[BrianL99]

Having not been a Don Wiley fan in the past, I have to admit that watching him listen and respond to uniformed residents tossing nonsense at him for almost 2 hours and staying patient and informative, may have moved me into the "fan" column. Thanks for your efforts, Don.

At the risk of again running afoul of TOTV rules by being somewhat personal in a post, having listened to Don for almost 2 hours last night, I found that he was much more fair-minded and neutral than I previously thought. He did seem sympathetic to the Developer, but I think we all should be, as the Developer has created something with TV, that no one else has ever been able to do on such a large scale.

That said, some questions I have about the budget and District spending, was not within the scope of yesterday's discussion, as Don was focused on the newer areas of TV. I believe it was also a bit confusing (unintentionally) for newer residents that may not have grasp on how CDD's & TV works and the differences between the areas still owned by the Developer versus those that have been turned over to a CDD.

Don explanation of why there was a huge (56%) increase in maintenance fees for CDD #14 was clear and simple. I'm surprised at how many folks, simply didn't want to listen to how that actually works (or worse, the people who seem anxious to argue nonsense and toss grenades over the transom, like it's Don's fault they didn't read their purchase paperwork.)

Don said, "the Developer owns all the recreational centers and amenities". Unless I'm crazy (which some would argue is true), the Developer only owns amenities, until they're turned over to the controlling CDD in a specific area (which I thought was either VCCDD or SLCDD)? This was probably confusing to many who were listening.

Also, there was discussion about "who pays for what" during the construction phase, with Don saying that the Developer pays to build amenities and is responsible for the maintenance of such (& pays the fees), until all the lots are sold (which makes the developer "anxious" to sell out).

Unless I'm misunderstanding something about the CDD Bonds, the Developer is "paying", but only temporarily, as these costs are absorbed by the bond when complete.

So I'm going to structure my earlier question, differently.

There appears to be a 90% increase in the Salary & Wages budget line item for the upcoming FY. There seems to be an exorbitant amount of "miscellaneous maintenance" going on. The increase in Community Watch expenses appears outrageous. Again admitting to not being an expert on financial statements or budgets, it seems that the Budget would be much easier to decipher, if line items that show unusual variance, were footnoted and detailed.

For example, in the case of a 90% increase in Salary & Wages, part of that might be attributable to the absorption of a new CDD. The same with CW (although according to newspaper reports, that's not the case). Perhaps in an effort to be transparent, the Budget package has so much information, it's nearly impossible for a layman to understand it and figure out how much money is going where?

Is there a simpler way to look at this morass of paperwork, that makes it easier to digest or I'm simply doomed to always view budgets as gobbledygook?

[BTW, I googled "EWAC" at least 10 different ways and can't find it. Google apparently has never heard of it. Don says it exists, because the folks who ran CDD 7 weren't very smart. What the heck is it?]