Meeting Recap

I was not able to attend last night’s meeting due to a work schedule conflict but Joe from the Safety Committee was going to video tape the meeting. Hopefully I'll post it online later today.

The Board didn't allow the recording of the meeting; Joe sent me an e-mail about an hour ago. Below is the second e-mail Joe sent me, wow, pretty specific, it sounds like I missed a good one. Thanks for the hard work Joe.

Input is highly encouraged.

Cyrus,
Let me start by saying that last night’s meeting was crazy, one you shouldn't have missed. The meeting got off to a late start because the executive meeting ran over a couple minutes due the budget review.

Before the meeting officially started I think I kind of rattled the board, and Charity's cage. I made an announcement that I would be videotaping the meeting for two reasons: 1) Some members can't make it to the meetings for various reasons and this would be a great tool to allow them to view what goes on in the meetings rather than just reading it on paper. 2) This would keep an accurate record of what is said at a meeting being that it is so difficult to obtain meeting minutes.

Once I made my announcement Charity informed me that recording is prohibited based on the Open Meeting Act, which I reviewed and it only states that recording is prohibited if it is strictly stated in our HOA by-laws or CC&R's. It should also be stated on the Meeting Agenda, all of which it is not. She said that she would ask the Board if they would allow it and Vijay, the President, told me that he wasn't comfortable having it recorded. I was upset and frustrated, but being a good sport I agreed with their decision not to video tape this meeting. But, I then requested that I would like to be shown in writing where it states that we are not allowed to video tape the meetings. I apologize to anyone who thought that I was being inconsiderate but Cyrus you and I both thought it would be awesome way for everyone to see what happens in the meeting, and maybe encourage more people to attend, although the clubhouse was packed for this one

The meeting flow went a little different this time around since we had two contractors present who would be informing the board and members of their proposed services:

First up was Bobby of LTS Lighting. His presentation covered the assessment, replacement, and construction of lighting throughout our facility in regards to the walk-through which was performed earlier this month. Members were informed of lights which were broken and told that it’s not just a bulb issue; it’s more of an electrical issue in most situations. He was a little confusing to distinguish exactly what his quote was proposing. From my understanding we already have an agreement for him to replace bulbs that are out, but not to repair or replace damaged housing, so I would say that his quote, $16,000, was to do that. He also proposed that his company would assess the electrical infrastructure in our laundry rooms at a cost $500. This assessment should help in distinguishing why the laundry machines constantly break down.

Next up was Andrew and Scott of Ultra Imaging, a video surveillance contractor. Their presentation was to inform the board and members of the benefits, equipment, and methods or installation they proposed in their bid for the installation of a video surveillance system at the Monterey Villas. After giving a brief introduction about their company Andrew went on to discuss how the cameras would help deter and catch criminals while monitoring and securing people’s assets. Along with the presenting the purpose of the cameras, Ultra Imaging provided some samples of their cameras and informed everyone that the setup would be wireless with transmission antennas. Redundancy seemed to be carried on throughout their presentation but they stated that their bid of $32,850.00 would provide the facility with enough cameras to cover a majority of the parking areas, 4 entrances/exits, the laundry rooms, pool area, and clubhouse. He stated that the cameras would give us roughly one month of coverage before in re-records over itself. Meaning that if you are out of town for two weeks and find that something happened to your vehicle we would be able to back track those two weeks and find out what happened. I can’t remember exactly what promoted him to, but just as Andrew ended his presentation he asked for members in attendance to raise their hands if they would like to have cameras installed. A few hands were blocked from my view but it looked as if everyone in attendance raised their hands. Their presentation ended and it was on with the meeting.

The meeting finally got on at 8pm. Charity read out the usual number for the financial report, if you really want those numbers I’ll post them in a comment. Charity quickly turned the meeting over to Committee Reports, first up was Finance Committee:

• Sarah, the Finance Committee Chairwoman, informed us that we are in trouble for next year and a lot of research was done to establish the new budget. She quickly caught everyone’s attention when she said that there would be an immediate increase in the association dues. The board and Sarah agreed that a 10% increase ($20.00) would be essential in covering next years operating cost. The increase seemed to be understood by most members in attendance but there were some verbal outburst; questions came up as to what was being done with all the money, and are the converters paying for units they own? Sarah was quick to answer with numeric stats and assured everyone that the converters have been paying fees since their project first began. She finished her talk by telling everyone that in order to maintain accountability the Finance Committee would be reviewing expenses monthly.
• Now came the big topic of the day, Parking Permits. Adam, the Architectural/ Rules Chairman, told us that upon further review the initially proposed parking permit rules needed modification and they had been done. Here are some of the highlights to the amendments:
  Every homeowner will be eligible to receive (1) Parking Permit
  Only uncovered stalls require a Parking Permit, you don’t need a permit for your assigned stall
  In order to obtain a Parking Permit valid vehicle registration will need to be provided
  Homeowners who rent out their units are responsible for obtaining the permits for their tenants, tenants will not be allowed to obtain a permit.
• The new amendments will be sent out but to get things going Adam will still be on site this weekend to start the permit process. The time and date are still the same, I don’t have access to that information at this time.
• Adriana, the Social Committee Chairman, reiterated that we’ll be having a residential gathering, Cinco de Mayo Fiesta, on May 3^rd, 2008 from 5 pm to 9 pm. She also informed us that the Social Committee has been considering a revamping of the empty office space in the clubhouse. They would like to make the office space into more clubhouse space which would be open daily to residents. That would give two sections of the clubhouse, one for reservations and one for everyday use. This sounds like a great idea; I hope to hear more about it soon. In the meantime the Social Committee is going to establish rules for general clubhouse usage and hope to have the clubhouse open when not reserved and for sporting events.
• Charity spoke on behalf of the Communications and Landscape Committee encouraged the board to at least have LTS assess our electrical problems in the laundry. She told us that rock installation and tree trimming had been completed. From the tree trimming we learned that there are some major irrigations problems throughout the facility. A landscape walk-through will be conducted on the 24^th of this month.
  
  I spoke on behalf of the Safety Committee and reiterated an immediate need for the installation of security cameras. I say immediate need because of the amount of vandalism and break-ins we are suffering as a community. Statistics show that theft and vandalism seem to increase in the summer due to fact that teenagers are out of school. Cameras would be beneficial to us because they would allow us the ability to view capture footage of criminals and be able to turn it over to the police. Also we would be able to distribute posters throughout the community with images of such criminals. I highly encouraged that as homeowners we need to be policing our community. If you see someone that looks suspicious, don’t hesitate to call the police. We could have 600 plus eyes watching this community which would be much more effective than any one security guard can do. I feel that our security guard has been a huge waste of money. She is rarely seen anymore and has not been affective. During my speech Vijay suggested that if we terminated the security guard we would be able to use the budgeted money towards the purchase of security cameras. I think this would be a great idea being the fact that most people don’t even realize we have a security guard. Once again I’m sorry if I took too long but I wouldn’t have spent so much time if I didn’t think it was important.

Next up were the Agenda Items, like I stated in the previous e-mail I can’t really remember the specifics about the topics because it was hard to hear conversation between Charity and Vijay. Hopefully someone else who reads this can shed more details on this.

• Pest Control Contract – The current pet control contract needs to be renewed or we need to hire someone else. Another company was brought up but I’m not positive on what they decided.
  
• Roof Leak Repairs – It’s sad to hear that we still have roof leak problems because from my understanding these leaks have been going on for some time now with no attention. I know that the board approved a company to complete the repairs.
  
• Street Sweeping – Charity mentioned that a street sweeping services has offered to clean our parking areas and driveways for $350. The board approved the contract. The contract includes blowing out and removal of all the trash under cars and the carports.
  
• Tennis Court Wind Screen Replacement – After turning down the replacement of the wind screen last month the board reconsidered it this month and decided to replace the windscreen at the amount of $2,100 which comes from the reserve account.
  
• Board Vacancy – As of April 1, 2008 there was a homeowner vacancy on the board due to the resignation of Vito. According to the by-laws the board can appoint someone to fill that position. According to the board they had two active homeowners in mind, Adrian and Adam. Vijay expressed that he thought either one would be a good fit for the position but before the position could be filled, Sarah nominated herself to be considered for the board position, and I seconded her nomination. She was progress she has made with the Finance Committee in such a short amount of time I felt that Sarah would make an immediate impact on the board and would really give homeowners a voice on most decisions. Vijay left it up to Adam and Sarah to decide after the meeting who would fill the position and I was contacted by Sarah stating that she would be filling the vacancy.
  
• Lighting Repairs – The board was asked what they thought of tonight’s lighting proposal and they decided to consider other bids because the $16,000 sounded a bit high. Charity did encourage the board to at least approve the $500 for an electrical inspection. The board did approve that to happen.
  
• Security Cameras – The board was then left with one last decision, the installation of security cameras. Vijay asked to see how much money was allocated in the budget for security cost. Sarah stated that next year’s budget will allow $23,000 towards security. Vijay came up with an idea, how about getting rid of our worthless security company and using the $23,000 to at least get some of the cameras installed. I thought that was a great idea, so he decided to make a motion on it. But, a board member did not second the bid, instead they decided to create a survey amongst homeowners to see if they would like the idea of having security cameras installed. This did not make homeowners in attendance happy. They stressed that everyone present was for cameras and that they would like to see this done sooner than later. One homeowner, who is a teacher, said that she knows that crime increases during summer and know exactly what I meant in my earlier speech. She also said that she and her husband have been victimized by vehicle theft and demanded that we move forward on installing cameras. Around this time Sarah did some math and found that the proposed bid was just other the cost for this year’s capital expenditure and the bid could be approved without a homeowner vote. Some words were exchanged from board to members then Vijay made a motion to accept the bid in full, but to check and see what kind of payment options we can have with Ultra Imaging.

After that was decided it was just about 10pm and I had to get out of there, I’m not sure if they still did a homeowner presentation being that there were so many outburst throughout the meeting. Anyone who stayed later could shed light on this.

Next Meeting Wednesday May 21st, 2008 @ 7:00pm.