By Norm Bell

I spent two and a half hours watching a gripping piece of theater this week and the experience has left me pondering some of the deep questions of life in 21^st Century America. That, theater aficionados tell me, means the evening was a success.

I disagree.

Sure, the actors gave pitch perfect performances. There was the smooth-talking lawyer who parsed words and baited others. There was the exasperated businessman just trying to ‘get ‘er done.’  There was the quiet knowledgeable bookkeeper who lacked only the green eyeshade. And there were the bored yet efficient professionals who calmly watched the train wreck happening before them but only intervened when blood was visible.

But the plot had gapping holes that required the audience to take massive leaps of faith. And that audience wasn’t buying it. They hooted and howled from the cheap seats, heckling the actors much of the way.

No, this troupe has some work to do before it’s ready for prime time. 

And, no, we’re not talking about a show prepping for the new Aventura Arts Center. We’re talking about a board meeting of The Waterways, the ‘master association’ that includes a host of condo towers and townhouses in Aventura’s far northeast corner.

The back story is interesting. In the ‘90s, the master association brokered a deal under which the roughly 3,000 residential units within The Waterways would get a sweet package of cable television for a bargain-basement price. Board members changed; the cable provider changed; but the contract keep on ticking until somebody noticed that it had expired. Nobody is quite sure when. It could have been last year. It could be this year. Or maybe a five-year option period is in force. In any event, it’s time to get a new one.

Last year, it seems, a well-intentioned Waterways board set out to negotiate a new deal with a goal of approximating the old deal. They wanted a raft of premium channels for a bargain price and Comcast seemed willing to play. Then it got sticky.

Comcast had to know how many subscribers would be involved before committing to a price. The master association couldn’t commit the member associations, so they asked for an expression of interest in the project. Some of the member associations agreed; some wanted to know the details before agreeing to anything; some thought the deal needed to include other services. Then there were questions about what would happen if some individual unit owners didn’t pay and about the length of the deal, future technology, annual rate hikes and the handling of ‘key money’ offered by Comcast. The situation devolved into a dog chasing its tail. Loudly.

Hanging over the whole matter was a significant lack of communication. Nobody had thought to ask the unit owners what was important to them. Assumptions were made about the importance of Internet access, the number and age of TVs in the area, the value of certain programming to uncertain demographic groups, the future of the technology and the rate people would be willing to pay. The deeper the hole got, the less eager the board apparently became to hear from constituents.

Naturally some details leaked. Rumors started. Nasty e-mails were exchanged. Fingers were pointed. Board members were removed or recalled. And finally the wholly steamy drama bubbled out June 10 in a meeting at the Aventura Medical Arts Center’s conference room.

After two and a half hours, not much has been resolved. It seems likely the largest member association, The Point, likely won’t be part of any master association solution. That would mean Comcast would be getting about 2,000 subscribers, not 3,000, causing the company to recalculate the price upward. The higher price likely will force new discussions over features vs. price and another round of ‘are-you-in-or-out’ conversations with the member associations.

In effect, we seem to be back at the beginning of the process, despite a vote by the board to stand by the terms it had already negotiated. Events seem to have overrun that position. 

These are bright people all around. They have volunteered their time for the greater good. Their hearts are in the right place. If The Waterways can use its bulk buying power to strike a better deal, everyone will benefit. 

But there are some realities of group dynamics that need to be factored into the equation alongside the dollars and the power trip of making the multi-million-dollar deal.

It will be interesting to see if the board learned anything from its night on stage. In this era of instant communication, it would seem a fairly easy task to poll the unit owners on what they would like and what they would pay for in a new master deal. Armed with that information, interviewing the few viable suppliers again – because the environment has changed in a year – and negotiating a deal would be fairly straight forward, albeit time consuming. 

Yes, all that would be akin to starting over. And, yes, some would see it as admitting defeat. But sometimes that’s what it takes to get the job done right. Measure twice, cut once is sound advice that wasn’t followed here. And it now seems The Waterways does not have a basis for moving forward. 

The next step can be more drama, more finger pointing or it can be as simple as saying: We’re closing the door on what’s happened; we’re starting over and this time we’re going to be inclusive, transparent and smart.

It will be an interesting to see if the personalities and bruised egos involved will embrace the clear path or insist on fighting on. 

Until the Arts Center opens, this may well be the best show in Aventura.

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While Norm Bell is a principal in talkofaventura.com, he writes here as a unit owner within The Waterways.