Mar Cheri Board of Directors Meeting
January 11, 2016
In attendance: Ken Schiewetz, Mark Bunger, Greg Bengeult, Vicki Bengeult, Nancy Krueger. Minutes from the December meeting were approved earlier.
Annual Meeting will be held at 7pm on February 29th at the Federal Way Library on 1st Ave. Ballots will be mailed 2 weeks prior, along with proposed budget and info about necessary upcoming large expenses.
There are many new owners in the neighborhood – about 7 homes sold in the last couple of years, and there are currently 3 houses for sale. That’s about 15% new ownership, so make sure your opinions and questions are heard – please come to the meeting. If unable to attend, you can return your ballot by mail.
President’s Report
Ken Schiewetz, Nancy Krueger, Vicki and Greg Bengeult attended a meeting with our HOA attorney, David Huhs, of Curran & Curran. Dave specializes in HOA and condo law. The meeting was informative, highlights being:
- The Board should write Rules & Regulations to clarify specifics of the Bylaws and CC&Rs. Current documentation is vague in regards to expectations regarding owner maintenance. He recommends fines for violations be instituted because the current document’s language about non-compliance requires hiring contractors to do work on homeowner’s property and then charging them for it. This is unfeasible. We will be asking for volunteers to review the Bylaws and help with drafting rules.
- The question as to whether the pool can/should remain operational is simply one of budgeting. If the community does not approve a budget sufficient to maintain the pool with high levels of safety and compliance with public health requirements, then the pool cannot open. It is the responsibility of the board to prepare a budget that reflects the true costs and takes into account long term improvements and maintenance. Owners then vote to approve or reject the budget. There is no need for a change to the CC&Rs or Bylaws to close the pool, temporarily or permanently. It is done all the time by HOAs.
- He also clarified actions the board can take against the very few (he was complimentary that we have so few debtors) defaults on dues. We have received notice of one home in bankruptcy and another up for foreclosure at sheriff’s auction. Both of these properties owe past dues and we may be able to collect as part of the proceedings.
- It is illegal to have “adult swim” as this discriminates against families. We can have “quiet swim” or “lap swim” instead.
Most of the meeting was spent discussing the ramifications of lack of volunteers to fill Board positions next year, as well as various options for operating the pool with reduced costs. We talked about running the pool without lifeguards, but this exposes the community to unacceptable risk and would likely cause our insurance to be cancelled. Nancy is unable to volunteer full time managing the pool, so outside management is being considered at additional expense. Mark Bunger has spent many weekends at the pool over the years doing maintenance and keeping the pool systems running past their expected lifetimes. He is retiring from this position and no one has stepped in to fill his shoes, so this will also raise maintenance costs. We thank both Nancy and Mark for their many years of service, which have allowed dues to remain at $455 for over 7 years in spite of rising costs.
We also discussed whether or not to offer swim lessons. Vicki asked that since that none of the children taking lessons actually lives here in Mar Cheri, why are we subsidizing lessons, and also asked whether it’s worth it to operate the pool if mostly only associate members are using it? Nancy says the pool is underutilized, so if we didn’t have associate members or swim lessons, the pool would be idle. She is strongly in favor of having associate members and swim lessons as a service to the larger community. Majority agrees that we should not lose money on swim lessons. Vicki pointed out that the HOA is formed for homeowners and that we don’t have a charter to extend it to public service unless owners vote to financially support that. Owners bear the liability and expense, and associates gain access to the pool at no risk and lower costs. She also suggested a possibility that rather than special assessments or large dues increases, we could close the pool for a season or two to save money towards the resurfacing and equipment replacement. That would allow us to repair landscaping and parking lot this year, both of which have been neglected over the years and were affected by the drainage work that had to be done.
Treasurer’s Report
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Greg will take input from Mark and Nancy about upcoming expenses and prepare a budget for next year.
Pool Report
King County Public Health Department required the pool drain to have been changed by 2013 in order to conform with safety requirements. Nancy and Mark think this was already done, but will verify with Watermills.
Nominating Committee We are still looking for homeowners who want to join the Board. Call Nancy at 253-941-6390 to volunteer. New owners are welcome!
Respectfully submitted, Vicki Bengeult