The Audit Put a Price on Four Years of Permission

The accountant's name was Ruth Carden. The board had hired her because she had no boat, no waterfront lot, and no family on either side of our argument.

She met us in Nina's office with a narrow stack of pages.

"I traced payments," she said. "Your lawyer can address what the association was entitled to collect."

She had matched bank deposits to every invoice and receipt the five households supplied. Mara's old checkbook helped fill a gap in the billing file.

The annual license payments totaled fourteen thousand four hundred dollars. Paid late fees and missing-tag fines added another twenty-one hundred dollars.

"Sixteen thousand five hundred altogether," Nina said.

Ruth nodded.

My two unpaid fines, totaling seven hundred twenty dollars, were listed separately. I was glad she kept them separate. Money somebody threatened to take wasn't money somebody had already lost.

There were no maintenance invoices behind the license amounts. The fee stayed the same whether the ramp had work done or not. The billing notes called it permission to enter association property.

Actual ramp upkeep appeared elsewhere in the general accounts. Nobody had calculated our share under the old agreement or sent us an itemized request.

"Could they have asked us to help with real repairs?" Len asked.

"Yes," Nina said. "The agreement allows that. It doesn't let them sell your right back to you each year."

Ruth turned to another page.

Felicia had received twenty-seven hundred dollars marked as enforcement and meeting expenses. No receipts supported the payments. Each had been approved only by Felicia.

The board's rules required another officer's approval for payments to an officer. Ruth had checked the minutes and asked Felicia for receipts twice.

"What did she say?" Mara asked.

"That her time had value."

Ruth placed the payment records on the table. We sat without talking for a moment.

I thought of Mara carrying peas to my door and telling me a pass was less trouble. Twenty-eight hundred eighty dollars could buy a lot of groceries.

"Does everyone get this report?" I asked.

"The board commissioned it," Ruth said. "They can release it."

That afternoon, they did. They sent the report to every association member and all six access holders. Nina removed bank account numbers from our public copy. The amounts and findings stayed.

Owen included a note about the statements the board had accepted without checking the source of the payments. He didn't blame a bookkeeper for entering the bills she was given. He listed the dates when officers should have reviewed them. I read that page twice. We needed the money returned, but we also needed somebody watching the next batch of bills.

The board scheduled a properly noticed meeting to consider removing Felicia as president. Under its bylaws, directors chose the officers and could remove them. Losing the presidency wouldn't by itself remove her elected board seat.

I stayed home until Owen called.

"I'd like you there," he said. "People have questions about what you're asking for."

"Tell them it's in the complaint."

"They've heard other versions."

So I went.

Felicia had put a poster near the door. It said LEGAL COSTS CAUSED BY OUTSIDE LOT OWNERS. Beneath that was my name and the five others.

I photographed it. Then I sat down.

An association member asked if I wanted their waterfront taken away.

"No," I said. "Your association owns its parcel. Our six lots hold an older right to use a strip and the ramp. Both things can be true."

"What do you want us to pay?"

"Return the charges the five households paid. Clear the route. Cancel my fines. Cover the costs the agreement allows us to recover."

Felicia stood before he could answer.

"He wants to drain our reserves."

Owen opened the financial report.

"We have enough to cover the proposed refunds. This board should have checked the title before billing anyone. I should have checked it."

I looked at him. It was the first time an officer had said that plainly.

Felicia turned toward the other directors.

"After everything I've done, you believe him?"

The woman beside Owen tapped the recorded agreement.

"I believe this."

They voted four to one to remove Felicia as president. She cast the one vote against removal. Owen became acting president until the board chose a replacement.

She left her brass bell on the table but took the poster.

At home, I made tea and sat beside the tide chart with its pinhole. The case was still open. The fence was still wrong. Nobody had a refund yet.

I folded another boat and pressed its bottom flat so it could stand without falling over.

Just before nine, Nina sent a proposed settlement from the board's lawyer. The refund amount was there, and so was fence removal.

At the bottom was a condition requiring all six of us to keep the agreement and the audit findings confidential.