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How Dale Stokes Took

Pride in Bringing Down a Neighborhood Association

 

As the Director of the Lafayette Place Neighborhood Association, I took pride in developing a program that would help our Neighbors.  As I made the decision to spend the rest of my life at Lafayette Place, I wanted to see if I could affect the lives of the 250 families who lived here before I died.  Now in my mid 70's, I came to realize that Sun Communities and Park Management couldn’t or wouldn’t help anyone here, and they needed someone to step up and make them feel like, just the fact that they lived here, they were not just a rent payment, but an integral and valuable part of our Community.  Dale Stokes, Nicolette Chamberlain and Sun Communities felt differently.

 

I didn’t know Dale outside of his position.  So the only information I have to base my opinion of him is while he was our Park Manager, and the decisions and actions he took during that time.  Sun Communities places young people, or what I would consider young people in these managerial positions, not by the talents they have or the management expertise they bring, they place individuals they can control so they won’t make any major decisions on their own.  In fact, I’m not sure if Park Management makes any decisions on their own, which is just what Sun Communities wants.  But more importantly, they need Managers that have no conscience.  Because if I did to my Neighbors what Dale and Sun Communities did to me, as the Director of a Neighborhood Association, I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.  So, as a reward for them doing a great job, both Dale and Nicolette received a nice promotion.  I would have never taught the Managers in my company to act this way, so I assume Sun Communities felt this was the correct, and only way for their Managers to treat us.

 

Dale actually treated me well before I started the Association.  But once the Association went live in January 2023, everything changed dramatically.  It’s like Dale turned the light switch off.  The treatment I started receiving from Dale was based on humiliation, harassment, and the mandate that Sun Communities gave Dale and Nicolette that they were ordered not to “Acknowledge, Endorse or Communicate” with anyone associated with the Lafayette Place Neighborhood Association.  Thus, Dale’s and Sun Communities war against myself and the Association begins.

 

Aside from Dale, can you imagine a publicly-traded company like Sun Communities, who concocted a plan to collude with Park Management to bring down a resident and his Neighborhood Association?  Just writing down on paper makes me sick.  But it didn’t make Dale sick.  He played his part really well, and trained Nicolette how to carry on his plan once he was promoted to another property.  Nicolette was rewarded with Dale’s position here, and within a few days, sent me my first citation.  She must have been so proud also.

 

But for Dale, receiving the mandate from Sun Communities wasn’t enough for him.  He needed to show his power over myself and the Association, that he then created the process to humiliate and harass me.  I don’t think this process came directly from Sun Communities, and though I think Sun Communities is a terrible company, they surely wouldn’t ask their Managers to go to that extent.  I’m sure it came directly from Dale.

 

As the President of a Sales and Management training company for over 30 years, I always felt that the first trait I needed my Managers to have was Character.  After all, they are a direct reflection of the quality of my company and can make or break our reputation.  So let’s take a look at Dale’s character based on decisions he made, and actions he performed.

 

Dale’s character really came to light when I watched him and Nicolette sit in their golf cart and watched while a family was being evicted from their home.  While the family sat in their car, watching their lives take a hard turn, crying and comforting their children, Dale and Nicolette sat in their cart, laughing and having a good time.  I’m wondering how this family felt as their Park Management took pleasure in watching their lives being turned upside down.  The family was legally evicted, but couldn’t they show a little more compassion for their pain?  The answer is probably no.  In fact, I heard from a reliable source that Dale was getting a bonus for every eviction he performed.  So evictions actually made his life richer.  The more evictions, the higher the paycheck, which fits right into Sun Communities concept that the only thing that’s important is money.

 

When it came for Dale to begin bringing down the Association, he would begin by pelting me with citations, for even the most ridiculous items.  But he realized that at the bottom of every citation it states, “if you don’t comply with this citation, we will use all our legal efforts to evict you.”  That’s the hook he had for eviction since he couldn’t evict me for not paying my rent, not keeping my property in good shape, and not being good to my Neighbors.  So by bombarding me with citations, he could convince Sun Communities to evict me for not following the rules of the multiple citations.  Pretty slick huh?

 

He would have his staff take pictures of me as I was passing out my newsletters, come on my property and take pictures of every little flaw they could find on a 1969 mobile home, like a broken slat on my shades, a small opening on my skirting, my potting bench for my flowers which he called “outdoor storage.”  If I was sitting on my front bench, he would laugh at me as he drove by for further humiliation.  I tried to form a working communication with him.  He would agree to better communication, then not return my phone calls or emails which was his plan all along.  He became really good at lying, which by the way, Sun Communities was really good at also.  I would provide him some really good suggestions for our Community, and he’d tell me he sent them up to corporate, though we know he never did.  You can learn more about Dale by reading my ebook, “How Sun Communities Killed a Neighborhood Association” which you’ll find as Article 4 on mobilehomeliving.us.

 

He has a plan for persecuting myself and the Association, now it’s time for him to turn the residents against me.  Since the Association was new, we had Neighbors coming to the office to ask more about it.  These are the responses that they gave:  - “We don’t know anything about the Association” - “Oh, you don’t need the Association.  It’s not right for you” - And my favorite “If you rent from us, you’re not allowed to join the Association” All lies, all perpetrated by Dale, Nicolette, and now Nicolette’s Office Manager.

 

During several unproductive meetings with Sun Communities, I told Chris Rashid, Division Vice President for Sun Communities that I was being treated differently from all the other residents, and his response was, “We treat all our residents the same.”  Regardless of all the evidence I provided him to show how this isn’t true, what if he was being truthful?  What if they are treating all the residents the way they treated me?

 

Management is supposed to be a higher calling.  Being a Vice President in a publicly-traded corporation should be a higher calling.  But with Sun Communities, it’s just a title that holds no weight.  Dale is the type of person that Sun Communities will nurture for a way up the ladder of Sun Communities success for their managers.

 

© Mike Whitty | Mr. Mike's Neighborhood