CINNAMON WOODS HOMES ASSOCIATION, INC.

Transcription

1 CINNAMON WOODS HOMES ASSOCIATION, INC. BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING MINUTES FEBRUARY 19TH, CINNAMON DRIVE GERMANTOWN, MD ATTENDEES: JIM OLTMANN, BILL DAVIS, STEVE TRAYLOR, LEIGHTON MEEK, RON KOMARA, CHUCK MARTINEZ, BEN NERUD, JOHN OMEARA, MARY INNISS & KENYA SMITH Jim Oltmann, President called the meeting to order at 7:50pm. 1. Approval of Minutes: Approval of the January 2009 Minutes was motioned by Leighton Meek and seconded by Steve Traylor. Unanimous approval by Board of Directors. 2. Crime Initiative Update: Executive Director Chuck Martinez presented the crime initiative update to the community. He reported that there were 3 robberies, 1 larceny (vehicle) and 2 stolen vehicles in our police beat. All of the incidents reported occurred within the vicinity of the community. One incident occurred at the block of Thyme Court on February 8th. A delivery. driver was approached by two males one of whom snatched money out of the driver's hand. Both suspects fled on foot. Chuck Martinez stated that homeowners with internet access could log onto the Montgomery County website and access crime statistics and information for our area. Chuck also clarified the intent of the Crime Awareness Initiative Program. He stated that it is not a Neighborhood Watch Program, but a means of making sure everyone is aware of crime in their area and reports it to the police. Chuck is stil callng for volunteers to participate and anticipates holding the first meeting within the next few weeks. He is asking the Board of Directors to allow Captain Didone and Officer Dixon of the Montgomery County Police, Department to give a presentation at the next meeting. The Board approved the request. 3. Architectural Review Committee Report: Executive Member Leighton Meek presented the Arc report. There were no Architectural Requests to approve (probably due to the weather or the economy). Review of Paint Contracts - Leighton reported that the ARC and the office staff got together and reviewed the seven bids obtained and picked the three that they felt were the best. A bid comparison sheet and the three bids have been provided to all board members. The ARC is recommending that Hann & Hann be chosen as the vendor for ARC felt they had the best pricing. Kenya Smith added that when the Board of Directors is reviewing the information to notice that some of the bids distinguished between the sizes of

2 the homes and set a small unit and a larger unit for pricing painting/siding costs. She also stated that Hann & Hann had adjusted their siding price and the new price was noted on the form. Jim Oltmann thanked the ARC and office staff for all their work in compilng these bids and reviewing them. Vote on selecting vendor was pushed to the new business section of the meeting. Chuck Martinez asked for an update on the home at Poppy Seed Lane whose fence had fallen down. Kenya Smith reported that the fence had been removed and that the office was in contact with the bank that now owned the home which has been foreclosed on. Covenant Enforcement notices have been sent to the bank and wil be noticed on any disclosure requests in reference to the necessary fence repairs as well as needed roof repairs and bat infestation. The home has been placed for sale and a potential buyer has been identified. Chuck asked about the past due assessments and whether we would be able to collect them. Kenya responded that the bank would only pay from the date that they took over the property and that we would have to go after the former homeowner for the other balance. She also stated that she had forwarded information in regards to legislation pending that would affect how HOA's and Condo Associations collect on past due assessments from liens and foreclosures. Vice President Bill Davis asked where we stood in sending letters of repair out to homes to be painted this year. Kenya Smith stated that all of the 4 courts scheduled had been walked by John O'meara except one, but that we were waiting to send out the letters until a vender had been determined and Mijaar had completed an outstanding repair from last year. Bil asked if we had re-inspected any of the work that was done last year and checked to see how the work was holding up. He reported that there was a gutter coming off of a home that he could see on Poppy Seed Court/Lane from his backyard. John O'meara stated that he would check it out. Jim Oltmann stated that we needed to stay on top of the courts that have already been painted with ARC inspections to make sure they do not fall into disrepair. Treasurer's Report was skipped to allow for Executive Member Ben Nerud to arrive. 4. Operating Reports: Management Kenya Smith, Community Manager presented the Management report. She reported that the transition with TMGA was going well. In late December TMGA sent out the first batch of delinquency notices and then discovered a glitch in the system where several of the December payments made were not uploaded from MPMA to their system. Several homeowners were affected but Kenya felt like TMGA was very responsive to the homeowners and worked quickly to get the issue resolved. She reported that the website was active and running with live information. She stated that she and Mary Inniss had been working with TMGA to make sure all the information was updated and to post information to the site as it became available. She asked that anyone who was having problems accessing the site please contact the Management Office or TMGA directly.

3 The office had also published the first Spice Rap since 02/08. The office drafted the Jan/Feb edition in house but is looking for contributions from the Board of Directors and the residents of the community for all future editions. Executive Member Ron Komara asked if the advertisements from the previous Spice Raps were stil available. Kenya stated that yes, that info was still available and would be published in future editions. She was also looking forward to generating a Community Directory or a list of community businesses that could be listed on the website and handed out with new homeowner welcome packets. Persons who choose to may stil advertise in the Spice Rap by paying for ad space or providing a business card. She asked the Board of Directors for feedback on pricing. Ron Komara stated that the fee to advertise was $50 and asked when the deadline was for the next edition. Kenya stated that the deadline for submission would be the following Thursday. Leighton Meek asked what size the ads could be and Kenya stated they could be up to a full page (81/2 x 11) but the cost would be increased. Kenya continued with the Management report stating that the office had also worked with the ARC committee in compiling and reviewing the contracts for the 2009 Painting Program. She stated that she and John O'meara had met with several of the vendors providing bids and that all were wiling to attend a Board of Directors meeting to present themselves and answer any questions. The office worked with Goldklang, Cavanaugh & Associates for two days to provide information for the completion of the 2007 financial audit. Audit is still underway. Grounds Kenya Smith also presented the grounds report for February. She reported that the community had a snow/ice removal incident which involved several days of treatment. The team has continued the removal and re-installation of reserved parking spaces due to the turnover of homes due to foreclosure and sale. The team identified several areas with diseased trees and worked with Ferro's Tree Service to have them removed. They also walked with Saylor Paving to review the areas to be paved and sealed this year in anticipation of beginning the program in March. One additional area was added on Sage Way at a cost of approximately $ The grounds team continued to evaluate the lights throughout the community. There was an incident on Allspice Drive in which a tree fell onto a neighbor's home, damaging the roof. The tree was on the property of a new homeowner. Both insurance companies were contacted and the tree was removed. The incident was handled by the homeowners and CWHA took on no expense or liability. Chuck Martinez asked for an update on the new lights we were installng on homes. Kenya responded that these were only used in situations where we were unable to make the existing fixture work and/ or the homeowner the light was wired to have refused to turn it on and we needed light for security reasons. We are offering to install a motion detector light on homes if the owner purchases the fixture. Chuck stated that there were two homes on Paprika that had lights that were not working. John O'meara stated that in one case he was waiting on notification from the homeowner that she had purchased the light and was ready for us to install it. The second is a power

4 issue and we are having issues getting in touch with the owner of the home. We have installed two of the lights at the request and expense of the homeowner. Bill Davis reports that at the entrance to Poppy Seed CourtLane and Thyme Court, we have always had a problem with icing. He asks if we have approached the County to perform a repair. The elevation of the county road is higher than this easement. John states that he can contact the county but suspects that it will take a long time to get them to respond or he can have the asphalt company perform the repair and attempt to pass the bill back to the county. Bill Davis asks that the office look into it. Treasurer Steve Traylor requests to be notified of the cost as soon as we are aware. CWHA homeowner in attendance suggests that we complete the repair in house. Steve Traylor responds that we would not want to take on the liability of that should there be any problems with the repair. Mrs. Cannon of Poppy Seed Court states that the CWHA by-laws state that no sound hardwood trees shall be removed without Board of Directors approval. She asks who makes decisions on removal of trees and suggests we check to see if trees can be saved instead of removed. The Board of Directors responds that tree removal on private homeowner property must be approved by the ARC but that on common ground, the Board of Directors determines the necessity for removal of a tree based on the health of the tree or its interference with plumbing, pipes or sidewalks in the area. It uses Ferro's Tree Service to evaluate the tree and remove them. Jim Oltmann asks if there is a tree in particular that she is referring to and she states that two trees were removed near her home that the neighborhood children played in and used for shade. She was not happy that these trees were removed and requested that new trees be planted in their place. John O'meara stated that the trees were removed because they were diseased and because grass would not grow in the area. Jim Oltmann stated that the ARC would take a look at the area and make a recommendation on whether or not to replace the tree when weather warms up. Leighton Meek confirms that the ARC wil take a look and see what can be done. (Ben Nerud has arrived) 5. Treasurer's Report: Steve Traylor presents the report. Copies of the financial statements used in the reporting are attached. Steve states that it has been an interesting transition from CB Ford Associates to TMGA, but that he is hoping that this wil provide better reports for the Board of Directors to review and understand where we are financially. Steve states that the TMGA reports are still in transition so there are still areas within that are not exact. He reviews the balance funds in the reserve accounts and discusses the costs of projects anticipated for Steve reminds the Board of Directors that the TMGA reports are done on an accrual basis not a cash basis when looking at revenue. He then presents the assessment delinquency breakdown by court in reference to the expense of the asphalt program and the renovations program. He states that we are actively looking to place liens and foreclose on all properties with outstanding assessment balances. With these projects at this point we would be spending 49% of our reserves on these two projects this year. Economically we have to find ways to scale back until we can collect more money. Within the TMGA financial statement, we have a due to reserves balance of $388, where since inception, we were unable to pay into the reserves each month as much as budgeted. There were a lot of years where we were not able to pay into the

5 reserves what was anticipated. The Budget Comparison Report as it reflects the income and expenses still needs some work and will be cleaned up by next month. We met with TMGA last week and are working out the mechanics on how the info is provided that feeds these reports. Steve is very concerned about the reserves and the financial situation of the community. We cannot spend 49% of our reserves this year. He feels strongly that we cannot paint all 4 courts this year. We cannot spend $195,000 on the painting renovations program this year. The Board of Directors will be in constant communications about the project. Mrs. Cannon asks what the $9000 that was paid to TMGA was for. Steve stated that we still had some questions for TMGA on some of the figures and we are working on the answers to.those questions. A homeowner in the audience asks why we decided to go to an off site management group. Steve responded that over time we have made so many changes to the way we have handled our financials and our accounting over the years that we have not had accurate accounting. The previous BoD's put a program in place that did not account for receivables and payables in the same system and that hinders us from having good accurate records. The homeowner asks why payments have to be sent to Atlanta. Steve stated that it is such a large process that we would have to have at least 2 accountants on staff to handle just the receivables portion of management. We need something put in place to mange the receipts and act quickly to take action. This will provide accurate accounting now and for future BoD's. We have to get continuity on the Board of Directors, in the office and in the accounting. Bill Davis asks the importance of the $388, due to reserves. Steve states that is the lack of reserves that has not been put into the reserves over the lifetime of the community. He states that perhaps in 2010 we can make a manual adjustment to.make that a more manageable figure. We do not anticipate collecting the full amount but we wil not be able to write that balance off until we can get some consistency in accounting. He states that we are actively pursuing collections on the $214K in delinquent assessments. Ben Nerud reviews the reports and states that he has a real problem with the way we spend. He sites several areas on the Budget Comparison Report where expenses exceeded what was budgeted to the approximate total of about $ Specifically he was concerned about a $68 expense for fire protection for a service that he stated last year we should not be paying for. Steve injected that he has problems with coding and we are still in the process setting things in place with TMGA. He stated that we are still working on revisions to the budget because budget numbers for services were provided inaccurately, expenses were coded incorrectly by previous accountants that filtered into the new budget and we are working on it for future months. Ben reiterated that we have a spending problem and that we are spending money on things that are not budgeted for and that it has to be brought under control. If it was not budgeted for, we should not be spending it. 6. Open Forum A homeowner in the audience. asked if there were spending parameters in place for the manger. Jim, Leighton and Steve stated that there are limits in place and that they are confident that the manager in place will act accordingly. Bill asked Kenya to explain the invoice process as it is now with the transition to TMGA. Kenya stated that invoices are received here on site, reviewed and

6 coded then sent to TMGA. Usually expenses over $1000 from contractors for specific work are pre-approved by the board or under a contract approved by the board. We are currently coding from the TMGA chart of accounts and working to change it over to our needs. TMGA cuts the checks for payment and sends them out and then generates the monthly reports. These reports are actually drafts and we review them for missing or incorrect information to be recoded or changed. The report presented today is actually a draft that we are reviewing now for corrections. A homeowner in the audience asks about information in a handout provided to everyone in reference to MD Assessment Lien BiI-HB 74. Kenya explains that the handout is about a bil pending in the state legislature that wil allow HOA's to collect 6 months of assessments at the time of sale of a foreclosed propert. The handout indicates ways for homeowners to show their support of the bill and was drafted by the Community Association Institute, not by CWHA. It is provided as information only. Steve reiterates that this was drafted by CAl, not by CWHA and discussion ensues about the pending legislation and why the banks are against it. Kenya Smith presented request from a homeowner who was unable to stay for the meeting. This homeowner was denied a temporary parking permit because they altered a previous permit that was issued. They have 3 stickers and a permanent visitors permit and we suspect they have 5 vehicles and are using the temp for the 5th car. Jim, Steve and Chuck agree that we should not extend the option to them to obtain any more temporary permits. Discussion ensues on how and why a temporary permit would be issued. Kenya states that they are only issued for the weekend with limited exceptions for vehicles with temporary tags issued for 2 weeks to 30 days. The Board of Directors agreed to deny this homeowner access to temporary permits. Steve asks if this home is on the delinquent assessment list. 7. Old Business: Selection of Painting Contractor 2009: Jim Oltmann opens the discussion by asking how many quads we can afford to do this year. Discussion ensues on how many quads we should do and which quads we should do among the Board of Directors. Ben suggests that we only do the homes that choose the siding this year. Jim reminds everyone that we have an obligation to paint. We do not think that we wil have very many people choosing the siding this year. The Board of Directors discusses price per home based on the bids provided by Hann & Hann, University Painters and Bartlett Exteriors. They discuss them in comparison with the 2009 bid from Mijaar Painting. It was decided that Tarragon and Sesame Seed wil be the two courts done (19 quads) and to go back to the vendor of choice and see if the bid cost changes. Bil motioned that University Painters be the vendor for 2009 Ben seconded the motion and the motion was passed. Bill motioned that the courts scheduled for 2009 be Tarragon and Sesame Seed. Ben seconded the motion. The motion passed. Steve decided that he would write the article for the Spice Rap announcing the two courts. 8. New Business: 2009 Asphalt Program

7 Bill motioned to approve the asphalt proposal. Steve seconded the motion and it was passed. MD Assessment Lien Bill-HB 74 See comments in open session. $f:l.~! ~