Management Committee
Management Committee
Management Committee
Management Committee
Management Committee
Management Committee
Management Committee
Management Committee
Management Committee
Management Committee
Management Committee
Management Committee
Decisions:
Topics:
Discussion:
Proposal:
Proposal File: ../ proposals/
Management Committee
Management Committee
Management Committee
Management Committee
Management Committee
Management Committee
(convened at last minute due to CROWN issue)
Hi WaCoHos,
Below are the meeting notes from our meeting today.... The meeting was called within the last 24-hours when we realized we had some business to attend to regarding CROWN, and decided not to put it off until 7 January.
1. Cheques were signed.
2. Status of the Santizos' application for the CROWN unit they have not turned in all of the required paperwork. They will be told that they are still in the running if we can verify income on both parties. And, there are other applicants.
3. Define our Process for Choosing New Tenants we will not necessarily take the first applicant who qualifies. We will take applications from a number of people and choose the most qualified candidate.
4. Discussion of other applicants for unit #15 There are two other applicants for unit #15, Matt Wilson, and Don Winkler. Matt has submitted his application. Don had a question about the application process, which has now been answered, and will be submitting his forms tomorrow.
5. HOA Fees will probably go up by about 3% for 2010.
6. Reserve Fund a cheque for $10,400 was made out and deposited to our new reserve fund CD account at University Credit Union.
Decisions Made:
1. We seek additional applicants for unit #15. Information is in the folder marked CROWN in the internal mailbox.
2. Reminder: the proposed 2010 budget includes a 3% increase for HOA fees for 2010.
3. The proposed budget for 2010 will be distributed before the January 13th yearly ACM meeting.
4. Reminder: We will need 2 two members for Management Committee.
Follow-up Steps:
1. Management Committee members will mention to friends that CROWN unit #15 is still open to applications.
2. The proposed budget for 2010 will be distributed by Linda Reed via internal mail.
Thanks.
Peace and Love, Lydia on behalf of Management Committee
Hi WaCoHos,
Below are the Meeting Minutes from tonight's meeting.
Summary of Discussion:
Bills were paid. * One family is behind in HOA fees. They have been contacted.
Crown Unit 15
Adrienne has moved out. She's left some stuff is on the back porch of the Common house; After Parents Committee takes what they want for the DD room, then the stuff will be available to folks from the community who may want it. Any stuff that community members do not want will go to DI. CROWN paid for cleaning of Adrienne's place. However, as Adrienne paid a security deposit, most of that should be covered. There are some outstanding utilities bills which CROWN will pay.
A couple named Carlos and Magdalena Santizo have looked at #15 and have filled out the CROWN application forms. Carlos is pastor in a local Christian church. Magdalena works in a daycare. Carlos and Magdalena are friends of Angel and Patty.
We discussed the survey results.
CROWN and Management Committee will meet with the Salizo family, who has applied to move into #15.
Management Committee needs a decision to be made by the community in the next ACM regarding the reserve funds. This is because we need to deposit the monies accumulated over the last 10 months in a separate reserve fund account, which according to the bylaws must be kept separate from operating funds.
Management feels that if a decision is not made in the next ACM, then from our perspective, the community would have chosen not to utilize this opportunity to give direction regarding this decision. In that case - as the bylaws require - Management Committee needs to move the money into a reserve fund account. So, if no decision is made, Management will use its best judgment in making this decision, taking community input into account.
Linda Reed will arrange the meeting with the Santizo family.
Linda will deal with the utility bills for #15.
. Lydia will finish tabulating the survey responses. (If you have not sent in your survey, please do so now!)
Lydia will be presenting the survey results at the next ACM.
Thanks!
Peace and Love, Lydia
From: Sandra McIntyre
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 5:33 PM
To: Kay Argyle
Subject: Re: [WaCoHo] Financial Questionnaire -- Comments, Caveats, & Concerns
Kay,
Thanks for compiling comments. I'd like to add one to your list, with regard to "trust" of the Management Committee:
Some on the members of the Management Committee have recently voiced some dismay that the community does not seem to trust it to make decisions for the community. I believe the root of this is that Management has lost track of the importance of transparency to the rest of the community. There seems to be a tendency among some members of Management to take this attitude: "We are the ones who were elected to make decisions. If other residents cared about these matters, they have the option to come to the Management Committee meetings. Since they aren't here, they must not care. Therefore, we can decide without conferring with them or asking for their input."
I have heard several Management Committee members voice this attitude in different contexts. Also, there is some evidence that reporting from Management to the community has deteriorated. Browsing through the WaCoHo list archives at http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/private/WaCoHo/, I can find only 6 times in the last six months (since June 1) that Management Committee issued minutes or meeting notes of any kind to the community, despite the fact that there were probably either 13 meetings during that time. Also, during the last six months, notice of upcoming Management Committee meetings was rare and, when it did occur, last-minute. Almost never was an agenda for Management meetings announced in advance on the WaCoHo list. Finally, sometime in September, Management apparently changed its regular meeting time from Wednesdays to Thursdays without any notice to the community.
I don't doubt the good intentions and hard work of the Management Committee. I hope it will return to operating with more transparency to the community, so that we can understand and trust that work and participate as needed. Thank you.
Sandra
On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 2:10 PM, Kay Argyle wrote:
Last call for comments before the Sunday ACM. I am summarizing and sorting them into categories, such as: delegation & community input, risk tolerance & diversification of investments (including emergency and short-term/long-term), financial system & institutions, community values, funds in addition to the one for repairs & replacements. If you've got something to say on these issues or others, send it along.
If I write up a concise summary of people's concerns (so far) ahead of time, and read it at the meeting, the meeting may hopefully proceed faster there's an incentive for those who don't want the meeting to run overtime!
Kay
Hi All,
Please submit either approval or changes of our meeting notes. for your convenience, i've pasted them in below.
HOA Fees: 1 unit is more than 2 months behind, everyone else is caught up. The one unit has been reminded.
Tree Trimming will probably happen in December, as we get a discount after November 1st.
Open CROWN Unit Management Committee will vet and interview any candidates applying to rent Unit #15.
Budget Analysis The 2010 budget was discussed at length. Each committee's request was discussed in detail. Here are some highlights of our discussion:
For 2009, we haven't yet spent all of the money in our budget. However, Management is still expecting receipts from various committees such as Process and ad hoc landscaping. Once these have come in, we expect to come in slightly under budget.
Non-discretionary expenditures have gone up by 1-3% per year for the last few years. This year they are up by 2%.
The budget that Management is proposing would cover increased in both discretionary and non-discretionary expenses. For that reason, Management is recommending a 3% increase in HOA fees in order to cover the current budget.
The additional proposed expenditures would be for Parents and Common House furnishings, among others. While at the same time, the budget for the Celebrations Committee, for example, has been slightly reduced.
At the December ACM meeting, the budget information will be distributed.
Decisions Made:
A letter is being sent to Adrienne to advise her that she needs to have her things out of her unit by November 30th.
Follow-up Steps:
1. Distribute the December budget Linda
2. Talk to Process Committee about adding a time slot to discuss the 2010 budget Kay
3. Write and deliver letter to Adrienne Lydia
4. Follow up with unit that is behind in HOA fees Lydia
Thanks.
Peace and Love, Lydia
Short minutes of our meeting today Nov 5L
Since the Oppenheimer Fund did not allow us to deposit the money in their cash account, we will wait until the check is returned to us and management will propose at the November 15 meeting to deposit all the new money in a Credit Union, and also to withdraw whatever money we can withdraw from Oppenheimer without penalty and also put this into the Credit Union.
Vaughn will email Warren to see how much money can be withdrawn from the Oppenheimer Fund without penalty right now.
Kay will write an email about reserve fund and make the presentation at the ACM.
Dwyers made a substantial payment but are still behind with their condo fee. Kay will add an option to the form letter that instead of requesting a meeting we request a written payment plan, and Linda will deliver this letter to the Dwyers.
We left a message to Hob to help us writing a letter to Adrienne that she has to pay up or quit within a short period of time (the bylaws say 3 days).
We discussed the issue that parents committee used community funds for pizza and bowling at their outing. Some community members are not comfortable with this use of community funds. But we decided not to do anything about it.
We will have to do a budget next management meeting. It will probably look very similar to this year's budget.
We discussed the next election. Lydia, Hob and Vaughn have another year, Kay and Hans are getting off the committee.
According to Kay's report, Mary has apparently received one or two bids for mid-winter tree trimming, and we are anticipating moving forward with this.
If I missed something please let me know.
Hans.
Summary of Discussion:
1. Myste Myste was asked to attend Management Committee to discuss her delinquent CROWN payment. She sent a note and was not able to make it to the meeting. Myste has Sunday off and wants to meet then. Kay and Hans will meet with Myste on Sunday.
2. Oppenheimer Fund One member initiated discussion regarding concerns about putting the reserve money into Oppenheimer, due to the fees carried by the other monies in that account. Another issue is that the Oppenheimer fund is one of the investment funds that crashed our economy. It was suggested that a credit union would be a better choice as the money goes to the use of our local community.
Another concern is the money can be withdrawn at any time with no fees, penalties, or other restrictions. We phoned Linda about the restrictions. She was unsure, so Lydia will call Warren to verify.
Either way, this would be a short term solution. We decided that where we keep the reserve funds on a long-term basis should be discussed in an upcoming ACM meeting.
3. HOA Payments discussed a couple of cases where the fees are behind.
Decisions Made:
1. To meet with Myste on Sunday to work out a payment arrangement. 2. To send the reserve fund cheque to Oppenheimer, assuming the money can be withdrawn at any time, no strings attached. 3. Jenn and Tyler had put their HOA fee in the wrong folder. As we have it now, we are waiving the late fee. 4. A decision was made two get some solar panel bids for the Common House, just to get a sense of what this would cost us. Once we have some further information, we'll present it at an upcoming ACM meeting. 5. Waiving HOA late fee for one member as payment was placed on time in the wrong file. 6. Another member late with HOA fees was reminded.
Follow-up Steps:
1. Meet with Myste on Sunday to discuss her CROWN balance due. 2. Lydia to talk with Warren Curtis about the Oppenheimer cash account to verify if it carries any penalties or restrictions. 3. Get solar panels information. 4. Contact Process Committee regarding getting the reserve fund on the ACM Meeting agenda.
Thanks.
Peace and Love, Lydia
Summary of Discussion:
1. Reserve Fund Six months ago, we had suspended payments to the Oppenheimer Fund, as we had been losing money in those investments. We had make plans to pay 6-months worth of back payments to that reserve fund today. However, the Management Committee decided to hold off for two weeks in consideration of a more socially responsible investment option. Even though the money in Oppenheimer Funds would be in a cash account, the committee was concerned giving new monies to Oppenheimer would not be doing any good for our community, or communities in general.
For that reason, after some debate, we decided to keep our new investments in a cash account with a credit union. By next Thursday, Hans and Lydia will be providing account/investment information on a credit union (1 each). Prior to our next meeting (via email) we will choose a credit union and open the account, so that Linda can have a cheque prepared by the next Management Committee meeting.
2. CROWN Rental Payments
a. Adrienne is now current with her payment plan. b. Myste is now 2 months behind in her rent, and has not communicated with Management Committee.
3. Tax Returns reviewed. There are three:
a. Wasatch Commons Cohousing b. CROWN c. WaCoHo Condo Association
4. Water Garden water will be turned off soon. Vaughn will send an email out to the community. Water will go off soon for the orchard and the lawns. Vaughn will ask the gardeners when it's ok to turn them off for the gardens.
Decisions Made:
1. New Reserve Fund payments will go to a credit union rather than to Oppenheimer Funds. 2. A late-rent letter will be delivered to Myste. Per the letter, payment needs to be made in full or Myste needs to meet with the Management Committee to create a payment plan.
Follow-up Steps:
1. Hans to compile information on a credit union's accounts, rate of interest, FSLIC protection, ease of getting money out, etc. 2. Lydia to compile information on a credit union's accounts, rate of interest, FSLIC protection, ease of getting money out, etc. 3. Kay and Lydia to deliver the late payment letter to Myste. 4. Vaughn email to the community regarding the water.
Thanks.
Peace and Love, Lydia
Hi All,
Below are the Management Committee Meeting Notes from our meeting yesterday.
Summary of Discussion:
1. Bills paid. Water bill is down (by half) despite the fact that we have not yet gone to the agricultural rate.
2. HOA Fees two units late.
3. CROWN Unit #15 is more than 2 months behind in rent, and has been continually behind since early 2009. Additionally, this person has defaulted on a written agreement to Management Committee.
Decisions Made:
The committee has sent email reminders to the two people late on HOA fees.
The committee has decided to give written notice to the CROWN member, Adrienne Ferguson #15, who is behind in payments. Sadly, she has not lived up to both written and verbal commitments made to the committee as a group and to individual members.
With a heavy heart, the committee has decided that it is necessary that Adrienne be fully caught up by the next Management Committee meeting (2 September). Otherwise, she needs to attend that meeting to explain the circumstances. Additionally, the committee has decided to pursue eviction, if Adrienne isn't fully caught up by the next ACM meeting (9 September).
Follow-up Steps:
1. Attach a letter to Adrienne's door, plus send a copy via USPS mail, reminding her that she is seriously behind in payments and advising of the pending actions.
Thanks.
Peace and Harmony, Lydia
Addendum
From: Kay Argyle
To: WaCoMa
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:21:29 -0600
Subject: Re: [WaCoMa] Upated Meeting Minutes
"purse" >"pursue"
Last paragraph -- She already knows she is behind; we aren't explaining' that, merely the consequences. Given the seriousness of the contents, we'd mail a copy even if there were no chance of the letter blowing off the door. Thus,
"Attach a letter to Adrienne's door, plus send a copy via USPS mail, reminding her that she is seriously behind in payments and advising of the pending actions. "
Thanks, Lydia.
Kay
_____
from: WaCoMa On Behalf Of Lydia Olchoff Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 2:36 PM To: Management Committee Subject: [WaCoMa] Upated Meeting Minutes
Hi All,
Let me know if this version is better. I softened up the sentence about our decision, adding "With a heavy heart, the committee has decided that ..."
Also, do you want any additonal changes?
Please reply with your approval or request for additional changes.
thanks!
Lydia
From: WaCoMa on behalf of Lydia Olchoff
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 3:25 PM
To: Management Committee
Subject: Re: [WaCoMa] Upated Meeting Minutes
hi all,
team writing... wuhu!!
okay.. here is the updated version!
Hugs! Lydia
The person at CROWN who insisted on the many reports has left, and nobody is replacing her. There is hope that the CROWN paperwork will be a little less onerous in the future.
Mary reported about various Duch Elm trees and/or big branches leaning over buildings: Sandara's, George and Heather's, the workshop, Hans, Mike and Vicky's. When there is any storm damage we may get hit with large insurance increases or even loss of insurance. Taking out those branches must be done by a team piece by piece, it may cost $3000 or more. Mary is talking to some tree companies and she is getting bids. We will get bids for doing it now or doing it in November with the lower winter prices, and make the decision in the next management meeting on Aug 19. After this tree work is done we will plant new trees which are better suited for this area and less brittle than Dutch Elm trees. This will probably require all of our maintenance budget for the year, plus some capital expenses. This year is the time to do it, the next few years are predicted to be very hot, with probability of strong storms. The management committee thinks the best preparation for the uncertain times ahead is to be up to date with any maintenance issues.
Mary will get a small bobcat and do some ground work behind Carol's place, in order to allow the water to drain away from the building into the Wild Area. She did not ask the community for money, and we gave her permission to do this.
Last year there was a huge pile of branches just West of the garden area, and we rented a chipper to get rid of it. We are not planning on repeating this exercise, please do not accumulate branches there. Branches should be cut into pieces so that they fit into the dumpsters and disposed in the dumpsters.
Summary of Discussion:
1. Brief discussion of the outcome of the garden club meeting on Tuesday night. The people who attended that meeting will be sending out minutes.
2. Bills were paid. None were out of the ordinary.
3. Accounts Receivables were discussed. One unit is a month behind on HOA fees; another is a partial month behind. A CROWN unit is significantly behind in payments. Management committee has decided that a meeting with this person is in order and will be set up.
Decisions Made:
Management Committee will meet with the CROWN member who is behind in payments.
Follow-up Steps:
Linda Reed will set up the meeting with the person in CROWN who is in arrears.
Thanks.
Lydia
Minutes from June 22nd Management Committee meeting attached and in the body of this email.
Hob
Vaughn Lovejoy called the second June meeting of the WCCA Management Committee to order at 7:05 pm.
Naomi Franklin gave a report on her research on a emissions-free lawnmower. The Committee discussed the possibility of revisiting this issue when we are putting together the 2010 budget
Naomi then presented the case for the WCCA employing a person to oversee our outdoor use of water. The various costs in not having this person includes repairs to our system when it is not properly winterized (cost 2009: $442, B & L Company), the loss of plants that are being improperly watered ($100's per year), and the possible wasting of water by over watering certain areas (unknown cost).
The Committee decided to ask the Salt Lake City Corporation doing a water audit for WCCA. Naomi volunteered to call Mike Polachek who serves on the city Water Board to see what is involved with a water audit. Naomi will ask for a bid from Olympus Irrigation (Matthew Demont) to employ a person to oversee our outdoor use of water.
Mike Angelastro reviewed some of the recent work by B & L Company that was done on the Common House irrigation system to address the over watering of the north zone of the Common House lawn. The Committee thanked Mike for all of his past work on the lawns on behalf of our WC residents and thanked him for his future work.
Linda Reed reviewed the checks prepared by our bookkeeper. The checks were approved by the committee and signed. Linda then reviewed our Accounts Receivable. Most of our residents are currently up to date or ahead on their payments.
Lydia reviewed the departure of her housemate and the gave her feedback on the contents of an email that will go out to all community residents via the WaCoHo list
The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 pm.
Respectively submitted, Hob Calhoun, Community resident and WCCA Treasurer
Hi all,
Our meeting with Warren Curtis to discuss our Reserve Fund and how it could be invested was very informative. I have attached some brief minutes to the meeting. As you can see, a fair number of Wasatch Commons residents attended.
Thank you,
Hob
---------- Forwarded message ----------
from: Warren Curtis
Date: Thu, May 21, 2009 at 1:21 PM Subject: Cash Reserves To: Vaughn Lovejoy, Hobson Calhoun
Vaughn & Hob
Thank you again for letting me come visit with your group last night.
I researched the question that was asked regarding putting additional monies into the Cash Reserve. I assumed I knew the answer, however I wanted to make sure before I gave you the good news.
As I mentioned last night Cash Reserve is handled differently than most funds. Any new monies put into Cash Reserve would need to be set up as Cash Reserves A (currently your money is in Cash Reserves B - and that money would stay in that account). Any new monies deposited into Cash Reserves A would not have a front load charge nor a CDSC (surrender) charge and could be withdrawn at any time without a charge.
Additonally the current Cash Reserves B funds, to take advantage of the free amount each year, would need to be withdrawn in a systematic way as opposed to a different dollar amount each time money was taken.
Hopefully this information will help in your decision. I am happy to help with your needs whichever way you choose to go.
Warren O. Curtis, CFP 801 455-5427 800 488-8102
1414 East 4500 South Suite #3 Salt Lake City, Utah 84117
These minutes have announcements regarding the timing of check requests: Friday prior to the mgmt meeting. Next management meeting is one week from today, on Wednesday May 6. Important issues on the agenda, see below. If you'd like to have a check to you signed next management meeting, the check request must be filled out this Friday, May 1st.
Checks:
There is a big plumber's bill where we did not quite understand what it was for. It says it is for unit 1, is that accurate? We haven't paid it yet. Kevin probably knows all about it, we have to ask him.
Watering
Another big expense coming up is the leak in the sprinkler system in the laws East of the CH. Mike A knows most about it, and Mary and Kay have info on who has done satisfactory work for us in the past. Mgmt decided to ask Kevin D. if he wants to coordinate all this. Assuming Mike A. will be mowing the lawn, and monitoring the sprinklers, we would like to ask him also if he wants to coordinate with Kevin to meet with whomever Kevin gets to look for a leak and fix it.
Kay is adding: We need a head added that will cover the center of the lawn - I don't think that got done last year when some of the heads were changed to reduce their output. Remind me to turn on the stop-and-waste, so there will be water in the system, seeping out of any leaks, which is the only way they will be found.
Waiver of late charges:
Late charges can be waived if someone is unable to pay on time and notifies the management team before the account becomes past due. If a payment is delayed by some mishap or oversight, late charges cannot be waived. To protect yourself against such late charges, a reliable and low cost strategy is to always keep one month ahead with your payments.
Interest charge on overdue amounts:
Although we committed ourselves to charging interest starting April 1st, we decided not to do it at the moment because we want to keep the accounting chores simple. Two households have had small past due amounts for many months now, which were not paid up despite repeated reminders. Lydia agreed to talk to the involved parties and to come up with a plan how to get these old issues settled.
Work load for Linda R.
Linda is an excellent accountant but the work has been stressful for her. In order to lighten her load, Lydia will take over the communication and enforcement part of it. If you have troubles paying your bills, talk to Lydia, not Linda.
The mgmt committee meets twice a month on Wednesdays. At every meeting we sign checks. In order to receive a check, you have to submit the request and documentation on the Friday prior to the meeting, so that Linda can print the checks on the weekend.
Crown
The work for CROWM has become much more onerous in the past years; many more reports have to be filed. There are regulations how much administrative expenses can be paid for this. In the past we have paid Linda much less than this allowable maximum. We asked Linda to work out in dollars and cents what this allowable maximum is; next meeting we will review this and probably give Linda a raise. This ultimately comes out of CROWN money.
The new requirements also require additional bank accounts. Linda and Hans will go to the Chase bank at the corner and open these accounts. We will close the account at Bank One because it is too complicated to have the accounts at different institutions.
We have to sign a property agreement required by CROWN and Linda will give a report next time what is involved in abiding with this agreement, so that we can sign it.
Computer:
There was a glitch with one of the accounting files, which Linda could remedy in the past few days. Mgmt shut down the old computer in a brief ceremony. People desiring accounts at the new computer should contact Hans or Mike A. Hans is keeping the old computer around for a while just in case we need it again.
Hole in CH wall.
Management inspected the hole, and decided that this issue would best be handled by the parents committee.
Investment in reserve funds:
Next mgmt meeting we have to finish some CROWN stuff, the meeting after we will invite the financial adviser regarding the status of our reserve funds investments.
Parents committee met on Sunday and Taylor and Jen will be fixing the hole in the wall.
From: WaCoHo on behalf of Mike Angelastro
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 11:29 AM
To: Wasatch Commons Cohousing Members
Subject: Re: [WaCoHo] Management Committee Minutes, with Announcements
My perception is that the sprinkler head for the center was installed last spring. We do need one next to the sandbox that will spray a 90 degree pattern in the north and east direction. That I believe is the last additional head needed.
I can talk with Kevin about the sprinkler system leak in the front on the common house. We need to get that fixed this year. Until then we are wasting water and having to deal with a muddy lawn.
Addendum
From: WaCoHo on behalf of Amy Dwyer
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 1:28 PM
To: Hans Ehrbar;
Subject: Re: [WaCoHo] Management Committee Minutes, with Announcements
Bank One was bought by Chase. They are the same thing.
Amy
Please find the minutes from the April 8th Management Committee below as well as attached as a Word document.
Hob
The committee reviewed and approved three checks prepared by Linda. Kevin Dwyer went over the status of the building maintenance projects the Committee has authorized.
Two of the CROWN residents who are currently behind in their rent payments were previously invited to this Management Meeting. Committee members met with both people separately and, with thoughtful concern, were able to agree on concrete and reasonable plans for each individual to catch up with their rent payments.
It was reaffirmed that Management Committee meetings are indeed open to all members of the community and Committee members acknowledged that there was miscommunication amongst members of the committee and members of the community related to this issue.
We decided to invite our financial advisor for the OppenheimerFunds to one of our next meetings.
Members of the Management Committee reviewed and discussed the first three months of their work as a new committee.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:05 pm.
Respectively submitted,
Hob Calhoun Community member and WCCA Treasurer
Dear WaCoHos,
We're writing to describe to you a change in format for Management Committee meetings. We ask your indulgence now for this rather lengthy email. Considering the change we are making, we feel a detailed explanation is warranted. Here's the situation.
Management Committee is facing some challenging and sensitive issues at this time. In this email, we will explain what the primary issue is, how we plan to address it, and how that plan will affect you, the other community members.
The particular issue Management Committee faces at the moment is the non-payment of HOA fees and (in the case of CROWN folks) rent. A money shortage is always a challenging issue! And, in this economy, we realize that we all may face this issue at some time. There may be other sensitive issues in the future, but this is the one we face now.
After much discussion and review of the WaCoHo bylaws and CROWN rental agreements, we have decided that the best course of action would be to discuss face-to-face and privately the issue with each person who is in arrears for more than 30 days. The purpose of talking with each individual is so that Management Committee can understand the individual circumstance that each member is facing, and help that person to draft and implement a payment plan so he/she can become caught up. In this way, WaCoHo can collect the money our community needs to stay current on our bills, and we as a community can avoid evictions and other unpleasant actions.
Management Committee intends to conduct these discussions as an agenda item within the regular Management Committee meetings. In order to protect the identity of any WaCoHo member who may be in arrears, we have decided that Management Committee Meetings should be closed (i.e., not open to all members) beginning with our next meeting. In that way, we can deal with Management Committee business privately, and much more efficiently.
Our reasons for closing Management Committee Meetings are two-fold:
For these reasons we've decided to close the Management Committee meetings. At the same time, we realize transparency is also needed. For that reason, we've come up with a set of guidelines involving Management Committee Meetings, guidelines which we feel will address the transparency issue. They are these:
We do not make this change lightly and hope you understand the need for this change. At the moment, this is what we feel we need to do to best manage the issues WaCoHo faces.
Please feel free to share your comments.
Your Management Committee,
Hans, Kay, Vaughn, Hob, Lydia
We reminded ourselves that beginning April 1, 2009, any HOA accounts that are past due will be charged the 9% interest per annum rate authorized by our CC&R's .
The Committee decided to establish a procedure that gives a CROWN renter who gets behind in their rent payments more than 30 days or a homeowner who get behind in their HOA fees more than 30 days the requirement to come to the Management Committee to explain their hardship and their plan to catch up on their rent payments. The establishment of this procedure will be communicated to residents through various means.
There is a Waiver Fee for Late Payment of the HOA fee in the CH file folder to request that the $25 late fee be waived. The waiver can be granted no more than once per year and the form must be signed by two members of the Committee.
Vaughn Lovejoy
Addendum
From: On Thu, 3/26/09, Hans Ehrbar
Date: Thursday, March 26, 2009, 1:57 PM
Subject: Re: [WaCoHo] IMPORTANT MESSAGES FROM MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE!
To: Vaughn Lovejoy,
Here are two clarifications about Vaughn's email:
(1) Starting April 1st, a 9 % interest rate is charged for all amount
which are overdue more than 30 days (not all overdue amounts).
(2) The waiver of the late fee will be granted once per year no
questions asked. It can be granted more than once, but this requires
a decision by the management committee. The important point regarding
the waiver is that you must submit the waiver request before your
account becomes overdue.
Hans
Here are two clarifications about Vaughn's email:
(1) Starting April 1st, a 9 % interest rate is charged for all amount which are overdue more than 30 days (not all overdue amounts).
(2) The waiver of the late fee will be granted once per year no questions asked. It can be granted more than once, but this requires a decision by the management committee. The important point regarding the waiver is that you must submit the waiver request before your account becomes overdue.
Hans.
Last night at Mgt. Mtg. we discussed the stove and ice maker. We had read the various emails and the concerns they expressed. We decided it would be too expensive to replace the stoves at this time. So we want the repairs made by a repairman who is authorized to work on our make of stoves AND we want to make sure that the issues around about the inconsistency of the oven's temperatures are fixed at the same time. We also thought making sure that a good foot stool should STAY in the kitchen to address the difficulty in reaching into the upper oven. Do we need to purchase one? We also want the ice maker repaired and agreed that we should turn it off during the winter. Kevin would you be willing to follow through on this?
We also agreed that Kevin should continue to repair the plumbing problems in 15 and 17 and see if this solves the water leak that Nancy has reported in her place.
Vaughn
Vaughn Lovejoy Ecological Restoration Coordinator TreeUtah 364-2122 www.treeutah.org
Hi Linda Reed and other WaCoHos,
I had quite an informative chat with Portia at Allied Wast Services. Here's why we are still being charged a Fuel Recovery Fee, despite the fact that gasoline is now down to $1.61 per gallon.... (drum roll........)
Their trucks do not run on gasoline... they run on bio-diesel (probably a mixture), the cost of which has not decreased much. It is currently costing about $3.00 a gallon. Also, the rate we are charged varies according to the rise and fall of the cost of the bio-diesel. In case you are interested in more detail, read on...
The Fuel Recovery fee is calculated as a percentage our total bill, supposedly 14-25%, and is broken down more-or-less (as mentinoed above, it varies by month) as follows:
9% bio-diesel fuel surcharge 6% landfill costs ------------ 15% Total
I pointed out to Portia that the $19.48 we are being charged this month is less than either 14, 15, or 16% of our total bill. She then mentioned that it is a percentage of the basic service amount on the previous month's bill. Too weird, eh? At that point, I figured I'd tortured this poor woman enough with my questions (especially, as she was no longer able to answer them).
So, Linda, even though I do not personally support the use of bio-diesel (crops for fuel rather than food for people), I do feel that this fee is reasonable. For that reason, I did not persist with my request to Allied Waste Services to remove the $19.48 from our bill.
Would you kindly pay the full amount, $229.00?
Thanks!!
Peace and Love, Lydia
Management Committee Meeting Wed Feb 4 2009
Vaughn, Linda R., Kay, Nancy, Kevin, Hans, Lydia.
Bills: Allied Waste Service is still charging us a 10 percent fuel surcharge, although the gasoline price is lower than the time before they started charging the surcharge. Lydia said she will call them and ask them about it.
Gutter Toppers will be paid in two checks; Linda has to find out how to get money out of the reserve fund investment.
Hans and Linda are at the present time the only check signatories registered with the bank. Hans has the paperwork to put others on the account too.
Hans will talk to Heather about internet for the CH. He did this on Thursday, and we hope to soon have internet in the CH again.
Kevin gave a report about his maintenance work in the CH and elsewhere. In the CH he only touched up the existing paint, instead of repainting everything. We thought this was sufficient. He also put trim on the edges of the pergola, between hallway and kitchen etc., so that water could not seep in.
The sewage odor in the downstairs bathroom comes because the floor drain trap dries out; it needs to be topped off with water. Maybe that should be a routine maintenance item for the monthly work teams.
Kevin described his project in 2003 checking the adequacy of our maintenance fund. He compared it with other cohousing projects, comparable condominiums in SLC, and he made a model of future expenses: how much asphalt to replace, how much roof area to replace, etc. The result was that 20 percent of the current expenses should be used for the reserves. At that time, our reserves were a little too low, and we raised them from $20 per unit to $40 per unit. Now it would be good to repeat the exercise and see what the reserves should be with today's prices. Kevin is willing to re-do the exercise, and we think Hob also expressed interest. Mike A was involved in this in the past, maybe he can join this group?
Kay was interested in discussing the kind of investment for our reserve fund. Perhaps Mike W.?
Then we discussed the new contract between Wasatch Commons Crown LLC and which the Utah Housing Corporation wants us to sign. Since the Crown program nears its completion in 5 years, they are apparently now much more strict with supervision of the program. It is much more work than in the past because they want monthly reports filed. We should ask them if quarterly reports are sufficient.
The contract also has the clause that Wasatch Cohousing should furnish, at its own expense, a fidelity bond in the principal sum
equal to the gross potential income for two months to protect Wasatch Commons Crown and the mortgagees against misappropriation of project funds. Wasatch Cohousing does not have any money, and the directors of Wasatch Cohousing are the same as those of Wastach Commons Crown. Perhaps we can get this clause eliminated.
Since we have been doing it now for 10 years without such a contract we should have a good leg to stand on if we ask for modifications of the contract.
Overall it seems the last 5 years of the Crown program are going to be a lot of tedious paperwork. But we should not forget that this is a favorable opportunity for the Crown residents to gain home ownership.
Hans.
As promised please find attached the notes I took at the Management Committee meeting tonight.
I will return from Maine on February 16th, but I will still be able to respond to emails and phone messages.
Enjoy the new air coming our way,
Hob
1. Kay Argyle called the meeting to order at 7:07 pm in the C.H. sitting room. 2. Kay Argyle welcomed the new members who are Lydia Olchoff, Hob Calhoun, and Vaughn Lovejoy. 3. Lydia asked for an idea of what are the responsibilities are of the different officers of the Management Committee. 4. Hans is willing to continue to take notes and will continue as the Secretary. 5. Kay is willing to continue as President. 6. Vaughn will act as the convener of the Management Committee meeting. 7. Hob will serve as Treasurer. 8. Officers of WCCA are also officers for Wasatch Commons CROWN LLC and Wasatch Cohousing. 9. Linda Reed, the WCCA Bookkeeper, went over the invoices that she has written checks for. 10. Hob will call Chase Bank, Wasatch Commons Condominium Association and the Wasatch Common Crown LLC to find out how to get the new signature card filled out. He will also inquire about how to go about closing our Chase WCCA Inc. Savings Account and transfer the current funds into the WCCA Inc. Checking Account. Currently the signatories are Linda Reed and Hans Ehbar. 11. Linda went over the status of the collection of HOA fees. 12. The payment of the invoice from the company that installed the gutter toppers for $5,575.00 was approved from the reserve funds. 13. Linda will call our reserve fund broker Warren Curtis to see what we need to do to authorize a transfer $5,575.00 from the reserve account into the main checking account. Linda will pay a third of the bill out of WCCA checking/savings account. 14. Kevin reported on his efforts related to exterior building maintenance. The CROWN building work has been started. 15. Linda gave a report related to the CROWN rental units. She reported on a two-hour paperwork inspection by the non-compliance arm of Utah Housing Corporation (UHC) who hold all the first mortgages on the five CROWN units (which are zero interest loans). The UHC's compliance inspection is scheduled for January 22, 2009. Starting this year, each CROWN resident will start having to sign a new lease every year as well as other documents. UHC is requiring that they receive a copy of a Management Agreement between Wasatch Commons CROWN and Wasatch Cohousing Inc. One part of the agreement is that the Property Manager for Wasatch Commons CROWN LLC (currently Linda Reed) be paid $152 per month by Wasatch Commons CROWN LLC. CROWN does not cost the WCCA any money. $10 a month per CROWN tenant has to go into a separate checking account. 16. Kevin agreed to create a written study on the appropriate amount that we should be putting into the reserve fund this year and will email it out to the whole Wasatch Commons community. 17. We will put off the discussion of the budget centered around the amount of money that will go into the Reserve Fund. 18. A discussion of the possible need for a standard operating procedures handbook for residents of Wasatch Commons. 19. Linda Reed and Mike Wason met with Ted Hill, our accountant, go over our previous tax returns for all three legal entities. 20. The next Management Committee will be Wednesday, February 4, 2009. 21. The meeting was adjourned at 8:44 pm.
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