We had a very good and informative meeting last night. Mary Mahoney gave her presentation and there was a good question and answer session afterward. The one greatest benefit we learned was that every resident would be billed for maintenance fees through their yearly tax bill as a an ad-valorem tax. If a resident didn't pay their taxes then after April 1st a tax certificate sale would be held at the courthouse for investors who would bid for the certificates. Investors earn a percentage on the proceeds once the certificate is redeemed. The downside to all of this we found out is that we would have to separate the homeowner's association board from the maintence or Special Dependent Taxing District Board. We could have the same people on both board but meetings would follow one after the other with discussions held to their respective meetings. In other words, block parties would only be discussed by the homeowner's association board and paid for out of the homeowner association budget. We would be keeping two different budgets but separated from each other. Discussion certainly came up about how hard it is just to keep a maintence board together with interested residents, let alone having to have another board with budget, meetings, minutes, etc. kept also.
Mary Mahoney made it quite plain to us that it would take dedicated folk who all have the community in mind and would not want to let it all fall apart.
I could see and feel the vibes from board members and the residents who attended that this sounds like a great idea but how would we possibly be able to handle it all?
I know from experience that it only takes a couple of dedicated people to do 98% of the work and things some how get done. The rest only have to show up at the meetings to provide a quorum so we can vote on issues.
I'm sure some more discussion will be had on this in the coming weeks. But, this is they year to do this if we want to do it. The reason is that this whole process will take about a year to complete. First the board will have to vote to procede with this. Then, it's a campaign to get 51% of residents to vote 'yes' on the issue. From there the board prepares documentation per the county requirements and then after all is said and done this year, a public meeting is held to accept the referendum. Then, our 2011 tax bill will be collecting our fees for us. This would eliminate the quarterly payments and the expense we now have to print and mail the payment coupon books. This would eliminate this task by our property management company. All legal proceedings would now be handled by the county to enforce collecting the fees.
We would then be able to renegotiate with the property management company our contract with them and lower our costs. It could all be a wash though as the county will take a commission of up to 4% of our fees each year for their work. 4% of 62k is $2,480. We also have to carry up to $5,000 bond on each board member. This protects the residents from any trustee or board member malfeasance. It's a county requirement and a good one at that.
My feelings on all this at this time is yes, I would like to see us move forward with this and put this in place. But, no, I don't think the board or the residents would make this a priority as they don't feel the need. I can tell you that right now we have some residents who are foot draggers. Meaning, they haven't paid their dues for whatever reason and it affects the rest of us who have kept up our end of the bargain and paid in full on time when it was due. It upsets me to think that some of these foot draggers I have heard are purposely not paying their dues as they say, 'We don't see what we are getting out of paying these dues'. Well, all you have to do is pay attention, it's that simple. I can only believe that these people that are holding out are not doing it for the reason just stated as it makes no sense to me. They are doing it thinking it is a way to get back at some board member who've they've had a gripe with in the past about something. Again, I can only say that this hurts us all in the end and that the rest of us doing our part are carrying the others on our backs. Is it fair? Of course not but how do we get this across to those few who do not want to follow the rules?
Let's have your comments. What do you think? Are you aware that we are now having to look into using our reserve funds for paying current and upcoming bills? Do you realize that the board may have to increase the dues to make up the difference? It could easily happen. We have a pond in great need of attention. It's been almost nine years since it's been built. It is in desparate need of reconstruction right now. We have been quoted $24,000 to do this repair. We are nowhere in sight of being able to fund that project at the moment. It may be years from now. Keep in mind that the longer we wait the more expensive it will become.
We need to get our ducks in a row and face reality, folks. Are you with us or against us? You wanted to live in a deed restricted community with fees, we didn't push you into it now get right or get out. It's that simple. I hate to be blunt about it but what else can I say?
