HPP mailbox vote

[mermaid53]

I will post this on both HPP threads since the minutes discuss the mailboxes and roads. Please keep in mind that Dist 2 rep (VP) and current Dist 6 rep (new pres) were both on the board during May 2016.

The Finance Committee during this time period was also working behind closed doors; no members were allowed to attend their mtgs, no minutes or reports were provided to the membership on the website or handed out at membership mtgs.

Don't know if Jerry Sodan was aware of the budget approved at this meeting. They only budgeted $14,000 for road MAINTENANCE work = road striping and reflectors?? But had no problem coming up with $300,000 for CS and now as recently reported by the GM, the budget is currently $750,000 for CS. Not adding up. And they wonder why members are up in arms about a potential $150 x 8,800 lots ($1,320,000) getting into their hands before the project even gets started and no membership checks and balances = Finance Committee?

5/18/2016 Board Meeting Minutes

"The Finance Committee completed the Annual Budget and Capital Improvement Budget which was distributed to the Board for inspection as she highlighted the following: Again, for this year, $300,000 has been set aside for dust mitigation, which some call chip seal, but it is actually the dust mitigation project.

The Finance Committee has also put aside $14,000 for the road striping and marking, which might not cover all the roads, but they felt that would be a good start and then the following year, they thought they could do another $14,000. They built in an extra $20,000, in case one of the mowers breaks down or they need to buy something that way. It’s not part of the repairs and maintenance budget, but it is just for purchase a piece of equipment.

There was a $100,000 in the Capital Improvement Budget for the mailboxes property and expense, which also might not cover everything, but it’s for the first year and should be a good start. They did consider Wages, which she explained how they calculated for a slight increase to cover expected raises. They have $10,000 already calculated for the activity center new chairs and tables. They estimated that it would cost approximately $20,000, total, so they allotted half for this year and half for next year. So, that makes the Roads Capital Improvement Budget is a total of $334,000. The non-roads Capital Improvement Budget is $110,000. It was noted that for the Bond requirements HPPOA Budget has to meet or beat 110% and it actually comes in at 118%, so HPPOA should be good throughout the year, even if they should get some unexpected surprises throughout the year. Janice Ashford (District 7) moved to accept and pass the new budget for the fiscal year of 2016/2017. Jo Maynard (District 5) seconded the motion.

VII. GM Report – Don Morris
They’ve had quit a large number of road maintenance requests that they have not yet gotten to do due to some of the equipment being tied up for chip sealing, but all potholes and grading will be started tomorrow and will be worked on until finished. Equipment requires daily repair, which they also work diligently daily to keep on the road, repairing as needed whenever possible. The Backhoe needs new 4-in-1 bucket. They have repaired it several times and it has finally gotten to the point that it is beyond repair. He noted that he gather more than three estimates and the lowest price quote was distributed for Board perusal coming in at $6,245 from East coast, with shipping, but was still $3,000 cheaper than buying one here and it’s very much needed because the backhoe is basically non-functional without it.

Chip Seal Dust Mitigation Update– They’ve completed one layer of chip seal on 23rd between Kaloli and Shower. They’ll be doing the other lane next week, after the first lane sets up. For the detour while working on it, they are trying to maintain one-way traffic flow entering from Shower and exiting on Kaloli to allow for the road to set up."

They're currently CS'g 26th between Kaloli and Paradise. So much for the GM stating at this 5/2016 mtg that, "all potholes and grading will be started tomorrow and will be worked on until finished."

[Katarina]

I have looked at the homeowners laws on the books and they all seem to pertian to condominium developments which is absurd considering there are so many associations on the islands. It is possible that this is the way the state is in the clear because many of us are associations but have fees(annual road maintenance) instead of monthly HOA dues. With the way our fees keep escalating many will have to be allowed to pay monthly. And, if any of the current laws were applicable or new ones legislated, we the owners would have to pay to hire an attorney and go to court. People who are always saying "lets sue" or "take them to court" have no idea how complicated, expensive and time consuming it is.I also need to add that the board has no problem spending our money on multiple law firms to squash any opposition. They have been playing legal gymnastics for over 2&1/2 years on the lawsuit and the attorneys intentionally prolonged the arbitration. Just remember that the board used 2 law firms at our expense against the 4 members representing themselves. All this could have easily been averted if the board had sat down with the concerned members and had a civil (we now know that is impossible) discussion with them. The board may throw this in the members faces, but remember, if you are ever in a position where you justifiably are concerned with what the board is doing, arbitration is your only recourse and the board is happy to waste our money. The attorneys are loving this board. I bet Crudele retires off us.

[mermaid53]

Please note the following GM report was BEFORE chip seal work started. The test road the GM refers to was actually a training road. He referred to both 32nd and 33rd DE Makuu as "training roads" at subsequent mtgs. It would've been prudent to do a test road first to see if this thinly laid emulsion worked out after several months to a year w/our rainy climate and traffic before proceeding to spend hundreds of thousands of OUR $$$ for an unproven product. Then they should've given a report to the membership and let us vote.

They clearly made a conscientious decision to take the membership completely out of the equation - no vote, and then appears to have diverted OUR road maint $$$$ to chip seal and neglect our roads and easements. Why else would the park look the worst it ever has in HPP history? Dist reps 5, 6 and 2...this is your legacy.

I reiterate that this is physical evidence to something gone awry w/the board and mgmt of OUR $$$$$, coupled with the majority board obstructing the FC to meet and get financial details. If the board really cared, was prof'l, they would've wanted to alleviate any suspicions and angst by being 100% transparent on anything and everything regarding HPP biz and OUR $$$. Membership committees would be free to carry on their duties for the membership w/out any oppression by the board.

Add to this scenario, hiking up our road fees 10% (not 5% as advised by the FC), attempting to request $150 ea for mailboxes x 8,800 w/out giving us THE PROPOSED PLAN FIRST, and assessing extra road burden fees 50-100% to business owners in HPP.

Note the road maint requests in the following GM report, the # and # resolved. A few months later... May 2016 BOD minutes (excerpts already posted here on this thread) he's already reporting "large" # of requests. Please go to our website and compare with other GM road maint reports. You'll find he's always profoundly behind completing the road maint work once the CS work started. Clear evidence that it's the CS project affecting their main duties of road and easement maint.

The following report on the mailboxes is also info the GM acquired BEFORE the CS project. After CS, everything's changed. I recall hearing at a board mtg that 3-4 thousand mailboxes would be FREE. What happened to those mailboxes?

There is a Special Board Mtg scheduled for 6 Feb @ 9 AM. No agenda posted...typical. There was none posted for Jan 2017 BOD mtg either. Posting board mtg agendas one wk prior is a requirement in our bylaws.


HPPOA BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
February 17, 2016

General Manager’s Report for the month of January 2016
Aloha, thank you for your road maintenance requests. The road crew really appreciates your requests. It helps us to identify the more problem areas of the subdivision that need more work than the other areas.

I met with the Keaau Postmaster the first week in February and she informed me that our mailboxes for the subdivision had been approved. The Post Office is paying for the boxes and HPPOA has to prep the area for the boxes. This will require clearing the property, laying down base course and concrete pads for the boxes and installing the boxes.

HPPOA has four areas in the subdivision where the boxes could be set in at this time. These are the 20 acre parcels that are located on 16th Maku’u, 7th Maku’u, 15 Kaloli, and 5 Kaloli. We could clear a one acre parcel on the corner of each lot. I have done some preliminary cost estimates on the work required for each 1 acre area. It would be at least $30,000 to $35,000 for each area.

Equipment: The John Deere tractor is back and is running fine. The repairs on the Volvo Grader have been completed and it is ready to get back on the road. The New Holland tractor has transmission problems again. We continue to do maintenance and repairs on the rest of the equipment as needed.

Chip Sealing: We are scheduled for the test mile of chip-sealing the 24th and 25th of February.

Mowing: Grasshoppers continues to mow the main roads and cut back the corners. The road crew mowed 94 miles of roadway easement.

Spraying: 33 Makuu dead end, 32 Makuu dead end, 17 Makuu-Kaloli, 7 Makuu-Paradise, Paradise-17-13.

Watering roads: 49.5 Miles

Dropped and Rolled: 19 miles

Gravel, Graded and Rolled: 14 miles

Trees Removed: 3

Signs Replaced and New: 4 stop signs, 15 MPH signs on all gravel crossroads, dead end signs on dead end roads.

Rubbish Pickup: 3 tons

Dead Animals Removed: 6 pigs, 2 bags of fish guts and bones

Road Maintenance Requests:
105 Total Requests
103 Resolved
2 Unresolved

Safety Report: No accidents or injuries for the past 19 months

[Obie]

"There is a Special Board Mtg scheduled for 6 Feb @ 9 AM. No agenda posted...typical. There was none posted for Jan 2017 BOD mtg either. Posting board mtg agendas one wk prior is a requirement in our bylaws."

Do you mean this agenda ? It was posted Jan 30th one week in advance !


Hawaiian Paradise Park Owners’ Association
AGENDA
N o t i c e o f S p e c i a l B o a r d o f D i r e c t o r s M e e t i n g
Monday, Feb 6, 2017
Notice is hereby given that there will be a Special Board of Directors meeting of the Hawaiian Paradise Park Owners
Association at 9:00 am in the HPPOA Activity Center Library at 15-1570 Maku’u Drive in the Hawaiian Paradise Park
Subdivision, Kea’au, Hawaii.
I. Call to Order
II. Roll Call
III. Approve Agenda
IV. Unfinished Business:
1. Chip seal progress – Don
V. New Business;
1. Mail Boxes – Jerry & Patrick
VI. Adjourn to Executive Session
Personnel
Legal

[mermaid53]

Thank you for that. It was checked this morning and there was no agenda. How do you know the exact date it was posted?

BTW Obe, what is your interest in HPP when you say you don't have any investments in HPP? Your interest in HPP is above and beyond normal. You're pro chip seal, you're a board supporter.....

You seem very familiar to me....are you sure you don't own property in HPP?

[mermaid53]

Obie wrote:
Do you mean this agenda ? It was posted Jan 30th one week in advance !
______________

I did a little investigation and discovered that the agenda Obe claims was posted on 30 Jan 2017 on HPP's website is inaccurate information/alternate truth? I also found out who the author is and it is someone I know. Even more interesting, she's not an employee nor a board member and has been the author of many recent HPP Board mtg Agendas. The agenda was created this morning, 3 Feb around 7:58 AM.

Questions:

1) Did any member who is on the email list to be notified about Special Board Mtgs get notified? The GM is supposed to maintain a list of members per our bylaws of those who wish to be notifed.

"Article VIII Sec 9 Meetings of the Board © Special Meetings 1. b. The officer or directors calling the meeting shall notify the GM who will be charged with the responsibility of posting the meeting date and time on the HPPOA website and HPPOA bulletin board and of notifying interested parties of special meetings at the time notice is given to the directors."

2) Obe, the mailbox topic listed under New Business as you know has been on many an agenda over the past year such as the May 2016 BOD minutes I posted on this thread. This should be an OLD BUSINESS item on the agenda, not NEW BUSINESS.

3) Why is there no owner input?

[mermaid53]

Reminder special board mtg tomorrow 6 Feb 2017 @ 9 AM in the library.

Mailboxes and chip seal is on the agenda.

Personnel and Legal matters for executive session.

[Kenney]

Joy has submitted a bill that will be heard today in Legislature that will create an Agency in Commerce and Consumer Affairs to hold Homeowners Associations accountable! Testimony is needed asap. Now?

http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=HB&billnumber=1308&year=2017

[mermaid53]

Thanks Kenney!

[mermaid53]

The Special Board Mtg wasn't so special....to be perfectly honest it was a mess. One rep was angrily venting to another rep before the mtg started about the negative complaints by members right in front of the peanut gallery. Then he loudly yelled at another board rep to stop talking about the mailboxes w/a member... to wait until the meeting. Personally, I wish he'd utilize that drill sergeant demeanor towards his bylaw breaking peers to get them in line. The mtg started late. Obie was in attendance.

Dist 5 rep wasn't....AND a new rep was sitting at the table filling Dist 4 seat. Nothing against this guy but What? Everyone I know said the vacancy wasn't advertised on the website ever, much less 2 days after the former pres resigned as is required in our bylaws. There was no Jan board mtg agenda posted on the website, still isn't, and apparently this guy was voted into that seat at the Jan board mtg. Which means they denied the membership the opportunity to apply. Dejavu, this happened before in Jul 2016 for the Dist 3 vacancy. No advertisement, filled the seat, skipping the whole process as detailed in the bylaws=illegal seating. Let's tally this...3 board reps who were voted onto the board by their district members have resigned by Jan 2017.

The chip seal is moving forward like gang busters. The GM's report, despite a request from the peanut gallery to speak up, was barely audible. It became crystal clear that despite all the complaints they've been getting, it's falling on deaf ears. They are derelict in their main duties to the association.

One member left the mtg once he learned there'd be no owner input. Another asked why the membership is invited if there's no owner input. The pres (dist 6) stated there's no owner input at Special Board mtgs. I believe if she had researched past history, she'd find that's false. In fact her BFF who was in attendance should know very well about that fact as she had spoken during owner input at a Special Board mtg back in 2013 questioning the board about special use permits for the last phase of paving. Interesting she has no concern about that now during the CS project since she's pro CS. I believe there's still no permits. Dist 5 rep has told newbie board reps that she's the engineer in charge of the CS project. Hmmmm.......

There was an attempt to do a power point on the mailbox project which didn't happen. All the parts weren't there. Maybe a practice run before the mtg would've been a benefit. The two reps who are working on this project gave an oral report. One is working on the plan itself and the other is working on the financial end of it. Interesting $100,000 was budgeted for mailboxes back in May 2016 (see board minutes on HPP thread) and the 2 board reps handling the mailboxes didn't mention it...is it gone, if so where did it go? CS? Also not mentioned was the 4,000 FREE mailboxes that were offered by USPS more than a yr ago. I have to give the 2 new guys credit for their efforts and it's unfortunate it blew up in their face. It wasn't just failure on their part but by the whole board who didn't follow the bylaws.

Financially they're starting from scratch in their mail box proposal. Dist 2 rep, who was also on the Mailbox Committee was very angry about the recent social media "Facebook" dialog going on by one of the reps. She said "I don't like being a part of this mess you created!!!! STOP!!!", in relation to all the "membership negativity". She added that they don't have past history on this project. After the second round of yelling and bickering later in the mtg, Dist 2 resigned from the mailbox committee. She believes this project isn't ready to be presented to the membership and thought the 2 reps had jumped the gun...that all the info hasn't been gathered yet. Question: Isn't there supposed to be board approval on a draft BEFORE printing and mailing anything to the entire membership?

I spoke to one of the reps after the mtg and he agreed that a probe should've been done first...he agreed it appeared like it was a done deal when it wasn't. So here's the question AGAIN.....isn't the board supposed to approve everything before it's taken to the printer (who they advertised on the ballot) , hand stuffed into envelopes and mailed to the entire membership? Something failed big time. The pres's msg enclosed w/the road fee bill was also an error. A replacement was handed out at the special mtg. Why is this whacko stuff still going on?!! So unprofessional...

The intent is to give us a mailbox report at the membership mtg followed by a Q & A. They will welcome suggestions as their proposal is not perfect. The proposal would be for an outside contractor to do the work. They said they haven't spent any $$ nor are there any contracts out yet. With this plan, everyone will get new mailboxes. Pohaku Cir will get new boxes but their location will be the same. The reps sd that the postmaster stated that it was required that ALL 8,800 lots get mailboxes (population keeps growing in HPP). One rep stated he has 6 lots but won't be using all 6 lots so why should he buy 6 mailboxes? The board hasn't rec'd anything yet in writing from the Honolulu postmaster which they'll need to move forward. I won't say anymore and let them do their thing at the membership mtg.