DAPHNE, Ala. — Since Vision Golf and Association — an outsourced property-management company — stepped in to take over the reins of Lake Forest subdivision in October, there have been a number of subdivision employee terminations.

“(General Manager Simon Coulls) had to let a lot of them go,” Lake Forest resident Tomasina Werner said. “They’re gone.”

Coulls said Lake Forest had 48 employees when Vision took over, and now there are 42 employees. However, there have not been hour reductions since the leadership shift. “They had already started doing that last year to save money, so we’ve really just continued that process until the end of this year,” Coulls said.

“We’ve just approved a budget for next year, so it will still be monitored very closely.”

Coulls said he would not give the exact amount budgeted, but did say it is a “multi-million dollar budget.”

Joe Jablecki, a Lake Forest resident who ran in the subdivision’s annual board of directors vote as part of the “A-Team” and lost, said these changes are all part of the process.

“You have to fire old management to bring in new management and Vision has their own people,” he said.

“Whether in bad times or good times, no one enjoys the necessary requirement of cutting hours, dismissing employees or the many other changes that must take place to do the job successfully,” Werner, a Vision supporter, stated, adding these types of cutbacks “come with the job.”

Other changes

Coulls said there are other changes the subdivision could see in the future, including cutting back on mailing statements to residents and how to market the subdivision.

“We’re instituting a new website where you can pay online,” he said. “So that will make the communications easier and cut back on communications cost. We have a membership drive in place to use community members to bring in other people to play golf. So the marketing strategy is much bigger than they’ve ever done here.”

Coulls said any of the changes’ positive financial impact has yet to be seen.

“In the three months, I don’t know that we’ve saved any money, because there’s no money to save,” he said. “When in transition, when you bring in a management company, you have to transition out.”

The plan is to make living in the subdivision and using its features more affordable for residents while maintaining amenities and building up reserves, Coulls said.

“We’ve actually reduced a lot of fees to keep it affordable for residents,” he said. “The amenities should be highly used by the community and unfortunately they’re not. It’s kind of gone the other way.

“The direction that the prior management took really built no reserves for the amenities.”

The decision to bring in a property-management company to run Lake Forest was heavily debated; the Lake Forest Property Owners Association board of directors at a Sept. 16 board meeting voted 6-3 to bring in Vision, ending a 40-year run of self-management for the subdivision.

“The board and the management were not aligned correctly,” Coulls said about the time prior to Vision Golf coming in.

See the rest of this story in the Dec. 22 edition of The Bulletin.