Minutes are not official until approved at a subsequent Board meeting.
HERITAGE HUNT CONDOMINIUM I UNIT OWNERS ASSOCIATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
May 11, 2010
LOBBY OF 13891 BUILDING
I. Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m. by Ed Plummer, President. Other Board members present were: Kay Franklin, Vice President, and Steve Verosko, Treasurer.
Others present:
Chaz Barber, SCS
Warren Miller, Asst. Treasurer
George Field, Chairman, Building and Grounds Committee
A number of Condo I residents
II. Approval of Minutes of Previous Meeting
Upon motion by Kay Franklin with second by Steve Verosko, the minutes of the Annual Meeting on March 9, 2010, were approved with the notation that, as an Annual Meeting is a meeting of the whole association in contrast to a meeting of just the Board, the minutes also require approval at the next Annual Meeting to be final.
III. Reports of Officers and Board of Directors
A. Treasurer’s Report
Steve Verosko deferred to Warren Miller.
Warren reported that the 2009 audit has been signed and approved. Major reflected changes were increases in costs of electricity, taxes, insurance and accumulation of bad debts totaling approximately $12,000, which reduced a preliminary surplus of about $17,000 to $5857. The current audit cost $600; but for next year the accountants have quoted $1400. Warren observed the amount is reasonable with the increase due primarily to additional work as a result of new government regulations and reporting requirements. He estimated that this works out to $175 - $200 an hour.
Warren reports one CD recently matured and others will follow in a staggered pattern. They will be renewed for either one or two years with the best interest rate being approximately 2.2%. This represents a reduction from previous years due to the economy.
Warren reports balances of $52,000 in checking, $44,000 in Money Market Funds, $444,000 in CDs which anchor the $434,000 fully funded reserves. This represents a fairly strong financial statement.
B. President’s Report
Ed Plummer reintroduced Chaz Barber as our new SCS Assistant Community Manager.
Ed stated that Units A111, A112, A211 and B212 are currently for sale and that B202 apparently has recently been leased although the Board has not been provided with a copy of the lease as required by our Bylaws and Rules and Regulations. (This morning Ed called the involved real estate agent and asked for a copy of the lease.)
By way of endorsing Warren’s commitment to funding reserve funds, Ed reported on difficulties the association for his Florida condo is experiencing with special assessments. In addition to having had a special assessment of about $12,000 per condo unit for building structural repairs, the association has incurred legal expense as well as shortage of funds because some unit owners failed to pay the assessment. Out of 32 units, 3 are in some stage of foreclosure, with one having gone to sheriff’s sale just yesterday. Ed reported that the important point he learned from attending a board meeting there was that not having adequate reserves leads not only to special assessments but to additional legal expense trying to collect the special assessments.
Ed reports that next year we will be due for our five-year engineering and reserve update study. The last study in 2006, resulted in a recommendation of a straight-line contribution to reserves of $104,000 per year. In 2006 the Board felt that contributing the full straight-line amount was not practical and decided to go with a lower amount but to increase the amount by $10k per year. We contributed about $97k last year, which is still not equal to the straight-line recommendation but we have also transferred yearly surpluses to the reserves with the result that we are currently pretty much on target for our reserves. The big question for our reserve study next year is whether increase costs and projected inflation will materially increase our reserve requirements.
Ed reported that he follows the HOA Board meetings and that there are a number of issues of interest:
1. Change in HOA Investment Strategy – The HOA Board is planning a vote of the general membership at December’s annual meeting to amend the governing documents to broaden permissible investments vehicles to include what is provided for in Section 26-40 of the Code of Virginia. The back story is that the HOA Budget & Finance Committee’s broker, Morgan-Stanley, recommended moving about a million dollars from Treasuries and CD’s into a tax-free Virginia Municipal Bond Fund in order to earn about $9000 per year more income. (This works out to only 41 cents per HH household per month!) Present HH Governing Documents restrict investments to bank deposits insured by the FDIC, securities backed by the Federal Government, and Virginia state (but not municipal) bonds; thus the idea to amend the Governing Documents. Bonds are subject to risk due to change in market interest rates and change in quality ratings and municipal bonds are undeniably riskier than state bonds which are riskier than Treasuries and CD’s. Consequently, there is the question as to whether such investments are even a good idea for HH funds and, thus, should the Governing Documents be amended to allow such investments. Ed asked, “How would you feel should the HH HOA lose money on its investments?” He urged all unit owners to think about the issues and convey their opinions to the HOA Board.
2. Comcast Phone Conversion – If you have problems, be sure to use our special HH number (888-889-5471) and ask for the Manassas Professional Services group, as only they understand the HH conversion issues. Comcast will have representatives at the May 25th evening HOA board meeting to address residents’ problems.
3. Lennar Transition – Ed reported that Lennar is working toward finishing in HH and transitioning to resident control within 6 to 9 months. If this is completed late this year, residents will elect an additional 4 resident board members at the annual meeting in December.
4. Louie The Golf Dog – The HH HOA owns a dog that is used to drive geese from the golf course. There have been recent incidents of aggression, including at least one reported biting of a residents pet dog. The Golf Committee will be considering the issue at its meeting on Wednesday, May 12th and the Board will be addressing the issue at the May Board meeting.
5. Ed reported that the Marque community has received approval to remove drop their over-55 status of occupancy. In approving their request, PWC required that The Marque pay the county $1,000,000 over four years to offset the possible impact of resident children on the county schools. Ed noted that this suggest that should HH ever want to drop its over-55 status, that the county would likely require such a “proffer”. As HH has about 10 times the dwelling units of The Marque, it would be reasonable to expect a payment 10 times bigger. This is an additional wrinkle in the age-restriction issue.
IV. Report of Management
Chaz Barber reported that SCS recently moved to new office space in Westfields Center, which is across Rt 28 from the entrance to the Air & Space Museum at Dulles Airport.
The vacuuming and cleaning crews are set for the garage cleaning on May 13th.
East Coast Fire Protection conducted an inspection with all systems approved.
A new cleaning contractor, Northern Virginia Cleaning and Janitorial Services, has been contracted to take over our condo cleaning, effective June 1st. They come in at a slightly lower price than we had been paying and substantially less than our present cleaner wanted for the renewal contract..
Associa, SCS’s parent company, has established a discount program for household goods and services. It can be found on the internet at www.associaadvantage.com. Posters will be put up on the garage-level bulletin boards and a link will be added to our condo web site.
V. Report of Committees
A. Building and Grounds – George Field, Chairman
George Field reported that the outside faucets are turned on.
George also reported progress on the brickwork, water damage, and wood damage on the end of Building A at A102 and Unit B112. Contracts for interior repair have been signed. The repair of the leaks are charged to general maintenance and repair while resulting interior damage is chargeable to our insurance loss account to the extent that individual situations are each subject to our $5,000 insurance deductible.
George noted that two outside air conditioner units were damaged by falling ice sickles and those repairs where also charged to insurance loss.
Building A door entry codes entries were reprogrammed to add a second code to work around the problem with the troublesome digit “8” of the garage-level entry key pad.
Each of our buildings has 4 phone lines to provide service for the fire safety systems, the elevator, and the electronic entry system. Comcast recently converted these to Digital Voice and there have been some issues. Comcast failed to install the batteries in the modems in Building B. And while we insisted that the two fire system phone lines in each building be on separate modems, there is still the risk of loss of all phone service if the cable system goes down. George also noted that there are on-going Comcast billing problems but that Comcast has finally started issuing checks for some long-standing credit balances, so perhaps there is hope that Comcast is getting their act together.
B. Budget and Finance – Warren Miller, Chairman
Warren Miller reported that we have a satisfactory credit rating as we had deficit spending for March and April. Expenses were $30,000 while income amounted to $28,000. Reserves were due $10,000. If expenses continue to increase, fees may rise. The deficits were attributed to snow removal, brick work and walls, and AC repairs. We should be receiving $800 per month from HOA for reimbursal of trash removal.
Although no month is “ordinary” we must be prepared to handle maintenance and repairs as needed. It is far better to have reserves rather than levy assessments when needs arise. Assessments are difficult to collect and often result in costly collection action.
C. Legal and Covenants - Frank Hoss, Chairman
Ed Plummer reporting for Frank Hoss. The committee is recommending that an application by Jenifer Lucas for installation of some lighting be approved by the Board. This will be addressed under New Business.
The Committee currently meets only when business warrants. The time and location are 2nd Mondays at 7:30 PM in the lobby of Building A.
D. Parties and Decorations - Lucy Modrak, Chairwoman
The summer picnic will be held on July 24th.
VI. Unfinished Business - There was none.
VII. New Business
Ed Plummer reported that new planting will take place in the front of the buildings and dead hollies will be replaced.
Lasting Impressions will remove the deteriorated fence around the AC units adjacent to Unit B104.
Ed reported that negotiations are underway to share the Condo website with Condo II. They would share the costs of $66 per year for the site hosting plus $9 per year for the name.
Upon motion by Kay Franklin with second by Steve Verosko, the application by Jenifer Lucas of Unit A308 for installation of lighting motion was approved with notation that the work may require an electrical permit.
Ed Plummer reported that he had just received an e-mail from SCS that there have been problems with the direct debit program, which resulted in an erroneous charge, an adjustment credit, followed by the current month’s assessment debit. SCS advised that they would cover any unit owner’s overdraft charges due to the problem upon receipt of evidence that the SCS problem caused the overdraft. SCS apologized for the situation.
In reply to a question from a resident, Ed Plummer reported that HOA is working on the transition of management from Lennar to HOA. There will be election of four new resident members on the Board of Directors in December.
VIII. Next Meeting – 2 PM July 13th in lobby of Building A
IX. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 3:22 PM.
Respectfully submitted by
Barbara Dunn, Secretary