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There are volunteer boards in charge of much larger organizations with much larger budgets than HPP's, some of them even meet much less than once a month. But they understand the role of the board, hire competent management, and the get out of their way on a day to day basis while keeping an eye on the financial reports and management reports to make sure there is nothing amiss. For the last 2.5 years the HPP board has shown themselves to be unable to do any of those things.
Things were running just fine until a small cabal effectively pulled off a coup, took over the board using stealth candidates, fired all the competent employees and took over the day to day operations. The former management team keep the roads in good shape, right of ways and lines of sight were clear, and the office employees were always knowledgeable, helpful and welcoming. Now our roads suck, the office staff is a revolving door of new people who have no clue what is going on, and the road manager has no game plan to take care of our roads, instead he just sends a crew out wherever and whenever someone bitches. Reactive management is always more expensive than proactive management.
Remember how this group was so sure the old manager was a huge problem, promising they would make everything great if we all just trusted them while they dismantled a functioning organization?
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which old manager are you refering to shockwave?
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Things were running just fine until a small cabal effectively pulled off a coup, took over the board using stealth candidates, fired all the competent employees and took over the day to day operations. The former management team keep the roads in good shape, right of ways and lines of sight were clear, and the office employees were always knowledgeable, helpful and welcoming.
10 years here and I don't ever remember things running just fine...... and of course there are many volunteer boards with much larger budgets that are capable of functioning. They generally elect people with experience. These members are provided accurate information to base their voting upon, comprehend their position, follow Robert's Rules and follow laws. No, I have never witnessed this at any HPP Board meeting.
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quote:
Originally posted by reni
Things were running just fine until a small cabal effectively pulled off a coup, took over the board using stealth candidates, fired all the competent employees and took over the day to day operations. The former management team keep the roads in good shape, right of ways and lines of sight were clear, and the office employees were always knowledgeable, helpful and welcoming.
10 years here and I don't ever remember things running just fine...... and of course there are many volunteer boards with much larger budgets that are capable of functioning. They generally elect people with experience. These members are provided accurate information to base their voting upon, comprehend their position, follow Robert's Rules and follow laws. No, I have never witnessed this at any HPP Board meeting.
Well, my road got graded several times a year, mowed regularly and a got a new load of gravel on a regular basis for at least 8 years before this group took over. The paved cross roads were 2 lane instead of 1 and a half lane with trees and tall vegetation growing in the right of way and the lines of sight at intersections were kept clear.
I honestly don't remember what it was like before that, but there were hardly any houses on our road then, so we didn't expect much. I think most of us don't really care how the management and board get things done, as long as they do get them done. The group who fired all the people who actually took care of things promised a wonderful new regime, instead our roads get worse and worse, with no plan in place to change that.
Has anyone here gotten new material put on their road by the road crew in the last 2 years? Where?
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"I think most of us don't really care how the management and board get things done, as long as they do get them done."
You don't think this is part of the problem? If the
Board and Management disregard our bylaws, environmental laws , which cause lawsuits , arbitration and constant board resignations , everything is o.k.... as long as our roads look good?
Don't get me wrong....I never was involved with the Board that took over 2 plus years ago, nor am I part of any small cabal as you call it .....but violations were occurring prior to that regime. Remove people, don't remove people....either way, our dysfunction will continue without experienced leadership who are willing to follow the law and put forth more energy than a monthly meeting.
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No one "qualified" would want a thankless job on the board of HPP that requires an excessive amount of work with no compensation. The county should take it over. But they wont because of the excessive costs involved. And if by some chance they are forced to take it over...everyone's property taxes would skyrocket. It's a no win situation.
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county should take it over. But they wont ... if by some chance they are forced to take it over...everyone's property taxes would skyrocket.
Yes, it would require very high taxes to pay for the "County Minimum" 40-foot pavement on 60-foot easement. It's too bad nobody can force County to adopt a lesser standard for "farm lot" subdivisions, or possibly audit the County's spending to figure out why there's so much overhead. If only the County were responsible to someone, some kind of overriding authority with the power to make County do its job...
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quote:
Originally posted by kalakoa
county should take it over. But they wont ... if by some chance they are forced to take it over...everyone's property taxes would skyrocket.
Yes, it would require very high taxes to pay for the "County Minimum" 40-foot pavement on 60-foot easement. It's too bad nobody can force County to adopt a lesser standard for "farm lot" subdivisions, or possibly audit the County's spending to figure out why there's so much overhead. If only the County were responsible to someone, some kind of overriding authority with the power to make County do its job...
County has sub-standard roads all over the place that do not meet the minimum requirements. Olaa Road, which feeds directly into Orchidland is one of them.
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County has sub-standard roads all over the place that do not meet the minimum requirements.
Post Office Road in Pahoa might be a better example.
County can exercise "discretion" when choosing to accept new roads -- however, such "discretion" is not available to you, the taxpayer.
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quote:
Originally posted by macuu222
No one "qualified" would want a thankless job on the board of HPP that requires an excessive amount of work with no compensation. The county should take it over. But they wont because of the excessive costs involved. And if by some chance they are forced to take it over...everyone's property taxes would skyrocket. It's a no win situation.
When you say skyrocket, what exactly do you mean? With your kind of thinking we might as well just keep our heads stuck on the ground, maybe it all go away,right? After all we are just talking about 300 hundred or so a year per lot,why should we bother right? Wrong.
We are talking about a massive subdivision ripe for development taking over 2million dollars a year, with a substantial kitty on top of it all. The current Board does not provide the services and it is becoming a very strong and omnipotent bunch of people that want to cement their power exclusively for their own personal reasons.
The time for an unpaid board is over. The time of endless unproductive, sheer diatribe WAS! At this point we do need and external management appointed by the Courts. Will it cost us more? Yes, but we could finally have a transparent system, roads built and maintained and our debt restructured so it does not continue to absorb most of our contributions. This is by no means something that can be tackled by a Board, whether is paid or not.
Do we want our properties value go up or down? Has anyone noticed how the real estate value is going in the Big Island? Selling everywhere,but no so hot in HPP? Why? Because buyers stay away from problematic associations! We are sitting in one of the most desirable subdivisions in terms of location and lot size yet we are at the bottom of the ladder as far as infrastructure is concerned compared to the ones like Hove for instance, what about Hawaiian Beaches where they have roads and their own running water?
If we do not take down this baby dragon once and for all our incredible subdivision is really toast and we will be paying more for nothing. What is going to take for us to do something really proactive about these endless stupid boards, about the improvement our roads for God's sakes??
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