Board Meeting Minutes (September 23rd, 2006)

September 23rd, 2006

The meeting was called to order at 10:30am at 1607 Woodstream Ln.

Present

• Robert Butler - President
• Howard Fisher - Treasurer
• Yesika Fletcher - Secretary
• Stephanie Butler - HOA Management

Items discussed

• Rob requested and received a $5k funds check from NMI and opened new accounts at the Chase bank near Kroger. We received business checks and a 'deposit-only' stamp free. Rob requested and received a signature card for everyone to sign. Yesika wasn't able to make it by before Rob needed to drop the card off so everyone else could be added.
• Stephanie has been going through our old homeowner contact list and updating it as much as possible given that we only received incomplete data from NMI.
• We haven't been successful thus far receiving any of our financial records from NMI. Rob contacted Beth Cline (the previous HOA accountant) and requested and received a copy of our old financial data in Quickbooks format from last February. At the very least we can work from there manually updating accounts.
• When Rob talked with Beth about getting a copy of the old Quickbooks account, Beth mentioned that she still had not filed our taxes for 2005. Rob asked her to complete ASAP. Beth completed and dropped off to be signed and mailed on 9/7.
• Rob made a copy of the 2005 tax forms for reference next year. While preparing to mail, he noticed that Beth had neglected to sign the preparer's box. Beth stopped by Monday 9/11 to sign, and Rob mailed on Tuesday. He also paid Beth her preparer fee at the same time. While talking with Beth, she mentioned that she had some large padded envelopes left over from when she was mailing out the new homeowner binders earlier in the year. She said she originally paid about $40 for 50 envelopes, and would sell us the remaining ~40 for $25.
• Rob received a call from the City on Tuesday, September 5th about a watering citation for watering on the wrong day. Rob gave Chris Kinney with Perfecto a call and asked him to come out and review / fix the sprinkler system in question; Chris said he was on his way. After talking with a few City representatives that evening, Rob was able to figure out the specific problem, and also that the City had neglected to provide a previous warning notice. The citation was dismissed and a verbal warning was issued.
• Rob received another call from the City on Wednesday about watering again on the previous evening. Rob called Chris again, Chris said that he hadn't been able to make it out as requested previously, but would be out immediately to fix it. Chris reset the sprinkler system on Shelley (it had defaulted to the factory programming due to a power loss), repaired two broken heads (one on Shelley, one on Malone), and filled in some missing dirt along the sidewalk on the north end of Malone.
• Rob received another call from the City on Friday morning that a Citation had been issued for watering on the wrong day, apparently Chris mistakenly set the sprinklers for Friday instead of Thursday when he reprogrammed the system. Rob went by the pumping station on Monday 9/11 to sign the citation. He will need to contact the courthouse within the next 10 days to discuss the citation and (hopefully) negotiate little or no fine.
• Rob contacted ComericA on 9/11 and talked with Lupe Galdamez about the old bank accounts still active there. He faxed a request letter to Ms. Galdamez to close the checking account and wire transfer the remaining funds to Chase. Additionally, he requested that all mailing correspondence be changed to the P.O. Box. The five CDs we still have there will be migrated to Chase as they mature over the next 9 months.
• Rob left a message and later spoke with Chris Kinney from Perfecto about the watering citation. Chris was upset since he had already been out several times and was certain that the sprinkler was programmed correctly. He asked about attending the hearing at the courthouse when Rob goes to discuss the citation.
• Rob contacted CAB on 9/11 about closing and transferring the funds NMI placed there. Our rep wasn't available, so he left a message.
• Rob updated the board member info page with information about all of the new and old bank accounts.
• Rob updated the HOA calendar with the mature dates for the five existing CDs, the first one coming up on October 12th.
• Rob drafted a letter to new homeowners introducing and apologizing for their not having received the new homeowner binders sooner.
• Rob talked with Chris Kinney (Perfecto) on Wednesday 9/13 about the sprinkler system along Shelley again. Chris verified that the system was programmed to run on Thursdays at 12:00am. Rob asked whether the controller could get confused and think that Friday morning was the start time when the clock rolled over. Chris is going to leave it and verify on Thursday 9/14. Chris also thought the problem might be with one battery-operated zone, and he disconnected the battery so the zone won't run at all. Chris mentioned again that he would like to come with Rob to the courthouse to defend his work on the sprinkler system.
• Rob received a call from Comerica on 9/13 about the closed checking account, apparently there were still two TXU debits on that active on the account that NMI never transferred to CAB. Rob called TXU, got all the information about the accounts, changed the mailing address, and asked for new auto-draft forms to be mailed out. He then deposited a check with Comerica to cover the negative balance from the unexpected withdrawals.
• Rob ordered a spare black toner cartidge for the printer.
• Rob spoke with the Nikki Davis from the City about the water / utility billing. He received all of the account numbers and faxed a request letter asking for the mailing address to be changed and all existing auto-draft arrangements to be canceled. He also completed a new auto-draft form for the new Chase accounts.
• Rob mailed the new auto-draft form for the water / utility billing on Thursday 9/14. Nikki gave him a call that afternoon that she had updated the mailing address information, but that the previous auto-draft went through that morning on the CAB accounts.
• Rob received another call from Justin with the City about a watering citation for Bethany and Maxwell Creek; apparently part of the soaker hose was spraying into the street, thus the cause of the excessive watering citation. Rob asked for Justin to send him a copy of the pictures, and he also called Chris and asked him to stop by and take a look. Rob called and left a message with Joey Allette asking for a contact with the City he can speak with to find out why we're getting these citations issued since there haven't been any changes since the restrictions began earlier in the year.
• Rob finally reached someone with CAB and was able to get some information on the bank accounts that NMI had set up there, including the account numbers and balances. He drafted a letter to close the accounts and change the mailing address, but held off sending after discussing it with Howard and Yesika.
• Rob stopped by Beth's house on 9/16 to pick up and pay for the padded envelopes she mentioned earlier.
• Rob received another call from Justin with the City about another watering citation for Bethany and Maxwell Creek for excessive runnof again. Rob told Justin that he had no plans to stop by and sign the citation since he's still trying to find a contact with the City to talk with. Rob left another message with Joey. Rob called Chris again and asked him to turn off all sprinkler systems throughout the common areas until we can get a handle on the situation.
• Rob received a call from Andrea Smith with the City on 9/22 and spent about 20 minutes going over the various issues with the watering citations, including his concerns that a) the citations are issued to individuals, not corporations and thus he now has the citations on his personal record even though he wasn't personally responsible for the error, b) why we aren't receiving a warning or 'heads-up' before a citation is issued, and c) why we're apparently under a microscope for the last two weeks. Andrea said that it's a flaw in the system that they can't apply citations to corporations, and that she understands his frustrations with being held personally liable. She also stated that the reason citations are issued rather than warnings is that the process is geared more toward individuals than companies or homeowner associations, and thus it's assumed that if a person has already received a warning they'll know about all of the other problems. Rob replied that it's simply not possible to be aware of all issues occuring throughout our three sprinkler systems that are spread ¼ mile apart, and Andrea agreed and sympathized. Andrea explained that the reason we are now seeing noticed about the excessive water runnof is that earlier in the year the City was concentrating on people watering on the wrong day; now that that situation is now under control they are focusing on other aspects, such as the water runnoff. Andrea said that they (the City) are having a number of complaints from homeowner associations throughout the city in the last two weeks now that the focus has changed, and that there were a number of problems with their standard process that needed to be worked out. She agreed to speak with Steve Massey on our behalf to see what resolution she could come up with, and said she'd call Rob back on Monday.
• We discussed at length hiring Stephanie as the new management company, since she has experience with the neighborhood (having been one of the initial board members in 2002), and has previously helped manage another association in Allen. We discussed whether it is a conflict of interest to hire her since Rob is a Board Member, and since he'll certainly be helping her out with some of the details from time to time, and decided that although it's a gray area it is not a conflict since 1) it was brought up as a vote with both Howard and Yesika (being a majority of the elected board members) agreeing, and 2) Stephanie and Rob have a vested interest in doing it right being a homeowner in the neighborhood. Rob and Stephanie expressed concern about their personal information being broadcast as there are some potential security and vandalism risks involved when we begin to agressively pursue delinquent homeowners for nonpayment of their dues, and Rob mentioned how one homeowner had previously threatened to shoot him for sending a violation letter in 2004. As a comparison, we didn't provide Sheila's, Beth's or Beverly's home address or telephone number when we employed them. We agreed that while it would be impossible to have 100% anonymity (and would be viewed as deceitful if we tried), we won't be overtly giving out personal contact information. Rob went ahead and formed a company, HOA Management, it will be the visible figurehead and point of contact.
• Rob, Howard, and Yesika all received certified letters from a law firm on Friday representing Neighborhood Management (NMI) requesting that "all references and statements regarding or relating to NMI directly or indirectly be removed from the association's website" complaining about the content of the 3rd quarter newsletter and the August 26th meeting minutes. In other words, a fairly standard "cease and desist" notice. We reviewed the contents of those documents and did not find any statements that could be viewed as false or libelous as asserted in the complaint, agreed that homeowners had a right and desire to know specific reasons why NMI's tenure was so short, and that we had a responsibility to explain our actions as elected representatives. Rob and Howard had already drafted responses, and we discussed those; it was agreed to send Rob's draft as it was short and to the point.
• We discussed our concerns about leaving the CAB accounts open and NMI having issued unknown open checks. In an email exchange with Beverly about picking up our records and closing the bank accounts NMI had opened, Beverly said:

  The bulk of the checking account will be issued in a check to the HOA. The account must maintain a balance to cover all outstanding checks and our management fees. When all checks have been paid the account will be closed and the remaining balance will be sent to the HOA.

  Rob replied, asking for a list of open checks:

  The CAB money market and debit card accounts also need to be closed ASAP; there should be no outstanding charges from either account.

  Please list all remaining uncleared checks that have been issued; City services, TXU, website, VRI, and Perfecto have already been changed.

  Beverly responded, You will receive a report on Monday as far as the outstanding checks. This is a concern since we haven't requested nor been asked whether NMI should issue any checks, and NMI was specifically instructed in the termination letter permission of the HOA Board of Directors must be received prior to completing any financial transaction.
• Stephanie has been investigating lawyers to work with on collecting late assessments. Howard sent along the name of a lawyer he had talked with early in the year; Stephanie contacted him, and he's currently too busy to take on any new cases. Stephanie contacted a realtor she knew and got the contact information for a real estate attorney that is used by one of the local title companies. He said that there was a flat fee of $750 for a non-judicial foreclosure, and would take about 30-45 days to complete. Stephanie called five additional lawyers; three didn't return calls after three days and two calls each, another was too busy to take on any new cases, and the last charged between $850-900 for a non-judicial foreclosure.
• Stephanie has been investigating collection history on the delinquent accounts, the largest being Oak Brook and Woodstream. The first needs to go through foreclosure, the second is a bankruptcy. When Rob talked with Beth on 9/22, she mentioned that she had essentially completed the foreclosure on Oak Brook, and had relayed all of the details to Beverly; the only remaining step was literally declaring and selling on the courthouse steps. So, Stephanie will have to do some investigation whether we can pick up where Beth left off, or if we need to start over again. On Woodstream, there is an agreed 48-month payment plan for the declared amount when the bankruptcy occured, however we can continue collections as normal on any new debt after that date. Additionally, Elm Spring just declared bankruptcy as well, and we weren't listed as a creditor. Stephanie will complete the necessary paperwork to get us listed.
• Once we receive our paperwork back from NMI, Stephanie is going to look through the homeowner files and investigate whether the remaining delinquent homeowners have had liens filed; she'll also check with the county on how to look up that information.
• Stephanie arranged to rent a popcorn machine for the Halloween party; the usual vendor we use, Starwalk was already out. Stephanie found another vendor that will drop off, pick up, and clean, plus supplies, and the rental is for three days, not 24 hours, all for the same price as we normally would pay. Additionally, they don't require payment up front.
• Stephanie ordered candy and prizes for the Halloween party from Oriental Trading, the order has already arrived (free shipping on early orders).
• Rob received a letter from the IRS on Saturday about a problem with the TIN filing. He immediately sent Beth an email, and faxed her a copy of the letter on Monday. Christa called back on Tuesday saying that it wasn't anything to worry about, everything is ok. They confused Beth's SSN with her EIN.

Action Items

• Rob - Finish drafting the response letter to NMI's lawyer and send to Howard and Yesika for review. Done.
• Rob - Print signs and flyers for the garage sale. Done.
• Rob - Print flyer for the Halloween party. Done.
• Rob and Howard - Stop by NMI's office on Monday and pick up our paperwork and other associated items. Done.
• Yesika - Reserve a meeting room for the December 4th open forum.
• Yesika - Contact DMN and Allen American, arrange for advertisements for the fall garage sale.
• Yesika - Get hay and pumpkins for the Halloween party.
• HOA Management - Determine status of foreclosure on Oak Brook.
• HOA Management - Determine status of bankruptcy and any additional delinquency on Woodstream.
• HOA Management - Complete paperwork to be listed as a creditor on Elm Spring.
• HOA Management - Investigate which properties may already have liens filed.