01-21-2017, 04:00 PM
"Did the road fee bill come out yet", yes it did. I picked mine up in the mail box today. And as I reported in an earlier comment, the fee has been raised to $313.50... but wait, that's not all. I had mentioned before that I was going to comment on something else the BOD did at the Dec. '16 meeting, but decided to hold off and I'm glad I did. This board took a complicated business topic that needed to be taken care of and turned it into what I can only see as a new costly battle that will probably result in more attorneys being hired to defend their actions.
You will find a slip of paper in your billing envelope that starts out saying "Mail boxes for all owners?" The gist of this paper lays out the arguments for installing and locating new mail boxes for 8800 lots in HPP on 4 HPP owned lots and that would use physical addresses. I think a majority of owners would like that and it is something I would like to have as well, instead of using a PO Box and some of the problems associated with its use.
There are many problems to solve that I do not think the BOD was aware of nor were discussed in their deliberations in the mail box plan, but I will focus on the obvious and the most serious problem that that they themselves created and as is stated in the outline of their presentation to the community.
The BOD states that they will institute a one time special assessment to collect $150 from each lot payable by June 30th, 2017 and will increase that amount 25% if not paid after that due date. They then state, “In order to implement the Mail Box Special Assessment per our Bylaws Article XI Assessments Section 8 Special Assessments we will need to receive affirmative majority of mail-in vote of not less than 600 members in good standing.” The problem with their quote is that they either never read that bylaw or are illiterate; maybe both in some cases. Here is another option that has been made many times, they don’t care.
Here is what Article XI Sec. 8 actually says, “Special Assessments. In additiion to the annual mandatory road maintenance assessment, per Sec. 2. above, the association may make special assessments for any road maintenance costs only upon the affirmative majority of mail-in vote of not less than 600 members in good standing. Any ballot for special assessments shall include the terms of payment and specify an effective date.”
So, if you are a board director reading this comment and especially if you are the new Board President Randi Lazalere, I will point out the pertinent language that must have been not understood and probably not even read at your board meeting when this assessment was approved, “... for any road maintenance costs...”.
That is unarguably clear. An assessment installing mail boxes is not defensible as road maintenance. No matter the value and the desire of the members of this association to have their mail boxes, the board has no authority to impose a special assessment for non-road maintenance spending. It may be that the board is counting on member ignorance of this bylaw to pass the assessment. But when many lot owners don’t cough up the dough and the office starts threatening them and tacking on another 25%, I think the favorite attorneys for a couple of the BOD are going to get richer even though I can not see how the board is going to be able to enforce something so obviously indefensible.
Here are some other considerations that this BOD probably did not consider in their deliberations. 1. What about the 100 or so lots above Hwy 130 that have their mail boxes already and won’t be getting or using these? 2. What about the 20 acre parcels the association owns and the park going in, no addresses? 3. What about all of the lots in the Park that don’t have addresses?
Maybe the BOD did ask these questions and maybe the new President could come on this site and answer some of these questions, particularly the bogus special assessment bylaw contrivance and how they plan on enforcing it? It had been reported at the Dec. BOD meeting that our new Treasure Chris Anderson had angrily threw out the suggestion that the board sue any lot owners who did not pay the fee (the fee in this context is synonymous to extortion). I believe that was the 2nd time he had made the threat of suing someone that evening.
I suggest that after reading the bylaw (which I quoted in its entirety) that HPPOA members will check off “I oppose the Mail Box Special Assessment.” and write in the reason why, “You jacka**es can’t do this, read the bylaw”. But, that does not mean the majority of members don’t want the mail boxes, it is just that for once we want them do something the right and legal way! Find another way to ask the members to pay this amount.
Did you know that a board had already looked into this subject only a few years ago and at least one of those persons is available and could have saved this board from floundering around and spinning its wheels hopelessly in one of our infamous potholes? They would never ask. Better to extort the money through deception.
And here’s the kicker, this huge costly project was deliberately never passed to the finance committee. I know some on the committee and I know they would have corrected the board’s misapplication of Art. XI Sec. 8 and then have gone on to happily helped figure out how to save the money from the budget. After all, it isn’t like the board hasn’t been floundering with this project since at least last year, that is plenty of time for some of the bylaw abiding and smart committee members to have come up with financing instead of extorting the money.
P.S. This topic is just one of the several serious problems with what has arrived in the mail.
You will find a slip of paper in your billing envelope that starts out saying "Mail boxes for all owners?" The gist of this paper lays out the arguments for installing and locating new mail boxes for 8800 lots in HPP on 4 HPP owned lots and that would use physical addresses. I think a majority of owners would like that and it is something I would like to have as well, instead of using a PO Box and some of the problems associated with its use.
There are many problems to solve that I do not think the BOD was aware of nor were discussed in their deliberations in the mail box plan, but I will focus on the obvious and the most serious problem that that they themselves created and as is stated in the outline of their presentation to the community.
The BOD states that they will institute a one time special assessment to collect $150 from each lot payable by June 30th, 2017 and will increase that amount 25% if not paid after that due date. They then state, “In order to implement the Mail Box Special Assessment per our Bylaws Article XI Assessments Section 8 Special Assessments we will need to receive affirmative majority of mail-in vote of not less than 600 members in good standing.” The problem with their quote is that they either never read that bylaw or are illiterate; maybe both in some cases. Here is another option that has been made many times, they don’t care.
Here is what Article XI Sec. 8 actually says, “Special Assessments. In additiion to the annual mandatory road maintenance assessment, per Sec. 2. above, the association may make special assessments for any road maintenance costs only upon the affirmative majority of mail-in vote of not less than 600 members in good standing. Any ballot for special assessments shall include the terms of payment and specify an effective date.”
So, if you are a board director reading this comment and especially if you are the new Board President Randi Lazalere, I will point out the pertinent language that must have been not understood and probably not even read at your board meeting when this assessment was approved, “... for any road maintenance costs...”.
That is unarguably clear. An assessment installing mail boxes is not defensible as road maintenance. No matter the value and the desire of the members of this association to have their mail boxes, the board has no authority to impose a special assessment for non-road maintenance spending. It may be that the board is counting on member ignorance of this bylaw to pass the assessment. But when many lot owners don’t cough up the dough and the office starts threatening them and tacking on another 25%, I think the favorite attorneys for a couple of the BOD are going to get richer even though I can not see how the board is going to be able to enforce something so obviously indefensible.
Here are some other considerations that this BOD probably did not consider in their deliberations. 1. What about the 100 or so lots above Hwy 130 that have their mail boxes already and won’t be getting or using these? 2. What about the 20 acre parcels the association owns and the park going in, no addresses? 3. What about all of the lots in the Park that don’t have addresses?
Maybe the BOD did ask these questions and maybe the new President could come on this site and answer some of these questions, particularly the bogus special assessment bylaw contrivance and how they plan on enforcing it? It had been reported at the Dec. BOD meeting that our new Treasure Chris Anderson had angrily threw out the suggestion that the board sue any lot owners who did not pay the fee (the fee in this context is synonymous to extortion). I believe that was the 2nd time he had made the threat of suing someone that evening.
I suggest that after reading the bylaw (which I quoted in its entirety) that HPPOA members will check off “I oppose the Mail Box Special Assessment.” and write in the reason why, “You jacka**es can’t do this, read the bylaw”. But, that does not mean the majority of members don’t want the mail boxes, it is just that for once we want them do something the right and legal way! Find another way to ask the members to pay this amount.
Did you know that a board had already looked into this subject only a few years ago and at least one of those persons is available and could have saved this board from floundering around and spinning its wheels hopelessly in one of our infamous potholes? They would never ask. Better to extort the money through deception.
And here’s the kicker, this huge costly project was deliberately never passed to the finance committee. I know some on the committee and I know they would have corrected the board’s misapplication of Art. XI Sec. 8 and then have gone on to happily helped figure out how to save the money from the budget. After all, it isn’t like the board hasn’t been floundering with this project since at least last year, that is plenty of time for some of the bylaw abiding and smart committee members to have come up with financing instead of extorting the money.
P.S. This topic is just one of the several serious problems with what has arrived in the mail.