Castlegate Community

And granny02 you're quick to get upset.  There was at least 1 open seat on the board not too long back, did you run to fill it?  If not, I don't think anyone has any room to completely belittle the board who does what it does free of charge, in their own free time, days off, with families, etc.  It's okay to be a little upset and want an explanation I can understand that, so go to the next meeting, bring it up, request an explanation, or better yet, if I'm not mistaken, you can e-mail the board directly through one of the links on this site so you could always e-mail your question to them requesting a detailed answer to your question(s). Until you've walked a mile in someone else's shoes...

Granny, I do know alot about the HOA rules and I do have alot of information...Im a board member.  Anything that I post here is absolute truth...at the time I post it.  I have only missed 2 meetings in the past 3 years, so I am very active with the board and the decision making process.  If you have any direct questions for the board, you can send an email to " castlegatehoa@yahoo.com ".

To answer your question about why rates went up...it's because what we have been charging the last three years has not been enough, and it has only gotten worse because of the economy and poor management by Kachina, which is a primary reason we changed, as discussed in November.  We could not explain where the money went in November because we did not know, that is what we are trying to find out.  I'm not quite sure how you understood that the board could not discuss anything until after lawers were done, this is not the case.  We simply don't know yet.  As soon as we know, we will let everyone else know at a meeting.  The reason we don't have updated financials on the web is because Kachina stopped providing them to us.  The board is in the dark too, not just you.  I assure you, we are not witholding any information. 

When I talk about attendance at meetings, it is from 3 years of experience....it is shameful!  All we need is 130 people to show up for the anual meeting, and they don't even have to show up.  All you have to do is return the ballat that the management company sent out.  That counts as a proxy.  For an anual meeting, there MUST be 1/10 attendence.  The board cannot discuss anything and no business may be conducted without it.  If this is why you think the board is witholding information, then you just simply must understand that we are not allowed to discuss anything without a quorum.

I really do wish more people would get on here and read what is going on in there community.  I really only see a handfull that respond or post.  I believe I was at the Novembers meeting were I posed the question of exactly what was being done about the "missing money" from our last management company. I state "missing money" because I had brought up durning the meeting that large amounts of money were being paid out to the garbage company month after month.  This started around April, with an increase over budget of $2,000.00.  This was not the only expense that seemed to be paid out more than budgeted.  I am certainly not opposed to an increase in the HOA fee, as everyone knows budgets are budgets.  Costs do go up.  I am though VERY concerned that this has been going on for at least 8 months, only for the Board to start action on removal of the old management company in a late part of the year.  To this date I keep hearing "we are investigating" and "we have our lawyers working on it".  But I still do not hear any progress of the situation.  The HOA board does represent the community and the HOA board does need to answer to the people they represent.  What the old management company has done is illegal, this is not a normal situation.  Which I feel does not mean you need to attend a meeting to find out what is being done.  This is a special situation and I do not see any reason why a mailing could not go out to each and every household owner in Castlegate, informing them of what was found, what is taking place and how the situation is being corrected.  I just can not believe in two months the board does not know any more about what is going on with the old management company, the proceedings on the old management company or the financials.  If we have hired lawyers to investigate the financials of what was being paid, and over paid, from our old management company and they have not found anything out yet, then it is time to get new lawyers. 

For a few of you that are reading this and saying "what the heck is this guy talking about?" Go the the main page and print out all the financials that are there.  Go month by month, you will see in June's financial report that over $50,000.00 was paid to the garbage company.  It was told to our treasurer from the management company this was to paid off the rest of the contract.  Only to find the next month with another bill paid to the garbage company.  If you look back from month to month, every month there was an amount paid more than budgeted to the garbage company.  We have a contract, with a stated amount.  I do not believe the board would approve a budget that was not reviewed to make sure we were under budgeted.  I only use this one expense as an example, there are more.

Castlegate ... when are the home owners going to get answers on this issue ? 

At the anual meeting.