Bent Tree Property Owners’ Association
Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
Monday, November 13th, 2006
Monument Sanitation District Office, 130 2nd St., Monument
Attendees: Board Members: Gail Bates, Duane Fitch, John Heiser, Debbi Maser and Bill McDonnell.
Others: Bruce Bates, Steve Fuhrmann, Jerry Lopez, Jim Maser, Linda McDonnell, Joan Schmitz, Howard Schmitz, John Stahl.
Meeting was called to order at 7:00pm with Duane Fitch presiding.
1) Review and approval of minutes
a) October 9th, 2006, Board of Directors Meeting Draft Minutes were unanimously approved without any changes. The motion was made by Bill McDonnell and seconded by John Heiser.
2) Review action items from minutes of previous board meetings:
a) August 13th, 2006, Action Items:
i. Action for John Heiser to contact other management companies to solicit information regarding their ability and costs associated with supporting BTPOA covenant enforcement. Still awaiting direction from the CCC as to their needs, but has contacted or been contacted by various individuals and companies regarding out-sourcing this HOA requirement. Jean Thomas provided a quote of $50/hr with a $250/mo minimum.
b) September 14th, and 17th, 2006, Action Items:
i. Bill McDonnell to obtain bids from CPA firms for contacting an insured CPA to audit the BTPOA financial books. The lowest quote is $1500; second quote was $2000 +/- 10%. Bill suggested that the audit be conducted by the low bidder. Motion was made by Gail Bates and seconded by John Heiser to proceed with this action and motion was unanimously approved.
ii. BOD liaisons (listed below) to contact committee volunteers, select a committee chairperson for each committee, and define and document the process that would be implemented by the committee. Specific action for the CCC to review pending CCC violation letters and send out notices to violators. See Committee Reports below. CCC BOD liaison has not yet held committee meeting and no letters for current violations have been sent out.
iii. Debbi Maser to replace Kathy Decker as the Bent Tree “registered agent.” 11/13/06: Action for Debbi to proceed with this and pay the fee rather than wait for submittal of annual report.
c) October 13th, 2006, Action Items:
i. Bill McDonnell to obtain bids from CPA firms for contacting an insured CPA to audit the BTPOA financial books. Completed.
ii. Debbi Maser to replace Kathy Decker as the Bent Tree “registered agent.” Action for Debbi to proceed with this and pay the fee rather than wait for submittal of annual report.
iii. John Heiser to contact Steve Lebel to obtain a legal opinion regarding recording the Bylaws. Completed; John contacted and received the following response from Steve Lebel:
1. Recording the revised Bylaws is not legally required. He recommended that copies be made readily available to property owners. He said having the Bylaws on our web site, as we do, is ideal.
2. The reason the topic of recording the Bylaws came up was because of the clause in the revised Bylaws that says the BTPOA is to be bound by CCIOA. He said the statute requires that for a pre-1992 association to adopt CCIOA, 1) there must be a resolution by the board to put the question to a vote of the members, 2) the notice of the meeting of the members must specifically state that a vote on adoption of CCIOA will be held, and 3) a copy of CCIOA must be distributed to all the members as part of that notice. Since we didn't follow the prescribed procedure, he said the BTPOA is not strictly bound by all of CCIOA. He said that in any case SB05-100 and SB06-089 applied the most important provisions of CCIOA to pre-1992 associations including the BTPOA.
iv. Bill McDonnell to transfer excess funds in the working account to an interest bearing account. Pending further discussion and BOD decision after trail committee report and decision regarding John Stahl’s request for funding.
v. Gail Bates to work with CCC on issuing a notice that a hearing on the Lot 2 bonfire will be held at the next board meeting. Pending: Gail stated she had not done this yet because there had been no communication with members of the CCC.
vi. Board members to develop a list of changes needed to the Rules and Regulations and circulate proposed changes to board members at least a week before the next meeting. Pending further review and input from BOD Members.
vii. Steve Fuhrmann to develop a privacy statement and a way to handle the e-mail notification list through the web site so people can add or remove their e-mail address. Completed; Steve has created and tested capability for members to subscribe and un-subscribe to BTPOA email notifications. He has set this up so that only the designated moderator can approve items for posting. Currently, Duane Fitch as President of the BTPOA is the only authorized moderator, and after discussion, it was decided that Debbi Maser, Secretary of the BTPOA would also have moderator privileges. There was additional discussion regarding who would have access / ability to subscribe and it was decided that this would be open access, as real estate agents frequently use or refer prospective owners to the website. Steve will also investigate ability to PDF posted items, such as the directory.
3) ACC Report – Due to time constraints, ACC report was postponed.
4) Treasurer’s Report:
a) Bill McDonnell provided summary of payments made the past month and moneys received with current BTPOA accounts balances. He also recommended that the BTPOA take advantage of higher rates in CD accounts for shorter periods (five months) vs. renewing the CD that is reaching maturity for a year at a lower rate, which was approved by the BOD.
b) John Heiser requested authorization to pay NEPCO bill. Motion was made by Debbi Maser, seconded by Gail Bates and unanimously approved. (John also stated that Duane Fitch had been identified as the NEPCO alternate for Bent Tree.)
5) Committee Reports
(a) BEAUTIFICATION AND TRAILS: BOD Liaison - Gail Bates
(i) John Stahl presented findings and recommendations stating that he had determined that approximately 85% of the trail was on county land, 10% of the trail was on Bent Tree owners’ property, and 5% on BTPOA property. He also stated that his research had indicated that repairs to the trail had to be natural; no asphalt or concrete was allowed on county property. As one option, he had solicited bids for the repair of the current trail in its current position and received two bids of $4045. A second options would be to remove the Bent Tree signage, since the majority of the trail was not on Bent Tree property, but it was stated the signs had been put up to prohibit motorized vehicles and horses on the trails, and without the signs, those activities may occur again. John Stahl requested approval from the BOD to contact the BTPOA attorney for a maximum one hour discussion to address Bent Tree liability regarding the trails. John Heiser made a motion to authorize John Stahl to contact the BPTOA lawyer for a NTE time of one hour. Motion was seconded by Gail Bates and all votes were in favor. Once John Stahl receives the information, an action was given to him to provide a summary to the BOD for further discussion, action and/or approval to proceed.
(ii) John Stahl also presented information he had received regarding beautification activities. He received a quote of $28,000 from one company to landscape and install / replace lights on the 14 corners of Bent Tree. This quote did not include any maintenance after the initial work. He received a second quote of $4400 for a one-time effort to clean up and trim the current landscaping and then $35 per entrance to maintain thereafter (at a schedule determined by Bent Tree). He also received an estimate of $4000-$5000 to do additional work, including solar lighting. No actions were assigned on this topic.
(b) COVENANT COMPLIANCE: BOD Liaison – Gail Bates
(i) No meetings have been held with the homeowners who signed up to participate in covenant compliance yet.
(ii) Jim Maser stated that since there had not been meetings of the volunteers for the CCC that signed up at the Annual Property Owners’ meeting, he was not responsible for any actions associated with the committee and had not been appointed chairperson. He reiterated that he is willing to participate, but that until a meeting takes place and the process is defined, he is not the POC.
(c) ENGINEERING: BOD Liaison – John Heiser
(i) Due to time constraints, discussion on this topic was postponed.
(d) FOREST MANAGEMENT: BOD Liaison – Bill McDonnell
(i) Due to time constraints, discussion on this topic was postponed.
(e) NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH: BOD Liaison – Bill McDonnell
(i) Due to time constraints, discussion on this topic was postponed.
(f) NEWSLETTER/DIRECTORY: BOD Liaison – Debbi Maser
(i) Message has been left with one of the two owners who volunteered for this committee. Other person did not provide contact information. Therefore, Debbi stated that she will continue attempts to contact both owners and to put together a draft for BOD review and solicit input from others in Bent Tree.
(g) WATER AUGMENTATION: BOD Liaison – John Heiser
(i) Jerry Lopez provided an extensive and detailed summary of water usage and concerns in Bent Tree. He specifically addressed how Bent Tree acquires and is required to replenish water, and that there are limits to the amount of water allocated to Bent Tree. He reiterated that the BTPOA faces sanctions if we are out of decreed compliance, which can include loss of ALL well usage permits. This a very serious issue that all Bent Tree property owners need to be aware of and need to ensure they are in compliance with.
(ii) Each lot is authorized no more than 2000 sq ft turf or garden at 1.5 ac-ft per acre irrigated, however, this has not been monitored and it is suspected that many lots exceed this threshold. Jerry suggested that specific measurements of each lot be obtained.
(iii) Additionally, there are pools in Bent Tree that have not been approved as required, and need to have their water usage monitored. A concern with this is that “pools” implies swimming pools, and does not address water features that many homeowners have installed. He clarified that the intended definition of “pool” is any body of water that is replenished in some way, and this needs to be monitored in some way.
(iv) There is a challenge in monitoring water usage because only Bent Tree IV properties are required to have meters, which are the only way that we have to monitor water usage. 34 out 36 lots in Bent Tree IV have meters, and although meters are supposed to be externally accessible, only one of the 34 is. This is an issue that the BOD and the ACC stated needs to be corrected and notification will be going out to these owners. To monitor improvement, there would have to be more frequent meter readings than the annual schedule currently in place, and external meters would be required to be installed at the owners’ expense.
(v) The huge concern is that out of these lots (as of the 2006 meter readings), 15 of 34 wells are at or above allocation, and that the usage trend is up in all lots. This is a very, very serious concern because, overall, this indicates that Bent Tree is at 90% usage. If we exceed our threshold, we are at risk of corrective action that would affect all owners in Bent Tree.
(vi) In addition to more communication to all owners in Bent Tree, Jerry suggested that the BOD put these 15 lots on notice of their over-usage and require a corrective action plan to be defined, documented and approved.
(h) WELCOMING: BOD Liaison – John Heiser
(i) Due to time constraints, discussion on this topic was postponed.
6) R&R recommended changes
a) Due to time constraints, discussion on this topic was postponed.
7) Hearings
a) The BOD had a discussion to define the hearing process. It was determined that hearings are part of the public actions of the BOD and therefore private hearings cannot be held. It was also discussed and agreed that the outcome of the hearings would be a BOD decision. Specific process was defined and approved by unanimous vote of the BOD (motion made by John Heiser and seconded by Debbi Maser) as follows:
i. Owner is notified of violation by the CCC.
ii. Violator cures the violation and/or BOD determines the severity of the violation warrants a hearing.
iii. If a hearing is required, the violator will be sent notification of the hearing a minimum of seven days prior to the BOD meeting at which the hearing is scheduled.
iv. Violator may or may not attend the hearing, but non-attendance does not preclude the hearing from taking place and a decision to be made by the BOD.
v. Hearings would be as brief as possible, with the CCC to provide a short summary of the violation (as cited in the letter the violator would have received). The violator would have five minutes to present additional relevant information to the BOD. There would then be a five minute opportunity for Q&As by the BOD, which may include comments from other residents or witnesses, if applicable. Then the BOD would decide on the action to be taken.
b) Action previously assigned to Gail Bates was reiterated to send hearing notification to the owners who held a bonfire in October, so that a hearing could be held at the next BOD meeting.
8) Future Board Meeting Schedule
a) Next BOD Meeting will take place on December 11th, 2006, at the Monument Sanitation District Office, 130 2nd St., Monument at 7:00pm.
9) Any other business
a) Gail Bates tendered her resignation from the BOD. She was thanked for her service and contributions to the BOD. Her position is now vacant and the BOD is looking for volunteers.
10) Resident remarks, if any, on topics not on the agenda
a) Linda McDonnell expressed her concerns with the number of dogs whose owners do not clean up after them. This is an ongoing problem throughout Bent Tree and owners need to be reminded that dogs are not allowed to be on other people’s property and that if they walk their dogs on the trails to clean up after them. Debbi stated that she will include this in the next edition of the Bent Tree Log.
11) Summary of action items
a) Bill McDonnell to schedule audit of the BTPOA financial books.
b) Debbi Maser to proceed with required actions to replace Kathy Decker as the Bent Tree “registered agent.”
c) Steve Fuhrmann to modify BTPOA website access to allow Debbi Maser, Secretary of the BTPOA, to have moderator privileges.
d) Bill McDonnell to follow up with BOD regarding approval and amount to move into a shorter period CD account to take advantage of higher rates vs. renewing the CD that is reaching maturity for a year at a lower rate.
e) John Stahl to contact the BPTOA lawyer for a NTE time of one hour and to provide a summary to the BOD for further discussion, action and/or approval to proceed.
f) Debbi Maser to put together a draft Bent Tree Log for BOD review and solicit input from others in Bent Tree.
g) Duane Fitch to work with BOD to determine that specific measurements of each lot be obtained to ensure that no more than 2000 sq ft turf or garden at 1.5 sc-ft per acre are irrigated.
h) Duane Fitch to work with BOD to clarify and document that the intended definition of “pool” is any body of water that is replenished in some way, and to monitor this.
i) Duane Fitch to work with BOD to ensure that water meters are externally accessible, and the owners who do not currently have these will be notified that they need to correct this at their expense.
j) Duane Fitch to work with BOD to send notification to the 15 lots who are over their allotted water usage and require a corrective action plan to be defined, documented and approved.
k) Duane Fitch to work with BOD to establish process to monitor water usage improvement, and to implement more frequent meter readings than the annual schedule currently in place is required.
l) Due to Gail’s resignation from the BOD, action previously assigned to Gail Bates to send hearing notification to the owners who held a bonfire in October was assigned to Debbi Maser.
Revised Minutes prepared by Debbi Maser, BTPOA Secretary, 12/4/06
Update from John Heiser for Item 2.c)iii incorporated 12/18/06
Approved at BTPOA BOD Meeting 12/18/06