December Minutes 12/7/16
Present: Ken Schiewetz, Mark Moberg, Makoto Sugiuchi, Greg Bengeult, Vicki Bengeult
The November minutes were approved.
The annual meeting will be held at 3pm on Sunday, February 12th at the Federal Way Library on 1st Avenue.
Reminder: Please keep leaves clear of street drains and grass/weeds from sidewalk cracks.
Treasurer’s report:
• 67 of 69 homeowners are fully paid up. Of the remaining two, one house seems to be in escrow. Since last month, two of the three who received letters by certified mail informing them of the HOA collections policy and the possibility of legal action have paid in full.
• Financials were presented (attached).
• Two budgets for 2017 were presented – one with resurfacing the pool and continuing its operation. The second choice is to decommission the pool permanently in anticipation of alternate use of the space. We expect homeowners will want to keep the pool but are offering the second option before spending so much money on the resurfacing. Either choice will still require a special assessment to afford the resurfacing or decommissioning.
• With the proposed budgets, the reserve account will be fully funded in 30 years. Associations with 70% or above funding are at low risk for special assessments, and those with 30% or below are at high risk. We currently have 18.6% funding of our reserve account, and we won’t be above 30% for 11 years. We have $20,000 set aside for the pool resurfacing, which is anticipated to cost about $35,000.
• Special assessments are undesirable because they are unfair to owners who have not lived here as long. They open the association to law suits from those new residents. The idea of reserves is that current owners pay for the annual wear and tear (depreciation) of the property in anticipation of the inevitable need for replacement.
• The treasurer is investigating monthly payment options for the dues. He will meet with our bank representative to find out about the possibilities for auto-deposits and bank transfers.
Bylaw Committee: On advice of our attorney, the committee removed language from the bylaws that is redundant with the covenants. There are 2 significant changes.
1. The first is to move the annual meeting to November instead of February. This is to allow the budget vote to be taken prior to the calendar/fiscal year start.
2. The 2nd is to do away with the separate “maintenance fee” of $50. Annual assessments are intended to maintain the property, so there is no reason to have a separate fee. We hope that owners will want to volunteer their time for the good of the community without that $50 incentive.
The bylaws modifications will be distributed to owners for approval at the annual meeting.
General Business: The fence around the sports court has been repaired. We are looking for landscape contractors to bid on the statement of work for the common areas.
The next board meeting is scheduled for 7pm on Thursday, January 12, at the Schiewetz household.