Posted February 20 2020. Your Editor provides the following synopsis of the February 19, 2020 Board meeting with commentary indicated in brackets and in blue.
Board Members Present: All except Jerry Dinerman.
Pledge of Allegiance led by Marion Weil.
Marion Weil’s Opening Remarks and Announcements:
Marion: We have a quorum, Jerry is absent, the meeting is properly noticed. We will not have live streaming today of the Board meeting, so if you are reluctant to come up during the residents’ input session, have no fear, no one will see you.
[Editor’s note: we all see you. Also, it would be helpful if Marion explained why there is no live streaming for the benefit of the community. No explanation was given either via email to the community or at all by Marion. More on this later.]
Marion: The deadline for board member application receipt is Tuesday, February 25th at 4pm. Meet the candidates is Monday, March 9th at 7pm; this is your opportunity to hear the candidates’ platforms. The annual election is Thursday, March 26th; mail in ballots will be available. There is one vote per household, and you must be a homeowner.
Fun Day is March 29th, registration is $10. March 31st at 7pm, the Board and the Cascade Lakes COP unit hosts “Run, Hide, Fight.”
Today’s board meeting will include a report of the Long-Term Planning Committee and their Vision Survey. There will be no questions after the committee’s presentation. This is the first time the Board has seen it. Save your questions for the March 4th meeting.
Handicap seating for show season requires a medical doctor’s letter.
Use your home alarm system. There was a tailgating incident on Sunday; stop after coming in. Today’s adjournment is at 11am. Five Board members have a Continuing Education seminar and must leave.
These are not resident meetings. It is not the time at the podium to speak to other residents.
Mark Goodman: New Business #2: Pool Chemical Feeder, Tom Cucinotta from Cucinotta Pool Service is here.
[Editor’s note: Cucinotta’s Pool Service, Inc.’s website is: www.cucinottapoolservice.com.]
Mark: the county has asked us to do daily monitoring of the pool. Tom is here to explain the requirements.
Tom Cucinotta: The health department is coming down hard on my industry. There are a lot of bad companies in the industry. They want the pools and spas tested seven days a week. It’s ridiculous but that’s what they’re requiring. [Editor’s note: is it really ridiculous, or is it a public health issue?] Your spa has a computer on it since it was built. If you have people in there, you take it with you. [Editor’s note: the chemicals in the spa.] The computer is constantly monitoring it, keeping it to the perfect balance. As to the pool, there is not a law requiring that you have a computer on it. However, new pools are putting them in. The new computer comes with an antenna out back and one in Deborah’s office and will communicate what the chemicals are. You are able to monitor what the water chemistry is in your pool. The Board is trying to remove the liability. It will send off an alarm. The weekend help can call us. I’m trying to save the community from having to increase your monthly fee to me. The spa doesn’t do that, but there’s no reason to change that. I will come in and meet with Deborah’s weekend help, I will add a test kit, and they can test the spa. When that computer dies, we can put in a new system. It’s not the law but very advantageous to the community for liability issues. The fountain has a break to the main drain, we will know by the end of the day.
Harvey: the spa computer regulates the pH and chlorine level, same as the main pool?
Tom: Yes, and you will have a record.
Harvey: it does it automatically? No one has to go out there?
Tom: Correct. We set it and walk away.
Alan: two questions. One, it sounds like it’s a good thing to have. Are you saying it’s required by statute? Not all statutes apply to HOAs.
Tom: it’s not needed for the pool; you do for the spa. You guys keep your spa at a higher temperature than most communities. This is a way around having to check it seven days a week.
Alan: second question – how often do you come out?
Tom: Monday, Wednesday, Friday we test the pool, Alex does the pool on Tuesday and Thursday and fills in the health department sheets. They will write you up because it’s not filled out Saturday and Sunday.
Deborah: the health department requires seven-day readings.
Alan: the computer will automatically add chemicals to the pool?
Most Board Members: correct.
Tom: we have to full the crocks, trash cans, with chlorine and acid. There’s four big cans back there. My license protects the community.
Harvey: Not to have to go every day. In the long run we’ll be saving money.
First Residents’ Input Session:
Richard Green, Glenville Drive: Why are expenses listed as fiscally responsible? Marion: it’s in the budget or the reserve. Richard: some of the stuff is not in the budget or reserve. We talked about coding things. Some of these things are not in the budget.
Diane Weinberger, Derbyshire: one, iguanas, I’d like some more information; two, the lakes, I was told in January they would start to drain the lake.
[Editor’s note: neither of these issues is on the agenda; these inquiries should have been put over to the Second Residents’ Input Session. This is not the first time the Board has permitted discussion of a non-agenda item at the First Residents’ Input Session. Previously they allowed a resident to bash your Editor and her husband at a First Residents’ Input Session with total abandon. However, your Editor has been singled out at a previous board meeting and stopped from speaking when the Board stated that the subject matter was not on the agenda, about which your Editor disagreed, and believed it was related to the agenda. We hereby call out this selective discrimination and this selective favoritism toward some and censorship toward your Editor.]
Deborah: The lake on Glenville will begin the erosion project soon. They were waiting for the water level to go down, and instead it went up. It should be the end of this month or March. The iguanas, yesterday, Blue Iguana, was the first day. They will be here Tuesdays and Thursdays. If he sees something in the common area and property, not your area, he will trap.
Debbie Berenholtz: I am the Chairperson of Membership for the Pickleball Club.
[Editor’s note: notwithstanding Debbie’s genuine enthusiasm, there was no member meeting or vote for the creation of this position, nor an election for such position; it just suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Such is the way the pickleball club operates these days – it’s a free for all run by a very few and the rest of the membership be damned. These few individuals also spend club money without a meeting or a vote, such as the sudden appearance of a brochure touting pickleball in our community.
It has also come to your Editor’s attention via an independent source (i.e., not us) that purportedly they are also using club dues to pay for League play on behalf of ringers – non-community members that are inserted into our team from other communities for league purposes, without first seeking our own club members as alternates to play in the League when there is a shortage of regular league players. So, club money is used to afford non-community ringers League play in lieu of willing community club members who are registered as alternates but are ignored. We invite you to let that sink in for a while. In addition, upon information and belief, in order to be in the League, one must be a paid club member just the same as with the tennis club, since they are both under the umbrella of the community sports center. Obviously, ringers are not paid club members, and paid club members who are willing to act as substitutes are not contacted to play when there is an opening.
The last meeting of the pickleball club was in 2019 and there have been no meetings planned until March. The pickleball club is run like a fiefdom which technically could jeopardize its corporate charter, but more on that another day. It is clear, however, that using club money for brochures without a meeting or vote, and using club money to sponsor ringers without first inquiring if other club members are available, is fiscally irresponsible to say the least.]
Marion: this is not on the agenda.
[Editor’s note: this time Marion called out the resident for addressing something not on the agenda. There does not seem to be a consistency with what is permitted and what is not permitted at the First Residents’ Input Session. Your Editor and her husband respect the rules, and always save non-agenda items we wish to address for the Second Residents’ Input Session. The Board should enforce the rules consistently.]
Approval of Minutes: February 5th Minutes: Linda: I move to approve the February 5, 2020 Minutes. Second: Eileen. Marion: item 2, shed update, we are not waiting for a permit; we’re waiting for the approval of landscaping and electricity. The structural approval was already granted. Item 4, audio system loaner – l-o-a-n-e-r. [Editor’s note: not “loner.”] Linda: well maybe it feels alone. Marion: all in favor: unanimous.
Treasurer’s Report: Mark: January results, an end of the month loss of $799. A couple of items are under investigation. We are under for revenue because we started putting in assessments what we expected versus what we received. Sixteen homes are late; this is one fee that can’t be waived.
[Editor’s note: a discussion by Mark was made concerning the financials and a self-explanatory handout was provided which is available from your Editor upon request.]
Mark: News & Views, $1900 revenue, $1700 expenses, profit of $199.
[Editor’s note: this news site, CascadeLakesResidents.com, reaches a much wider audience and costs a lot less, and is much more current, and you can access it any time, day or night, and it is available to the Snowbirds among us. We are unaware of the mechanism, if any, for Snowbirds’ access to News & Views. However, News & Views has some great features and is a fun publication to look forward to.]
Mark: shortly we will be receiving our end of year auditing statements; reporting will be slightly different. It will show a $49,000 loss from the past year. Reserve items now show as a liability instead of revenue until we use the new ruling for associations. It just shows a different way for financial statements.
[Editor’s note: the name of the HOA’s accounting firm was stated by Mark. There are lots of names in the firm name; whenever your Editor hears a firm name with lots of names in it, you know we are probably paying more than if a one or two-person firm were doing the accounting. It seems as if each time a name is added to the firm name, the price also increases, but does the expertise also increase? That is the question. Your Editor has never understood the wisdom or assumption that going with a “big” firm was always necessarily better.
This reminds your Editor of a statement made at a prior board meeting that the HOA’s law firm is a “Cadillac” firm; in the experience of your Editor, who has practiced law, litigation, you name it, for 37 years, the advice given on more than one occasion by that firm was flat out wrong. This law firm was flat out wrong about claiming that the Fair Housing Act didn’t apply to HOAs; it most certainly does and we have already proven that with the joint statement from the HUD and DOJ specifically on the issue of HOAs and the applicability of the FHA to HOAs with respect to the requirement of having access to and accommodations for all common areas for people with disabilities, and we now have streaming of all board meetings because of your Editor and her husband, except this one for technical reasons (see below).
This law firm also claimed that while the Florida HOA grievance statute applies to our governing documents, and our governing documents provide for the same grievance procedure as the statute, that somehow the arbitrary and capricious HOA website Terms of Service trump said grievance procedure; again, this is completely wrong.
This law firm was also sicced upon your Editor by Marion, the president of the Board, for calling out the Board for their improper behavior and actions, such as illegal secretive board meetings, which was proven by emails from two board members, and in connection therewith, this law firm made false, derogatory, and harassing claims in a letter to your Editor, which were thoroughly debunked by your Editor (and her husband) with exhibits and evidence, after which they were never heard from again. This firm’s senior partner claimed at a public Board meeting which he attended on January 8, 2020 that the reason there was no response to your Editor’s August 2019 letter to the firm was because his junior associate was on vacation, which is flat out impossible since this bogus vacation claim was made almost six month later, to which your Editor inquired where she could get such a six month paid vacation gig. The real reason they never responded was because they were decimated by the real facts, as opposed to the garbage they wrote about, owing to their complete and utter failure to do any due diligence to ascertain the actual facts.
So much for a “Cadillac” law firm. This cost our community thousands of dollars in unnecessary legal fees, which falls squarely on Marion, president of the Board, who desperately but unsuccessfully tried to intimidate and silence us, which gave birth to this website.
Marion’s further dissing of your Editor and her husband at a previous Board meeting when she permitted a resident to bash us with abandon, as referenced above, her refusal as webmistress to remove defamatory statements about us on the HOA message board made by the same resident while removing our truthful posts to try and cover up her malfeasance, her suspending your Editor from the HOA message board for 30 days, and then her derogatory comments about us in the January 2020 News & Views, was the impetus for the metamorphosis of this website into an official digital news site. This actually inures to the benefit of the community, which now has a current and truthful digital news site to access at any time about Cascade Lakes and its environs. It also provides a needed “checks and balances” that is free from influence or control by the Board, by anyone doing their bidding, and by anyone and their minions engaged in defamation and character assassination of your Editor and her husband.
Contrary to what Marion, the president of the Board of Directors, wrote in the January 2020 News & Views, CascadeLakesResidents.com is not “ghosting” the Cascade Lakes HOA website, whatever that means. It most certainly is not a shadow site of the HOA website. It is an independent news site.
Marion’s comment that this site is made by us for our “own purposes” is confusing and misleading. Once again, the purpose of CascadeLakesResidents.com is to report on news about Cascade Lakes and its local environs. It also has features and commentary and other interesting pages, just like any other digital news site or newspaper. In fact, it bears no resemblance to the HOA’s website, and unlike the HOA’s website, there are no arbitrary controls and restrictions imposed upon it.
Your Editor-in-Chief has over 15 years’ experience in the news business and is a long-time member of the Radio Television News Association of Southern California as well as a full member of the Florida Press Club.
If anyone has anything they would like to contribute to our growing site, we welcome such contributions.]
Board Member: motion to approve the January financial report. Second: Linda. Unanimous.
Property Manager’s Report: Deborah Balka:
Palm Beach Broward – final mow is February 26-27, trim crew in Landon, then Angel Wing. Weed spray is in Angel Wing and then does the common area; palm spray on February 29th the clubhouse; palm trim will be completed Thursday, will close the pool 8-10am; we welcome Sydney, our new evening/weekend staff attendant, who will be here Thursday evening. She was here last evening. [Editor’s note: the pool closure was this morning.]
Committee Reports:
Mimi Spinner: this is the blood drive report. It was very successful. Over thirty people donated blood, several new residents donated. Sue Leonard spoke at most of the pickleball meetings.
[Editor’s note: there has not been any pickleball meetings this year. The last one was in 2019.]
Mimi: Deborah was the first one to sign up on the list; Lee Sinett donated; my children donated. Sue helped; Mike Bloomberg helped. [audience gasps, and crowd laughs.] Mike Blackman! [Mimi and crowd still giggling.] Mike Blackman acted as publicity chairman. Your efforts helped save 90 lives; one pint helps to save three lives. Next year it will be Friday, February 5th. [Editor’s note: giggling continued as Mimi concluded her report and left the podium. Thank you, Mimi, for the day’s great chuckle.]
Barry Gordon: Landscaping: the committee is reviewing the ficus planning, some are failing and not rejuvenating.
Sue Schmer: Rules & Regs: we’re reviewing the tennis club rules, now the sports center, we have enormous contact between the pickleball president and liaison Alan Silver. Right now, we almost have a final working draft, the deadline is this Friday. I want to personally thank Diane Green and Alan Silver for getting me all the information and giving valuable feedback. Congratulations on a job well done. This is club leadership working together for the benefit of the community.
Jon Nast: Safety & Security: we are finalizing the stop and speed limit signs. There are two contractors. We are $2,000 above our $5,000 budget. We are awaiting estimates – if we buy the signs ourselves and then hire the labor. Gate access, remote services, we are searching for. Off site storage of security camera footage, we are still researching. Security fence and hedges – the ad hoc committee is in the research mode. There are 600 linear feet of fences and hedges. Electric speed signs- two- we are discussing the benefit of it for Cascade Lakes Blvd. The next meeting is March 17th.
Eileen: how many times have we talked to the community about speeding. It’s going on six years. It’s been noticed. Now, walking yesterday, a woman was riding her bicycle on the sidewalk and said, “I was almost hit three times by riding on the road.” It is so bad between 8:30 and 9 in the morning. I look forward to seeing something done quickly.
Larry Jacobowitz: Engineering: this is the second time we have a major leak from one of our fountains. The first time was 10 years ago. The original piping was not installed properly. The first time we moved everything over to the south fountain. Once we figure it out, we will handle it. The computer for the pool- Palm Beach County is becoming a pain, but it will save us a lot of aggravation in the future.
Debbie Berenholtz: [Editor’s note: once again, the pickleball club is not a committee, so comments from club members are more appropriate for the Second Residents’ Input Session, and there was never any club meeting to vote for the creation of and manning of a “chairperson” position.]
Debbie: Pickleball club membership – it has been 121 days since the courts were lined. There has been over 2,000 hours of play, over 19 players averaged. There were 116 different people that have used the courts since October 2019.
Diane Green: Entertainment: The first two shows were very well attended. We broke even for the first two shows.
[Editor’s note: Broke even? As we have previously detailed, there is no reason why every single show should not end with a profit by having entertainment talent participate in the ticket sales on a percentage basis, rather than paying them thousands upon thousands of dollars up front. We went over this in detail and it is posted elsewhere on this sight under Residents' Input Page, both HOA and General, posted on January 20, 2020. If there is a method that makes the community virtually risk free financially, which we provided, then that methodology should be implemented as the most fiscally responsible way to book talent. So far, this obvious benefit to the community has been rebuffed. In addition, when one states that the committee has “broken even,” technically it is a loss for the community because there is no consideration for wear and tear, utilities, insurance, maintenance, etc. which is borne by the entire community, not just the show ticket participants. Thus, most of the community is actually subsidizing the minority who attend the shows. This is most definitely not a break-even scenario. The budget that is presented is misleading because it does not include these various costs enumerated above that the entire community is subsidizing.]
Diane: March 8th is our next show. Aaron Glenn is giving a free concert on February 27th at 11:00am; he is a concert pianist, composer, and singer. The 2021 comedy show series – March 16th at 9:00am in the ballroom for seating assignments. If you are handicapped, you need a signed [doctor’s] note. April 18th is Juke Box Bingo; we are working on the final contract. May 23rd is Memorial Day pool party, and July 11th is the Independence Day party; details to follow. New Year’s Eve and Brunch – we are finalizing the contracts. The 2022 show series, we are waiting on contracts. [Editor’s note: same issue here on the utter failure to negotiate contracts for the fiscal benefit of the community.] There are many contracts coming in the next few weeks. [Editor’s note: which legal/talent expert is reviewing them? Answer: none.]
Old Business:
Item 1: Awning for Courts 4-5: Linda: let’s do the pavers first.
Item 2: Tennis Court pavers: Linda: we now have the price, the pavers would match what we have between courts 2 and 3, it would be money well spent. It will upgrade the appearance. It would be a plus. I make the motion, $5,500. Alan seconds. Mark: Is there an additional $600 for the drain? Linda: it’s a possibility. I was gonna add that in. If needed, an additional $600 for the French drain so it totals $6,100. Larry (from the audience): there’s a major drain there, we might not need a drain. Alan: how do we know? Larry: when everything is finished. As it is pitched, you won’t have to dig it up, and originally, there were additional charges for taking out part of the fence; it’s now included. Linda: it may require – Harvey: we need to amend the amount, not to exceed $6,100. Linda: not to exceed $6,100. Alan: the cement slab now seems relatively small. Are there plans to enlarge it? Larry: not now. The awning will fit over it. [Editor’s note: per Arthur, your roving reporter, Alan is correct, however, you can always cement the poles into a separate cement foundation and put the pavers around it; it might even be more aesthetically pleasing.] Eileen: I was speaking to Lee [Sinett], he didn’t think the French drains will need to be replaced. [Editor’s note: per Arthur, you don’t need a French drain, you just fill in and raise the existing drain to the same level as the pavers.] Mark: was this determined last year or it just came up? Marion: It was last year, before that, too. All in favor not to exceed $6,100? It’s unanimous. [Motion passes 6-0]
Item 1: Awning - $4,695. Linda: It’s a necessity, I move to accept. Eileen: second. Mark: did you look around for other awning companies? Larry: it’s the same company that did all the awnings. They’re good and dependable. Eileen: it will match. Larry: it will match. Linda: motion to accept. Eileen: second. Marion: Motion passes unanimously. [6-0 with Mark’s hand not clearly raised, which caused your Editor to ask what his vote was, and then he mumbled affirmatively to Marion.]
New Business:
Item 1: Results of Long-Term Planning Survey. Eileen: I want to give a shout out to the Long- Range Planning Committee who worked tirelessly. There was a 46 percent turnout, 450 residents, not households. I turn it over to Sue Leonard to give recommendations. [Editor’s note: Sue Leonard then approached the podium with paperwork in her hand.]
Sue Leonard: No recording, it requires my permission which is not granted. The survey is not a vote.
[Editor’s note: It is not clear what Sue is referring to when she states that “recording” requires her permission which she is not granting. Is she referring to her likeness? Is she referring to the comments she makes? Is she referring to the document in her hand? Is she referring to the Power Point presentation which she does not own, as it states that it is the property of the HOA, so she would have no authority to make such a demand in any event? Is she referring to all four?
If Sue’s demand for no recording refers to her likeness and/or her statements, such demand is unenforceable as she is in a public forum. One’s right to privacy ends when one exits the front door of one’s home. You have no privacy rights to your likeness in a public forum or the statements you make publicly; as such, you may not control the recording of your likeness or your words in such context. No permission to record your likeness or your words is required of you and you cannot summarily deny permission and expect to be entitled to any compliance with such a demand when you are in public. In fact, had the board meeting been streaming, as it should have been, all speakers would have been recorded, both their likeness and their words.
Furthermore, Sue’s presentation was at a public board meeting. Anything at a public board meeting is subject to reporting and recording. For example, we could have had our cell phones recording the entire presentation if we so chose. We could have posted it on our news site in its entirety if we so chose. If the HOA’s streaming service were operational, the entirety of the presentation, including the Power Point slide show, would have been captured and recorded, and anyone could have saved that recording as it was streaming. So, Sue’s demand is completely out of order.]
Sue: [reviewing the slide show]: somewhat means a little. Moderate means not excessive. There is a difference. We have the age group, the reason you bought, what you enjoy the most. The answer was “my home.” [Editor’s note: there was a presentation of clubhouse data.] Appearance of the club house was very important. [Editor’s note: Refresh, redo, or re-purpose: refresh was the most important, the others were not very important.] Fitness center: most preferred refresh; re-purpose or redo was not important. New mailboxes: 102 said very important, 55 said somewhat, 50 said moderately.
[Editor’s note: as we previously pointed out, mailboxes are in fact not subject to a vote by either the Board or the community. This bears repeating, so here it is again:
Mailboxes are specifically referenced in our Declaration of Conditions, Covenants, Easements and Restrictions on file with the State of Florida; at page 1-18, it states: “Section O. Mailboxes. No mailboxes or similar improvement shall be installed on any Unit or Lot unless the location thereof has been approved by the ARB and the materials therefore [sic] and color thereof have been approved by the ARB and are in accordance with such standards for materials and colors as may be adopted by the ARB.” This necessarily means that an individual homeowner may apply to the ARB, the architectural review board of our HOA, for a specific and unique mailbox, and there is, in fact, no requirement that all mailboxes be uniform.
Furthermore, under our Rules and Regulations, page 4-8, under B. General Rules, Number 8, it states: “Mailboxes and numbers are the property of the individual homeowners. The homeowner is responsible for maintenance and/or replacement in accordance with the standards established by the property manager. New mailboxes must be in accordance with standards established by the Board of Directors.” Thus, again, there is no requirement that all mailboxes be uniform. And to the extent the Rules and Regulations are in conflict with the Declaration on file with the State of Florida, the Declaration controls and the Rules and Regs must bow to the Declaration. Therefore, it is actually improper for our BOD to vote or for there to be a community vote on changing mailboxes en masse because the HOA does not own the mailboxes and no resident has the right to vote on issues concerning another resident’s mailbox. So, if a mailbox looks like crap, the HOA has a right to proceed under our Rules and Regs, Section E., Violation Guidelines, at pages 4-16 to 4-17, but that’s it.]
Sue: pickleball hard courts: 125 said very important, 30 said moderately important, 21 said somewhat important. Cost is very important and appearance. Survey comments: continued survey of residents for feedback is important. Mailboxes – 202 – almost ½ felt it was a necessity. Bids have been received. Recommendation is to proceed with aluminum boxes and poles.
[Editor’s note: you cannot do this per the HOA’s governing documents, as detailed above. Mailboxes are strictly determined by the individual homeowner with approval of the ARB. The community may not force an individual owner to pay for a designated mailbox, period.]
Sue: Food service: residents want a level of. Recommendation – a snack bar or grab and go with a credit card only. Roads: more than 119 expressed the need for improvements to the roads. Fitness Center/Gym: periodic review. Use of Library and Arts & Crafts Center: maximize the purpose of these areas. Investigation of operational functionality. Clubhouse refresh: financial tolerance was for refresh. Fiscal responsibility: there is a need for clearer communication between the Board and the residents. [Editor’s note: we have been calling for this since we arrived, so hallelujah, it appears that the residents agree with us, the minority of loud objectors notwithstanding.] Resurfacing: pickleball, hard surface – the recommendation was to obtain estimates. Pool – residents seek more shade, color, and no more monotone. Educational offerings: recommendation was the resurrection of Cascade Lakes University with classes and webinars. [Editor’s note: whereupon, Sue handed multiple copies of the report from which she read to the Board.]
Marion: the Board will be reading this over and will have some discussions at the next board meeting. You guys did a great job. [Editor’s note: audience claps.]
Item 2. Pool Chemical Feeder – Mark: the government agencies are coming around threatening this and threatening that. We can monitor this by the computer. I make the proposal. Linda seconds. Harvey seconds. Marion: it’s like a tie. [Editor’s note: they gave it to Linda.] Eileen: he’s still coming on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, correct? Marion: yes. We have to report the readings seven days a week. Deborah: Alex just takes the reading. This will be able to record the reading. If there’s a lot of rain, he will drain it. It doesn’t change Cucinotta’s contract at all. Harvey: this system acts as a chlorinator and pH as well. The system automatically does it. Cucinotta still has to fill the tanks, vacuum the pool, and maintenance. Mark: and they work on the fountains as well. Marion: all in favor? Unanimous. [Editor’s note: 6-0]
Second Residents’ Input Session:
Roberta Alter: wonderful job on the survey. What space is available for putting greens…some of us are getting in the mail [solicitations] signed by neighbors. There’s a resident’s name on there. Marion: Next Door [Editor’s note: it is an App, an independent commercial enterprise] – it’s a neighborhood conglomeration they get from the county. It’s commercial. Mark: I’m next door to someone, she didn’t do it. Marion: it’s legal.
Howard Olarsch: Landon Circle. Bicycles on the sidewalk – I bicycle every day; I keep track of the ugly roads. There is a lack of safety of people on bicycles. More signs – it’s ludicrous. We can stop landscaping with more signs. I see UPS, delivery services, residents speed; your putting up a sign is not going to do anything. The Polo Club hired off duty police to issue summonses. Speed bumps can be done. It works. It’s aesthetic. Spending money on electric signs is a waste.
Alan: Safety & Security is looking at a number of methods including speed bumps. Howard: another thing, I heard about a break-in. Safety and Security should think about the entrance way that doesn’t allow people to bike in and to walk in.
Freda Werden: Wycombe. It’s now called the sports center. Does the reserve for the tennis cover money that can be used for improvement for the pickleball courts? Marion: we have to beef up reserve. Richard Green: certain items overlap. Reserve is something that has a life to it. Freda: seating area at pickleball – how does the club ask for money for this?
[Editor’s note: at this point, your Editor received an urgent call from her Dad’s doctor; Dad is currently in the hospital as of this writing. Therefore, your Editor left the meeting and was on the telephone with the doctor outside the ballroom in the hallway until after the meeting concluded. Arthur Andelson, your Editor’s husband and your roving reporter, continued to take notes and so what follows is a summary of his notes. Your Editor thanks Arthur for taking the reins to complete the task.]
Arthur’s notes:
In response to Freda’s last question, Richard Green spoke about it. Marion then stated that if you have questions about how the budget works, speak with Richard Green. The seating area will be considered a capital improvement.
Steve, one of our volunteer safety cops, took the podium and asked about the break-in on Landon Circle. He asked, why can’t you tell us what’s going on? Once the Board gets the facts, let the community know. Marion stated that we cannot because it’s “gossip.” She also stated she does not have a police report or permission from the owners. Steve: We need to know the basic facts so we can protect our community and inform them. It’s even on the website of an incident on the 5400 block of Landon Circle. It’s not gossip. As for speeding, I was watching the local news, and one of the communities put in cameras and gives out warnings and fines.
Phil Berman: Landon Circle. Is this the only meeting not streaming or are all future meetings not going to be streaming? Alan: future meetings will be streaming. They’re redoing the wiring in the ballroom and one of the audio wires got snipped or broken so that is why we were not able to do it this week, but it should be fixed for all future meetings. [Editor’s note: why not explain that up front at the beginning of the meeting?]
Sue Schmer: Regarding future budget meetings, why can’t the clubs also be invited to answer questions about budgets? Freda: are clubs invited for the future? Board member, perhaps Marion: clubs are supposed to be self-sufficient.
[Editor’s note: tennis and pickleball clubs need to bring their issues to the Recreation Committee which is responsible for the courts, their condition, and their improvements. Then the Recreation Committee can make recommendations to the Board. Also, Lee Sinett, as Director of the Sports Center, can also be consulted because of his expertise and the respect that he commands communitywide.
In addition, any resident at any time may make a request to any board member to put something on the agenda for the next board meeting. This request should be done in writing so that there is a record of it. You can also use the e-form on the HOA website to e-mail the entire board at one time. You will receive a ticket number and then you can copy and/or print out the item for your records.]
Round Table Discussion: Per Arthur, none.
Meeting adjourned: per Marion, ahead of schedule.
Editor’s concluding comments: And so concludes the board meeting of February 19, 2020. Next board meeting is scheduled for March 4, 2020 at 9:30am in the ballroom.