Personal Notes, HOA Meeting September 26, 2024

HOA Meeting Notes 09-26-2024 5:04   pm

Meeting conducted via video conference (Microsoft Teams)

Directors Present:  Chris Andre, Dave Quinsey, David Samo, Mita Schumacher, Ed Wenz

Directors Absent:  N/A

FirstService Residential

Ian Navarro - Regional Director

Tiffani Rivers - Community Manager

III. HOMEOWNER FORUM

Homeowner 1A 1B

1A: Retaining wall.  In August we were told they were waiting on the landscape company.  What is the possible start date?  Ed Wenz said they may need to change contractors.  The contractor said the scope of work and price has doubled.  He asks the homeowners to be patient.

1B  Asked further, then David Samo said the contractor keeps raising the costs.  Homeowner said every homeowner who installs a pool deals with this, that is, you don't know everything until it is started.  Homeowner said it has taken 14 years.  Chris Andre said they approved two separate increases, now the latest cost is double.  Homeowner asked if they are going to do bids again.  Chris Andre said yes, bids must be done again. 

1A Said the spikes in the new straw waddle might hurt someone.

Homeowner 2

She and her neighbor live on Ocotillo.  The new waddles block irrigation on Mariposa.  In addition to a new landscape contractor, she thinks brush management is a huge concern.  She just got canceled by State Farm.  She said she was told that the brush clearing is on the schedule, but it needs to be done more than once per year.  She asked about the security camera installation.  Chris Andre said it is being discussed with the contractor.

Homeowner 3

She spoke with the City about replacing the no parking signs.  They will do it.  Regarding speed limit signs the City didn't observe much speeding, but she will check with the City.

She thinks the landscape contract should be put up for bid.

Homeowner 4

She said that over a year ago homeowners asked for the managers to be changed.  Our service is no better than before.  Her remodel was completely messed up by them.  She said we didn’t get the July 4 passes on time.  She said she didn’t want to hear again that a new person will solve the problems.  The FirstService fees go up but the service doesn't improve.  She asked why they aren't taking it seriously and why can't we discuss it.

Chris Andre said there has been turnover.  She replied that is the same thing they said the last time.  It's the same old tired rhetoric.  If you don't do anything year after year then the homeowners aren't going to want you on the board.  Why don't you look for a new company?  Chris said they are in lawsuits.  She said it looks like they will always be in a lawsuit.  So, they can't ever change property managers?  Chris said that the board has decided to stay with FirstService.  She said that there is no real discussion.

Homeowner 5

Lived here 15 years.  She said she never sees anything accomplished.  She said she meant no disrespect to Tiffani.  There is a lot of disdain for the company.  Communication, follow-up isn't done.  I know it's a voluntary position, but when you hear all of the voices you need to take action.  She doesn't understand why they don't make a change.  Samo asked for itemized list of the issues with FirstService.  She said, we aren't being heard. Landscape, abatement, communication etc.  She said meetings were canceled at the last minute and she mentioned how that impacted her.  The board has had meetings at inconvenient times.  It seems like things are glossed over but they don't follow through, then you don't want to do anything because it doesn't seem to matter.

Homeowner 6

Thank you Mita for having your camera on.  She noted that the other directors did not have their cameras turned on.  It is disrespectful to hide behind the empty screen.  Homeowners have been asking for erosion control for 10 years.

She said the HOA sued Ballos for the slide.  It was filed late.  The Ballos filed a motion for summary judgement, then they filed a cost bill that so that they can recover costs.  The next step was to file for attorney fees, but they didn't.  That makes it appear that the HOA worked out a deal to pay the attorney fees.  How much of our money was spent on our attorneys for the lawsuit, and how much did we pay to the Ballos?

Years ago, we didn't switch property managers because the property hadn't been fully turned over from Lennar.

Meetings at the last minute are time consuming.

She said that if the property manager made a mistake why didn't the HOA file a cross complaint against the property manager to recover costs?

I really want to know how much of our money was spent on attorney fees.  We <Note: former HOA director>  worked on that slide by the Ballos for a long time so there was no reason for filing late.  Insurance won't cover that lawsuit since the HOA sued the homeowner.

She said the HOA should've filed against Chris as well for moving his fence, which he moved days after the recall of the board.  Chris said it was reviewed by Legal.

Homeowner 7

A later meeting would be more helpful. More of us are going to get involved because we need fresh blood.  I know it is a thankless job that isn't easy.

Homeowner 8

First timer that figured it's time to get involved.  I own a property in AZ and my HOA fee hasn't gone up a penny in 14(?) years.  July 4th passes were sent late.

I pay a lot for beautiful slopes and I don't know what is happening.

Homeowner 9

Tiffani, you have nothing to do with it.  As long as the attorney is the same they can change property managers.  It's not true that we can't change

We have too many lawsuits.  I don't know all the details, but it appears the HOA will lose that too.  There are other homeowners with the same situation that they don't go after, not that we should.  It's a waste of our money.  The board recently sought to do work by the park.  That's not our property and we shouldn't be paying for something like that.  We didn't spend that money but they should have simply called the City, who did work on it.

The budget wasn't sent out on time.  I’m a property manager.  If the budget didn't go out on time I'd have to pay for it.  There was a whole year without meetings, yet my community had meetings.  A whole year without meetings is ridiculous <Note: being litigated>.  On the social committee we try to get the card funded, but we are having to ask at the last minute for that and for checks.  I spent $2000 of my own money to prevent an event from being canceled.  It took a month for the HOA to reimburse me.  They approved a budget in an emergency session <Note: being litigated>.  A budget is never an emergency as we know when it is.  I send a draft report of budgets a month in advance to my community.  $114,000 line item for legal is crazy.  I have a community with elevators, roofs, pools, etc and have a legal budget of $5000.  We need a small management company who cares.  Someone who would be impacted if fired.  A small company would need us.

Chris Andre said that they have two new directors.  We are listening.  This is the most homeowners that we've had attend.  He said that the City failed to take care of the slopes by the park.  There was not the best of communication regarding the budget.  It did get approved on time to be sent.  Their legal review concluded that proper notification was given.  The assessment will stay the same i.e. not increase.

Chris and Samo discussed the legal expenses.  Julie said the insurance should handle it.  Chris and Samo said that they need additional representation.

Homeowner 10

She noted a lack of communication, lack of follow-up, fence maintenance not addressed etc.  We should have a smaller management company.  The social committee budget increase was approved but it didn't make it to the budget; FirstService didn't get it in the budget.  We need committees who can assist.  I would run for the board, but I'm afraid of lawsuits given the lack of management support.

Homeowner 11 <out of sequence>

Tiffani this does not apply to you.  FirstService and the landscape contractor should be removed.  The other homeowner complained about brush clearing <Note: brush clearing is being litigated>.  Our contract includes regular brush clearing, not annual clearing. 

Director Samo asked the previous homeowner for a list of the problems with the property manager.  Here you go:

Failed to send notice of a recent meeting.

Failed to create minutes and/or failed to post and provide the minutes upon request <Note: being litigated>.

Poor oversight of the landscape contractor.  They simply trust them.

The website has been a long flakey rollout.

Remember when all of the Notices of Completion were lost?  That was FirstService too as I recall.  Neither the directors nor FirstService ever gave us an accounting of what was lost and what was recovered.

There has been a lack of response, and insufficient responses to homeowners at times.

When the open meetings were held in person, one FirstService manager, Richard Ford, used to whisper in the ears of board members, like an attorney advising a client.

Ian Navarro of FirstService make sarcastic comments to homeowners (Specific example provided—When the budget document wasn’t available on the website).  At a recent meeting I complained that I missed the May meeting because they didn’t send a notice.  Ian said I’d get the next one.  They have yet to provide an explanation.  I asked about it at the last meeting, and the directors and FirstService were silent.

Ian is the regional director, the manager of our manager.  If he behaves this way, there is no hope.

Rather than send the agenda and meeting link via email, the management company makes it easy for themselves and post it to a website.  We homeowners must log into the site and get the agenda.  They mail a hard copy of each board packet to director Quinsy, but every other homeowner has to log onto the site and find the agenda.

They cooperated, or at least didn’t openly oppose secret meetings.  As professionals they should not only have discouraged the practice, they should have failed to act on anything done in secret.  Instead, they forwarded the email about one such meeting to the City where I was able to obtain it <Note: being litigated>.

When my wall was damaged due to malfunctioning irrigation <Note: being litigated> neither FirstService nor the directors would say what caused the malfunction, nor would they say what, if anything, was done to prevent it from happening again.

They failed to follow the Governing Documents.

For years they didn’t even have the landscape plans for the development. 

The board approved plans for the HOA to plant prohibited plants under the watchful eye of their manager <Note: being litigated>  .

I think the company is too big and bureaucratic for our community, and I think that their employees are too overburdened to give us the attention that we need.

Ultimately, the board is responsible.  However, we need another management company to provide better service, and provide better advice to the directors.

My fear is that the board will not remove FirstService because they need a complacent manager, not someone who will guide them properly and refuse to take part in activities that violate the law and Governing Documents.

IV. COMMITTEE UPDATE & INVITED GUESTS

A. SOCIAL COMMITTEE

New members to be approved.  Their names are in the board packet.  Shannon said there are 15 names, plus Mita as the board representative.  She said they will tighten their belts since their budget now won’t be increased.

October 20, flyers on doorstep in the next few days, plus email

then an event in December following the Fall Festival.  The debit card doesn't get funded properly typically, so <Note: unable to capture something said.>

All 15 people were approved unanimously.  The names were not revealed to those in attendance.

V. REPORTS

A. MANAGEMENT REPORT

B. WORK ORDER REPORT

C. LANDSCAPE WALKTHROUGH/PUNCHLIST (It wasn't sent on time to be included in the board packed for the meeting.)

VI. CONSENT CALENDAR

A. OPEN SESSION MEETING MINUTES - AUGUST 2024

Approved unanimously without discussion.  Chris abstained.

B. FINANCIAL STATEMENT - AUGUST 2024

Approved unanimously without discussion.

VII. UNFINISHED BUSINESS

A. BUDGET AND ANNUAL DISCLOSURE UPDATE

Legal review determined they met the legal requirement for notification, but they are not going to raise the assessment.  Rivers said the company is addressing the issues with the disclosure so it doesn't happen again.

B. RETAINING WALL UPDATE

They said it was discussed during Homeowner Forum

VIII. NEW BUSINESS

A. LANDSCAPING PROPOSALS

Tiffani Rivers said that the landscape company did not provide them on time to include for the meeting.

IX. NEXT BOARD MEETING - OCTOBER 24, 2024

A couple of board members (Samo, Chris) expressed an interest in Zoom.  Mita and Ed were OK with Teams.   Ian said that the HOA can get an account for Zoom, but FirstService is using Teams.  Directors said that they were muted at times today.  Ian said they'll work on it.

Samo said that it sounds like homeowners are asking for better service but lower costs.  Homeowners interjected disagreement with that characterization.  Homeowner #11 interjected that the HOA pays to pick up trash on Graves Avenue (in front of the apartments at the bottom of the hill).

X. ADJOURN

6:33 pm