Town & Country Village Homeowner’s Association, Inc.
Board Meeting Minutes – November 2002
Date: 21 Nov 02
Place: Senior Center
Attendees: President – Ray Aduddel – Present
Vice President – Len Price – Present
Treasurer – Alan Hahne – Present
Secretary – Angie Eberhart – Present
Member at Large – Sharon Roybol – Present
Property Manager – Sheryl Heidenreich – Present
Minutes:
Taken by Angie Eberhart
Meeting called to order at 7:05PM
Minutes approved as presented for 17 October 2002
Architectural Control Committee (ACC) – Len Price, Vice President, briefly discussed the trees being donated by the Town of Parker Department of Public Works. The association will be receiving 15 trees for Main Street and 17 trees for Pine Drive. It was again stressed that the association will be responsible for the maintenance, watering and irrigation of these trees. This will mean an increase of our water bill. This will probably start in the April/May timeframe. Greg Miller from Douglas County will be at the January 2003 HOA meeting to talk to the homeowners on this subject in more detail.
Newsletter – Sheryl Heidenreich, Property Manager, briefed that the newsletter is done quarterly and we are looking for volunteers to be on this committee and a Board Member to head this up.
4. Homeowner Communication
(Page 1 of 5)
Alan briefly explained the Monthly Income & Expense Statement. He stated that there has been an increase since July 2002 of delinquent accounts but fewer accounts going to the attorney for collections.
a. New Office Space – located at 19731 E. Pikes Peak Ct, Ste 102. Hours are: M-F 9-12 and 1-4. The rent is $650.00 a month (all inclusive). It was briefly discussed about the status of converting the shed into an office. It would cost $22,000.00 to bring the shed into code for an office and there was no assurance of passing code by the City of Parker.
109 in favor of Option 1 (roofs, paint, gutters), 58 in favor of Option 2 (roofs only), 62 against Option 2 (roofs only) and 8 in favor of cash up front.
Ray Aduddel, President, stated that another notice would go out after Thanksgiving for a revote after the Holidays. The ballot will be the same but to establish a quorum it would only require 30% or 150 votes. [Per the Declaration of Covenants dated Nov 1983, page 10 it states the following: “Written notice of any meeting called for the purpose of taking any action authorized under Sections 3 or 4 of this article shall be sent to all members not less than 30 days or more than 60 days in advance of the meeting. At the 1st such called meeting, the presence of members or of proxies entitled to cast 60% of all the votes of each class of membership shall constitute a quorum. If the required quorum is NOT present, another meeting may be called subject to the same notice requirement, and the required quorum at the preceding meeting shall be one-half of the required quorum at the preceding meeting.”] There was a brief discussion of getting a judge involved in order to get the Special Assessment passed. Other discussions included having another option on the ballot for “each homeowner responsible for their own financing.” Another suggestion was to divide Town & Country Association into smaller associations.
a. Kevin’s driveway still an ongoing issue. Ray Aduddel, President stated the board was “in process” with this situation.
Angie Eberhart, Secretary gave Sheryl Heidenreich, Property Manager, the package of ballots from the November Special Assessment, given to her by Ruth Ann Watts in the November meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:25PM.
The next meeting is scheduled for 16 January 2003 at 7:00PM at the Senior Center.
Attachment: Fred Graver’s Letter
An open letter to the Board of Directors
And
The Members of the Association
Of
Town and Country Village
November 6th, 2002
By the time this letter is published, another vote on the Special Assessment for Roofing, Painting and Repair will have failed of passage. It’s really a shame, because the work needs desperately to be done.
I’ve heard all the members excuses, from “I don’t have the money” or “I can’t get a loan” to “What did the Board do with the money I give them every month?” There are a number of things I could say that jump immediately into my mind, but I’m trying to contain myself so you’ll all read to the end of this letter.
The first time I bought a Townhome I knew little of the “Common Ownership” philosophy, but it didn’t take long for me to find out what I’d gotten into. The fact that someone else (THE BOARD) could tell me what I could and couldn’t do was first. Next was the fact that they (THE BOARD) could tell me what it was going to cost me to do what they (THE BOARD) wanted me to do. And lastly I found out that, if I wanted to have anything to say about it, I would have to join, or at least cooperate, with them (THE BOARD).
I have lived in townhome communities now for over twenty years and the litany of complaint is always the same. “I pay my dues every month and they’re (THE BOARD) to take care of everything! How come they want a big assessment now?” I’ve also served on Boards of Directors and a whole raft of committees. What I know is, that the people who do this are a selfless group working for no pay to the benefit of their entire communities. They are regularly accused of theft, malfeasance and all manner of chicanery, without any basis in fact. It’s a near miracle any one of them continues to serve after the treatment they receive at the hands of the membership they serve.
Five years ago, when I moved into my unit for the first time, I discovered that there were not enough reserves to cover the required maintenance of the property. I attended meetings and voiced my opinion that the monthly assessment or “dues” weren’t high enough. My cries fell on deaf ears. The membership wouldn’t vote for an increase and without the member’s support, the Board couldn’t raise the necessary monies.
Two years ago I was asked to take over the Presidency of the Board to straighten out, end, somehow fix the stalemate that had occurred when the association started a repair plan with the best contractors they could come up with. The assessment on each unit was approximately $2,000.00 and no one wanted to pay it. At the same time they argued that the work wasn’t being done to the standard they demanded. Entirely at cross purposes with the efforts I was drafted to accomplish, a group of residents caused the work to be stopped and it never again was restarted.
Since then, efforts by all the Board members, including those now serving, have tried to formulate a Special Assessment that the membership will pass. Engineers have done surveys, at no small cost to us. The amount went up to about $3200 per unit. Now it has risen to about $3500 per unit. Our insurance has increased and our coverage has decreased. The bill gets ever larger. They have even made attempts to borrow money on behalf of members who say they can’t get loans. This is far beyond the duties and powers of our elected Board of Directors.
Each and every member/owner is, by virtue of having purchased a unit in Town and Country Village, responsible for their share of expense to maintain the Common Property. Neither our governing documents nor state law exempts any one owner because of insufficient financial standing. Had any of these members bought a private dwelling, they would be responsible for it’s maintenance entirely on their own. If they didn’t want to repair a leaky roof or paint a peeling façade, they would have to live with it. But here, the ownership is an interest in a common property. By law, it must be maintained by the association, which is represented by its elected Board of Directors.
The solvent members are not, should not, and cannot be compelled to subsidize those who are insolvent. The association should not make an effort to obtain a loan on behalf of those insolvent members. The fact is, if they don’t have it now, what makes you so sure they will pay their share later. Have you thought of the possibility of paying their share when, inevitably, some of them default on their obligations? Many well-meaning people make bad decisions out of ignorance, because they didn’t enquire into the operation of commonly held properties, or the financial obligations they faced after purchase. Those faults are common, but do not make those people my, or your, responsibility.
Please realize that your Board is working for you, not against you; that the longer we wait, the more it will cost. If the issue fails one more time, a judge will be the one who tells you, not asks – but TELLS you – what you will pay and when.
F.M.G./20058SC
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