Riviera Beach group under scrutiny | Maryland Gazette (HometownGlenBurnie.com)

At a Riviera Community Improvement Association meeting on Tuesday, angry residents of the neighborhood on the Patapsco River said the corporation that controls community property wrongly approved a plan to repair lingering damage from 2003's Tropical Storm Isabel and then secretly sold a neighborhood park to the contractor.

"I always loved that Riviera Beach had a park and the water," said Carrie Riggin, who moved to the community with her husband three years ago. "Why isn't the board protecting the integrity of the neighborhood? You guys need to be able to come together and discuss this."

Officials with Riverbea Corp., a non-profit organization that owns all community land in the Pasadena neighborhood, say all their actions were to protect that property, and that nothing they've done was improper.

"Anyone who ever implies that anyone has ever spent money for anything incorrect is crazy," Riverbea President John Robbins said.

A spokesman for County Executive John R. Leopold's office said the county began reviewing whether the Riviera Beach erosion control funds were spent appropriately after residents contacted the office with complaints.

Until that investigation is complete, a stop-work order has been issued, said Erik Robey, assistant chief administrative officer for Mr. Leopold.

About 1,200 households in the Riviera Beach Shore Erosion Control District pay extra property taxes - four cents for every $100 of assessed property value - for erosion control. The county council approves those funds during the annual budget process and then disperses them to RCIA.

The fund generated just over $81,000 during fiscal year 2008, according to figures provided by the county Budget Office.

Mr. Robey said residents complained that the Lake Riviera project - which included a walkway across the lake - had nothing to do with erosion control.

In an opinion issued Wednesday, County Auditor Teresa Sutherland agreed with those residents.

"You told me that the walkway is a convenience that will allow users to get from one side of the beach strip to the other side, and it serves no erosion control purpose," Ms. Sutherland wrote in a letter to RCIA President Pat Kiley, who also is on the board of Riverbea. "Accordingly, I am recommending that the county administration not approve the disbursement of fiscal year 2008 tax funds for this purpose."

That's only an opinion, and a review of the situation is still ongoing, Mr. Robey said.

But the walkway project only cost about $20,000, and the county hasn't yet disputed the use of the other funds for erosion control, about $380,000 worth, Mr. Robbins said.

"We're not concerned," Mr. Robbins said.

Riverbea officials have a history of acting "secretly and unethically," according to Robynn Squires, one of about 150 residents who attended Tuesday's meeting. She and other residents have launched a Save The Beach campaign to oust Riverbea as trustee of community property.

That Lake Riviera project was also never advertised, and residents have never seen any bids for it, she said.

Some residents say that project only benefits homeowners near the waterfront - including Riverbea Vice President Bob Snyder and Mr. Robbins.

That's not true, they say.

"We are protecting the last beachfront area in Riviera Beach," Mr. Snyder said. "This project has been in the works for 30 years."

Mr. Robbins said the real trouble began after Tropical Storm Isabel when a bulkhead broke loose.

"It was a huge safety hazard," he said.

Repairing it was supposed to be a simple project, but because of Jersey barriers on the lake, it became extremely complicated and costly, Mr. Robbins said.

Riverbea needed to find a contractor that could take on the project immediately, so the association hired Barry Tiernan of Pasadena-based Norris Construction. The company had worked with Riverbea in the past, Mr. Robbins said.

"We needed someone who could come in on a moment's notice and do the work," he said. "He (Mr. Tiernan) seemed to be a fair and equitable person."

Mr. Tiernan didn't return calls seeking comment.

By the time he started the work, a dozen more trees had washed away, Mr. Robbins said. The project wasn't bid out because it was an emergency.

"It was a giant, smelly pit down there," he said of Lake Riviera. "It had turned bright green."

The April 2006 sale of The Triangle - a 0.6-acre piece of land at Park Road and Echo Drive - seemed to be the final straw for disgruntled residents.

At Tuesday's meeting, frustrated residents peppered Mr. Robbins and Mr. Kiley with questions about the sale, some more heated than others.

Much of the community land is in jeopardy, with some Riviera Beach residents "encroaching" on it, Mr. Robbins said. That's led to legal action over the years.

"The last time we had to go to court - it was over an illegal carnival held in the park," he said. "People were doing things that made the whole community liable."

So the Riverbea board voted last spring to sell The Triangle to Mr. Tiernan for $145,000. That money will be used for legal defenses, Mr. Robbins said.

"We sold it because we needed money to defend the other 99 percent of our property," Mr. Robbins said.

But the community was not notified of the sale until November, Ms. Squires and others say. Riverbea officials say they consulted an attorney and were told they had every right to sell it, Mr. Robbins said.

When asked at the meeting who that attorney was, Mr. Robbins said he didn't recall the lawyer's name.

Mr. Robey said he couldn't comment on the sale of The Triangle.

"Any sale of privately owned land is really between the community and the property owner," he said.