Your maintenance paid to unclog the Board President's toilet

In June, the Association paid $950 to unclog a toilet.

It was the Board President's toilet.

Between 24 June and 17 July 2026, the Association paid Board President Julian Esses $2,920 across five checks.

$950 — a toilet and baseboards in unit 1503. The invoice, EIN Management #441, is made out to "Julian Esses, 1000 Venetian Way #1503" — the unit listed on his own candidate bio.

$1,250 — ceiling drywall in unit 106, part of a combined townhouse held by the Tony Esses Trust. The invoice is made out to Tony Esses, his father.

$720 — air-conditioning servicing across three invoices, every one billed to Esses Real State Holdings, LLC. Manager: Tony Esses.

Not one of those five invoices was issued to the Association. Three were addressed to a private company. One to his father. One to him.

No payment to Julian Esses appears in the February, March, April or May registers. The first is dated fifteen days after the presidency changed hands.

Four of the five never reached a board approver

On 14 and 15 July, a management-company employee entered four invoices into the Association's accounts-payable system and marked each one "SELF APPROVED." None of the four ever reached a board approver.

The Association has a written rule requiring one. The Addendum to its Electronic Payment and Check Signing Request and Authorization Agreement, dated 2 December 2025, provides that "[a]ny invoices in the amount from one cent ($0.01) to nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents ($9,999.99) will require BOD Approver 1 approval."

Every one of the five falls inside that range.

The fifth — the $950 — did reach a board approver. Here is the log, exactly as the Association produced it:

The approver and the man being paid were the same person.

That is not how this building pays its bills

Eleven days after the last of the five, the same employee entered a reimbursement for a different sitting director. It was routed to the Property Manager, approved by her, and passed to a board approver — where it sat unpaid nineteen days later.

The control exists. On these five, nobody used it.

Who he is

His candidate bio told owners he is a private wealth advisor and former Lazard investment banker who "manages over $800 million in client assets." A CFA® charterholder — a credential whose Code of Ethics requires members to disclose conflicts that could impair their independence. Named by Forbes a Top Next-Gen Wealth Advisor. He promised this building "disciplined financial management," "detailed oversight," and "accountability."

He manages $800 million for other people's families. He approved $950 of ours to himself.

The five payments

Three names on the invoices. One account received the money.

The Association's accounts-payable record for each of the five names the payee, and it is the same payee every time: Julian Esses, vendor account 20053, unit 1503. That includes the drywall invoice made out to his father and the three air-conditioning invoices made out to a private company.

Source: KW Property Management invoice detail for 061026-679, 052026-679 and 070726-679 and related records. Association production 15 Sept 2026.

Who is responsible for what — and the Declaration is not ambiguous

Article XXIII — Maintenance and Repair by Owners of Private Dwellings:

Article XXIII has not been amended. I have checked the Declaration as recorded and all amendments of record.

The clause that will be raised, and why it does not help.

Article III.B(ii) excludes certain things from a unit. Read to the end of the sentence:

The qualifier is the whole provision. A pipe is outside the unit only where it runs through an interior wall to serve other units or the common property. A supply line serving only 1503 is not within that exclusion — it is part of the unit, and Article XXIII then makes it expressly the owner's.

And the $1,250 invoice is not a pipe repair at all. EIN Management #444 describes removing water-damaged ceiling drywall, installing new drywall, applying stain-blocking primer, and repainting with color-matched paint. Drywall, primer and paint are the finish — the side of the boundary that is inside the unit — and Article XXIII names "ceilings," "painting" and "decorating" as the owner's by their own words. No reading of III.B(ii) reaches them.

The one fair qualification. Article XXIII also provides that where a repair the owner must make is "occasioned by a loss or damage which may be covered by an insurance maintained in force by ASSOCIATION," the insurance proceeds go toward it and the owner pays the deductible portion. That is an insurance-claim mechanism, not a reimbursement. Nothing in the Association's production suggests a claim was filed — and on a $1,250 repair the deductible would exceed the loss. If anyone raises it: show the claim.

All of our toilets have been clogged at some point. We pay for it ourselves. That is what Article XXIII means.

What none of it answers

• Why the Association paid a director rather than the vendor.
• Why three invoices were addressed to a private company rather than to a unit owner.
• Why four of the five never reached a board approver, and the fifth was approved by the man being paid.
• Why no conflict-of-interest disclosure was made under §718.3027 regardless of who owed the money.
• Whether other owners with interior pipe damage have been reimbursed on the same terms.

The approval record, in full

Creation to submission for payment: 22 minutes, 46 minutes, 1 hour 4 minutes, 3 hours 5 minutes.

The rule the system applied to the June invoice is named in the log: "Standard Rule – Invoice Amount < $10K BOD 1 (V-Ready)." Any invoice under $10,000 goes to a single board approver. It was applied once, and it produced the payee approving his own payment.

What normal looks like

On 28 August the same management employee entered a $6,321.81 reimbursement for a different sitting director:

• 8/28 3:27pm — SUBMITTED → PROPERTY MANAGER
• 9/08 12:55pm — APPROVED by the General Manager
• 9/08 12:55pm — SUBMITTED → 1BOD APPROVER 1
• As of 15 September: Pending Approval, unpaid

Two people, then a board approver, and nineteen days later still not paid.

Requested by, approved by

The management company's Paper Check Request Form carries two separate signature lines.

What each invoice says was done

#441 — $950.00. "Diagnosed toilet that was not flushing properly. Disconnected the water supply line to inspect and troubleshoot the issue. Debris was found inside the water line, restricting proper operation. Removed debris, reconnected the water supply line, tested the toilet, and verified proper flushing function. Removed existing baseboards as required to complete repairs. Reinstalled baseboards, applied new caulking along all seams and joints…"

#444 — $1,250.00. "Remove and dispose of water-damaged ceiling drywall caused by a plumbing/water leak. Install new drywall to match the existing ceiling thickness and framing… Apply stain-blocking primer and repaint the repaired area using color-matched paint…"

#6818, #6853 — $180.00 each. "Flush up condenser coil & clean up filter." #6823 — $360.00. "Flush up condenser coils & clean up water's filters" — 2 × $180.00.

The Association can show it paid. Nobody can show the vendors were paid.

The Association's accounts-payable record for each of the five is marked Status: Paid, with a date and a check number. There is no question that the money went out of our account.

A reimbursement, though, repays money already spent. Every one of the five vendor invoices was produced showing a line reading "Paid — $0.00," with the full amount still outstanding. EIN Management #441 closes with "Paid $0.00," a subtotal of $950.00, and instructions to send payment by mail or Zelle.

An invoice generated before payment shows $0.00 whether or not it was settled afterwards — so this does not prove the vendors went unpaid. What it means is narrower and still unanswered: the Association paid out $2,920 in reimbursements without a single receipt, bank record, card statement or payment confirmation showing that $2,920 had first been spent.

Section 718.111(12)(a)11.b. requires the Association to keep "[a]ll invoices, transaction receipts, or deposit slips that substantiate any receipt or expenditure of funds by the association."

The law on conflicts

Section 718.3027, Florida Statutes, requires directors and officers "and the relatives of such directors and officers" to "disclose to the board any activity that may reasonably be construed to be a conflict of interest." Where a director or a relative contracts with the association, the statute creates a presumption of conflict, requires the matter to appear on a meeting agenda with the supporting documents attached, requires approval by two-thirds of the other directors, and requires the interested director to leave the meeting during the discussion and the vote and to recuse himself from the vote. A "relative" means a relative within the third degree of consanguinity by blood or marriage — which includes a parent.

This applies whether or not the Association owed the money.

What I asked for, on 31 August

• Every invoice behind every expenditure of Association funds since June 1, and the record of who approved each one.
• Preservation of all related records.
• A full accounting of every payment since January to any director, officer, or their relatives.
• An independent review of these five payments, and recovery of anything that was not a proper Association expense.
• A rule barring any director, officer or employee from approving a payment to themselves or their family.

Records were produced on 15 September. Nothing has been said about the rest.

Still missing

• Any receipt, bank record or payment confirmation showing the vendors were paid by the person reimbursed.
• Any agenda item, minute, or §718.3027 disclosure.
• The Association's written policy on reimbursing directors and officers — requested 31 August, not produced.
• The authority under which one person signed both the Requested By and Approved By lines.
• The setting that allows an invoice to be marked SELF APPROVED instead of routed, and who holds it.

The documents

Every document described here came from the Association's own production of 15 September 2026. I will send the full set to any owner who asks me for it. Write to me and I will send it privately.

You are also entitled to request the same records from the Association directly. In writing. It has ten working days to produce them. No reason required, no permission needed. Section 718.111(12), Florida Statutes.

Where this goes next

I am raising these five payments at the Board meeting on Monday and asking that the discussion be recorded in the minutes.

Transparency, not rumor, is how this gets fixed.