You Wanna Pizza Me?

"I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.”

― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground

If you missed the “special meeting” held at Ledo’s Pizza by Foley & friends on June 4th, allow me to share the highlights to you. (Special note: Ledo’s Pizza had nothing politically to do with this event, so please always continue to enjoy their excellent food!). The main dish served-up by these former incensed board members was MORE INCREASED DUES so that Foley & friends can continue to enjoy easy, inexpensive, and privatized access to the Golf course once again.  

• Not once, not one single time, was “increased revenue” mentioned as a possible alternative to stave off the never-ending dues increases.  

• Not once, not one single time, was “increasing the CART FEES” mentioned as a possible solution to revenue issues. 

Wouldn’t it logically make the most sense to have those who PLAY the most, PAY the most by increased cart fees? Why wasn’t this mentioned? It’s very easy to understand why… 

THEY DON’T WANT TO PAY CART FEES. THEY WANT YOU TO PAY FOR THEM.

However, please don’t simply take my word for it, please listen to them in their own words: 

(These clips are from the openly and publicly shared video)

1) Jim Foley (former Golf President): “For goodness sakes, don’t torture us [by taking away their 100% privatized golf]…just increase the dues!” 

Foley Video Clip #1

2) John Nesta (former Board member): “I was on the previous board, we did a budget, we raised the dues to offset what we were going to lose from public play."

Nesta Video Clip

3) Jim Foley (former Golf President) regarding Tom Doyle, the newly voted in Golf President, and how he wants to save the Golf Membership money from outside play.

"He's a wealth of knowledge, I've enjoyed hearing about his experiences, and he can carry over those experiences to what's going on here and how we can improve here, but, you know, he's got an agenda. He said to me one day: "Look if I can get the public to pay my bills, rather than me paying my bills, then I'm going to do that."

Foley Video Clip #2

Wow...Tom Doyle's scary agenda is saving us all money with outside play when the course is empty.

Let's continue:

4) Jim Foley (former Golf President): commenting further on Tom Doyle's money-saving conservative and fiscally responsible approach: “It’s not my logic, it's not how I would like to go…You know what I really like? and I know it sounds kinda weird, but I LOVE not having to make a tee time, staying here late in the year, [arriving early at] opening up time, walking into the clubhouse and saying "Can I get on the course?"

Foley Video Clip #3

5) Jim Foley (former Golf President) reminiscing about the "good old days" when almost none of The National was built out and he had unlimited access to the Golf Club. "Gee, I remember the good old days when The National opened up and I could get onto the Golf Course seven days a week if I wanted to..."

REMEMBER...THE "GOOD OLD DAYS" WERE WHEN PRACTICALLY

NO ONE WAS HERE YET!

Foley Video Clip #4

However, the MAJORITY of the 899 Golf member door fronts do NOT want to pay more in dues and assessments to be able to play “seven days a week” and they don’t need to or want to “walk on to the golf course whenever they feel like it.” That type of Golf Course costs $50K a year in Naples with a $250K buy in. These people want this for $5K per year and they want the rest of the membership to subsidize it because they KNOW that we don't use the Golf Course as much as they do!

As a real estate broker with the largest market share in The National, let me assure you that if we continue with this non-stop financial bludgeoning of the Golf members, it is going to spiral into a glut of homes on the market and a severe drop in home values. We are ALREADY seeing this happen. Please remember, we have not yet seen the financials that the POA has inherited from Lennar yet!

None of these statistics were mentioned by Becky Colburn, the resident real estate agent in the room, who direly warned that property values were going to go down unless we 100% privatize the Golf Course again immediately. She did not offer one single bit of National statistical information, just her “opinion” that the solution we need is even more dues to be increased. Nor did she take the time to obtain the MLS statistics shown down below which occurred during the time period immediately following the former Golf Board's decision to raise the dues 47% overnight.  

Please watch here:

5) Becky Colburn (Real Estate Agent): "It's my opinion, and only mine, dues are gonna have to go up, right?"

Becky Colburn Clip

*Statistics from Naples Board MLS

Notice the huge price drops IMMEDIATELY following the first Golf Board's Decision to raise the dues 47% and cut all outside revenue (in the Fall of 2025). In addition, they dramatically reduced the investors ability to seasonally lease out their properties at that time. The chart shows that when that happened, the prices nosedived.

I also found it very disingenuous when they spoke of the number of signatures that they have on the petition. With 899 Golf homes in The National, a petition to overthrow the current Board would require 451 DOOR FRONTS, NOT SIMPLY SIGNATURES. If two people in one household have signed the petition (and that seems to be the case here), that is only ONE DOOR FRONT. Therefore, even if they really have 200 DOOR FRONTS (of which I am still quite dubious), they are nowhere near close to getting the Board recalled, which is an almost impossible task as it requires 51% of the Golf membership or 451 DOOR FRONTS. It’s been reported that even people from OUTSIDE the community (such as Maple Ridge owners) have signed this petition! 

All of this is a monumental waste of our time and our money, and it is continuing to create bitter division within the community. Let's allow this new Board to get to work balancing our financial needs by considering all sides of reasonable golf course access along with reasonable outside and social member play revenue. The new Board has already acquiesced to them by removing the social play from January – March (which was miniscule revenue anyway). Obviously, this new Board LISTENS to ALL member complaints and tries to act in a reasonable, yet fiscally responsible manner. That could not be said for the former Golf Board who casually dismissed the investors pleas for mercy with a bored “royal wave.”

Let me summarize this for you as clearly as possible for those who still may be confused:  

If you sign the petition, you are signing on for the next Board to potentially go back to INCREASED DUES, and SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS so that they can have a 100% “privatized” Golf Course all to themselves. If that's what you want, then by all means, sign their petition. 

If you do NOT want INCREASED DUES, and MORE SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS by obtaining revenue from outside play during UNUSED TEE TIMES in a more fiscally responsible approach to the Golf Course management, then do NOT sign this petition.*

*Full disclosure: The current Board is still trying to recover from the drastic cuts to revenue already made by the first Board ($800,000 in revenue cuts), which also handed the new Board a budget with ZERO RESERVES and ZERO OUTSIDE REVENUE. So, you will hear their argument that “this new Board already has increased the dues!” Yes, full disclosure, they very modestly increased the dues to recover from the horrible fiscal mess that they inherited and to make a fiscally responsible decision for immediate RESERVES. Make sure you are getting ALL the facts, not a skewed version of them.   

Therefore, I humbly ask you to please NOT sign the petition to recall the new Golf Board. Let them do their jobs. They were duly elected by the majority of the Golf Membership vote. Please help us by sharing this message with at least one of your neighbors who may have been duped by false or exaggerated information.

If you already have signed the petition, but you did so without having a clear understanding of what you were signing on for, please write to:

Duke Bowen dbowen@theiconteam.com

and ask to have your name removed from the petition. Yes, that is allowable and able to be done. Let’s show our appreciation for the current new Board Members who are looking to have a FAIR and BALANCED view that represents ALL the members, not just the few.

If the self-appointed “golf royalty” still wants more access and less outside revenue, then there is a very simple solution for that. How about we use the most logical solution: let them order their hungry desire for a 100% privatized Golf Course and pay for it…

“a-la-carte.”

Please don’t sign the petition that is going around, especially if you did not know the facts above. If you have signed the petition, call them and tell them that you were not given all of the correct information in order to make an appropriate decision and you want your name removed. As always, I am happy to have a civil conversation with anyone who is a truth-lover. 



Thank you.

PLEASE SHARE THIS MESSAGE WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS!

Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. ~Proverbs 18:21 (BSB)

and that's my two cents...maybe three

Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive.

~Jeremiah 29:7 (CSB)

Op Ed ~ Snake Oil and Truth Bombs

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