negativity

[John James Cilliers]

Hello Terani, Leslie, Nelva and the other people on the Pacar and vecino vigilantes forms.

From John Cilliers, Owner 16, 17, 18 Alcazar and 123 La Fortaleza

I have been absent from the meetings of Vecinos Vigilates and other meetings for a while. Part of the reason for this is because I was always busy trying to support my family when the meetings were held and could not attend the meetings.

I however had a meeting with Leslie and Nelva about some of the other reasons why I withdrew from public live and participation in Los Altos de Cerro Azul.

The main reason is that a small group of people that is part of vecinos vigilantes and the Pacar Forum have been talking bad about me and my family. Some of these people have never had a single discussion with me or even spend a few minutes with me or my family. They do not know me or my family but is quick to judge us and to have negative opinions about us without ever have had any deals with us.
In this light they and their friends form negative opinions which they feel is valid and then they proceed to spread unjust and unfounded negativism towards me and my family.

Everybody knows, including Mr. Correa that I invested heavily into Los Altos de Cerro Azul where i currently own 4 properties. I rent out my properties
to support my family. This is done in a very secure and controlled manner where I provide all the names. surnames, cedula numbers and Car registration numbers of all my visitors to the security before the people arrive. I also collect my visitors personally from the gate and escort them to my properties where they will stay.

Everyone of my visitors is informed of the rules and regulations in Los Altos.
My visitors have access to club of los altos with my quotas as per property.

Every owner of a lot in Los Altos has A Quota of 7 people that they can take to the club. This is a quota per property and because I have 4 properties I have the normal quota per property. I pay the monthly TSM per property and I always pay one full year in advance. My yearly TSM is $600.00 x 4 = $2400.00 per year
I also pay for my water, electricity and taxes in advance and on time.

In the 5 years that i have been in Cerro Azul many of the present owners that is good residents and pay they dues first stayed at my places and after having a enjoyable time decided to buy property in Los Altos. I can Provide a list of names.

Many of the owners have had birthday parties, weddings and other functions where they needed additional accomodation for their guests. We housed their guests and I can provide you a list of all the owners that we assisted and you can get their reports. They were very happy with our dedication and quality.

Many owners of lots that do not have houses in Los Altos but wants to spend some time in Los Altos stay with us. They are always happy as our places are always clean and comfortable with satellite television and wireless Internet.

Many owner come park their cars in front of our property to use our wireless Internet because we always make sure that we maintain our service.

We work very hard to provide people with clean and comfortable accomodation in Los Altos and all our visitors leave refreshed and happy. They then talk to all their friends and family about the fantastic time they had in Los Altos and these people then contact us to discover Los Altos de Cerro Azul. Many of these people then wish to buy properties in Los Altos.

These would be the same people that would buy the properties of you or any other resident that needs or wishes to sell their property. This is only a good thing.

I had a meeting today with Mr. Correa where he confirmed to me that he never received a complaint from any owner or the security about any noise or bad behavior from our guests. The reason for this is that our visitors is mainly middle class families and we attend to our visitors personally because we live permanently in Los Altos. These visitors also stay in our own private properties where we control the situation and keep things under control. We are very responsible and diligent in our dealings with our visitors and we take personal responsibility for every visitor that we bring to Los Altos.

That is more than what a person can say for the majority of owners in Los Altos that do not live in Los Altos and send visitors to their houses without supervision or without being personally present.

Los Altos de Cerro Azul has 2000 lots and less than 5% (100 properties) of these lots are occupied by owners living here permanently. Los Altos is therefore in reality a vacation community where the majority of the owners maintain their properties for vacation purposes. It is then normal that there will be a influx of visitors during weekends and public holidays.

I am all for any effort to make Los Altos a better and more sustainable place to live in. I think that our activities are a benefit to many owners and is of a benefit to everybody in Los Altos that wish to sell their properties. In 5 years there has not been a single incident where our activities personally affected another owner negatively. The security has had no problem resulting from our activities and we declare the personal information of every visitor in writing to the security. With us taking personal responsibility and dealing with every visitor personally we certainly pose no security problem to Los Altos and we deal with our visitors in a more secure way then most other property owners.

It is then with sadness that we hear that the same people that is our neighbours and fellow Los Altos residents speak bad about us and slander our name.
I have many friends in Los Altos that attend the wine tasting events and attend meetings, parties and private functions in Los Altos. They always report to me what is been said and who is saying it. I am then completely aware of who is responsible. Some people that pretend to be friendly is sometimes the worst.
This goes totally against the concept of vecinos vigilates and is the principle reason why our community is so fragmented and at odds with itself. There is only a small club of people (Given that there is 2000 lots) of residents that attend the vecinos vigilantes meetings and I think that some of these negative issues and attitudes is part of the reason.

Mr. Correa did tell me that someone from the Pacar forum and the vecinos vigilantes formus have been complaining to Vista Mares about me and my family and the way we support our lives here is Los Altos.
These people never had the decency to visit our home and to talk to us personally. They never wanted any facts and does not seems to care about any facts.
All they want is for us to leave Los Altos de Cerro Azul,
Like they own the place!!!!!
It takes many people to pay their dues to support this community.
These people need the support of all the residents as they can not personally support the entire Los Altos with their $50.00 contributions.
If we leave a responsible family that pay the TSM and promote Cerro Azul will have to abandon 4 properties in Los Altos and the TSM situation will continue to decline and nobody will do the good job that we have been doing promoting Los Altos.

They do not care about us and they spread lies and negativity that can never be justified as it is completely false.
If they took only a small amount of their time to investigate the truth and not the unfounded stories flying around they will discover that we are a very nice and decent family that care a lot about Cerro Azul and try our best to make this a better and sustainable place to live for everybody. Security in Los Altos de Cerro Azul is as important to us as any other resident because we live here permanently.

When I had the meeting with Nelva and Leslie I tried communicating some of this to them. I would like to contribute and take part in the security issues and other efforts to make Los Altos a better place but how can I sit around the same table with people that bode me and my family harm and negativity.
In the interim we as a family have been ignoring the negativity and we have been isolating ourselves from this.
This however did not solve the problem as the same small amount of people (Mostly part of the management and friends of the inner circle of Pacar and Vecino Vigilantes) continue to harm me and my family.
I wish for the management of Pacar and Vecinos vigilantes to convene a meeting with me and my family together with any other people that is spreading negativity about our family at our property 16 Alcazar: During this time I want them to ask any questions that they want and we answer any questions that they might have.
They will also have fully access to all our affairs so that they can for once and for all get it out of their mind that we are in any way a negative influence in Los Altos.

Please can you (as the leaders and administrators of Pacar and vecinos vigilantes discuss this and post a formal invitation to anybody that wish to discuss anything with me or my family and set a date for this meeting.
My wife will be dead set against this as we have only been good to all the people here in Los Altos and as fellow owners and adults we do not have to report to anybody.
To put end to this issue we will however avail ourselfs.
If this does not put a end to this issue I do not know what to do because we have never been bad or negative to anybody in Los Altos. We will however try to deal with this issue because we Love Altos and our lives here.

John y Geraldine Cilliers
Tel:2977157
Cell: 67776112
Cell: 670759024
Email: chagrespark@gmail.com

[Maricia Miller]

OUCH!
So sorry and I hope that if YOU know where any nastiness comes from that if the folks involved are too cowardly to come clean, that YOU are willing to approach them because it is most important for us all to live our lives in that small community knowing that we should be able to rely on each other and support each other (in even the most basic neighborly way). Obviously I am aware that a lot of us up there are very private and just like to do our own thing, but that does NOT make it OK to make anyone else's life unhappy or threatened... We are a COMmunity and need to get beyond petty nonsense where PERSONAL DISLIKES (if that is what this is...) do not interfere with the needed spirit of COMMUNITY.

Maricia 204 Centinela

[Marco]

Dear John and the Cilliers family,

You have initiated this communication in a public forum and addressed some of us personally. We will respond by the same means. We am unaware of anyone who means harm to your family, if that is what you are implying. However, it must be difficult to hear of opinions counter to your own. Even when those opinions concern your guests and not your beautiful family.

In some meetings we have attended there have been comments questioning the operation of a business enterpise in a National Park, which is forbidden by ANAM. There has not been a definitive answer to this as far as we know. Some feel that no for-profit business should be allowed in our development, which resides in the Park. Others feel that a home business is welcome. There are proper authorities to answer that question. The means to do so rests with anyone who wishes to follow that path. We doubt anyone would welcome such an action from any side and the scrutiny that would come along with it.

In the meantime, it is not the role of the officers or the members of Vecinos Vigilantes to organize or promote a meeting for you. Maintaining and increasing security, personal safety, and enlisting the help and cooperation of the National Police as well as our own Los Altos Security department is the goal of V.V. We have other issues that concern us. You may know of our current petition campaign asking for a police vehicle to be permanently assigned to the Cerro Azul Sub-station to improve security for all. This has been previously announced on the forum and we invite all to sign the petition. There are versions in both Spanish and English:

Police Vehicle Petition

As for the PACAR forum, again, it is not the role of the administrators or technical support team (all volunteers) to organize or promote a meeting for you. The purpose of the PACAR forum is to communicate and discuss issues of interest or concern to property owners of Los Altos de Cerro Azul. Therefore, you are absolutely welcome to use the PACAR forum to organize a meeting with your fellow property owners. You may announce your meeting, invite attendance, and notify them of the time and place. Make your feelings known to your neighbors and invite them to do the same.

You have started a community dialog to help establish trust. This requires listening and understanding another viewpoint. Listening without judging can be the cornerstone to that end. We are hopeful you continue in that vein and this matter can be resolved in a neighborly way.

Best regards,

Nelva Sybertz, President
Vecinos Vigilantes

Leslie Lieurance
VP, Vecinos Vigilantes &
PACAR technical support

Terani Simons, Co-administrator
PACAR

[colmport]

John:

My wife and I will be back soon and I would like to meet you. You sound like a responsible person who is acting responsibly. We have never spoken an ill word about you and am not sure we ever met. I do not know the laws of the Republic of Panama as intimately as those in the jurisdiction where I have practices for 33 years but it would seem that allowing persons whom you screen and whom you monitor and control access to your home(s) is a freedom any nation should permit.

In the 8 years my wife and I have been residents, we continually hear of persons operating "businesses" contrary to the law such as "hotel" or "restaurant" operations. I have hard of numerous ventures that are clearly and unambiguously commercial in nature. What you describe is not an unambiguously commercial enterprise. I do not tend to allow others access to my homes when I am away, but that is merely because I like to find my homes as I left each of them when I return. I understand you concerns. Where will the line be drawn? If you cannot invite and supervise guests into your homes, will some then extend this to family members of property owners? I have met some owners whose actions, or those of family members, while in residence do not please me (Playing music so loudly as to keep me awake at hours past 2300; lighting fireworks, etc.). On the other hand, I am certain some owners have invited unrelated guests who have been wonderful neighbors. In fact, I know of at least two owners who were first renting guests of an owner of a lot across the street from my home. Both of these renters turned owners were perfectly pleasing neighbors that I am glad are now members of our community.

My bottom line is that we must all comply with the laws of the jurisdiction in which we reside to the maximum extent practical. We must all communicate and cooperate with our neighbors to maintain the beautiful community that provoked each of us to become residents. we need to assure that each and every person residing, whether owner or guest, maintains the peace, the tranquility and the beauty that all expect to find in a national park.

I will make a point to look you up and to speak in a few weeks when I return.

Mark P. Ort
Casa 61, Torreon