Our Village

 

After the Pledge of Allegiance, Lot 145 owner said that TABC is incorrectly being described as the reason why our Board prohibits owners from bringing in their own alcohol during events.

We were told most of the recently laid sod was paid for by the Golf Committee. Management has started an inventory list on items valued at over $25.

There has been a location finally agreed upon on where to put dredging spoils and are waiting for a letter of confirmation from Mr. Freeland.

The Profit Centers showed in the first two months of this year the restaurant ($13,345 loser), golf course ($15 big winner), rentals ($3995 loser), laundry ($1,291 winner), and the newsletter ($712 winner).

The Minutes were approved but it was not stated as to which month.

VP White said D.E. will purchase additional card and round tables for the Rec. Hall along with new curtains for the restaurant. Treasurer Sandberg said the Golf Committee will have the rest of the water area retaining walls completed soon.

Bridge Board Annual meeting will be held April 7^th. The Board unanimously elected owner Steve Fowler to the Bridge Board.

With Berry Pools contract being up April fool’s day, the Board passed a motion to change all pools and spas to a saline system.

The Board cut short debating on paying for outside sources to monthly update LIV’s website rental info when it was learned the rental office had only five units currently rented.

The 2012 Budget was approved along with implementing measures to assure the 2013 budget will be ready by January 2013.

The condo fee increase of $20 a month will begin on July 1^st.

Motion passed to have LIV auditors do quarterly assessments.

Motion passed to purchase the bank note for foreclosed Lot 706.

Motion passed to prioritize the dredging of Canal “A” five feet six inches deep and to award the plaintiff that sued our Village over dredging, up to ten grand in attorney fees.

Motion was passed to provide the same schedule as provided last year for additional security between Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Motion passed to approve the 2012 schedule and have no meetings in August. 

Treasurer Sandberg wants to change the use management’s use of company credit cards, revise cell phone use, and get rid of non-essential computer usage. She also feels the GM should provide the Board management goals.

VP White told the Board the renewal of the music contract fee needs to be reviewed.

The water restrictions introduced by Director Kelmis were tabled.

One final note, at 10:30 the Board had a two hour long executive meeting with LIV’s attorney over numerous subjects.

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As the poll to the left indicates, 87% interprets the verbiage found in the Declaration of Covenants on ratification as being the voting percentage of those owners PRESENT at a called meeting. To be clear, RATIFICATION is only subject within our Declaration and Bylaws that hail the words “owners present”.
I need to remind the absentees who are concerned about substantial additions or material alterations of the Park; this is a called (every owner notified) meeting for ratification and proxy eligible, so your presence and vote can be arranged no matter what time of the year. As I see it there are only two reasons why our ratification regulation is not being enforced, directors aren’t knowledgeable or feel it’s too much work. Let’s start enforcing this regulations then work on the rest. 
To review these regulations, look to the left and click on March 2005 Restated Declaration of Covenants (Art. X section B) or March 2005 Restated Bylaws (Art. VII) Comment?
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After the Annual Meeting there seemed confusion as to who exactly voted on exclusively using Chapter 82 of the Uniform Condominium Act, so there’s a good chance we will see a redoof the voting. For those still confused about the issue, this may help.
Currently the 1963 Chapter 81 Condominium Act covers our Village along with thirteen RETROACTIVE sections of the 1994 Chapter 82 Uniform Condominium Act. Our Village attorney wants owners to vote to amend our Declaration to exclusively use the updated Chapter 82 UCA because she believes opposing attorneys will use Chapter 81’s vague and outdated language to costly extend any litigated process.
An overview comparison shows Chapter 82 is shorter by omitting 20 sections found in Chapter 81 deemed non-essential but retains C-81’s overall format and section titles.
It renames the "public offering statement" found in Chapter 81 to a friendlier "condominium information statement" and replaces the priority Lien with a statutory lien for assessments which favors the association.
It has easier rules for developers, stronger assessment collection language, and permits non-judicial foreclosure of an assessment lien while permitting a 90 day buy back if the Association purchases the foreclosed property.
It requires owners to furnish the Association mortgage information and when necessary gives a Board the ability to communicate with those lienholders about their debt. 
It gives the board the ability to terminate certain utilities, suspend voting rights, and stop common element privileges for nonpayment of assessments.
It rids the old need of Chapter 81’s indexing specifications of recorded instruments by our county clerks and adds several affirmative duties to unit owners and his tenants which include compliance with association documents.
I hope this helps and here is a site for more details. http://www.settlepou.com/uploads/TUCA-1994.pdf

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Year after year it becomes apparent that our Board of Directors ignored certain things. Allowing owners to use "Village ratification rights" for material alterations and substantial additions has never been granted. Babble is all a person gets when addressing this issue like substantial is defined many ways or you’ll never get 75% of the owners in the Park to even vote much less ratify something. My favorite was a board member saying we’re elected to make these kinds of decisions for owners and if they started ratifying everything they wouldn't need us.
We find the Village ratification rights in the Declaration and in the Bylaws. These rights were not put in there just to fill up space but to ensure the power of change was not given to an elected majority of nine, but left in the hands of concerned owners.
Previous Boards have argued we need 75% of the total owners to ratify (768 owners out of 1024). I'm not alone in thinking (SEE POLL ABOVE LEFT) Declaration's Article X and Bylaw's Article VII say 75% of however many owners show up at an announced ratification meeting only need to vote and the majority of those votes rules. It’s as simple as that so I ask, why aren’t we doing it?
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Three times over the past decade the Board has made decisions not to close the Rental Office. The first time they made one condition for staying open, it cannot cost the Association money. Well we all know that didn’t happen since Association members now are subsidizing around $30,000 annually so those few who rent through the Rental Office can make a lot of money.
We’ve been told twice we now can’t afford to close the Rental Office because office figures show the losses would more than double each year.
So being a simple man help me out here, surely I'm missing something. Could it be the answer was given at our February board meeting?
After President Montalvo expressed his frustration with Aramark on acquiring flow charts, Director Sandberg added similar ones and believes that in keeping two set of books, one for LIV and one for Aramark, it becomes a total nightmare to get an answer on even the simplest of things like how much did we spend on Verizon last year.
She couldn’t believe the paper trail that Aramark requires an Association bill to travel. For instance, Verizon sends their bill to the Welcome Center. The office manager opens it up and gives it to the GM for approval. The GM sends it back to the office manager so she can enter it into Aramark’s system and you would think that should be it, right, cut the check and mail it, right? Not so fast, after it's been entered into Aramark’s system the bill now travels to the Aramark people in Pennsylvania where they purge it for processing in order to make a check out to pay the Verizon bill in our behalf. So now we’re done, right? Wrong, a month later the Pennsylvania people will have to send our office a statement requesting a reimbursement for their efforts and our office now has to go back through their set of records to reconcile Aramark’s numbers. When this is all said and done, the office will show in Aramark’s system that the reconciliation has taken place and our office can now make a check to pay Aramark.
In short what normally takes any other office five minutes to pay a simple phone bill, our office takes an hour and the Association has to pay that employee for that time. To do all the items that flow through the office this cumbersome way it would not surprise me that Aramark has required the need of more office employees. Take as many guesses as you want as to who would pay for that and while you're guessing, who has to pay for the services of the people in Pennsylvania? Even President Montalvo said after reviewing his cash flow reports that he feels our Village is paying Aramark $110,000 a year for the most part to pay our bills, little else.
So one might find it interesting if this may have everything to do with losing $70,000 per year if the Rental Office were to close. Is it time for our Association to wake up to Aramark.
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At February’s meeting three choices were brought to the table due to last year’s $221,000 budget deficit. A 6% across the board spending cut. Raise fees $5 per month plus a 4% across the board spending cut. Raise fees $20 per month to cover the total deficit with $25,000 to spare while cutting nothing.
The Board gave their old worn out talking points like “everybody knows that prices are going up” and “people up the street pay twice as much”. One director even said it's not intelligent to think cutting 6% is the answer to this problem. That made me to wonder as to who made it a choice in the first place?
Those present unanimously approved the third choice that provided them more than needed without addressing a dime in cuts. Sound familiar? The good news is this measure can still be amended so here are three suggestions.
Since it was said the $25,000 overage and the upcoming CPL savings were not in the 2012 budget, earmark these to specifically pay towards the refurbishing of our roads, sewers, and canals. This should greatly reduce or even eliminate future infrastructure assessments. Pass a motion that there will be NO employee salary increases (including this year’s $70,000 one) until Aramark manages the amenities to a near zero deficit. Lastly, recoup all Rental Office losses from those owners who chooses not to abide by the very explicit rental rules found in the Declaration and bylaws.
Does this make sense?
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From the suggestion box.


Lots 274 and 364 want a dog park. This will be brought up at the Regular Meeting.

From the audience.

Lot 870 complained about his four year sewage smell. The GM is working to solve it thinking the air release valves need to be relocated in-between the pump stations instead of at the stations along with sending a video probe down in the affected sewer area to detect leaks.

Lot 571 asked for someone to explain this vote item he received in the Annual Meeting packet. VP McBride said our Declaration and Bylaws have us under both the Condominium Act 81 and 82. This vote is to have the Park exclusively use Condominium Act 82 and rid the park of Act 81 that holds a lot of the gray areas that lawyers can argue thus costing our Village less in lawyer fees if litigation happens over a foreclosure.


Lot 329 asked who is going to pay for the cleanup of the unused concrete being dumped in our dumpster area. GM said the Village is responsible. Owner later asked how many foreclosed lots do the Park currently have and what will be done with them? The answer was three and it has yet to be determined what to do with them.

Lot 828 asked the Board to pass a rule when a member or spouse of a member of the Board passes away that it will be put on the marquee.

Lot 708 for the second month asked what’s being done with the street lights being out. Answer was the power company has the work order.

Lot 831 asked why last Wednesday’s chicken night time was shortened. Answer, it was shorten to prepare for a 7pm event. Same person asked why not make the event start at 8pm instead. No answer, only laughter.

Lot 627 walked in and asked why we have an unused treadmill sitting in the hallway for months when we have people like right now 3 deep waiting to use one. He asked can be put it in the exercise room. Request approved.

Lot 96 said there are maintenance needs for the pavilion. Board said they will look into it.

Lot 171 had a problem with not getting channel 18 while using HD.

Lot 106-108 said there is a consistent body of water in his yard along with having low water pressure. He wondered when that might be looked at.

Lot 491 had a problem with receiving a letter from the Association. This letter as it turned out put golf restrictions upon him. He thought that the four members on the Golf Committee have overstepped their authority and wanted the Board to intervene. One member of the Golf Committee got up and explains the situation that brought them to send this letter. After hearing the explanation, the individual who received the letter said the explanation was a lie and the members on the Committee lie. After things settled it appears that the letter stays.

SC 120 said the Coastal Current had a nice article about LIV’s golf course.

The general manager requested that the Board add to next week’s agenda a discussion and vote towards a new electric CPL contract. The old 3 yr. 9 cents per kWh contract to which the previous general manager touted as a super deal is to possibly be replaced with a new 2 yr. contract at 5 cents per kWh. It will be on the agenda.

Lot 329 took issue in somehow our GM was laying pressure on the Board to make a hasty decision.

Lot 96 wanted to improve the restaurant’s window shades.

Workshop.
On the agenda for the Regular Meeting next week will be the credit card bill pay, a new CPL contract, and the dog park.

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