Our Village

It seems that the majority of this board has come to the conclusion that all directors should have access to the financial aspects of our community because Treasurer Sandberg has stayed.
Thank you Board
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Directors Gagan and Gunderson were absent.
Meeting started with a Water District Director candidate being allowed to talk on his issues.
Owners Speaking Lot 142 expressed his concern about the pool’s water filtration flow problem. He was told it will be fixed upon receiving bids. These bids will include a current pipe leak and brass impeller replacement.
Manager Report had 86 work orders, 7 building permits, and a total of $35,729 in assessment arrears. It was noted if those in the grace period were to be included that arrear number would be over $96,000.
Minutes were approved and again the month was not stated in the motion.
Treasurer Report was done by Director Kelmis since Treasurer Sandberg had requested her resignation.
Committees
D-E has a Halloween Party this Wednesday at 7pm and a Trash and Treasure November 10th.
Pool is buying new pool furniture
Safety wants to meet with the Building Committee for possible code updates.
Finance said the budget should be ready for review by November’s meeting. Treasurer Sandberg at this time explained her problems and the criticism she was getting with asking for verifiable numbers from Aramark, some as simple as the payroll.
Unfinished Business
Website-almost done
Card Entry System- is waiting on six bids.
Dredging- is still waiting on an approved site.
New Business
Neighborhood Watch- next meeting Nov. 8th at 10am.
E-Mail List- owners need to sign up for instant LIV info.
Sign Policy- an amendment is under review due to the wording of the policy.
Election of a New Treasurer- will go to executive meeting; Director Sandberg wants to stay as Treasurer if this problem at getting verifiable information from Aramark is ironed out.
Charge Cards Rental- motion passed to accept credit cards and sign up Pay Pal for Rentals only.
Grill Opening and Chicken Night- motion passed that the Grill will open first week in December and Chicken Night will begin first week in January.
Solar Street Light Bids for the Letter Lots- are in process.
Mandatory Communication- over consistent lack of knowledge about between directors was brought up. Treasurer Sandberg wishes every director stays informed.
Other
Motion passed to use a Rental contract with an indemnity clause.
Executive Session
Did not have the result about Treasurer Sandberg.
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Theft victims met with Detective Padilla at Brownsville sheriffs office. They were informed that there are 11 active cases filed with their department--and 3 with the constable office for a total of 14. Mr. Padilla has advised us he will speak to our group, anytime. He was unavailable last night because he was involved with a murder suspect, in Brownsville.. He wants every new case filed with his office ASAP as soon as you know about break in. The office number is 956-554-6700. Do not wait hours or days later if possible.
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! Please file if you think it is important or not. Mark tvs, appliances, cameras, everything of value.Most important, take a picture, even if it is with your camera phone! Write down serial and model numbers. Make very accurate descriptions, that is why pictures help. Thank you everyone who came to the meeting, last night--and everyone who e-mailed and shared information. Lets keep the communication lines open and stick together,we can share accurate information and get this problem solved! I do want to stress that person of interest has not been apprehended!
Rona 
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At September’s Board meeting Director Kelmis received some resistance to his motion of saving our Village thousands of dollars annually by closing bathhouses one and three. In short Kelmis didn’t see the need to waste $25,000 budgeted  to remodel bath house one or spend the money for housekeeping, maintenance, and twenty-four hour air conditioning. He said the Park would initially save $41,000 with the closings and $16, 000 each year thereafter.
Director Guerra said it would be unfair to these owners who own RV’s and that the construction and maintenance people would have to all go to just one location.
President Chapa said these bath houses were the reason why people were buying property here and when that didn't work cited of all things Article VII of the Bylaws as a reason why the Board COULD NOT close these bath houses. He said it would require three fourths affirmative vote from the membership at the annual meeting.
.Unbelievable, we finally have a director who notice Article VII of our Bylaws.
.Two years ago we had a $21,000 major improvement the size of a bath house being added to the side of our maintenance building that was clearly a new substantial addition and where was Article VII then? There has been at least eight other instances similar to this and it’s a shame that the first time our owner ratification law has ever been brought up was used for a suitability purpose.
In President Chapa’s case Article VII does not come close to applying. Does closing an amenity result in a substantial addition or a material alteration? I think not.
Article VII of the Bylaws and Article X of the Declaration of Covenants both express the owner’s right to ratify all and I repeat all the “material alterations and substantial additions” to our common grounds. President Chapa stated Article VII when being applied acquires an affirmative vote of 75% of the total membership where I read Article VII as calling for an affirmative vote of 75% of the membership that is present at a called meeting.
Read carefully Article VII of the Bylaws and Article X of the Declaration to see how you interpret them. 
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The meeting started with Pat Burke telling owners that Mary Steffensen had a successful bypass surgery. Our prayers are with you Mary.
The Board let a John Toby speak. He and a Rey Puente are running for the water district. One thing interesting mentioned was that LIV was by far the biggest water district’s customer spending $413,000 annually while the distant second highest customer was spending only $197,000.
Lot 145 touched on the issues he previously expressed this year.
The GM talked on the recent burglaries, the beginning of the work to correct the pool’s water flow problem and list of condo fees in arrears.
The Minutes were approved but once again no mention of which month.
D-E Committee said there will be a Halloween Party for October.
Pool Committee mentioned the revenues from wristbands ($10,172) and ice sales ($3,390).
Finance Committee said LIV’s budget will definitely be done before the December’s meeting.
Bridge Board Report discussed the needs for purchasing a used generator that’s priced right.
Website Update talked on the complexities of the rental ads and the use of PayPal. Next month the Board will see an example of what the website can do.
The Board approved Director Montalvo’s resignation. It was also mention that his position will probably not be filled until the Annual Meeting.
Bath House Consolidation had a motion from Director Kelmis to close Bath houses one and three. Directors Gunderson, Kelmis, and Sandberg voted yes to close and Gagan, White, and Guerra voted no. President Chapa voted no as a tie breaker. Director White then made a motion with Guerra second that this consolidation will continue to be reviewed. This motion passed.
Use for yellow cards by realtors in the Activity Building display case was voted down.
Motion passed to receive bids for a card entry system to our amenities.
There was a rehash over the absentee director rules for using phones instead of attending meetings. I believe rule is that directors can use the phones to participate but won’t be able to vote or be counted as being present.
There was also a rehash of the quiet time in our park. Quiet times are from Labor Day to Memorial Day 11pm to 7am and from Memorial Day to Labor Day Midnight to 7am.
Director Kelmis said he will do more research on the liability exposure when a rental does not have the proper insurance required.
There was a suggestion by Director Sandberg to provide owners with a grill calendar showing chicken nights and any other special events along with regular open and close times.
Jose Torres with Securitas went through the new changes he’s doing in Security.
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Two months have passed and no need to list who said what at this Coffee. The topic was entirely security or the supposed lack of it. This focused on renters and burglaries and before the audience had a chance to voice their concerns the board introduced Jose Torres, a new seasoned regional supervisor from Securitas who said there will be new training towards our park’s unique security needs. The board also allowed a candidate running for constable chief to speak who promised permanent patrols and swift police action if elected.
There was an open forum security meeting the next day to collect ideas on how to remedy these problems happening to our village. Nothing to report on the workshop except it was short and done without a microphone.
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There was very little accomplished in either meeting. June-July unfinished business “LIV Website” and “Wireless provider” remained unfinished.
There is a concerted effort to correct the outdoor pool’s circulation problem when they search for the outdoor hot tub leak in September.
A yellow line will be laid at the curve by Bath house 3.
Motion passed to spend $5,196 for a large pool area shade.
Motion passed to continue LIV’s magazine’s ad. I did not hear a dollar amount.
Rick, the GM was criticized for not informing all the Directors he was taking his vacation. There was a director comment of his alleged procrastination of starting the months ago board approved new window project for the activity center’s east side.
The new rules for using the Activity Center’s bulletin board appear to have been misunderstood and will be corrected.
An owner asked why renters are allowed to bring in as many guests as they like, tremendously exceeding their overnight maximum number. No clear answer was given but the Board will look into it.
The Board said there will be an approved budget by January 1st 2013.
The profit loss statement was interesting enough to make the Tidbit article.
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Something stood out when reading our June’s Profit Loss summary. Total revenues increased less than 1% ($11,903) and each revenue center except Laundry (plus $74) was losing more money than this time last year, yet our net profit for the first six months this year was a quarter of a million ($258,244) better. These savings were made in the expense column.
Interesting to note that these savings matched the amount of the annual assessment fee increase that just started. Will this unexpected quarter of a million along with any future improvement that betters 2011 be used to reduce any assessments being charged to owners like dredging or road repair?
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