supervisors fighting to get our power turned on.
9/11/2005 - Entergy finally came out and turned on our power
on the 14th day of no power. Running water started a little
before but there was only enough pressure to get water out
of the downstairs faucets and sometimes by the rear
courtyard shower. It wasn't drinkable but at least we could
clean up a little.
9/20/2005 - Charlie came up to me with a check from FCCA and
told me that Chet said "We don't need you anymore". I had
been fired! It was not a major problem as I had already
started lining up gutting jobs with many of the owners but
that was the beginning of the end of what little respect I
had for Chet Hingle. Chet had just talked to me a few
minutes earlier and was not man enough to tell me himself.
He waited till he was leaving and had Charlie do his "dirty
work".
My respect for Chet Hingle had been waning due to many
incidents that happened in the three weeks that I worked for
FCCA. He had ignored people who asked him questions. He
had simply turned and walked off on other people while they
were talking to him. He had Charlie and I go up on the roof
and put tarps over ONLY ONE UNIT in the front courtyard... a
unit politically connected to Chet Hingle and the Board...
while IGNORING ALL OF THE OTHER UNITS WITH ROOF DAMAGE. I
told Charlie that this was WRONG and Charlie agreed! One
day, even after I had been fired, when Chet hired me to come
and gut his kitchen and bath, he WENT OFF AND CURSED OUT an
insurance adjuster who had parked in his driveway. Bear in
mind that Chet lives in a big house with a double wide
driveway and there was ample room for both cars but Chet
just started cursing this man out. I thought it was a joke
at first and then I realized it wasn't and cringed at how
Chet had treated that man. Chet had previously told me (and
I believe Charlie was present as well) that he had a plan in
the works on dealing with the Condos but he did not want to
tell any of the owners what his plan was because they would
all want to put their two-cents in and mess up HIS PLAN! I
thought this was wrong of Chet to not tell people what was
going on. The number one complaint back then was people not
knowing what was going on... whether it was due to poor
communications from Washington, DC, from Baton Rouge, from
Aaron Broussard or from Chet Hingle. People just wanted to
know something so they could move forward with their lives.
(NOTE TO CHET AND THE BOARD - - THEY STILL DO!)
Since I felt so strong about giving people information, I
started talking to every person that came back to the rear
courtyard and started compiling phone numbers and email
addresses so I could let them know things as I learned them.
For example, I spent hours calling people when the full
water pressure was restored. I spent hours calling people
when the power was turned back on. I spent hours helping
people move some of their belongings.. helping them load
their vehicles with things they wanted to save from the
devastation.
When I learned that the Condo Association had a master flood
insurance policy, I started telling people that information
as well....
AND NOW THE REST OF THE STORY!
Based on this limited information that the Condo Association
had a master flood insurance policy, the unit owner of unit
#58 called Chet Hingle to find out more information. CHET
HINGLE HUNG UP ON HIM after refusing to give him any
information. Being undaunted by Chet's rude and obnoxious
behavior, the owner of unit #58 called his own mortgage
company to find out if they knew who the flood insurance was
through. Their mortgage company gave them the following
information:
The flood insurance was issued by the National Flood
Insurance Program and was administered by Fidelity National
Surety Insurance Company. The Policy number was
17251010045801 (remember that this owner was told "801" by
their mortgage company). The phone number to reach this
insurance company was 1-800-638-9280.
This owner then called the insurance company and submitted
their own claim since Chet Hingle had refused to give them
any information. This owner did not know that the policy
was a master policy on behalf of the entire Association and
did not know that the policy number ending in "801" may have
been the wrong policy number for his unit. He was only
filing a claim for his unit. Chet Hingle was refusing to
give people any information about the insurance and I
continued to tell people the limited information that I knew
at that point... that the insides of their units were
probably covered.. that is the floors, walls, cabinets,
appliances, etc... but not their personal property.
I had never talked to the owner of #58 during the days and
weeks that all of this was taking place. I did not hear
from this owner until after I reported that the advance
money was on the way for the rear courtyard. At the same
time that the $200,000.00 check was being delivered to the
Condo Association for the rear courtyard, this unit owner
received a check for $150,000.00 and a check for $5,000.00.
These checks were made out to the Condo Association but
referenced his name, his unit number and was mailed to him
at his off-premise address. This owner did not know what
to do with these checks and he did not want to turn them
over to Chet Hingle since he did not trust Chet Hingle due
to Chet's actions and inaction's up to that point.. NEAR THE
END OF OCTOBER, 2005... NEARLY TWO MONTHS AFTER THE
HURRICANE.
This owner simply advised their attorney of what had
transpired and waited to see what would happen next. This
owner never did do anything with the checks. The
Association eventually distributed the partial payments from
the advance money around 10/30/2005. Nothing ever did
happen about the other checks.. that is until last week when
this owner received THREE more checks adding up to the total
of OVER $519,000.00 that had been sent to this owner at
their off-premise address. This owner confided in me about
these additional checks and then called me again on Tuesday
morning, December 13, 2005 and told me that Chet Hingle had
just called him and wanted to know about the checks.
Apparently Chet Hingle was waiting for these additional
checks and called the insurance company on their status and
learned that the checks had been mailed to this unit owner.
This owner advised Chet Hingle that, "I didn't think that
their settlement for my condo was enough and that I was
bringing the checks to my attorney and he just told me he
would call him." Chet agreed to this proposal. This owner
also asked Chet Hingle to bring copies of ALL information
concerning his unit, #58, to the unit owners attorney, as
far as the insurance and financial information was
concerned.
As of this Friday night at 10:00 p.m., Chet Hingle has not
delivered this information to this owners attorney or picked
up the OVER $519,000.00 worth of checks made out to FCCA.
EDITORIAL REPLY -
I wonder if the $150,000.00 check was actually the advance
payment for the front courtyard flood victims? If so, why
didn't Chet Hingle track down this check way back in October
so the front courtyard would have some advance money too?
Did Chet Hingle stop payment on this $150,000.00 check and
get a duplicate check issued? If so, why hasn't Chet Hingle
told any of the front courtyard victims that they have some
advance money available? Once again.. SO MANY QUESTIONS AND
STILL NO ANSWERS FROM YOUR MANAGER AND BOARD!
I'm sure that Chet and the Board will try to blame this
owner for the debacle but if Chet and the Board had been
properly communicating with ALL OWNERS from the beginning,
this owner would never have filed their own claim and there
would never have been the mis-trust that currently exists
between most of the owners and the Manager/Board... whom are
supposed to be representing the owners but have MISERABLY
failed to do so!!!!
Until next time... let "The Fountain of Information" flow!!!
Lenny Vasbinder, Editor
"THE FOUNTAIN OF INFORMATION"
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http://lennyvasbinder.blogspot.com
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