Welcome. Did everybody get their ballot sent?
Growing.
Everybody have a ballot.
We have problems.
Alright, you wanna end ballots forward?
We have to vote.
Well, we can talk about we don’t.
Talk about absolutely.
You nailed it.
Yep.
We can talk about. Does anybody have any questions on that? So we’ve got 2 initiatives here tonight. Three, the first of first one is roofing materials being able to include a metal architectural shingle, an architectural shingle, it’s a tab shingle very much like. A asphalt shingle is it’s just made out of metal. All our houses are coming up on the time where we’re going to need new roofs. Figured. Why not expand some of the materials we can use? Roofing for. Any questions on that?
Are they allowed to put any column?
What?
Are they going to be allowed to any color?
No, it’s it’s got to be within like. The the HOA guidelines.
What are the guidelines?
Stick Stickley basically like they’re on the website, but the HA guidelines basically say it’s gotta be uniform with the neighborhood. There’s not like it doesn’t call out colors, but it’s gotta be uniform with a neighborhood so nobody could put. Like a pink roof on.
Working.
Is it 3 dimensional or two? What is it? Is it 3 dimensions?
We didn’t call out a specification under.
The rules has to be approved by the board, right?
Yeah.
So that is item number one. Item number 2 is changing the definition of the word quorum in our bylaws. Currently the definition.
We go back to the roost for just. A moment we’re in our bylaws.
Absolutely.
Is there requirements for our?
I will look that up and find the section.
For you, because I mean just putting on something on the website, I mean. I want to know where it’s in our bylaws because that’s what we abide by.
The bylaws are on the website.
Bylaws are on the website, so if you go through the bylaws, you’ll find the one of the you know, part of the system according to the rules. So you just have to find them from the top of my head.
No.
Several of the documents are really kind. Of hard to they are. Yeah, yeah. One of the things I want to do is is go through and type it up word for word, you know, my spare time.
You.
That. Yeah.
And just just make a more legible copy. But any any other questions?
I just want to make sure it’s not just a list that’s been put somewhere. I want to make. Sure that it’s appearing to bylaws.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Did not one of us get a copy of bylaws?
Yes, we did. Everyone got a copy of the violence.
Supposed to?
We did that.
Mines 20 years old.
OK so.
23 years ago, that’s correct.
Right.
20 years ago, you know responsibility and accountability.
Because this is what we stuck with this same.
You want me to look up? 20 years.
Well, if you have a paper from buying a house, you should have it.
Yes.
Oh yeah, all these bylaws and and amendments have been posted on the website. So even if you don’t have those to surface.
Who knows where that paper is?
Just one question I had the oral.
Ballot they didn’t have the third item in there.
So yes, my fault. I apologize about this. The two ballots that you mailed this.
Thank you. Thank you.
We’ll try to call it the specific bylaw itself page.
Yeah.
I already fill this one out so but.
Refill that one up and they can pitch here on one of.
Them.
Thank you. Yeah, no problem.
Right.
Any other questions on the roofing? Again, we’re just, we’re trying to open up options. There’s a.
The amount.
Lot of working materials. Trying to. Trying to make sure we’ve got options. Well, you know, still make sure the neighborhood looks good.
So with that, I know that that we’re talking about the three tab metal roofing shingles as opposed to the standing seam metal roofing that’s in the long form, right. Some of the houses in the neighborhood have accents with that type of metal roofing already, like on porches or over windows and things like that.
Right.
Is that still going to be acceptable?
I think that is at this. At this point there’s not much we can do about.
- You’re talking the copper, copper, the copper. If you look at the the last model home that Tony had at 11711170 got a metal roof on the front porch that was approved by that.
I think the acting.
Yeah.
In this sense, it’s.
You would just. Be part.
Of the.
So at the time and in the design 3.
1000 million in the House fire.
So I’m the one that had for my cover roof.
Excellent.
So. Through the.
I mean, it’s got to go through the. Board kind of anyway so. Yeah, exactly.
Somebody. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
So is this then specifically just for? I mean, it doesn’t say that it’s. You know, accent rules, so.
It’s not specifying whatsoever on there. I understand I would have to rewrite the entire thing if I if if we were to vote on it again and have.
I’m sorry we can’t hear you.
Everybody else, revote.
So you didn’t answer my question though. So is this the main routes or if this includes all of the routes including Accent?
It’s been.
I would say 30 specific to the main room.
Thanks.
Again, just a lot more often. It’s not, you know, it’s not living, you know, an HOA where somebody’s walking around and making sure your grass is 2 1/2 inches long. You know all the time. We’re just trying to trying to kind of open up options for everybody, so that’s that’s the purpose of the change. 2nd. Amendment is to change the definition of the word form. Oh. Sorry.
Sorry.
Every house has to have the same color.
No, no.
Now.
Absolutely.
The rope has to go.
Now it’s got to be done by the. End of 2025. And by the way, we’ve got a. Roofing contractor. You have to. No, not at all. Not now.
The color has to go with the design of your house, with your shaders, with your stones, so it kind of just makes sense and like be aligned with the with the neighborhood. So like if you do extra blue roof or extra pink or I don’t know what colors you pick that would be out of the line. But any roofs which we have or you pick is it brown or Gray or black or. You know, bluish, so that’s all absolutely fine. So just we can all have, you know, everybody wants to pick a different one or something new one on the market. So we just want to include all of that.
Last call for root questions. All right, initiative again is change the definition. Of word forum. Previous years, luckily not this. Year. We have had difficulty getting enough individuals here for. Votes for these amendments and for annual dues and everything else. So the amendments change it so that. Former consists of 50% or the individuals that were here, plus any sort of ballots that are associated that were would be mailed out prior to.
I mean.
So let’s say for example. There were. 35 people that showed up to meeting. And we received 50 ballots. There would be a total of 85 votes for that particular evening for that particular situation. And it would not. It would not, even though that would sit there and actually mean quorum. We’ve gotten a lot of votes in the e-mail and and the PO Box this year. But you know that would that. Would define form. Any questions on that?
So you’re just saying it representation. So we’re the represent represent the sanitation of the entire 100 and 4000 and 69 houses.
Just one.
That, plus the ballots that are. Mailed in, yes.
And so the ballots that are mailed in is. Equal 50% of the houses? Or how do we know that or?
Right now the right now the decision of the word form is 50% of the.
I just have.
Neighborhood plus one.
I just have an issue with. The same people come every single time and so.
OK.
You know, it’s not a full representation of everybody. In the neighborhood.
I completely understand. That that’s the that’s the situation at hand, and that’s why it’s out there for a vote. Clearly understand we’re coming from. There are, there are certain people that in the neighborhood that don’t want had want to have anything to do with talking about the neighborhood. So, you know, then they’ll never be here. Just kind of is. What it is, and there’s nothing wrong with. It I mean that’s just that’s the way they are.
Again, it’s not just people who are here, right? It’s the people who vote, who want, want to say so. This year we had what?
787.
79.
How many people? How many people voted for turning their?
Back 79, we have about a 169.
So far so far.
Yeah. Yeah.
So so this year it worked, but if if we were fighting over 5 people, six people, we didn’t have enough votes, we wouldn’t be able to have a meeting. We wouldn’t be able to make the decisions. So it’s just trying to get as many people that are interested in the in the issues that want to vote. You know, we’ll take their vote.
That makes sense, and there’s a lot of other ways of do it.
He’s got a question down there.
The same way as well.
So we’re essentially removing the quorum requirement with this vote.
We’re just kind of redefining it to. Right, 50% of the votes associated with what’s going on there.
Well, it says 50 + 1 of residents existing in attendance at the meeting. So if one person shows up, that’s a forum.
Like you said, changed to.
I.
Mean.
Well, first of all, it says in attendance, so I. Don’t. Know if in attendance includes people that vote via e-mail, I would read in attendance says physically here and then 50 plus one of those in attendance could literally mean somebody one person shows up.
That’s how I. Read.
But by proxy, that’s attendance.
That’s and they vote. So I I essentially see this as an elimination of the quorum.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, isn’t proxy in attendance? Yeah, by definition. OK. OK.
Proxies in attendance and and accounts of.
So, so essentially we had 13 people show up at the meeting. They could vote to raise our HOA fees to $1500 a year and we wouldn’t have a say.
In it, no, there’s there’s a note there that that annual meetings and special meetings will be notified 30 days in advance.
Well, you have a saying. That.
And noted proxy votes, so there will still be proxy votes. No matter what.
Anybody who mails in a ballot, right, that’s attendance.
You can fax.
It’s not like it’s not like we’re we’re not.
Like 2 weeks.
We we all have to still participate.
Yeah, we’re all still participating here. I understand what you’re saying. I understand what you’re saying. Like, it’s not like we’re going to call a special meeting tomorrow. And you know, everybody’s out of town for some reason, just so we can. It’s not, you know.
We’re not. We’re not that way. I mean, I hope you guys know that. Yeah, so.
I mean.
OK.
Any other questions on that?
Is it 1?
Vote per household? Or is it 2 for a?
It is one vote per household.
House, thank you. All right.
Any other questions? Do we have individuals that want to count ballots?
Are we going to talk about the increase?
Yeah, we can talk about the increase. There’s that’s part. Of the presentation.
Here.
Though I just thought we we get the questions on the ballot so we can get it counted. Taken care of first.
I’d like to understand the increase a little bit more before I submit my ballot.
Sure.
Did you receive the financials in the e-mail?
I did and I still understand why you’ve got a $70,000 increase or even fees that are now $14,000 instead of 7000 when we didn’t even spend 7000 naturally.
Came in under budget last year.
Alright.
So as you guys, if you guys have been here the past couple years, you guys? Probably heard about. The dam. The damn dam, the dam issue. They continue to go on. I can’t. Based on our payment freeze mono legal team, I can’t dispose a whole bunch. About. It, but I can say that the initial lawsuit was dropped. We’ve gone through a lot of mediation with them and there’s going to be another lawsuit that’s filed directly here shortly. So we’ve we’ve been, we’ve been mitigating a lot of legal costs associated with this. Our insurance provider nationwide has picked up a large tab of what’s been going on on the, on the legal front of everything. But that may not be the case here coming up.
Did I read correct in the budget that we’re only going to have $2500 for ground keeping next year?
It’s.
For this year, we’re moving from a.
More than that, that’s that’s. That’s the like. Certain flowers and decorations.
Yeah, pergola and then that.
Yeah.
It was $4000 and now it’s $2000.
I’ll pull. I’ll try to pull information right now.
Call manaria. Maintenance stayed flat when I recall.
Yeah, common area maintenance stay flat. I think I think last year it included something to do with.
Miscellaneous.
The. Electrical or lighting? Yeah, the park benches.
Well, we have park benches too.
We have to do the whole electric for our pergola because the light was no no, I’m just letting you. What the costs are.
I’m not questioning what when it was $4000 and now it’s going down to $2000 so.
So wanna make sure we got nothing to budget to pay for mowing? So we don’t.
Mowing should be in there. I think it was 12,700.
That’s a different, different.
Yeah.
And then on one of the emails. We got we had included. Radio.
A pergolide. Yeah, we, we just think the.
So did that wrapped now.
It was perhaps kind of mid situation that’s that’s the reason why we had to kind of re change the date of everything. There was still mediation going on because of what’s going on with mediation and the and the the the dam. We decided kind of to to push the turtle back.
So if we last year approved $7000.
This is all sorts of unformat tonight.
For the legal fee.
And. We only spent. $5800 but $4900 is.
Because.
Supposed to be paid this year. Why didn’t we pay the trains last year? I I remember that.
The we had an issue with Hayman acknowledging Adam as the Treasurer for Gateway and wouldn’t talk to him. To allow us to pay the invoice aim came into our law firm.
That could be delayed.
So they didn’t want our money.
They they didn’t want him. He he called several times and they they wouldn’t. They wouldn’t even reference anything anymore. So that that was. What happened there?
So this I know in the past we’ve asked about the board members in terms of who’s the secretary, who’s the President, who’s who’s in charge of finance. And we’ve never really gotten the direct answers about that. And that hasn’t necessarily been communicated. In terms of who pulled in what office, if that was more public, and if that was in writing, do you think that would have kept us? Perhaps the issue with the law firm last year?
The.
Maybe, but.
We unfortunately.
It’s it’s really just involved with caiman and and changing like we same thing with changing stuff over for PNC. Like it’s a very tedious process. It’s a very manual process. Though there were no late fees associated with it, so it’s kind of water under the. Bridge.
OK.
But we still don’t know what positions everybody. Holds and then.
So my name is Brendan. I’m the president currently.
Hold on one second and then we always get. To elect one to three individuals to serve, serve as board members. So what does that mean? Is somebody leaving?
Yeah.
Alright. Let’s stop real quick. We’ll get to the presentation. I I love the questions. They’re really good.
OK, so I’m just.
We can get through this kind of to. Make sure. That we’re covering everything. And if we get any other questions, we can, we can kind of go from there. Here’s this evenings agenda been up here for a couple minutes. Does anybody have any questions on that? All right, Sean. So here we go. Answer question number one. You just have currently we have 5 board members, our our bylaws state that we have to have a a board of between 5:00 and 7:00 board members. We have one board member who served for years and is going to be stepping down Sean over here. Was our Vice president amazing individual? He’s done a lot. So he’ll be leaving the board, so we will need to elect between 1:00 and 3:00 individuals tonight. Before we leave. We’ve got a quorum. We’ve established quorum. We’ve got enough ballots here to make sure that whatever is being voted on, if anybody has any votes left out there, feel free to turn them in. We can make sure they do counted over the course of 2024. We didn’t really help have a whole lot of from last years. Lester’s annual meaning, the only thing we really needed to do, is make sure that we got the electrical over on the South side of the. Neighborhood. So we got that taken care of, we got that updated new wiring run to the Pearl area. Tom actually headed up most of that last year. Got that all taken care of? Any questions? Mowing was really, really good. You know, no real no real crazy questions about that. Kind of a kind of a lackluster kind of gear. Nothing too crazy.
Usually the minutes of last year’s meeting were included in the.
Notice for this.
I can. I can. I’ve we’ve. I’ve got a copy of them. I was going to read these out.
So.
But I have printed out. I don’t know how much paper over the past. Few weeks here.
We should build Church of the forest.
I thought I had the minutes. I could e-mail them out or go on the website. They’re.
I’m on the table now.
On the website.
Right.
I’d like to give a quick shout out to Jason here. He’s our Webmaster. Says it’s free of charge. Makes an individual. Thank you, Jason.
Hi.
Jason’s amazing. He gets all the free cookies tonight he wants so. All right, Sean.
Ohh this is the new one.
This is our five meetings several years now as far as how the the inquiry works. You know as far as how laws are passed down and and rules and bylaws are made, I think it’s important to know that no matter what the the laws of the city of Macedonia kind of support. With going on around here and all, we’re really here to do is kind of govern and manage the neighborhood and nothing, nothing too much more. There’s something going on right now, some some. Some comments about a house over on Prairie Crossing for for a a daycare or something of that nature, the city of Macedonia is aware of it. They’re monitoring this particular house. You know, several residents have made comments about it, but it’s not something that the highway can really enforce. Just give you guys a heads up on on what’s going on. Thanks Sir. All right. So again, we’re not one to sit here and measure grass length and everything else as long as everybody’s keeping everything relatively looking good, there’s no need to really enforce this. This is just kind of part of our standard deck we’ve got here for these different. Meetings. So. Everybody is aware. Of it, I don’t think we’ve had to hand out one of these in the past few years so. And it is what it is. Some of the stuff we’re to do here is we’re talking about kind of volunteers. We wanted to do a newsletter again, but with only five of us, it makes it really, really hard to make sure that we. Worked at the time to be able to do stuff. We’ve got a decorating committee, a welcoming committee, Joanna, who’s amazing has been.
Kind of both. Thank you.
It does. It does. You know, if anybody wants to volunteer for it? If anybody wants to, you know, if it’s just something they want to do, want to help. Feel free to reach. Out to us. Again, we’d like to do the newsletter again, but. We kind of have a a a strap time frame with five individuals maybe to get a. Few more people. On the board with some volunteers, something we can we can do up again. This one’s a big one. Reserve funds. I don’t know if that reserve fund we need to add to it this year’s Reserve fund comes in at 24.2% of the overall dues, which is the same exact dollar amount of 2 1/2% left.
That’s done.
This particular reserve fund. Or you. You can see the susky areas here that the reserve covers, entrance features, concrete sidewalks, pergola, fencing and ponds. Once transferred to the ponds are not currently transferred to us, so they don’t kind of. They’re not currently in our purview at the moment.
That’s what the the legal stuff is about is the ponds.
You can sync. Like.
Yeah, we are hoping they fix it.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. I mean the fencing is, I mean that’s that’s the danger waiting to happen. It. No, I’m not. I’m not criticizing. Yeah.
We cannot do anything and we are not allowed to touch this. This is not the proper people was transferred to us. This is why.
Right. So who’s in charge of that?
The original developer.
Alright, understood.
Which is.
Painful but painful. Yeah.
At something at some point, will will that get transferred to us?
Once the dam issue is resolved. Yes.
Gotcha. OK. Next Sir.
We’ve already talked about the reserve fund. Thanks. All right, here’s the budget. Here’s what’s the 2024 operating statement. We’ve got a lot of questions about that. Does anybody have any any further questions on the operating budget? Nitty gritty here. We’ve got Adam, our Treasurer, who was here to explain that there’s printouts. If you can’t read them back to the back, there’s printouts on the table of the 2024 operating statement.
Yeah, let’s make a couple of quick comments. This is like an eye. Chart so I. Don’t expect anybody to be able to. See you so. I could barely see it, but the revenue is up. Up top. You’ll see that in. In 2024, we had collected a lot less than we expected. We had a budget of 49,000, collected about 43,000 and that’s really due to about we had 24.
In.
Families who? Who? Didn’t you know? Pay their 24. Hoa do so. That is certainly a miss. It’s something we have to focus, you know, more on as we get into 25 in, in 23 we still you know from 23 we collected a little bit of money. However we had additional 9 or so seven and nine families who owed not only 24. But 23 and prior years? So we still have. We didn’t bring in the income that we expected to. However, you get through the detail, you’ll kind of see. We also spent about, you know, $6000 less than we anticipated through the course of the year. So we came under budget and our expenses and so that kind of led. To. Close to a break even or any cash balance. Increased a hair, you know, but unfortunately. You know, just by, I guess operating within our you know the expenses where we expected we were able to not not have a huge. Negative balance so. I’m going to I’m going to address.
Just a couple couple.
Additional things because I know there was some questions I heard some questions with regard to the budget. If you take, yeah, I’m going to, I’m just going to say just say a couple, so landscaping and mulch was was all together into into one last year we we kind of for the budget we probably we broke it up into.
That’s another slide.
2 into two sections. So that’s that’s the same. We didn’t we didn’t change that at all. The $4000 that I heard. Was basically due to the electrical work that was done. So we when we looked at what we felt was going to be needed for this year, you know significantly decreased. So that was one of the questions that came up. What are we going to have enough money? We anticipate we’ll have enough money because we’re not planning to do anything major like we had the electrical, you know in 24. Every and when you take a look at the other pieces, you know the other expenses, you know just the general electrical that we really can’t can, you know, control the insurance it’s, you know, the budget kind of corresponds to what you know, what we spent, you know, in prior year in, in, in. 2024. Does anybody have any questions with regard to this eye chart?
I have another question, sure. So in 20. For for landscaping and well. We we spent. $15,732.50, but in 2025 it’s going down so $12,700.
Because there’s a, there’s a. Yeah. There’s a separate line item for Mulch. So there’s 12,700. But if you go down further into the into the budget, you’ll see $1500 for the for the mulch comma.
So we spent the whole time, yeah.
OK, I see it.
OK.
So is that is that going to be enough because.
Well, what I what I would tell you all is. We hope so, right. I mean, one of the the realities we’re all kind of facing if you pay you know, we all pay attention. I said in some ways to the to the news, you know inflation right, cost of goods, labor is is on the rise. We tried within it within the new budget, we tried to give ourselves a little bit of wiggle room to anticipate some of that inflationary pressure. However, we don’t know what this year is going to going to bring, right? I mean, the people for those of us who are in in business and affected you know, we, we and we’re kind of studying what’s going on. Depending who you listen to, you know could be double digit increases in a lot of sectors of business, right? So we we hope that the things that we’re you know the electrical and the and the labor that we have local. Thinking to be, you know, too affected, right, so we feel. We have that under control of the best of our.
And then we have another year contract with our current mowing vendor and now it’s sharp states.
Ability.
Is that still low scale?
And I don’t think they’re going to change it. I mean something dramatic.
Would have to happen. Usually they are really good when you sign the contract, they are keeping their promise. If that’s maybe just a little bit just for the mulch prices. Definitely not for the mowing they are. They are pretty good. I think it’s based for the gas prices last year. Think.
There wasn’t even the CPI increase on.
There. I don’t think it’s getting me any small.
They they are a little bit lower than this year, so we should be OK and that they are really good in business for them. There’s another question on that.
So so of the of the 24 outstanding 24 homes that have outstanding dues and December 31st.
Yeah.
Have you been able to recover any of that in 2025 yet?
Not yet, no. Like, so I think we, I mean in full transparency, I mean we got we got to do.
Yeah.
A better job. We gotta we got to do more, you know.
That’s on the next.
There’s just a lot more work that has to be done to try to communicate within, you know, with families to to try to get that that revenue for sure. And the longer it goes, obviously the harder it, the harder it is and the more complex it is.
So I pulled this number off a different shade here go. Ahead. Sorry, I’m sorry.
I don’t know who any of these homes are, and I don’t want to know who any. No, I I truly don’t. I don’t want to know who any of them are. Anyway, I I know that one option you have is to put liens on on their property. Is that what you’re doing right there? Because in the event that they go like if if interest rates were to get better, if they go to.
Yeah.
Refinance. You get your money.
Yeah, we have leans on four or five properties right now and this.
At 24, that seems advantageous.
Oh yeah, absolutely. So I we’ve got, I got this number here. I put this together. This week. Number of residents as as far as current outstanding, it’s 24, it’s not 32. So the numbers are a little off here. Apologies. All right, the 2023 count is still 8. So you can see the current outstanding for the last couple of years and then prior to 2023, you can see that we’ve got 9 total outstanding situations and legal costs associated with liens on four of them.
It’s all the same holes that primarily, yes.
So. Some of them.
Are the somewhere between 8:00 and 9:00 are are are residents that have multiple years? You know, 32 is the number, the count, the people who didn’t pay in 24 plus.
Yourself.
The the people who have been delinquent for more than two or more.
Yeah.
Several years back, completely different board.
My husband.
I know at least one possibly 2 houses. They went, they started. The foreclosure proceedings on them because of that, when they paid within a week.
Yeah.
I don’t. Understand any of that. But I think I know who was kind of spearheading that, and there’s still a resident here right there.
So let me make more more comment about the budget or expenses. So we we’ll get to the the budget, but one other comment, right. So we didn’t spend most years most of our legal expenses has been related to collections and. In the liens and collect your money and that’s, you know, when you talk about 7006, seven, $1000, that’s what we’re spending the money on, right? 24 we spent virtually $0.00 there, and we spent all the dollars on.
Dan.
Them then.
Yes. So. So the idea about I’m getting ahead of myself a little bit, but the idea on the budget is, assuming we continue to have the dam problems and we continue to have those legal expenses. We do need to do more, invest more into collecting the outside. Revenue and if we want to be more aggressive and we want to do, you know liens which is a tool every time we do that it it costs us money, right? And so we just got to be judicious and how we use the.
Well.
All the legal costs are that have been spent on. The liens are associated with the houses that have liens on them, so say for example, you know somebody has a I don’t know, say 3000 or 4000. Is an outstanding dues associated with that you know, years they haven’t paid and if there is say, 2003, $1000 in legal bills associated with that particular house that that total gets that that legal cost is added to their overall total they owe the age, right? It’s not like it’s not like it goes away forever. Now that house, if they owe 4000, there’s $3000 in legal costs they now. Owe 7000. So we’ll get it one way or the other.
And we’re in second lean hold position on that too that we will not subordinate, right. So first to the bank.
No, we’re above the bank.
Our bank, we get ours first.
Yeah, we’re about the bank.
Yeah, well, we won’t support it.
Am I? Am I reading that right? There is 32 residents from 2024.
It it it took, yeah, that includes, yes.
In 2020, years and.
From 23.
Well, it the it’s inclusive of this, right, so it’s.
So you got 32. Total. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 32.
So probably not many of them. There’s there’s only a few of them that have, like thousands of. Dollars.
In outstanding, there’s three, I think three that have high amounts that have liens against their property and that we’ve already started with legal conversation representing foreclosure or not.
Maybe.
Yeah.
My recommendation would be to tell Cayman start foreclosure. That’s the fastest if we’re in a position where we don’t have cash flow because of the dam. Make those people pay or foreclose.
Did you have experience with that? Did you? Did you OK?
Cable dust.
You know, we were on. The board.
We did that. People vote.
We went after.
One of the things, I’ll be honest, you know, this is my first year doing this. All of us are kind of. 2323 years? Well, he’s three-year 3. Is, you know, working with some of the past presidents and making sure we’re getting some sort of guidance and some of this stuff so.
What I would do is I would put out a general e-mail. Saying that, if any resident is in situations we’re going to pursue very aggressively legal action this year. So including foreclosure?
You’ll see this this the paragraph. You can read it from back there. I’ll read you guys additional property liens will be assessed this year and houses that have a greater than $500 in outstanding dues and. Late. Fees, legal costs for those liens will be passed on to the property owner to protect the HOA. So we kind of adopted that rule last year, that’s when we started putting some additional liens on houses last year. We’re going to start doing it definitely this year with the amount of houses that that have not paid, so. We are going to address it, Chris, at this year and that’s part of our additional legal budget this year.
And one has already come back with the settlement amount that we rejected. So the the late penalties on that particular residence surpassed the eclipse. By almost double what they actually owed from the years that they owed. So, and we’ll continue to pursue that.
In those individuals, I would not cut.
A deal. No, no, no. Yeah.
Oh, no, we we’ve got cash outlay already and like it’s a it’s a portion of the neighborhood that, you know, everybody’s got to, you know, help pay the fair share, lawn maintenance and and reserve funds and everything else. No, we’re not. We’re not, we’re not dealing. Next, Sir. Here’s the proposed 2025 budget. Again, it’s printed out on the table over there in case anybody needs. 1. So that everybody can read it in a little more detail.
No.
But again, we’re not. Stuff like pergola or any sort of additional add-ons. This year we do expect legal expenses to be higher this year. Trying to make sure everything gets taken care of. So everything is pretty much status quo with exception of a bump up in our legal expenses.
OK.
I’m going back. So the lawsuit was dismissed by either party.
The lawsuit? Well, I I can’t disclose too much about it. The well, the lawsuits been dismissed.
OK.
But it is going to get refiled. I guarantee it. What?
OK, who dismissed the lawsuit? Who dismissed the lawsuit? OK. And so then you went into mediation.
PFR. Yes.
- And mediation didn’t work. So now we’re filing someone’s filing another lawsuit, potentially.
I’ve been told there will be another lawsuit shortly, yes.
Can you say who’s filing the lawsuit against who?
It will be PFR again.
Is filing another lawsuit against the HOA.
Yeah.
OK.
That I can share. It’s ridiculous, by the way. That’s what I will say. It’s ridiculous.
Yeah, I would say a lot of time spent this year, Brendan, specifically with the legal team in mediations, court appearances, you know, a number of different things where we needed to have. Legal support and I would say this year over the the years that I’ve seen in the past, even in the notes is.
With over everything.
Pretty hefty, which is why you see the legal bills. You know, stacking up, we have to defend the rest. Of the. Residents, they cost money to do so, right? So.
Get something. It doesn’t give an explanation. I’m just like, holy moly, what is going on?
Here we are bound that we cannot share all the legal information. That’s.
And I.
Problem so it cannot specify in detail.
Well, hearing the legal information and explaining why the budget doubled is 2 totally different things I worked in. The legal field for. 40 years. So I I get confidentiality and whatnot like, you know, understanding why are you going?
Ohh absolutely, absolutely. But there is we are limited with sharing some information.
Double. You know that was.
It’s clear enough. Yeah, actually, I think that’s.
But yeah, $110 all our houses are worth like five $600,000. This is not. Expensive.
Brandon is is, is there anything that can you share you know with the group that you’re allowed to share? Is there anything that I don’t know?
Move forward.
Because there might be some that don’t.
Know for now, no.
Anything.
I I don’t. I don’t wanna.
That’s a Hornets. That’s a Hornets test. I don’t think you want to open up. We don’t need to.
Yeah, you don’t want to because this is not our ground. This is not anything. So they have to do the.
You don’t know.
No, no, no.
Yeah, yeah. OK. But I even tried to.
Yeah, it’s well, it’s best we.
Put together an. Entire common e-mail with their past presidents with Cayman and.
Don’t want to open.
The concept.
Conceptually, that they’ve come back with something, gracious that was.
Yeah. But we got a. Lot lot more information sometimes so.
Foreshadow I guess. By the time is the amount that.
Good. Any other questions I’m exposed about? Yeah.
We’re paying now. That’s hard to even interpret the legal costs go up by double.
We budgeted out what it will cost if we.
Have to assume.
The repair of the dam kind of do want to know where I’m heading and where I need to be planning.
You don’t want to know, not want to know so so.
That’s part of the stuff I can’t share. That’s what Azure fund is built for. All right. I would say that if we’re responsible for the dam, it would be the reserve fund and then some.
A lot more.
A lot more.
We’re hoping it’s well.
Over $100,000. But that’s been communicated previously. That would be over $100,000.
What?
To fix it.
That was just dredging. Yeah, not to fix it. And that was the dredging delay.
Yeah, not not to not to repair. Not the film.
No transit away, right? Yeah, hundred 2018.
And the scam was. Trying to remember.
And you gotta remember, inflation has happened. Over the time.
Yeah.
More to come on the dam. I will. I I promise we will share what we can when we can share. It’s not my favorite topic. I don’t like taking days off work so much. Many more things I’d rather do with my time.
Turn.
This is what it is.
Recognize as a volunteer position. Yeah, I actually would like to say this from all of us. I would like to thank our President for taking a lot. And I mean a lot of his personal time and going to this mediation talking to.
Yeah, yeah.
Lawyers.
Sometimes we cannot even be on the call or anything depends. He really does it all. He does a lot of work, you know, it’s only five of us. So this is like I would like from this position, encourage you to volunteer. We really. You know, it’s a small group. We do this for the Community. It’s not hard work. It’s just much easier when you have a few more people. Things goes faster. One person takes care of this, one of that or anything. And sometimes like we have things just get lost in translation or anything because we just physically cannot do it. We all like all of you have a words, families, you know lives and anything. And we on top of everything we do this because we left this night. We want to be safe here. We like our houses. We want to keep it good. So just help us. Just you are helping like yourself. You are helping the neighborhood. So it’s not like anybody is forced to do this. So we are here just to make it better. You know, because sometimes we feel like we are the policing people and this is the last thing that we want to do. So if you can spare. In couple hours, once a month, this is what we usually, you know, meet once a month. It takes us hour, hour and a half. We put together, we discuss things with I one person sends the letters. One person prints something else. It just gets much faster if everything is on one person down, it’s just hard there. So This is why we sometimes cannot do it all as much as we. Would like. Like I do our flowers decorations and I think it’s only me. It’s me and me. And sometimes my family. Hopefully my husband, I didn’t volunteer for that. Like honey, I volunteer you, so that’s just helps. You know, if everybody does a little bit less, that goes faster. So it’s just if you can, if you can spend a little bit if you want to. Join us. That would be wonderful.
Well, not only that, but they have a voice in the community, right? I mean, everybody has a voice once a year. In this. Room. If we can participate and get 7 folks in that meeting once a month, it’s a greater part of our our community.
And so your meetings are once. A month? Yeah, we.
Yeah. It just depends on schedule availability. It’s not like it’s at night. It’s usually a. It’s usually a Monday or Wednesday just based on certain people’s availability and try to make it amicable for everybody. So it’s. This is a volunteer position. You know, it’s like what works for everybody’s schedule, so. Next service, which is what we’re talking about here.
We need you all right.
Really, to increase your community involvement and get out of the normal day-to-day routine once a month, improve your knowledge of the Community rules and operations. Enjoying the Lake Forest Estates board. It’s an adventure and I will say for those that do want to know about the damn project. You would then. Find out information on the damn project. I have a mug from Hoover Dam that says this is my damn mug and. It almost frustrates me at this point, so all Members terms are for three years. It could be a, a seated position or an at large position. Currently we do have 5 people on the board.
The.
Up to 7. Ideally we’d like to get back up to seven if we’ve got a whole bunch of volunteers. We do need to fill at least one tonight.
Yeah.
What position are you feeling tonight?
So would be you’d be stepping off as VP.
VP.
You do.
And what does that person?
Listen to him.
We’re all. We’re all.
We’re all volunteers.
Yeah, it’s it’s a peer board to be honest with you. Everybody’s got a voice. I mean, Brendan, listen, I I had the president’s position and I was way too busy with work and he was kind enough to step in. To be temporary at that point, and it ended up being kind of his full gig. He took it over, so I was very fortunate to have Brendan step in and and take that responsibility over. But the the VP role was is just like any other role on here. We take pride in the community. We listen to the community, we try to address the issues. Promptly. There’s really no one more important than other other than the representation with legal team and and what have you, right? So when finance has to make the call or Brendan has to make the call as a president and stuff, those were pretty key positions, Vice President pretty much just backs him up. And. Does what he needs. To do or she.
Goes to mediation when you can.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yeah. And it’s hard to pin down schedules. You know, you got a family and you all have lives and stuff like that. We certainly understand it. And and you take that, you know, hour or hour and a half at it every month and you figure that’s as much as I need to put into the community and stuff a month and then per year. But then you find that there’s a lot more reward in it for giving it the extra time to have. Deserved because we didn’t have seven members, we had five and barely made that right.
I did make it Thunder like simple things like, you know, folding 160.
Mailers. Oh mailers, yeah.
Letters.
If you have a mailers, if you have a seven people, it goes fast. If you with 3-4 because somebody’s not available, takes them half or all of your evening and your kids.
I’m flying. Yeah, I’m flying home. Brennan’s flying out of town, and he’s on the way to the airport dropping. Stuff, actually she. Drove tow to his house to pick up the flowers so she could fold them up and mail them out. I mean, it’s. It’s a relay race to get some.
So we, I mean we we work it out, but it’s just just a little.
Of this stuff done but.
Easier you know if you have.
More. But if somebody has a passion for something in particular, I’m. Sure we could. I I had joined the board a year.
Ago.
And I I got roped into it and and I said OK what what do you want me to do? And they said, well, there’s treasurer positions open. I’m like.
Yep.
Finance guy’s not an accountant. So yeah, if if you have a certain skill and you’re you like something you like, you like numbers, I’m sure we could find something.
Sitting up there, where’s the fifth person?
She wasn’t able to make it tonight. Sophia is our secretary.
So there’s.
- So then. So.
I’m recording on those and we’ll transpose them to text.
I.
For the meeting.
And then how? Let’s try run.
ChatGPT.
So you’re done the. Secretary is on the board for how long?
One more year.
One more year and then the gentleman in red.
Yes, tomorrow.
You’re on the board. For how long?
Two more years.
Year and.
I’ve been three years and I’m extending for one. Year has it been? Yeah, I’m in that position when I can do it.
Yep.
And then.
Like they keep my flowers.
In one year you have one more.
And then one. More. Yeah, that’s 1936.
7/3.
So do we have any volunteers for? The board positions. All right, we have one.
OK.
I love it.
Have to listen to me.
Next year, they’ll always have a seat.
The person that asked most questions comes. On I love it. Any do we have two more?
We can give you a couple minutes to think of.
Yeah.
So and I know there’s some individuals here that have been on the board for and I would honestly. Ask them to join again for a temporary kind of situation, since they’ve already been on since I’ve already been on the board, they’ve done. Their three. Years. I’m only asking as a as a as a favor due to the damn project and they have some history.
The.
Can get this as an advisor to the board we were actually thinking about.
But if not, I completely understand I’m looking 2-3 gentlemen here. What?
Brandon, the dam is.
I’d love to say what? What weave in the word. Damn. Here. I think I’m going. To. Do it tonight. Yeah, I’d love a dam advisor. But no. Just you know somebody that has some, some more history with PFR would be fantastic. So. So we’ll deal with.
No.
Intermediaries issue started reporting 5077.
You can be a part of the advising report.
But if not, I understand. But I will ask those gentlemen that I’m looking at not so subtly, to maybe join me at the winking lizard for a beer sometime so we can have a fun discussion.
Stronger.
Or my bar in my basement or any. Of the above.
In your basement.
Everyone is supportive.
Times. Sometimes that’s for the monthly meetings. So sometimes during the back deck. I’m not familiar with your name.
You don’t know my name.
Yeah, I’m not familiar with you.
I live in the greenhouse.
Debbie Ray’s fantastic. I’m not gonna write a whole bunch of stuff down. I’m not gonna, you know, take a ballot. Can we get all in? Favor. Debbie Ray for vice president all opposed. All right, Debbie Ray.
I didn’t mean.
My.
We didn’t break.
Next, Sir. We’ve already done this. Do we tally votes? 2C votes?
I got.
So 93 total.
Hold on. We got to start over now.
94.
There’s more coming.
Good.
I saw you don’t.
Worry, yeah.
We got two more in. The back of the room.
We’re gonna get a notarized.
More.
Two more in the back. Braden. Tony. We got two more. Three more on the back here.
- Thank you.
No.
How many total?
So. 98.
Salad.
Thank you.
Good.
So I appreciate that Shay shirts and good stuff.
Yeah.
Just take your shoes off.
Gotta count on his toes too.
- So total is 98 votes. I mean that came in we had on bylaw #1 we had 68.
By law, number one is roofing.
Roofing.
Briefing by law, #2 the.
For the full form.
64 and 60.
68468 alright.
Report.
And then by law, #2 the quorum 78 four and then the operations 81 four.
All right. All right. So all of them passing, all right. I would like to see everybody we we got a lot of votes here tonight. We got a lot of votes in e-mail. We got votes in mail.
That.
Well, that’s amazing. Thank you so much for the participating.
I got.
It.
Don’t have it.
All right. Do I have? Do anyone want to bring up one quick thing here? Sidewalks in the neighborhood, there’s supposed to be level there. You know some some places have some unlevel sidewalks. I know the city of Macedonia sent out some notices. You know, I was thinking, you know, this year.
They are different.
You know, I had free time. I was going to. You know, call sidewalk leveling company and see if we can get like a group, neighborhood deal or something like that. Nobody would be forced to use them. Just literally just trying to get a cheaper option for everybody, everybody.
You can’t do that. You can’t level it. Those trees on river run they.
Well, there’s there’s some. There’s some sidewalks like that. Absolutely, absolutely.
We.
Level ours. I can’t level mine. I had people out. They can’t. The roots are.
Sidewalks.
So maybe they can. Save it a little bit or something.
No. So the rooms go underneath there and now they’re going into my front yard.
I I understand exactly what you’re saying. I’m not. I’m not saying everybody’s gotta use them. All right, I’m trying to do another service.
So you can’t do that. You know I’m not either. But I’m just saying that.
What? I was. I was thinking about reaching out to. Like a concrete blah blah like.
We’ve got one in the neighborhood, yeah.
I kind of went that road. The price the city has is ridiculously.
OK.
Cheating and they’ve done the work before. I’m just calling for cities contractor cheaper and then they will also add it to your tax bill. And over three-year payment and it doesn’t start until the 2020.
Perfect.
Right.
Seven or something.
Do they do driveways too, or do they really?
I don’t know, but I actually want to call them because the apron on my driveway. And it’s totally getting but. It’s sunk and it’s cracked. It’s and and what’s what’s?
You can check that information with us so we can mail.
That’s what I’m worried about is because it’s cheaper and it’s over this storm and I had people come out and.
You didn’t get it.
And then there’s, you know what I. Mean like?
It’s a beautiful night. Does anybody else have any?
Or, you know, I’m like.
That’s a. Good idea.
Yeah.
So part of the damn.
Project is the gas that’s part of that part.
I think it’s not for the moment.
I think we had, I am not sure, I don’t probably 100% of that, but. I think we have somebody actually come look at the fence and to their standards, there is nothing wrong with that. Fence. You can see there is a new plate, actually brand new right now hanging and they are not going to fix it until literally falls apart.
So the the city recently revised their fence requirements and I wonder, I don’t know what it’s like. It might be maybe non compliant or it can be declared as in disrepair for the city and then we’ll force them to do something and meet the new requirement on that.
Good.
- Because by their standards, nothing.
Let’s just table that conversation, Thomas.
You’re saying there, Mr. President?
All right.
Let’s table that conversation top. For a little bit, maybe you can dress that.
Sounds good.
One next.
Year can I make just one suggestion, hopefully to help you. So when you have some of these like items where you’ve got things that you’ve got to get out and get done and need some extra helping hands beyond the five of you send out an e-mail to us. And if people have a little extra time maybe and give it like a time and a date? Where to go? You might get some people to show up.
I think that’s a great idea.
If I.
And if it’s a summer?
So we supposed to actually rather here have a like summer party. You know the neighborhood party, but with five of us is absolutely impossible to do it. So neither one of us can take the task of organizing. Tom was the last one who actually did. And I tell you something, 99% of it was common. Tony, they did on their own. So there is like was no much of A volunteer, his whole family volunteer and anything. They really did fantastic job to cooking and all this stuff that he brought in and anything it was through the church, through everything what they know and anything and we don’t I I cannot do this like anymore, you know with everything with this done. So if we have a people who can.
OK.
Do a little committee on volunteer. We can organize this, but somebody has to take it on. Hey, I am head of the neighborhood festival. Let’s you know we can forever. Let’s do it. So that’s that’s those things. You. Know it’s just like.
Some look like even the smaller things like you had to stuff 100 and some envelopes.
Yeah.
If you put that out, some stuff in envelopes, can somebody? Come help me out.
Especially if you offer boost.
But there is also a law you have to to in order to be at the meeting. You have to be part of the board because there is some stuff has to be because you are taking on that responsibility. So you cannot discuss the some stuff in the people who are not the part of the board. So it’s like two way.
Yeah, we usually like stopping. All right, everybody, appreciate you guys coming out this.
Here.
Year. Thank you.
If you guys have any questions, anything at all.
Honest advisor. I just. It’s so hard. You need an advisor.
Yeah.
It’s good to have.
People already in this, this portion of the. Conversation stuff so you can’t get to 7. So if you get there by advisors and you need, that’s fine.
You think we?
Could find it. You think we could find?
What’s up?
Guys we could find like one more. Do you think we can find one more like a past president?
I think I know. I thought about it.
Yeah, yeah, that would be a lot easier down and somebody else if you do a quarterly advise. Along with. Want to attract people in the minutes? You can still cover the minutes and stuff for that.
No.
Once you, you get the letter and give.
The communication on to everybody.
This amount of money.
Yeah, there’s some.
I don’t work directly.
So much.
Yeah.
And it.
Thank you.
I’m a teacher, but I could give time.
Last year was a tough year.
Was productive.
Very productive, very tough as in time.
Learn the words out with the.
Yep.
Phone and make sure that there’s no.
OK.