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Hilton Head Island • Bluffton
THURSDAY, July 2, 2015
75 cents
2 timeshare buyers win refunds from Coral Resorts
MORE ONLINE
By DAN BURLEY
[email protected]
843-706-8142
To see court documents from
the arbitration, click on this story
Two out-of-state couples got their at islandpacket.com.
money back in disputes with Hilton
Head Island timeshare company Coral
Resorts, according to court documents
made public this week.
In separate lawsuits, private arbitrators ruled the company violated
aspects of the S.C. Timeshare Act in
its dealings with Jaye and LaKeyshia
Denson of Georgia and Michael and
Barbara Jackson of North Carolina, according to the court documents.
As a result, arbitrators voided the
couples’ contracts and ordered the
company to refund the money.
Arbitration is a private proceeding in
which an arbitrator — usually a lawyer
— reviews evidence and imposes a legally binding decision that is enforceable in court.
In 38 of the more than 60 lawsuits
against the company, buyers signed
contracts that require arbitration.
Arbitrator Curtis Coltrane, a Hilton
Head attorney and former Beaufort
County master-in-equity, said the
company did not provide the Densons
with the proper paperwork when the
couple signed a contract in August
2013, according to his ruling.
He ruled the company violated the
act because its contract was missing
key information, it did not have a correct public offering statement, and it
also did not have a notary witness the
signing, a requirement of the law.
The contract was therefore voided,
according to Coltrane’s 12-page ruling.
The Densons received a full refund
of $3,578, according to the ruling.
THAT’S MY JOB
Making the day better
Convenience center attendant a treasure among the trash
In his two-page ruling, arbitrator
Richard Hinson, a Florence attorney,
said the company violated the act but
did not specify how. He also ruled the
company committed negligent misrepresentation in its dealings with the
Jacksons, who bought a timeshare in
September 2013.
The Jacksons received a full refund
of $4,141, according to the ruling.
Please see REFUNDS on 7A
BEAUFORT COUNTY
TREASURER’S OFFICE
County
to be more
transparent
with website
By ZACH MURDOCK
[email protected]
843-706-8147
DELAYNA EARLEY • Staff photos
David Frazier, an employee at the Beaufort County convenience center on Castle Rock Road, helps Candace Martin of Beaufort unload her
trash on June 25 in Beaufort.
A new website for the Beaufort
County Treasurer’s Office promises
to make how much money the county
is collecting in taxes more transparent
and easier to track.
The site includes downloadable data that tracks, month-by-month, how
much the office has collected in taxes,
according to new Treasurer Maria Walls. The
website already includes
the office’s data for the
past five fiscal years and
will be updated regularly,
she added.
Walls
That gives interested
citizens or even other
MORE
government officials the
INSIDE
ability to parse and study
New
the office’s collections to
auditor
help hold Walls and her
sworn-in
staff accountable, she
Wednessaid.
day. 7A
“There is no one that
has that level of transparency in our state,” Walls said.
The website is live at www.beaufortcountytreasurer.com. It also includes
how-to videos, answers to frequently
asked questions and available online
forms for county taxpayers.
The project is Walls’ first as the new
county treasurer. She announced the
website Wednesday following her
swearing-in ceremony at the county
offices in Beaufort.
By CAROLYN RENNIX • [email protected] • 843-706-8184
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of
stories on unpleasant but necessary jobs and the
people who do them.
O
nly five minutes into his 10hour day, sweat was already
pouring down David Frazier’s face as he quickly approached
the long line of cars.
That line snaked out the gate of the
Beaufort County convenience center
in Burton and down the road a ways.
Despite the 90-plus degree heat, Frazier
approached each car, offering to carry
mounds of trash bags to the dumpster.
As if the heat wasn’t enough, there was
a light drizzle of rain, humidity you could
You’ll find it all in
THE ISLAND
PACKET
u|xhGIG Dy70 01sz\
Volume 45 • No. 183
Founded 1970
Please see WEBSITE on 7A
“I don’t think I am doing
anything extraordinary.
“I’m just doing my job the
way it should be done.”
TREASURER’S WEBSITE
Go to www.beaufortcounty
treasurer.com to find:
• How-to videos
• Answers
to frequently
asked
questions
• Available
online
forms for
county
taxpayers
• Downloadable data that tracks,
month-by-month, how much the
office has collected in taxes
David Frazier, attendant at Beaufort
County convenience center
cut with a machete and a less than floral
bouquet.
Frazier continued to smile and say
good morning as he worked.
His job title may read “drop-off attendant,” but after only 20 minutes at the
site, it’s clear Frazier is more than that.
HIGH: 87
LOW: 75
Please see JOB on 7A
Weather, 2A
Frazier helps people unload their trash.
Half off professional window cleaning
SERVING THE LOWCOUNTRY ISLANDPACKET.COM
TODAY’S QUOTE
“Never regret.
If it’s good, it’s
wonderful. If it’s bad,
it’s experience.”
Victoria Holt
islandpacket.com • Thursday, July 2, 2015
US, Cuba to open embassies
Obama: ‘This is what change looks like’; GOP challenges lifting embargo
By JULIE PACE
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — After
more than a half-century of
hostility, the United States and
Cuba declared Wednesday they
will reopen embassies in each
other’s capitals this month,
marking a historic full restoration of diplomatic relations between the Cold War foes.
For President Barack Obama,
the opening of the U.S. Embassy in the heart of Havana is one
of the most tangible demonstrations of his long-standing
pledge to engage directly with
U.S. adversaries. Heralding the
embassy agreement, Obama
declared: “This is what change
RAISING U.S. FLAG
Full diplomatic relations
will be restored on
July 20. Secretary of State
John Kerry will travel to
Cuba this summer to raise
the U.S. flag over the embassy, the first trip to the
island by the top American
diplomat since 1945.
looks like.”
Cuban television broadcast
Obama’s statement live, underscoring the new spirit. In a letter to Obama, Cuban President
Raul Castro praised the em-
FACES OF CUBA
bassy announcement as a way
to “develop respectful relations
and cooperation between our
peoples and governments.”
Despite the historic step, the
U.S. and Cuba are still grappling with deep divisions and
mistrust.
The U.S. is particularly concerned about Cuba’s reputed
human rights violations. Cuba
is demanding an end to the
U.S. economic embargo, the
return of the U.S. military base
at Guantanamo Bay and a halt
to U.S. radio and TV broadcasts
aimed at the island.
Obama wants Congress to
lift the embargo, but staunch
Republican opposition makes
that unlikely in the near future.
Republicans, as well as a handful of Democrats, say Obama is
prematurely rewarding an oppressive government that jails
dissidents and silences political
opponents.
“The Obama administration is handing the Castros a
lifetime dream of legitimacy
without getting a thing for the
Cuban people being oppressed
by this brutal communist dictatorship,” said House Speaker
John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Republican presidential contenders had their say, too. Sen.
Marco Rubio, son of a Cuban
immigrant, said Obama was
making concessions to an “odi-
ous regime;” former Florida Gov.
Jeb Bush said the plan was “legitimizing the brutal Castro regime,” and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz
said it was a “slap in the face of a
close ally” to put an embassy in
Havana before Jerusalem.
Indeed, the historic thaw in
U.S.-Cuba relations is seen by
the White House as a central
part of the president’s foreign
policy legacy. Obama has long
argued that the U.S. policy of
isolating Cuba, a country just
90 miles south of Florida, has
been ineffective in forcing the
kind of change opponents demand.
“We don’t have to be imprisoned by the past,” Obama said.
Islanders in Havana respond to news of the embassies opening
‘THE SADNESS IS LESS’
‘AN IMPROVEMENT’
‘WE ARE SO CLOSE’
‘DON’T BENEFIT ME’
Eleven years ago, Elba Gil
cried for a week when her
daughter left to live in the
United States.
As her last child
remaining on the
island now prepares to make
the same move
soon with her
own family, Gil
Gil
feels more nostalgic than anything.
That’s because improved
political ties are making it easier for families divided by the
Florida Straits to stay in touch.
If phone service gets cheaper
and the Internet becomes more
easily available in Cuba — two
things that islanders anticipate will come with the thaw
— things could get even better.
“If there are good relations
between the two countries
I can visit them and she can
come here. If there are good
communications, it wouldn’t
be like before when people
left and you never heard from
them. The sadness is less,” Gil
said.
Royde Rojas, 48, was educated
as a topographer and used to be
the boss of local offices of Geocuba, a state-run surveying company, in
his native province of
Holguin, on the eastern side of the island.
But four years ago
he quit his low-paying job, figuring he
Rojas
could make more as
a taxi driver. He’s among hundreds
of thousands of people now working in Cuba’s incipient private sector under the economic reforms of
recent years.
Rojas said he’s upbeat that better relations with the United States
will attract investment and tourism
— meaning more clients to drive
around in his shabby, gray, Sovietmade Moskvitch sedan.
“It’s going to be an improvement
for the country,” Rojas said. “More
American tourists are going to
come, which is a boon for us.”
He sees neighborly relations with
Cuba’s longtime foe, Washington,
as the next step.
“There doesn’t have to be bad
blood.”
Amarylis Guas hasn’t seen her son
since his dad took him to the United
States 15 years ago. Today he’s a man
of 27. She hopes looser
relations will help them
build their relationship
further.
A 48-year-old former
professor of language
and literature, she went
through a deep perGuas
sonal crisis when her
son left and now works at a small privately-owned cafeteria.
She also hopes to see a day when
there’s no more U.S. embargo choking off commerce to the island and
feels that will help Cuba get better
economically.
“Having relations between the two
countries, I’m sure it will be a very
beautiful thing,” Guas said. “We are
so close. For 50 years we have lived
with this anguish.”
But she also worries that with
change, consumerism and crime
could creep in.
“It wouldn’t be smart to open the
country up too quickly, because we
have lived for years with a process of
little by little. It wouldn’t be good for
the country or for us as citizens.”
Joan Gonzalez is a 40-year-old
husband and father who hasn’t held
a job in five years and makes do
with “whatever comes
along” — odd jobs like
painting a house or fixing a patio. He used to
work in a soap factory.
He’s convinced better
ties between Cuba and
the United States will
Gonzalez
do nothing to improve
his life, or those of Cubans in general.
“Relations should exist, yes, but
benefit me? They don’t benefit me
at all, because for 56 years it has
been demonstrated that there is no
respect for the people” by the government, he said.
Gonzalez is a member of a dissident
organization called the Republican
Popular Party, and he was waiting to
enter the U.S. Interests Section to use
the free Internet it offers. Opposition
groups have no legal recognition in
Cuba, and he believes things won’t
get better until the country’s communist leadership is gone.
“What Obama said about empowering the people, that’s not going to
happen as long as Fidel and Raul are
around.”
IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS
Confidential UN report positive on commitments
By GEORGE JAHN
and MATTHEW LEE
The Associated Press
VIENNA — Iran has met a
key commitment under a preliminary nuclear deal setting up
the current talks on a final agreement, leaving it with several tons
less of the material it could use
to make weapons, according to a
U.N. report issued Wednesday.
Obtained by The Associated
Press, the confidential International Atomic Energy Agency
report said more than four tons
of the enriched uranium had
been fed into a pipeline that ends
with conversion of it into oxide,
which is much less likely to be
used to make nuclear arms.
REFUNDS
Continued from 1A
PRECEDENT SET?
The decisions mark the first
rulings in the company’s threeyear legal battle with dozens
of disgruntled Coral Resorts
purchasers.
Attorneys for the company
and the buyers disagreed
Wednesday about what effect
the rulings will have on other
lawsuits pending in state and
federal court.
Five of those suits were dismissed last month in federal
court, according to court records.
Most buyers allege they
were misled by sales pitches
and signed contracts that
didn’t reflect what they were
told when they bought at one
of the company’s Hilton Head
oxide that is the end product
had been made. But a U.S. official told the AP the rest of the
The June 30 deadline
enriched uranium in the pipeoriginally had been enviline has been transformed into
sioned as the culmination
another form of the oxide that
of nearly a decade of diwould be even more difficult
plomacy aimed at assurto reconvert into enriched uraing the world Iran cannot
nium, which can be turned into
produce nuclear weapons
the fissile core of nuclear arms.
and providing the Iranian
The official said that technical
people a path out of their
problems by Iran had slowed the
international isolation.
process but the United States
But officials said over the
was satisfied that Iran had met
weekend they were noits commitments to reduce the
where near a final accord.
amount of enriched uranium
it has stored. He demanded
anonymity because he was not
The report indicated that only authorized to discuss the confiseveral hundred pounds of the dential review process.
THE TALKS
properties: Port O’Call at Shipyard Plantation, Island Links,
Coral Reef and Coral Sands
resorts.
The company denies the allegations and says the buyers
signed binding contracts that
included a five-day right to
cancel.
Attorneys for the couples
say the new rulings could set a
precedent.
“I think it shows there is hope
for people who have similar
claims against this company,”
Hilton Head attorney Zach
Naert said Wednesday. Naert
and law partner Joseph DuBois
represent clients in all of the
suits.
But an attorney for the company says what’s more telling
are claims the arbitrators dismissed.
Both arbitrators ruled the
company did not commit
fraud, unfair trade practices or
intentional misrepresentation,
according to the documents.
Those claims are made frequently in the other lawsuits.
“With those causes of action
come major damages. They
were not able to recover those
because they had no evidence
that those existed,” Columbiabased attorney Nekki Shutt
said. “There is no evidence
anyone did anything intentionally inappropriate.”
She said she thinks the two
rulings set no precedent.
“It does not have any effect,”
she said. “If this was a full trial
in a real court where you have
discovery, it might mean something different.”
No court dates for the other
lawsuits have been scheduled.
Follow reporter Dan Burley
at twitter.com/IPBG_Dan.
Iran’s meeting conditions of
the preliminary deal is an important benchmark as the talks
go into the final stage of talks
on an agreement meant to put
long-term caps on Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for
relief of economic penalties.
Violations by Iran would
complicate the Obama administration’s argument that U.S.
negotiators are holding the line
on demands for a verifiable
deal that extends the time Iran
would need to make a weapon
to at least a year. Tehran says its
nuclear program is meant only
to fuel reactors and for other
non-military purposes.
The report did not say where
JOB
Continued from 1A
He is the friendly face of a
less than pleasant chore.
“I like the fact that I get to —
if only briefly — speak to the
general public and to say hello
and good morning,” he said.
“Because even in that short
interaction, I can sometimes
make someone’s day better.”
If the number of residents
who greet Frazier by name and
give him a pat on the shoulder is
any indication, he’s succeeding.
Frazier is responsible for
opening the gate at 9 a.m. every Thursday and Friday. He’s
on the job until 7 p.m., lending
residents a hand and making
sure that the trash goes into
the correct container.
He wears charcoal gray cargo
pants, a neon green T-shirt, an
the rest of the material was.
But it appeared to confirm the
U.S. official’s description of the
material being somewhere in
the conversion line. That’s because the figures provided by
the IAEA indicated that it was
not added to Iran’s stockpile of
low-enriched uranium.
Low-enriched uranium can be
enriched further for weapons
purposes. The interim accord
capped Iran’s low-enriched
uranium stockpile at 7.6 tons. If
it went over that limit, it would
have to convert the remainder
into oxide.
The IAEA report said that
stockpile was just under that
level as of Tuesday.
orange construction vest and
a baseball cap to help keep his
head from cooking beneath the
summer sun.
During an average shift, about
500 cars roll past carrying the
leftovers of a week’s worth of
living. That means Frazier’s top
priority is helping as many folks
as quickly as he can.
“Time is of the essence for
people, and no one wants to sit
around and spend a lot of time
at the dump,” he said. “So I try
to cut that time, and they seem
to appreciate that.”
That appreciation is the best
part of his job — the smiles and
compliments he gets from users.
“I don’t think I am doing anything extraordinary,” Frazier
said. “I’m just doing my job the
way it should be done.”
All those people in all those
cars would likely agree.
7A
BRIEFLY
Gary Davis to chair
Heart Ball in January
The American Heart Association has selected Gary C. Davis
— a native of Jasper County and
a partner in Hilton Head Insurance and Brokerage — as chair
of this year’s Hilton Head Heart
Ball.
Heart Ball is the American
Heart Association’s national
signature event and is both an
awareness and fundraiser.
It features a silent and live
auction with original works of
art, travel packages and collectible bottles of wine. There also
will be a surprise dance performance and entertainment
from the Charlotte-based band
Flashback.
The ball is Jan. 30 at the Westin Hilton Head Island Resort &
Spa. The event kicks off at 5:30
p.m. with a VIP reception followed by a cocktail reception
at 6 p.m. Dinner and entertainment follows.
More than 400 medical, business and social leaders from
the Hilton Head, Bluffton and
surrounding communities will
raise money to reduce disability
and death from the nation’s No.
1 and No. 5 killers — cardiovascular disease and stroke.
Details: contact Carla
Raines at 843-540-6338 or
[email protected], or visit
hiltonheadscheartball.org
WEBSITE
Continued from 1A
The Republican replaces retiring treasurer Doug Henderson,
who hired Walls as a certified
public accountant four years
ago. She was later promoted to
deputy treasurer.
When Henderson announced
he would not seek re-election
in early 2014, he added that he
would be throwing his support
behind Walls. She won the seat
uncontested in last fall’s general
election.
During their tenure together
in the Treasurer’s Office, Henderson and Walls navigated the
office out of the shadow of a
2010 controversy surrounding
missing money from a delinquent tax sale. An inquiry ultimately ended in charges against
one office employee, who was
convicted of embezzling more
than $210,000, and called for
then-Treasurer Joy Logan’s resignation.
“She has taken the office and
brought it where it is today,”
Henderson said Wednesday.
“I know she will carry the office farther than it’s ever been
before.”
The website is an attempt
to continue those efforts, and
planned improvements will add
more data and more information for taxpayers to sift through,
Walls said. The site cost $4,500
and was designed by local firm
Hazel Digital Media.
“It was the best and fastest
way that we could communicate
everything our office handles to
the taxpayer in a way that would
impact them the most quickly
and really show what I find
important,” Walls said. “We’re
constantly going to be looking
to improve, so this is a visual indication of what the taxpayers
can expect from me.”
Follow reporter Zach Murdock
at twitter.com/IPBG_Zach and
facebook.com/IPBGZach.
NEW AUDITOR
SWORN IN
New Beaufort County
Auditor Jim Beckert also
was sworn in at a ceremony Wednesday in Beaufort.
The former school board
member and Port Royal
businessman won the position as an uncontested
Republican in the November general election.
In last summer’s Republican primary, he defeated
county software programmer George Wright, who
now works directly with
Beckert and new Treasurer
Maria Walls on the county’s tax software.