Security FAQ

Gulf Harbour Yacht & Country club

Community Privacy

Gulf Harbour Gate Access FAQ’s

To respond to recent feedback and comments regarding our community gate access, security, and privacy policies, the Security Committee put together some of the Frequently Asked Questions with Answers and comments.

Q: Why isn't Gulf Harbour more friendly when my contractors and visiting friends come to the gatehouse. I seems like they are delayed and inconvenienced by the guards.

A: 90% of the inconvenience and delays at the gates occurs because our residents do not Pre-Call their visitors and contractors. Visitors must be Pre-called or they are not admitted. When a guard has to take time to call a resident who has not Pre-called their visitor, everyone at the gate has to stand in line waiting. The other 10% of delays occur because some visitors and contractors are driving illegally without their drivers license. To avoid liability issues and for your security and protection, our community does not allow visitors to Gulf Harbour to enter without presenting a valid drivers license.

Q: What is going on to reduce the morning backups at the gates?

A: We assume everyone realizes that WCI and the Lee County Department of Transportation allowed the visitor lanes for both gates, especially the south gate, to be constructed too short for the number of people entering the community everyday. To expedite and minimize the backups the Security Committee has expanded the access tag distribution to include regular vendors and Club and Marina staff. Once we get appropriate registration information and tag these vehicles, it will help alleviate some of the congestion. We have recently added new equipment that helps help us process multiple visitors. Of course, it only takes one “difficult” visitor to clog things up and make the backup unbearable. Every time someone doesn’t pre-call their visitor or vendor it takes more time to process a visitor pass. Every time a visitor or vendor enters into a debate with a guard about having their driver’s license scanned, it slows things down. Fortunately, we see constant improvement as residents and visitors get used to our procedures.

Q: Why has access to Gulf Harbour become so restrictive that we need to scan every visitor’s driver’s license? Why not randomly screen rather than screen everyone at the gate? - we believe this will act as an equal deterrent to outside threats as much as the current rules and it will free up the totally excessive time loss as well as aggravation currently occurring.

A: Security clearly causes aggravation, as we all know from our experiences in airports these days. We believe our job is to minimize your aggravation here in Gulf Harbour, at the same time we have to respond to changes in our environment. As crime around us in Lee County has increased to record levels it had become apparent that incidents of prostitution, drug transactions, solicitation, and other threats to your security and privacy were increasing, even within the gates here in Gulf Harbour. Last year the Security Committee, with the help of our gate system vendor, TEM Systems, Inc., the Lee County Sheriff’s department, and Wackenhut, researched how other Florida communities of our stature have bolstered their overall security and visitor access procedures in an attempt to prevent future incidents. The number one recommended measure being implemented state wide, and nationally, is to screen visitors by reviewing or scanning all visitor drivers’ licenses. It’s sad to say that in this day and age scanning driver’s licenses and using cameras and microphones has become so important. Remember the days when Gulf Harbour guards wore the helmets and waved to you when you entered the community even though they didn’t have clue who you were? Just like the days of getting through and airport without being scanned and interrogated, those days of the pith helmeted Gulf Harbour guards are gone. Unfortunately, even Gulf Harbour has daily security issues; these range from domestic disturbances, fraudulent vendors, solicitors, intoxication, prostitution, illegal aliens, vandalism, and theft, to name a few. Contrary to what many people believe, it is legal for us to require visitors to produce their driver’s license to enter the community. This policy, which is highly endorsed by the Lee County Sheriff, Mike Scott, is legal because Gulf Harbour is a private community. Since it was first implemented on January 1st, almost daily the drivers’ license scanning proves how valuable and effective it is. In the first

month the license scanning system was implemented, at least one, possibly two, drug dealers had to go out of business in Gulf Harbour. Commercial solicitation by people posing as friends of residents stopped. Several illegal aliens on resident’s permanent lists were stopped without drivers licenses. Unbelievably, several taxi cab drivers, pizza delivery drivers, and even limousine drivers, are working without valid driver’s licenses (and

most likely have no insurance) and have been stopped by this new procedure. It is clear that you are safer and less likely to be injured by and un-licensed or uninsured driver in Gulf Harbour now, than you were a year ago. Our system does not compromise anyone’s personal identity or credit information. Only the driver’s name and drivers license number is recorded, and it is only stored in our computer for the length of the pass that is issued to them. We do NOT keep or

store personal information in our files. Other nearby communities, The Landing’s, Pelican Sound, Heritage Palms, and others near Sarasota and Naples have heard about our new procedures and are calling us for demonstrations because their Board’s of Directors want to tell their residents they are just as diligent as Gulf Harbour at protecting their residents and their property values.

Q: Many of us wonder how we can allow anyone to be turned away from the gate without a call to the homeowner! (this was always the case in previous years). In actuality, a quick call to homeowners would save time for the employees at the gate and hasten depletion of the backup (by sending vendors to the back of the line where they are just going to appear again!)

A: For the majority of our residents this procedure is working well and they understand that the benefits of this effort to provide security to our community out weight the inconveniences. For a minority of you that can not remember to pre-call your visitors, or update your permanent list, we apologize for the inconvenience this procedure creates. When we first implemented the pre-call system the entire Committee was worried that it would not work, but the system does work well, and residents are doing a great job updating their permanent lists and pre-calling visitors. You just don’t realize how busy our gates are and how busy our guards are, especially during the very busy times of the day when the backups occur. The Committee members always joke that it would be great if every resident could spend an hour in the gatehouse in the morning observing what goes on there. Of course that’s not

practical but it’s quite an education. We average over 500 vendors visiting the community everyday during season. There is absolutely no way the guards have time to call every resident that hasn’t remembered to pre-call their visitors and vendors. To their credit, when the guards do have time, they do try to call residents when a vendor comes and the pre-call hasn’t been recorded. However, it’s also amazing how many residents haven’t provided their phone number

to Security, or don’t notify us when they are leaving town so the guards can check their empty houses. In the end, the guards have been instructed not to jeopardize the efficient processing of visitors and to do everything in their power to keep traffic from backing up to McGregor.

Q: Within the last few weeks the time is getting slower to get through our gates and the vendors are now charging the homeowner for the extra time waiting at the gate. This can only lead to uproar and criticism.

A: Captain Fischetti and his staff report to the Committee everyday about the backup situation. We are working to reduce it, but we realize it changes daily as the reasons for delays vary day-to-day. We are working to minimize the backup problem given the scope and limitations we have to deal with. The Committee is not aware of any vendors that are charging extra for time spent in line here at Gulf Harbour. We would like to obtain a list of vendors that are doing this so we can interview them and find way to help them gain access more expediently. For the past two weeks the average morning wait for vendors has been 8-10 minutes, when there has been a severe backup. While this is not good, we are working to improve the morning backup situation (as explained in previous answers), we have to question how a vendor can justify

charging residents extra for that amount of time or why a resident would patronize a vendor that tried to do that.

Q: I have tried to call the North gate to give them a name of a vendor and there is no one to speak to and a recording comes on and asks for the message. I recorded a message and found that when the vendor, which I have approved in the message, has arrived no one has heard the message to admit them.

A: Since the new system was installed three years, we all understand that the guards will NOT respond to pre-call messages left on the answering machine at either the North or the South gates. The pre-call system 482-6998 is the only way a visitor can be pre-called for access into the community. It is also our standard procedure to insist that all visitors either be on residents permanent list or must be pre-called. The guards have instructions to only deal with emergency calls to the gatehouse phones, and they are not to engage in long conversations with residents when there is a traffic backup at the gates.

Q: Sometimes I call the pre-call system and when my visitor arrives they tell them they have not been pre-called and the turn my visitor away. How can that happen when I did use the precall system? This morning, I stopped at the gate and confirmed that the message I had left 45 minutes or more before that the message had not been heard.

A: One of the least understood restrictions of the pre-call systems is that it only holds a precalled message for 24 hours from the time you call 482-6998. There have been dozens of cases where residents have pre-called a visitor or vendor in advance, but the arrival time of the visitor or vendor has changed for some reason and the 24 hour expiration restriction has

eliminated the pre-call. This is a technical limitation of the computer system and the storage capacity of our voice server. The committee is working with our system’s vendor to expand or modify this restriction, but for the foreseeable future this is how it works. If the expected arrival time of your visitor or vendor changes it always a good idea to record another pre-called message that will extend to another 24 hour period.

Q: Why are vendors on our permanent list required to go through the line and in addition each show their drivers license each morning they arrive? I am told that the Brooks has a better system which involves a card which is renewable monthly for repeat users of the gate who are vendors approved by the security service.

A: Not only do vendors on your permanent list have to produce a valid driver’s license, all nonresident visitors must present a valid driver’s license to gain access, whether on your permanent list or pre-called. As stated in a previous answer, this is a new policy that has already stopped prostitution, drug dealings, solicitors, and illegal aliens from entering the community. This is a good thing and it makes your property more secure and valuable. Many of the vendors that come into Gulf Harbour have five or more trucks or employees that change daily. We can’t assume all of them are licensed drivers or that they should be welcomed in our community. We continually keep in touch with other communities and we are convinced our system is the best in the area, as many of the other communities are either moving to the TEM system, or budgeting

to move to TEM Systems from other vendors. Your Security Committee is already studying a new procedure to expand and screen vendors during peak traffic times by issuing access tags to vendors and employees who have been checked out. If we can implement an acceptable system to screen them, it should help cut down the morning backups.

Q: Can we just use some common sense? - Keeping in mind this is a community/neighborhood of families that needs to allow guests to visit without aggravation and requires services that can be implemented as scheduled without inconveniencing homeowners or their providers. As we say this, we can't help but think that to accomplish these goals we must re-evaluate the objectives of having this gate security - Is it to create a fortress or provide sensible evaluation of those entering our community?

A: Gated communities will always have issues relating to security and privacy. It’s sad to hear someone say we’ve created a fortress when nothing could be farther from the truth from your Committee’s perspective. What is too much security for you, might not be enough security for someone else. The Master Association and the Security Committee feel we are responding to the overall needs and desires of our residents by providing a high level of

scrutiny and diligence at the entry points to our community. If our current system is too aggravating, frustrating, or restrictive for you and your friends, please make positive suggestions and comments to the Board of Directors so they can be evaluated by everyone in the community. If the Security Committee is not doing a good job providing a high level of security and privacy to you and the other residents of Gulf Harbour let us know by attending the monthly Master Association Board meetings to share your comments and suggestions.

It’s become apparent to the volunteers on your Security Committee that most Security issues that arise are reactive because something has happened, Ie: once a break-in, vandalism, speeding, etc. happens, the community identifies the problem and we have to deal with how to prevent it in the future. The state of the art Security systems you have in place here in Gulf Harbour are intended to be as proactive as possible in preventing serious security issues from happening in the first place. Yes, sometimes a guard might be too abrasive to a resident or

guest, yes, sometimes an undesirable person or vendor might gain entry into to community, and yes, some of the rules and procedures may inconvenience and frustrate some of you. Hundreds of people pass through our gates and these instances are very infrequent. These are realities to the daily management of a gated community system, and when something happens that doesn’t meet our standards your Security Committee deals with it aggressively as possible within the limitations of our gatehouses, technology, our vendors, and budgets. We hope we are providing the best gated community security and privacy available, and with your guidance we can customize it to the needs of the entire community.

Gulf Harbour Security Committee

Spring 2007