I am sorry to have to begin this month’s Chairman’s letter by reporting that property owner Jill Jinks has filed an appeal in her litigation over the Critical Infrastructure Referendum. Ms. Jinks now seeks review by the Federal Court of Appeals of Judge Norton’s Order granting all of CSA’s, the Resort’s and ASPPPO’s Summary Judgment Motions. That Order also authorized CSA to move forward to collect the Critical Infrastructure Assessment approved by the overwhelming majority of our property owners.

With Ms. Jinks’ appeal, the entire Order will be up for what is called a “de novo” review (i.e., full new consideration of all issues) by the Federal Court of Appeals. The Board will be discussing these matters with our litigation counsel this week, and I expect to be in a position to advise the Community on CSA’s next steps in Ms. Jink’s continuing litigation in the very near future.  However, and notwithstanding Ms. Jinks’ Notice of Appeal, I do anticipate that the Board will discuss at tomorrow’s Board meeting, CSA’s plans for moving forward to begin collecting the Critical Infrastructure Assessment as authorized by Judge Norton’s decision.

Happily, the status of the Jinks’ litigation is not what I had intended to report in my monthly letter. Fall arrived in Sea Pines last week, (finally) bringing cooler and drier temperatures to our home paradise. And with Fall, our CSA Board of Directors will hold a regular meeting, beginning tomorrow at 10 am, which will be available via live stream at www.SeaPinesLiving.com/live. Because it has been several months since our last Board meeting, I am very interested to hear the reports from our Sea Pines CSA Staff Senior Directors, as well as a summary of any actions taken at the September meetings of our various Board Committees.

In addition to the various reports from Senior Staff and our Committee Chairs, the Board will continue our review of the recommendations from our Revenue Task Force. Given the restrictions on revenue generation through assessments created by our Covenants, the Board must — and will — continue to look for other potential sources of revenue needed to assure CSA’s fiscal stability over the long term. We will also receive an update from our Senior Staff regarding Hurricane Ian as it is forecasted to continue to move through the western Caribbean Sea into the Gulf of Mexico. Possible storm-related impacts may reach Sea Pines by Thursday or Friday. The Sea Pines CSA staff is actively monitoring and preparing for the storm. We will keep you updated throughout the week should its current track continue towards our community.

We will also, as usual, take property owner questions which can be posed in advance or during the meeting at questions@csaseapines.com through the end of the Board meeting. I hope those of you with questions for the Board will take advantage of this opportunity to speak directly to the Board and Senior Staff.

I also want to remind our property owners that the opportunity to participate as a member in one of our Board Committees – and thereby to assist the Board by providing “public” input into our deliberations — starts with the application process; as noted in the last several weekly email reports from CSA, applications are available on our website here and must be returned to CSA by December 1, 2022. I encourage any property owner with an interest in bettering our community to consider Board Committee participation as the most effective way to be part of the solution to many of our more pressing concerns. It does take more time than merely posting your thoughts about the issues on social media, but I strongly suggest that it is a far more effective way of influencing the direction that the Board takes on many, many decisions.

As we march toward the end of the year, we thank you for your continued interest in our activities and support for our efforts to maintain Sea Pines as the outstanding, premier community on Hilton Head.