My Rim Village

Photos of Unkept Rim Village Grounds that Moab Executive Services Manager Cherry Griffiths claims were "Staged Photographs"

Rim Village Homeowners Association Information – 3686 Spanish Valley Road, Moab, UT

Rim Village collects HOA dues from its Homeowners and has hired three current homeowners’ for profit management company to manage the association. Annual HOA dues as of 2009 are $2160 or $180 per month. Current HOA dues exceed annual property taxes which are approximately $1500. Average 3 bedroom home values for 2009 has decreased to $260,000, net of real estate, title and closing fees. In 2008 two board members who are Rim Village homeowners, Valerie Gilliam and Lance Parker are the ones responsible for the current HOA management company called MESS. Numerous homeowners give MESS a failing grade for the work, or lack of work they perform for Rim Village’s HOA. Ms. Gilliam and Mr. Packer were on the HOA board that voted 2-1 to give money and management control of the HOA to three Rim Village homeowners. A few board members abstained from the vote, because they were the ones forming a for profit management company. The lone dissenting vote was Gary Karasick who upheld the moral high ground that HOAs should be for the benefit of the members, not to enrich some enterprising homeowners with an income stream and tax write off scheme.

The current for profit company, Moab Executive Services, or MESS for short, – is operated by three Rim Village homeowners, Brenda Flanders, (former President of the HOA), Robyn Bertoch (former President of the HOA) and Cherry Griffiths – (former board member of the HOA) the “onsite manager” who enjoys Rim Village so much her own unit is for sale. The 100+ HOA members pay these three individuals for profit company $5,000 a month – and they decide what services they want to provide to the HOA. These three homeowners are not required to itemize how they spend the nonprofit HOA’s money or divulge how profitable the account is for them. There is no reduction in the $5,000 per month that MESS receives for the winter months and MESS does not maintain the lawns or landscape grounds during these months.

From the February 2009 annual board meeting, a substantial number of proxy votes were given to Dan Brimhall, another Rim Village homeowner, to represent the homeowners. In the most bizarre moment in Rim Village HOA history, the proxy votes were not allowed to be introduced. The motion to introduce them died on the floor, along with the rights of each of these homeowners. Bradley Bertoch, the husband of Robyn Bertoch was the one videotaping the annual meeting and yelling for Brenda L Flanders, Attorney-at-Law to take control of the meeting that turned into a circus. The meeting was reminiscent of the February 2008 meeting which simply broke up into a shouting match. When the final votes were counted to elect new board members, Brenda L. Flanders, the current HOA President in her final term, was NOT reelected to the HOA board and let out a loud audible “Goddamnit” in frustration that her own HOA members absolutely refused to let her continue on the HOA board.

Discipline Action against Principle of Moab Executive Services, Brenda L. Flanders.

On August 3, 2005, the Chair of the Ethics and Discipline Committee of the Utah Supreme Court entered an Order of Discipline: Public Reprimand against Brenda L. Flanders for violation of Rules 1.5(a) (Fees), 8.1(b) (Bar Admission and Disciplinary Matters), and 8.4(a) (Misconduct) of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

In summary:
Ms. Flanders charged an excess fee for a chapter 7 bankruptcy case given the number of assets and the non-complex income involved, along with her years of experience in bankruptcy law. Ms. Flanders failed to respond to requests for a response to the informal complaint.

We have had several reports of HOA members being contacted by Cherry Griffiths, the onsite manager (who is currently selling her own Rim Village home) and telling them that they were behind in payment of the HOA fees. They have been threatened with the removal of cable service and told they may not use the common area facilities. A disturbing point is Cherry is claiming HOA fees were delinquent prior to MESS taking over the financial record keeping of the association. In addition, years have gone by with no notification to the homeowners and now Cherry is swinging the judgment hammer and assessing penalty fees to the alleged non paid dues.

Dan Brimhall and Sharon Butler were elected to serve as HOA board members for 2009. Dan Brimhall sold his unit in 2009 at Rim Village shortly after and resigned from the HOA board. Sharon Butler serves as the secretary.

Jim Peters – Former Finance Chair – left the HOA board sometime after midyear 2009. Jim had expressed interest in seeing the financial records and was named the Finance Chair back in 2008.

Lance Parker – The second vote who pushed Brenda L. Flanders, Robyn Bertoch and Cherry Griffiths into obtaining the exclusive MESS management contract. Well after the extremely high disapproval of the first “handy man” MESS hired, Mr. Packer decided to offer his own son to provide handyman services through MESS. To the victors goes the spoils and as you can see from the pictures at the top of the page – why is the Rim Village grounds such a MESS?

Valerie Gilliam, a 2009 HOA board member who is a personal friend Brenda L. Flanders and volunteered to be the HOA president in 2009. She has defended Brenda L. Flander’s for profit HOA company on many occasions. Valerie has also rejected a competing bid to manage the HOA that came in considerably lower than the money that is being paid to MESS. You may ask Valerie to show you this bid, if she does not, we will happily email it to you. Just contact us.