Board members in attendance:
1. Doug Bubela President
2. Liz Neighbor Treasurer
3. Mark Denker Member at Large
4. James Dias Member at Large
5. Donald Young Secretary
Not in Attendance:
Jeff Tanner Vice President
Doug starts the meeting at 1800
Doug explains that we had a vacancy on the board and Alisa has resigned as treasurer. He made the motion to move Liz to treasurer, and to bring James Dias aboard as a director at large. Mark then asked if James was a member in good standing and paid his membership fees of $100 . James Dias offered to write a check then and there for $100 , but he was told that the $100 requirement for membership have been done away with in years past. Motion was seconded by Donald young , the board ended up voting James in 3 to 1 ( Mark Denker voting against it) . James Dias was then asked to join the board at the table as a voting member. Doug had announced Judy is resigning December 31, 2021. Doug then made the proposal that we replace Judy with Jeremy Hair as a bookkeeper. His services would be secured for $300 to $500 a month, he uses QuickBooks and that he would transition over with Judy ’s assistance. Silva Oquendo said we should keep Judy on, Maria Pena said we don’t need to rush on finding a new bookkeeper but offered up the possibility of knowing someone that could do it. Mark stated that he wanted to raise the motion to retain Judy for another month , the motion was not seconded there was no vote. Liz made the motion to ask Judy to stay on past December to facilitate the handover to Jeremy, so we have some overlap. The motion was made, it was seconded by Donald Young . Motion was passed 4 to 1 (Mark Denker voting against it). Liz was going to contact Jeremy to work out the details of his employment with LLCO and get the audit started. There was discussion if the residents had to pay assessments. Mark Denker said in our attorney’s opinion yes, we are acting as an HOA. That the attorney said keep business as usual until this is challenged, just do not charge late fees, or put liens on homes . Donald Young informed residents that to issue a lien at this point could be criminal. It was said that the board would be meeting with the Civic Organizations attorney Tuesday to discuss this further. Doug then discussed lowering the water rates from 78 dollars and eight cents basic rate to $50. There was some discussion back and forth between the board members and the community about MUD 4 s validity of contracts and lowering the rate further or sustaining the rate where it was. Motion was made to lower the rate to the lowest rate possible while keeping a reserve for emergencies pertaining to the water. Motion was made by Liz, Donald seconded motion was passed 4 to 1, { Mark Denker voting against ). Ronnie Mauldin asked if the water company is a for profit or nonprofit company. Donald Young responded that he didn’t know but that we are filing as an 1120 – H IRS form, and it appears to be a nonprofit . Donald Young ask ed Mark Denker if he could elaborate, Mark Denker said that we are a water provider, and we buy water wholesale. Donald Young asked if that’s the case, if we’re making profits off the water should that be a separate for – profit company separated from the civic organization that is a nonprofit? No answer was given there was a motion raised to have a water attorney look over the water rates and the status of the water wholesale company to determine if the rates needed to be raised back up from the prior motion. The board agreed to go ahead and lower the water rates but to have an attorney who specializes in water to go back over what the board has done and to give guidance on how to structure the water wholesale company. James Dias asked if we were making any interest on the money in the water account. It was pointed out that we do not have a treasurer with experience who could tell us, this would have to be investigated and get back with them. Doug the association president wants to contact an attorney named Mr. Zeppa in Austin who worked with the association before to discuss water rates taxation and insurance . Mark motions that we make a call to Mr. Z e ppa . James Dias says that we should talk to an attorney Zeppa if the attorney takes more than two weeks, then drop the water rate to $50 by January 14th, Mr. Zeppa will be contacted by Donald young. It was brought up by Mark that fire hydrants may be needed in the neighborhood again, and that the neighborhood would have to buy the fire hydrants and pay for the installation. Mark said that he did not want to lower the monthly water bill so we can keep an excess of funds in the bank that would allow us to leverage and obtain loans to install the fire hydrants and the plumbing needed for them. At this point Glen Hotchkiss objected and said he had talked to the Fire Marshall, and he said it is not necessary to add fire hydrants. Glen said he was also told they have another truck just for that purpose that can service this area . The Fire Marshall also mentioned that all of this was already explained to Mark Denker 10 months prior . Matt McQueeny also mentioned that he has done quite a bit of research and seconded that we do not need fire hydrants and were completely covered if there was a fire. During the meeting Matt went out and measured the distance needed to be safe during a fire and reported back 100% no issues and there is no need to go out and buy and install fire hydrants. Mark Denker still wants to keep the water price where it is to leverage loans to get the fire hydrants. It was suggested by Glen to try to bring the fire marshal to a meeting with all the residents to ensure that we do not need these fire hydrants, Mark Denker did agree that we could do that at a later date. At this point Doug the association president asks the community if they wanted to discuss deed restrictions. Ronnie Mauldin raised a concern that as the deed restrictions are written now, that they overlap and infringe upon state city and county law. He does not believe the overlap needs to exist. Ronnie Mauldin also asked if we should first vote to become an HOA since we are a currently a civic organization. There was a lot of discussion from the community it was decided by the board that we would meet with Brian Fowler on Tuesday of next week and get advice on how to become an HOA and what percentage of the vote we would need 50 + 1 percent or a super majority and is it one vote per household or a vote per individual on a mortgage or deed in the neighborhood. At 1916 meeting ended with Doug calling the meeting to an end.