On November 1 our community transitioned from our administrator, Associa, to a new provider, FirstService Residential. A meet and greet was held around the Villas new putting green on November 9. It was an opportunity to get to know the First Service staff. The event was pretty well attended.
Our new Community Manager will be Machelle Gardner, email machelle@fsresidential.com. Her assistant is Lauren Ostrander, direct phone 916-527-6160 and email lauren.ostrander@fsresidential.com. For routine matters they ask to be contacted through the central customer care number, 800-428-5588. For now they will be based at the Walerga cottage. That number is still the same, 916-474-5627.
The annual meeting was held Tuesday, November 15 at Creekview Ranch School. Only two board members attended and a third briefly via Zoom to have a quorum. Three board seats were filled, two by new people and the third by Lorenzo returning. Since only three people ran there was no need for a vote count.
The business meeting was brief. Highlights follow:
- The FirstService staff, Machelle and Lauren, were introduced.
- It was announced a member of the Landscape Committee, Mike Permenter, passed away. The board acknowledged his hard work and contribution to the community.
- Compliance: FirstService will take over this responsibility since they have a much stronger technical ability to do the job. Machelle announced there is no need for homeowners to be angry when the receive notices. They want to work with owners to resolve issues. The goal is to keep values up, and make this a pleasant place for all to live.
- IRS Resolution: An explanation was given for the need to vote on tax treatment. Proxies were being tabulated.
- Landscape Vendor RFP: A new RFP is being prepared for next year’s landscape contract. This was delayed with the transition of management companies. We consider it vital that this be done for next year and that we not simply renew Procidia’s contract again with little control and accountability. NEW BOARD TAKE NOTE!
- The next open HOA meeting is planned for December 15.
As usual, comments are welcome.
Receiving the email notice of the annual meeting on the day of that meeting is extremely questionable! Having a board member connect by Zoom for the expressed purpose of establishing a non-existent quorum is equally troubling! In addition, I could use some assistance in locating the budget line item that lists the rental income we receive from the new HOA management group for the Walerga Gate House office given that it was more recently handsomely renovated on the financial backs of the HOA members’ dues? And likewise, the yearly need to approve the IRS resolution because the collection of dues once again outpaced actual operating expenses is becoming a bad habit! Appears to be business as usual!
Please acknowledge who is providing the summary of meetings. Thank you.
When did we start having open Board meetings monthly? It has always been every other month. There is a question about Board members who do not come to the meetings, why be on a Board if you can not attend the meetings, this is not right. The last few meetings I went to the HOA open meetings the Board was a minimum number. There are rules in Davis Sterling Act which stats the notice for a meeting must be at least 3 days I believe. Also rules about Board members who do not attend meetings. The cottage was finished off at Walerga to keep the HOA management team on site. The Vineyard was finished to host the Security folks. The Pinehurst/Cypress one was not finished and yet the community on the Southside could host one of the Security people, the Northside has the HOA management and two security people, the Southside zero, but pays HOA dues the same amount as the custom homes on the North. Not equitable.
Open meetings must be posted 4 days in advance. The RFP for landscape ready three years ago. Why do we have rover’s during the daylight? I think we should cut the rover in half and re-staff the Pinehurst gate. If we are going to spend the money on “security,” let’s at least get something tangible out of it. We are wasting so much money.
The next meeting is Thursday December 15th?