Recap

• Draft bylaws document sent to neighborhood on 1/8 with notice of tonight’s meeting
• When HOA was formed, the original bylaws were supposed to be replaced.  That never happened.
• Work started years ago to come up with a new document, but it was never finalized
• A committee was formed about 10 years ago to come up with the original draft
• There were several votes to add content, but it was never assembled
• Current officers started work this summer to get them current so the community could review
• This included reviewing old meeting notes to pull in the content from the previous votes
• Current bylaws were written by the developer and they are not ideal since they are geared towards the developer
• Primary goal: HOA exists only to care for the common areas, not to oversee private properties

Treasury report

• Not much activity
• Balances
  • Checking account: $9377.56
  • Savings account: $3678.32
• Expenses since last meeting
  • Electric: Just under $10 per month
  • Insurance: $577
  • County stormwater (annual): $79.66
• Questions
  • How much of our funds are available for use?
    • $6000 needs to be kept in reserve to refund slip deposits for renters
    • That leaves about $7000 that we have to work with
    • Annual operating expenses are
      • $10/mo electric
      • Roughly $600 for insurance
      • Roughly $80 for county stormwater
    • Does not include any improvements we need to make
      • We do try to reduce costs by asking for donated materials and do work ourselves
  • Are we holding money in reserve for anything specific?
    • No, but there are perodic large expenses
    • Last time we had to repair the pier, we did not have money in reserve and had to do a special assessment.
    • We had to replace 2 (or so) pilings and redeck the pier
    • Neighborhood did the decking work, but the pilings and the materials cost roughly $10k
    • Also spent roughly $6k in attorney fees trying to get county approval for additional slips
      • Some homeowners funded this outside of a special assessment
  • Would it make sense to have a set amount of money to be held in reserve so that the community knows what funds are available to make improvements with?
    • Would allow us to do some community building activities
    • Carrie will put together a recommendation for the reserve amount based on historical expenses

Discussion

• Do we need an attorney to look at the bylaws document?
  • Cost is unknown
  • We have a reference from another neighborhood that spent roughly $5800 on the same process, but this is NOT a quote from an lawyer
  • Scott Leaf (unable to attend) emailed a suggestion to engage a lawyer
  • Bob Mongold deals with these types of documents and issues with his business.  He is offering to have the people he works with on these issues take a look at the document and provide feedback.
  • Everyone agrees that Bob’s contacts doing due diligence is a good idea after the neighborhood agrees on what’s in the document.
• Once the weather warms up, we need to have a community event.  We should have an agreement on how much money to keep in reserve by then, so funds should be available for an event.

Bylaws Review

• Emailed comments from those not able to attend
  • Scott: We should engage a lawyer to review the document.
    • Feedback: This was brought up by someone else too.  Notes from that discussion above.
  • Rob:
    • Are monthly meetings really needed and a required part of the bylaws?  This seems like a lot.
      • Feedback: We likely won’t need meetings that frequently.  This is just intended to set the schedule for when they would be held.  Open to better wording if there’s a suggestion.
    • Animals. If I want to swim my dog it will not be on a leash.  This section should read: All animals must remain under the control of their owner.  Drop the leash reference. 
      • Feedback: Some of this language is in there for liability/insurance purposes.  It’s not the intention that anyone is policing the pier area to enforce these rules.  Simply to prevent the HOA/neighbors from being liable if there is an incident.  The expectation is that anyone with pets or children (see the next comment) in the common areas would be responsible for keeping things under control.
    • Child Supervision.  The HOA does not need to determine at which age my child is safe to go near the pier.  If this section is needed at all, it should read:  All children are the responsibility of their parents.
      • Feedback: Same issue/reasoning as the animals rule above.
    • Lighting.  Changes to the lighting would be a change to the common area and therefore a vote would be needed.  If this section is even needed, it should have a reference that changes require a vote like any other alteration of the CA.  Some people like less light to look at the stars or relax.
      • Feedback: The intention is that any changes like this (not just lighting) would require a community vote, not just the officers.  Open to better wording if there’s a suggestion.
    • Dock Fee.  This is the only section addressing slip usage.  There is no mention as to how someone would obtain a slip if they desire.  There are a few choice slips, are these held in perpetuity?  It seems like this should be visited on a reoccurring basis.  Can that be established in this section?
      • Feedback: There is a separate document on the web site, but that’s not mentioned in the bylaws.  We will add the agreement as an attachment to the bylaws document.
• How do we want to handle homeowners that are delinquent on payment?
  • Article X Section 17 lays out the proposed rules for these:
    • All fees are subject to change as deemed necessary and approved by majority vote. Assessments may be implemented as deemed necessary and approved by majority vote. Fees include: HOA annual dues $100. Accounts delinquent 60 days or more may be Subject to an annual 25% interest charge on total unpaid balance. Members who are delinquent on common fees may be denied access to and use of the common areas. Common fees are subject to change as needed
  • Carrie has notified everyone in writing of current and past due amounts.
  • Suggestion that someone approaches those with outstanding balances in person.
    • Greg is willing to have that conversation.
• Bob suggests we look at CAI (https://www.caionline.org)
  • Tons of resources for HOAs
  • Modest annual fee (few hundred dollars)
  • Would help provide guidance and other resources on dealing with questions around bylaws.