Michael Ceparano Bio

[ceppym]

Mr. Ceparano was born and raised in New York and owned and managed a large scale Landscape Company since 1991. He moved to Florida in 2004 with his wife and 2 children, and purchased a home in Cedarwood Village in February 2005. He also started his Real Estate career in 2005 with www.BuyAndSellTampa.com and has been very successful since, currently specializing in Short Sales and Loan Modifications for his own clients, as well as for several other Realtors and Attorneys and is well known for his vast knowledge of the Short Sale process and excellent negotiating skills with mortgage Lenders and the handling of homeowners issues to prevent foreclosure, either by modification of their loan to a lower payment or approval of a successful short sale, thereby helping families move on with their life without the additional stresses of foreclosure.

He has been heavily involved in many aspects of the community and is a familiar face at all the Master and Cedarwood HOA meetings, as well as the CDD. He has a vast knowledge of many of the past and current issues, and what solutions were attempted to resolve those issues. He is an original Cedarwood Board member and since 2007, he has been the village President, in which he has helped the Board lower fees, without decreasing services or increasing Cedarwoods liability exposure. He was also appointed by the other Village Presidents, as the Head of the Presidents Council, to represent the Presidents with matters involving the Master HOA, as well as setting up agenda items for the President Meetings, where the Presidents meet with the Master HOA, in order to air the Villages concerns and issue, thereby hopefully getting the Master to initiate a resolution.

He was also the first resident to be appointed to the Live Oak CDD 1 board in 2007, which is now completely resident controlled. He was elected by Board vote to be Vice Chairman in 2008 and was then elected as Chairman after the 2009 elections, and is currently seated in this position. He is proud of the current excellent financial position of Live Oak CDD 1 and has been heavily involved in lowering the operation costs of the CDD and the residents CDD tax bill, while giving it financial stability. Along with other members, he has initiated some excellent ideas that could potentially help the community save even more, while increasing its value and lowering its liability.

[ceppym]

Due to rumors being spread that are completely FALSE, I am posting the following:

Nobody wants the main road to be public and nobody has ever attempted to get them open. This sadly is an attempt by 2 of the candidates to make it appear that myself, Kurt, and Scott are attempting to do, as we are seated on the CDD 1 board and we proposed taking over some land and street lighting, but not the streets.

What we did have, is a discussion between the HOA and CDD1, about the CDD taking over the land that is on both sides of the road, as well as the street lighting, in order to eliminate the costs from the HOA and shift them to the CDD. This would lower our HOA fees and raise or CDD but more importantly reduce the HOA's liability to bad debt, because the CDD has a 100% recovery rate because they are paid through the property taxes, where as the HOA has had an extremely hard time and they have to hire an attorney to file liens, and then possibly Lis Pendens, which is very costly, and the HOA is out of that money until it is collected, If it is ever collected. This is the same premise they are using, in order for the CDD to take over the street lighting. At the end of the day, with the CDD in control of the landscaping on the sides of the main roads only (not the clubhouse) it will just shift the day to day expenses of maintenance from one pocket to the other pocket of our residents. But for the long haul, it will reduce the HOA's bad debt exposure and should even reduce the HOA liability insurance, as it wouldn't have to cover as much area. The CDD is a government body, with sovereign immunity, so additional insurance isn't required. The roads will most certainly stay private AND the gates closed. At no time was it ever discussed or proposed to open these roads up to the public in any shape or form and more importantly, they know this. All of our CDD meetings are public record and anyone can get the minutes to those meetings, where they can verify for fact what I am saying. We as CDD board members can't even discuss items between ourselves outside a meeting, unless its just facts, per the Sunshine Laws.

They should be ashamed of themselves for using dirty rumors and stretches of the truth, in order to attain a seat on the BOD and gain a position of trust for which they will represent the whole community, by using lies to get there. I am saddened that someone in OUR community would use these techniques against a few people who have been HEAVILY active in getting this community to where it currently is and wanting to improve it further. I'm even more saddened that these same people act as your friend to our faces and turn around to spread false rumors and flat out lies against us for those positions.

If ANYONE has any questions, feel free to speak with me direct or you may certainly request and receive ALL the meeting minutes from our CDD's Manager, Severn Trent. I wonder if you will get the same cooperation from the HOA for ALL of their meetings.

Simply saddened,
Michael Ceparano
(813) 417-6698 Cell

[gwoods]

To anyone still reading the posts on this forum may I state that Mike, Kurt and Z are very qualified for this position. They have been your true eyes and ears of this community. It would be a huge mistake not to put your full support behind these three candidates. I do not know the other candidates personally. But I can say, for whatever its worth to you, that these guys are dong this for all the right reasons.

There are many who post who spread gossip, mis-interrpreted or misrepresented media reports, lies, hissy fits, and so forth. But if you look in the archives, these guys have tried to put out useful (relevent), and honest information so we know whats going on. So before you decide to blow this off and not vote, think about who you would NOT be voting for. You will be glad if you did vote and voted for qualified neighbors simply looking out for your interests.

[viriza1014]

Wow, I didn't heard of such rumors.  But maybe just a little bit, I over heard someone said that, but did not take it seriously.  So now this is spreading.   .  This is ridiculous that someone feels the need to put others down to win this election. 

[gwoods]

The only other thing I wish to say is that its a pity vicki is not running as well. Just look at the archives. Look who has been a steady, caring neighbor and has tried to be positive about LOP (regardless of where you stand on certain issues).

[ceppym]

Thanks to you both. I would hope that everyone on this ballot is looking to better this community on everyone's behalf. I should also note as Kurt has, I am also on the CDD board and have NEVER taken any money, $200/ meeting, from it as payment for attendance. In fact, I was the person to push the builder in to stop taking their payments. I am here to help the community and improve our way of life within these gates, not to make a profit.

I have several items/resolutions I want implemented, as I feel we have waited WAY TOO Long on most. Here is my top 5 (In no particular order)

1.Cameras- We have done our homework on cameras over the past 3 years, trying to get better ones in areas that they already are and install ones in areas that currently have none, especially at the gates, as we need to be able to prosecute the people who damage them and collect the money needed to repair them. We have had MANY camera companies out to give us a price and I would say Zuriel has done the most work, requesting bids and doing the research on what cameras are needed, including type, location and brand. He has had help from others as well, including Juan, so I'm not taking anything away from them. Unfortunately, just like with dealing with Engle, the current BOD has pushed it off and delayed. Finally at the last meeting after Z once again went out for quotes at the current BOD's request in which Lloyd was supposed to meet with Z, Juan and the companies and stated "there was no need for him to be there". They then decided to vote, per Lloyds recommendation, on coming up with a "bid spec sheet" to what was needed. While I agree one is needed, I believe it should have been handled before they sent Z and Juan out to waste theirs and the camera companies time, instead of worrying about landscaping at the clubhouse and drip irrigation.

2. Security- Particularly at the front gate, the guards need to know AND follow through with the correct procedures ALL of the time. I would also want to improve their ability of visitor control, by giving them a system that allows for residents to submit a "frequent visitor" list, thereby allowing the guard to know who is allowed quickly and who he needs to verify. This amongst some other improvements, I believe is needed.

3. Clubhouse- We need to make sure Bonnie, Franz, Debbie and the others have the right tools to do what is needed and have updated and correct info. They do an excellent job currently and I know Bonnie spends a lot of "extra" time handling issues that she shouldn't have too and I'm sure the others do as well. I think we can all agree that this is one of our greatest assets and it needs to be treated that way. I also believe the current BOD definitely realized this as well as they have improved and implemented some positives, in which we need to continue to do.

4. Developer Communication- Need to have an open line of communication with them, so that we have a win-win situation for the betterment of our community. I am sure the current BOD has already started that, but I don't know for sure, as that is one more thing they "can't discuss"

5. Lowering Fees- Need to work on vendors to lower their contract price, while not reducing services and hopefully even increasing them. We also need to work with delinquent residents to get them caught up and return them to paying residents, instead of delinquent one. This is very important, as the less delinquent residents we have, the less our fees will be.

Contrary to some opinions out there, I don't feel our current fees are any lower then they were 2 years ago and in fact, I know they are HIGHER. While our monthly payments to the HOA went down around $35/ month, our expenses from our individual family budget went up dramatically because we were all required to pay for the loss of services that were provided through the HOA, direct to cable/internet/alarm companies, etc. While I agree that we needed to get rid of that Bulk Contract and I was one of the Presidents who have been pushing for it to be terminated for a few years, but to turn around and say you lowered fees is a far stretch of the truth.

I have also initiated the current idea and did the homework, with Jim's help, about the Sub Associations being able to jump on the Master HOA Liability policy as "Additional Insured", thereby possibly saving the Sub hundreds of dollars each year because they would potentially be able to reduce that line item expense on each of the Subs budget. The Master HOA at the last meeting finally discussed it after me asking it be placed on the agenda several times. This, on top of the street lighting, would drastically reduce the subs annual fees, but remember, some of those would just be shifted from paying out of your left pocket to your right pocket. This on top of further investigating the CDD/HOA transfer of lands is very important, because it needs to be right or it shouldn't be done.

I have already reduced the fees in my village, Cedarwood, down from over $70/ qtr to $56/ qtr, without losing any services and doubling our annual reserves contributions and more importantly, putting our books in the black, instead of the red that they had been running.


I ask that you consider me when you vote, as I have amassed a large amount of hours and knowledge, along with the other village Presidents over the past 5 years trying to improve this community, with President meetings, Conference Calls, meetings with Vendors, HOA meetings, CDD meetings and now workshops, just to name a few, and I would like to continue that along side the others.

[ceppym]

The "double tax" is another stretch used by a few people, that make it sound negative in only a couple words for the homeowners to believe it, but will take me a bit to explain why it's not accurate.

It's based off the fact that all homeowners are already "paying" for their part of the communities common areas, in their own property tax bills each year for their home, as there is a small part formulated into
each of our bills to satisfy the tax on those common areas, since the HOA doesn't pay property taxes on them. I would think, with that same premise, so is the school property, the county parks, government
buildings, public roads, library, etc. It's all figured in to each of our tax bills in order to pay for them.

Now as far as the double part, if the lands were transferred over, the CDD doesn't pay property tax either, so that parts a wash. You must remember, while it will be on your tax bill, you're not technically taxed any additional, as your already paying for it in your HOA fees, so its another wash, but therein lies one of the benefits of it, as we still have a high number of delinquent homeowners, many of which will never repay or catch back up on their fees and will eventually lose their homes to foreclosure. If I really wanted to be technical, you're not really even "taxed", as the CDD is an assessment not a tax and should not really be associated or called as a tax, since it is maintenance.

Should the home be foreclosed upon (correctly) then the HOA is only able to collect the previous 12 months of fees. The HOA is unable to collect any previous late fees, attorney fees, liens, etc. There are some "tricks" and arguments that work on some, which allows for payments to be processed on older fees to the HOA, but If that was perfect, we would have a 100% collection rate with the HOA, which we don't, so we are losing thousands of dollars each year that we can never recoup, which brings us to the fact that the CDD does have a 100% collection rate.

Should the home foreclose, the CDD is already paid from your tax bill. Even If you don't pay your taxes, and your lender doesn't jump in and do it for you (I use "you" loosely, as they are really doing it to protect
themselves from the investors), an investor will buy your tax bill at a tax certificate sale, in which they will pay the tax bill in full, and will either be able to collect on it with interest (either the homeowner
repays it or the lender typically) or they have to wait 2 years and they can proceed with their own foreclosure, as they have a tax lien, which is superior to even the mortgage, so they will get repaid plus interest, one way or the other, which is why they buy them and the CDD has a 100% recovery rate. What makes the tax certificate purchase a great investment, isn't just that you can collect on your money plus interest (up to 18% depending on your approved bid) but you can actually own the home if there wasn't a mortgage. The problem with that in this current real estate market, most people have mortgages in which they owe more than the home is worth, so it doesn't give the investor that extra perk, unless of course he wants to pay off the lender, who is owed more than it's worth. Should they choose to do that, they should probably have their head examined, as they are the worst investor ever, haha.


We must remember, there is still a lot of investigation and discussions needed in order to see if this proposal of transferring HOA property to the CDD, would benefit the community as a whole, for the short term, as well as the long term. If it turns out not to be advantageous, then I won't support it, but we need to explore it and review all the pros and cons.

Just like with the road rumor, feel free to contact me or ask questions here for further clarifications, as I know it may be a bit confusing, but could probably be simply stated as, "The fact that CDD property is
not subject to ad valorem real estate tax is the most compelling reason to say there is no double taxation." Thanks.