Complaint Review: Holzberg Fritz Jacob & Elfriede M. - Bonita Springs Florida

Holzberg tried to block home builders and owners to conect to the sewer line. Public Service Commision Rosane Gervasi already denied to Holzbergs action. Holzberg do not have proof ore deed for the ownership of the sewer lines. He proclaim with a oath of attorney his sewer property right. http://www.psc.state.fl.us/library/filings/05/07835-05/07835-05.pdf Swan R. Fritze

1 1522 Forest

Mere Drive

Bonita Springs , FL 34135

Facsimile:

239-947-4338

Email:

[email protected]

239-495-3559

August 7,2005

Director

Division of the

Commission Clerk and

Administrative

Services

Florida Public

Service Commission

2540 Shumard Oak

Boulevard

Tallahassee FL

32399-0870

Dear Director and

Commissioners:

I am writing this

letter to file a formal objection to the application for authorization, filed

by Gistro, Inc.,

with the principal owner, Mr. Fritz Holzberg.

As

this is a closely

held

corporation, with

little other utility operating experience, I would ask you to consider this

an authorization

for Mr. Holzberg, the principal of this organization, unless my research

is in error and

Gistro, Inc. has held other such authorizations for similar operations. The

character and

other business experience and reputation of Mr. Holzberg should thus be a

consideration.

Mr.

Holzberg has been

involved in various schemes in the Bonita Preserve/Forest Mere/

Spring Lakes

development for a number of years. I would hope that you have thoroughly

researched this,

including the possibly fraudulent manner in which the assets of this

utility,

including the property, plant and equipment, may have been obtained by Mr.

Holzberg or his

corporation. Tlus may have included misrepresentation in a bankruptcy

proceeding. This

also appears to involve the transfer or assets, including real property,

from "Forest

Mere J.V." to "Gistro I.N.C." in March 2002. This particular transaction is

in question as

there are no legal entities with these names, and an entity named Forest

Mere Joint

Venture, Inc. was legally voluntarily dissolved in 1995. It appears Mr.

Holzberg

continued to act, in 2002, through a corporate entity which was no longer

legally in

business and transact the transfer of property many years after its dissolution.

Page 1 of3

Page

2

These actions

have the appearance of misrepresentation and possibly fraud. In

association with

this transaction, Mr. Holzberg may have filed, or caused to be filed,

documents which

contain an error in the legal description of the property, such error

grossly

overstating the subject property. I would suggest that such actions are not

appropriate for

a prudent business operation.

Additionally, I

would ask that you receive satisfactory evidence of this firms ability to

properly measure

or meter, bill, and provide customer service. Those should be at least

equal to the

level of such services that are currently provided by Bonita Springs Utilities,

Inc. (BSU). I

currently pay a sewer charge to BSU and would not want this charge to be

duplicated by

this new entity seeking your authorization.

The sewer

services that have been provided, in the past 14 months, since I have

lived at

the address set

forth above in the letterhead, have been unsatisfactory on several

occasions. The

first incident was at the time of Hurricane Charley. We were very lucky

in this

neighborhood to have minimal damage and to have been without electric power

for only about

5 hours. Despite the fact that the power was off for only that short

time,

we did not have

proper sewer services for a number of days. As I was new to the area, it

took several

calls and e-mails before I could find anyone responsive to my concerns

about sewage

backing up through the sanitary sewer covers in the streets in this

development.

Once I did reach Mark Johnson in Lee County, with the Florida DEP by e-

mail, he came

out, inspected the sire and was able to contact a company to correct the

problems. (I am

attaching a

2

page copy of the

e-mails I had with

Mr.

Johnson. Recall

that Hurricane

Charley was in this area on 8/13/04 and this was a week later before this

matter was

resolved.) It is unacceptable that this problem was undetected by Mr.

Holzberg, or

others acting at his direction or under contract to provide service, on a

timely basis. I

do not believe this should go on for days when this is an issue of public

health. Talking

with several other neighbors at the time (including a couple members of

the homeowners

association board), was no help; none of them knew how to contact the

operator of the

sewer system.

Since that time,

there have been several occasions, usually after there are heavy rainfalls,

that I noticed

(when

I

walked my dog)

there is odorous water and bubbles that come out

at the sewer

covers in the street. This

has

the appearance

of a neglected, sub-standard

operation. This,

combined with the experience last year with the hurricane, causes me to

be concerned

that the applicant does not have adequate operating experience, does not

have adequate

staffing available to perform regular monitoring of he operations, and

apparently does

not have an adequate (or effective) emergency or disaster plan in place

for this

business.

Further, since

January 2005, there have been occasions where the lift station across the

street from 1

1560 Red Hibiscus has had a door to the pit area(?) left up/open, and/or,

electrical cords

may be strung around. If the owner, or those acting at his direction, have

not done this,

then they have let vandals access this equipment. There is no fencing or

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of 3

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3

other manner of

limiting access at this station, which is of concern, especially when the

metal door to

the pit area is open. This could be potentially hazardous to children or

animals, as well

as

provide an easy

opportunity for sabotage of the facility. In addition to

considering such

a careless manner of managing this equipment,

I

would expect

that your

review of this

application has considered whether both the liability and property

insurance

coverage held by the applicant is sufficient. I

am

concerned that

if the

insurance

carrier knew how this property is sometimes left, such insurance coverage

might be

cancelled.

This inability

to manage the existing facilities, or to provide adequate customer service,

should provide

evidence of the inability of Mr. Holzberg, or the corporate entity under his

directiodmanagement,

to provide adequate utility sewer service for he is seeking

authorization. I

am

concerned that

there may not have been necessary maintenance of the

existing plant

and equipment, and that the applicant, instead of maintaining these assets

on a timely

basis, may seek to rectify that, and cover the past neglect through a special

assessment or

rate increase once the authority is granted

For the specific

reasons set forth above,

I

ask that the

application of Gistro, Inc. be

denied.

For the record,

please note that

I

have anecdotal

evidence that, in the past, Mr. Holzberg,

when he has had

reason to be upset with an individual property owner in this

development, has

tried to retaliate. I do not know the facts of each such instance, but his

actions appear

to indicate an arbitrary and capricious nature rather than that of one

experienced in a

service or utility business. I have been told that Mr. Holzberg has made

threats to

withhold utility service. I have no idea if this is possible, as I

am

not familiar

with the manner

in which the sewer lines are connected to a property, but such actions by

Mi.

Holzberg

certainly could be intimidating and expensive to contend with should one

need to employ

legal counsel. Note that I am concerned that by filing this letter,

I

may

become a target

for similar actions by Mr. Holzberg, or others acting at his direction.

Sincerely,

L

Swan

R.

Fritze

cc: Kathryn G.W.

Cowdery

Ruden, McClosky

215 South Monroe

Street, Ste. 815

Tallahassee,

FL

32301

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4

Suzan

R

Fritze

From:

To:

<[email protected]>

cc:

Sent:

Subject:

"Johnson, Mark"

<Mark. Johnson@dep. state.fl. us>

"Ahmadi, Abdul"

<[email protected]>; "Kleinmann, Keith"

<[email protected]>;

"lglehart, Jon" [email protected]>

Friday, August

20, 2004 4:07 PM

RE:

Please provide

some information

or

assistance

Ms. Fritze ,

A site visit was

conducted this morning to the Bonita Preserve

neighborhood. While

in

the area, I

observed

overflows from the sanitary sewer collection system. As a result of my findings,

I

contacted Graley

Mechanical, Inc. who services the sanitary sewer collection system. Roy Graley

arrived on-site

at 11:30AM to investigate the situation. I

spoke to Mr.

Graley again at 3:30PM

and he indicated

that there was an electrical problem causing the pump station

to

malfunction.

Mr. Graley had

contacted the electric company to correct the problem.

In

addition, Mr.

Graley

was instructed

to spread lime in the areas that were impacted by the overflows. Feel free to

contact me with

any further questions.

Mark Johnson,

ESIII

FDEP South

District

Domestic

Wastewater Compliance and Enforcement

239-332-6975

ext. 117

239-332-6969

Fax

SC 748-6975

ext. 11 7

-----Original

Message-----

From:

Kleinmann, Keith

Sent:

Friday, August

20, 2004

8:06

AM

To:

Johnson, Mark

Subject:

FW:

Please provide

some information or assistance

Please see me on

this. This is Mr.. Fritz Holtzberg again.

-----Original

Message-----

From:

Ahmadi, Abdul

Sent: Friday,

August 20, 2004

8:OO

AM

To:

Davault, Charles

Cc: Kleinmann,

Keith

Subject:

W

:

Please provide

some information or assistance

kk'

-----Original

Message-----

From:

Iglehart,

Jon

Sent:

Friday, August

20, 2004

7:55

AM

To:

Ahmadi, Abdul

Subject:

FW:

Please provide

some information or assistance

8/3/2005

Page

5

-----Original

Message-----

From:

Suzan

R

Fritze

[mailto:[email protected]]

Sent:

Thursday, August 19,2004 8:51 PM

To:

Iglehart, Jon

Subject:

Please provide some information or assistance

I

live in Bonita Springs (Lee County).

I

moved here June

1, 2004. Since Hurricane Charley,

the manholes

(marked "Sanitary Sewer") in the Bonita Preserve neighborhood

I

reside

in have been

bubbling up sewage.

I

live at 11522

Forest Mere Dr. ( Bonita

Springs , FL

34135) and the

closest manhole where this is a problem is several houses away

(in

front of

what

I

believe is 11506

Forest Mere Dr.). This sewage runs across the street and into the

swale in front

of the property. This is also occurring at several other locations

in

this

development.

I

attended a

homeowners' association (there are approx 140 homeowners) meeting tonight

(8/19/04) and it

was suggested that your office might be of some assistance in this matter.

It is my

understanding that the sewer system in this area is owned

by

an individual

(although there

apparently is a lawsuit in that regard).

I

certainly do not

understand how

an individual

can own a utility but regardless,

I

am hoping that

your office might either be

abie to take

corrective action or force the appropriate individual or utility to

correct this

problem.

If

you are not able

to provide assistance, please provide information as to whom

I

should

contact to

receive assistance with this problem, which certainly would appear to have both

health and

environmental issues.

Thank you.

Suzan

R.

Fritze

11522 Forest

Mere Dr.

Bonita Springs FL 34135

Telephone:

239-495-3559

Facsimile :

239-947 -43 38

8/3/2005