Top Community Concerns

Many owners were surprised to learn that KW Property Management does not allow staff to perform work for individual owners, even after hours.

Most owners say they were never told that choosing KW would mean losing the ability to hire Coronado maintenance staff for work inside their units — something residents had relied on under every previous management company.

The issue isn’t KW’s internal policy — it’s the Board’s failure to disclose this important change before replacing FSR.

Historically, Coronado maintenance staff could assist residents after hours with small jobs, ensuring convenience and continuity.

Owners are now informed that they may not hire on-site staff privately.

Owners Ask: Why did we hire a company with this policy, and why were we not informed?

The Board’s eagerness to replace FSR ignored the continuity benefits of keeping them through the completion of ongoing projects.

That haste caused a difficult transition for both the Board and KW, especially when no Board members were on site to aid in the transition as committed by Fred.

Now the Board and KW are struggling to manage operations, and supposedly President Fred Ruda has delegated daily management responsibilities to owner Michael Berenson, who is managing both the KW relationship and its staff on a day-to-day basis with decision-making authority.

Many owners feel Mr. Berenson has been asked to take control of a situation that the Board and KW can no longer manage effectively.

If true it shows not only that KW cannot manage its own staff, but also that the Board cannot manage the property management company it was so eager to hire.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) — the state agency overseeing condominium boards as well as Florida Statute 718.111 and our own governing rules has make it clear that delegating Board authority with decision-making to a non-elected individual is unlawful.

Non-elected owners acting as if they were elected officials is not legal. They may advise or volunteer ideas but cannot supervise employees or exercise Board authority.

Owners ask: Who approved this unlawful delegation and when will it end?

Owners also ask: With all the complaints that the office is unresponsive and unable to address issues in a timely manner — during the low season — how much worse will the situation become during high season?

Director Eileen Supran publicly insulted one of our editors and evidently believes her position also includes beach censorship, saying, “Sowing division and spewing lies as you walk along our precious beach when owners are just trying to enjoy the day is reprehensible.”

She also emailed 15 recipients accusing owner Elliott Landman, a local business man, of dishonesty after he volunteered to produce lobby renderings at his own expense, accusing, “Once dishonest, always dishonest.”

This pattern of personal attacks and defamatory language directly violates the Directors’ Code of Conduct defined in our bylaws, which states:

Violations expose the Coronado to serious risk:

To date, the Board has taken no action to address these breaches.

“Each grill was able to get into the range of 450–500 degrees Fahrenheit. So even without replacing the grills (which we plan to do), we’ve been able to get the existing grills to perform better….” —Fred Ruda

This statement from Fred confirms that, once gas regulators were repaired and the lines cleaned, the grills performed properly — supporting what many already suspected: this was a maintenance issue, not equipment failure.

The fix required only cleaning and a few low-cost parts such as gas regulators. Heating elements costing about $30 each would probably further improve their performance.

Despite that, the Board is promoting a grill-replacement project estimated at $75,000 – $100,000 for six built-in grills and countertops.

Roughly half of this cost may be paid from reserves, but using reserve funds for equipment not in disrepair stretches justification to use reserve funds and makes the project appear larger and more urgent than it is.

Without using reserve funds, the cost raises concern that an assessment would follow — an outcome most owners oppose.

Given Fred’s memo finding the inexpensive maintenance solution to fix the problem, the scope and timing of the replacement plan remain hard to justify while higher-priority projects await attention.