Our Village

Out of the “suggestion box” was lot 279 wanting to know if there was “automatic bill pay” available for monthly fees. Lot 409 complained the laundry facility was dirty. SC14 thought our park needed a water commissioner as an added Aramark employee. Lot 345 brought up rental activity is still being done by unlicensed people. Lot 558 wanted the restaurant’s full menu to be publicly posted. Lot 229 complained of flags not being flown on weekends. Lot 747 thought a closed “Workshop” was wrong. Lot 638 had a lengthy letter about closed “Workshop” meetings.
From the Directors we heard Director Gunderson agreeing with the owner of lot 638 in that “Workshops” should be open to the owners. Director Vasquez said people are confusing this issue, and then gave his reasons why “Workshops” are not a meeting at all opened to owners. Directors McBride and Pelletier seemed to agree with Director Gunderson while Directors Steffensen, Guerra, Chapa, and Ramirez seem to side with Vasquez.
From the owners in the audience the first owner Lot was not stated but said a dictatorship is the most efficient way to rule but we don’t have that here and you on the board should not be so afraid of owners by keeping your comments behind closed doors. This owner continued by saying the owners want your thinking on issues in order to decide whether to re-elect you or not, so show some backbone. Lot 768 first gave everyone a meeting history lesson and then said Workshops technically are not a meeting. She continued saying the open meeting act does not apply to our Association and that meetings would be longer without a Workshop. Lot 828 spoke about the restaurant financial report numbers being very questionable citing one thing after another. Director Vasquez did as he did the previous month when an owner had multiple financial questions, to leave him these questions and he will address them during the Regular meeting. Lot 145 on the Workshop issue said there is one word for this, transparency. Lot 806 said lots on East Oyster seem to be in violation of the water restriction and our Village rental office seems in violation of the real estate laws by not going through a Broker. She continued with concerns that Aramark was not following budget approved by the Board and questioned a yearend zero budget. Director Vasquez became unglued after thinking this owner came about information on the rental violation from an executive meeting. He said this is a violation if a member of the Board disclosed such info. After telling this owner she is no longer part of the Board, Director Vasquez saluted her on her service with the Board. Lot 356 asked if the Board has come to any ruling on a curb encroachment issue brought up two months ago. After some confusion the Board said it will be an agenda item for the next meeting.
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Are board members allowed to assemble outside the presence of unit owners in order to bring up association matters?
Yes!
And these gatherings are considered planning sessions commonly referred to as “workshops.” Our Board’s Workshop is supposed to be the same planning session where members are to decide what agenda items will be discussed and voted upon at the upcoming Regular Board Meeting. The open meetings provisions of the statutes which govern our association apply only if our board is “conducting board business.” This conducting of board business is viewed as being able to vote so board members cannot vote on matters at a workshop.
Since votes can only be taken at a called board meeting I would think this is the reason why Director Vasquez had surmised that Workshops are non-meetings and thus can be done within a closed session. After researching this I believe he is actually correct but only if the Workshop protocol is followed by our Board.
This protocol is that Workshops need to be carefully used as planning sessions and not a substitute for a discussion because board discussions belong in a called board meeting, so this is where the rub is. Our board president gloated that Directors spent two hours at last month’s Workshop going back and forth at each other arguing over agenda issues which as I see it disqualifies this as only a Workshop planning session.
The Board needs to be mindful of the political ramifications of holding these types of chinwag workshops because these technically become a meeting that should be open to owners. One might easily mischaracterize those who argue business within a closed assembly. They then might inaccurately assume that something nefarious is taking place behind those closed doors.
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It’s apparent our Board has drastically changed with the resignations of Directors Montalvo, Gagan, Kelmis and now Sandberg. It seems Director Sandberg finally relented after the majority on the board would not allow her the few over the phone meeting allowances she received in prior years. Why wouldn’t they? Was it due to her bulldog questioning of the Park’s financials and of Aramark? 
With that said it will now be interesting to see if Gene Rutland will be appointed to replace her. By his resume alone he is as equal if not more qualified than those serving on the Board today and this year he did received as many votes as the recently appointed Richard Ramirez.
Rutland’s appointment would be the proper thing for the Board to do but I wouldn’t hold your breath. The majority on this Board will probably view him as another persistent bulldog questioner they would not care to debate with even though owners voted for him so as to get his opposing views. Many in this Park believe these debates are a healthy thing for our Association. I would only hope that the Board looks at the substance he brings instead of his shorts.
At tomorrow’s Coffee it will be interesting to see if once again the Board makes the Workshop a closed session. You might recall newly elected Director Vasquez stunned owners with saying this is not your meeting and as noted in a previous article that this was apparently wrong to do so we will see if he gets it right this time.
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I find it a little confusing that after our Board decided to pay the big bucks to install this saline pool/spa system they now want to shop for bids on pool chemicals. Why?
About 90% of the chemical expense was for these three inch chlorine tabs that they no longer need due to the new system. The chemical expense now is just a few bags of salt per year and beyond that they’ll need an insignificant amount of chemicals to balance the water. So why is this bid stuff even an issue?
Am I missing something here?
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After Bud Sherry recited the Pledge of Allegiance our Board accepted Board Kelmis’ resignation and replaced him with this year’s unelected candidate Richard Ramirez. Next the Board let Carlos Galvan Jr. from the Water District give highlights about area water restrictions. This eventually evolved in a Q&A with our management and owners. Our GM gave a convincing power point presentation answering the nine questions brought up by the owner from lot 638 at last week’s Coffee Meeting.
The lot 145 owner was limited to three minutes in talking his disapproval about last week’s Workshop being closed to the public. He received no initial response from the Board. Director Gunderson did bring this up at the end of the meeting citing on the side of the owner.
The President seemed to indicate that dredging may be near.
The normal stuff was express by Management on their jobs for the month. Condo fee arrears for this month were $28,325, a $16,254 improvement from the previous month. Director Vasquez made it clear that owners who do not pay their assessment should be punished severely.
There were motions approved on the Organizational and February’s Minutes. This was the first time in over a year that the month of the Minutes was recognized.
In the Treasurer Report we heard that the pool chemicals are out for bids. $31K leftover from last year will now go into a separate bank fund towards our infrastructure needs. The first quarter update seemed to indicate our Village has not spent enough money ($32625) which later ($30500) was spent on five approved motions for three golf carts, tennis court fence repair, a new fence to hide letter lot eye sores, security gate lift masters, and a new Green Master to cut the golf course greens.
The Directors recently assigned to committees were Directors Gunderson to D and E, Steffensen to Pool, McBride to Safety, Pelletier to Building, Vasquez/Steffensen to Finances, and McBride to Golf. The Bridge Board Reported their Annual meeting will be April 6th at 9am. Two motions approved the same two people to fill the Bridge Board position vacancies.
In New Business the Board approved our GM to try to get from the Water District a lower water rate and a variance on when to water the Golf Course. They also passed a motion to spend $1999 on a treadmill. A motion was approved on a twelve month Board Meeting schedule, after which VP Pelletier questioned a one month reprieve (August). The consensus with Director Vasquez expressing most adamantly that this Board was elected to serve twelve months Director Vasquez’s sympathy card for deceased owners was tabled until a true cost could be ascertained.
On “Other” items, there was a push by Director Gunderson to replace the Village Newsletter by posting its info onto the new LIV website. Her reasoning was that the info would come sooner to the owners.
The Board went into an Executive Meeting to cover nine items. Attorney orientation, employees using amenities, Manager’s office, Security expectations, Security passes, Obama-care healthcare letter to Aramark, Manager’s job description, Manager’s evaluation/time period, and Manager’s usage of credit card.
End
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At the Regular Meeting there was no apology by our Board of Directors to the owners who were interested in attending the Workshop that followed the last Coffee Meeting. Why is that? They should not have had a closed session and when the owner from lot 145 brought up the argument, every Director except Director Gunderson seemed to not care. Why is that?
This now should be a strong focus at the next Coffee Meeting and I might add kudos to Director Gunderson as being the only Director who seemed to have the knowledge and guts to take the side of owner from lot 145.
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When Board President allowed newly elected Director Vasquez to tell an owner that this Coffee Meeting is yours and the Workshop Meeting is ours, I thought that this was within the Board’s jurisdiction. I even thought that they could have closed Regular Meetings if they so desired. I was wrong and so is the Board. Though it is not required by the Texas Nonprofit Corporation law, both the Texas Uniform Condominium Act (Sec. 82.108. MEETINGS) and Chapter 209 of the Texas Property Code require Texas Homeowners Associations’ meetings to open to homeowners subject to the right of the Board to meet in closed “Executive Sessions” when needed on issues of personnel, pending litigation, contract negotiations, enforcement actions, and matters involving invasion of a unit owner’s privacy or if affected parties along with the Board wish confidentiality.
I believe all on the Board who allowed the close Workshop meeting to occur should apologize to the owners at Wednesday’s upcoming Regular Meeting.
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The first “Coffee with the Directors” that touted the four newly elected Directors started innocently enough; after all, V.P. Pelletier, Treasurer Steffensen, and Director Guerra have served the owners before while Director Vasquez has not.
After the Pledge of Allegiance V.P. Pelletier read comments from the box that covered putting white rocks in the outdoor pool island, pleas to fix a treadmill, praise for cleaning a shower, complaints about piling fill rock on the basketball court and finished with having too loud of music in our pool area.
V.P. Pelletier went around the table to get the Director concerns. Only Directors Gunderson (pool furniture) and McBride (security admittance issue) spoke while the other Directors opted to voice their issues at the Workshop which follows the Coffee.
It was the owners turn to speak. Lot 638 had numerous questions about the costs in Aramark’s financial pages handed out at the Annual Meeting. After the Directors could not properly address these concerns Director Vasquez asked the owner to put these questions in writing and he would have it as an agenda item and answer them at next week’s Regular Meeting.
There were the usual complaints about security, and then the owners in the audience were told there would be a ten minute break before the Workshop.
To the twenty or so owners who stayed when the Board reconvened, they were surprised when told they would not be privy to the Workshop. When an owner asked why, Director Vasquez said the Coffee is your meeting and the Workshop is ours. Director Gunderson who appeared as surprised as anyone wanted it on the record that she was not in favor of this closed to the owner’s action. There will be a follow up to this.
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