A very Lake Lorraine meeting

Greetings Lake Lorrainers,

As many know, this last week was the annual meeting and the subsequent meeting since no quorum was achieved. 

This is not an official meeting minutes. 

March 5th:

The meeting started on March 5th at about 2pm. 

Even with proxy votes they could not get enough people to make quorum. 

Which started a sort of impromptu meeting where some of the information declared in the meeting agenda notes was then discussed. 

One sticking point was the question “since the water rate changed, how much in the black are we?”

Liz took up that question and answered with “I don’t know. I left that information on my kitchen counter.”

Another member of the community commented it would be nice to have a more transparent board and that this information was important to know. 

They were explaining all of the bills that the board pays for but when they moved on to the electrical I had to correct them 

Ronnie Mauldin and myself James Dias have and will continue to pay the electrical bill for 2 poles 

They commented that they had noticed that we had been paying for the last “few” months. I told them it’s been since July 2022, just over 7 months. 

They were and are still rather upset with that and asked why I did it. I explained that the president said people feel as though “I have no skin in the game” so I put skin in the game. 

They were not happy with that answer. They then asked me who I told I was doing this. I told them Ronnie Mauldin and I’m pretty sure like 6 to 8 other members of the community. 

The community will no longer endure late fees for late bills, as this has been an issue in the past and we as a community have paid thousands in late fees over the years. 

They also corrected me when I said that mowing the HDA land was also a service that a board memeber told me I had to do since I owned lake front property. 

The correction was that it is LLCO property not HDA. I said I disagree and they responded saying they did a survey….. 

The link to this public information is available https://esearch.mcad-tx.org/Property-Detail?PropertyQuickRefID=R30400

A survey for what? 

How much was said survey?

How did this survey help the community?

Where are the meeting minutes regarding this non public meeting in which this survey was “agreed” upon? 

So the non formal open meeting wrapped up and was set to meet again in 6 days.

MARCH 11TH:

The meeting started with a short speech from one of the board memebers that they were going to go right into the vote. 

This is where Doug, a community member, reminded them that they have to read the previous minutes from last year’s annual meeting. Here for reference https://lakelorrainenews.com/2022/03/llco-annual-meeting/ 

Liz, one of the board members, said she didn’t accept the meeting minutes as they were incomplete. 

They proceeded to read meeting minutes for a meeting that I (James Dias) was asked to leave when I entered the room at 2:00 pm as per the sign posted at the front of the neighborhood. 

This was a private meeting between just the board memebers on or about August 21, 2022 

A meeting in which they voted a member off the board without a community vote. 

The same meeting that they voted amongst the board to hire an attorney to not only lower the water rates but also fight against the members of the community that are submitting complaints to the PUC for various reasons. 

These were supposed to happen at the open board meeting that day but that didn’t occur. 

The board voted to add in additional meeting minutes as they didn’t have the full meeting minutes from last year’s annual meeting. These new meeting minutes being added in were both unread and not present. 

They proceeded to also talk about budgets. 

The question was finally answered, the water company is still making a profit. They have how spent $8,648.75 on a water attorney in order to lower the bill and fight PUC complaints from the people who have been overcharged for years. People who were overcharged are now having their money used so the board can have legal counsel to fight against them. People wanting the fulfillment of what was told would happen, “Once the loan was paid off the bill would go back down!” It’s a story I have heard from about 15 people. 

They have also spent another $3,881 in legal fees with, presumably, the same attorney they use for deed restrictions. Which is a lifetime commitment of tens of thousands of dollars with, in my opinion, zero results. 

Last years “mantaince fees”   $9,293.25

Less legal fees                        – $12,530.25

Or a gross loss of  -$ 3,237 before all the bills are paid. 

Another outstanding issue was 2 people had the same person’s proxy vote for this election. Which in itself raises questions. 

Next item up was talking about the decision to cap the wells on lot 9 as they have cost the neighborhood, for years, extra fees for no reason as the water is unsellable. They pointed out that it will cost $10,971 to cap both wells and if anyone has any objections that they can hire an attorney or leave them to do the work. 

Again, all done without talking with the community at all. The previous board had attempted to open dialog about this and the community shut them down. Now it’s a good idea to spend thousands more due to inflation?

When was this decided?

Why were the meeting minutes not disclosed for this meeting?

What other business was discussed? 

Finally, we were informed that the water bill here in Lake Lorraine would be getting lowered again by a little over a dollar, and will be retroactively credited to December. 

This raises more questions. 

Why can this be retroactive and not from almost 3 years ago? 

What day exactly was the loan paid off?

How many tens of thousands in profit has the water company made off the community?

Why is there no water bill charged to LLCO?

Who pays for the water at the front of Lake Lorraine?

Do the residents pay for it with the water rates in a hidden fee as a part of the water bill?

Is there insurance on the water company? 

How about on the infrastructure?

Where is an itemized list of Plant and equipment estimated at $196,383.18?

Shouldn’t we have insurance on that in case of theft or loss?

I left before the board took the vote for the new board. So at this time, I am unsure of who is on the board or if one even still exists. 

Some additional questions for LLCO coming very soon. 

All the best,

JAMES DIAS 

The views in this post are opinions and have been researched to keep the article as factual as possible This is not official record.