Southern Ridge Home Owners Association Board Meeting

Location: Reliance Community Church

Meeting Date: March 4, 2019 Meeting Time: 6:30pm

Meeting Agenda Recorded By: Danielle Basile

Board Members in Attendance: Connie, Danielle, Brian, Tyler, Ryan, and Kendall

FEBRUARY MINUTES

 Call Meeting to Order: 6:30pm

 Move to Amend Agenda: Danielle motioned to amend the agenda to allow for a discussion with J.Russel regarding proposal on commons land; Connie seconded.  Motion carries 3-0.  (Tyler, Brian, and Ryan not yet here).

J Russel was asked to speak to his involvement in resolving the CMC commons land dispute.  J is not involved in the situation other than to help Clint Miller resolve the problem.  (Brian arrived at 6:31, Tyler arrived at 6:34pm.)  Jay is still agreeing to put rip rap and a sidewalk into the South side of the small pond and add rip rap continuing across the street in the drainage area (that was agreed to from previous discussion with the Board.  (Ryan arrived at 6:36pm).  Jay presented a new design for the land south of the current development, showing a mock-up of the plotting of the new property.  Jay again brought up the CMC driveway issue.  The approaches on the east and west sides of Lark have to align per code.  Jay noted Fifteen years ago that the tax assessors assessed the value of the land at roughly $50,000.  The developers convinced the City that the land could never be sold and, if we were to try selling the land to Clint Miller we might mess up that agreement.  Tyler noted the Board’s frustration with CMC’s lack of care and response in dealing with grievances in the community.  Danielle will send an e-mail to J.Russel to get confirmation on dates and details from Clint Miller regarding the proposed solution.  Connie asked J.Russell when he plans to install the Rip Rap and sidewalk south of the small pond.  Jay said he will fix it in the next phase of the development which will be this summer.  Connie noted that the sidewalk has had severe washout issues.  Jay proposed the possibility of tearing out the sidewalk and rerouting completely.  He will have an engineer work on a plan to avoid future problems.  Brian asked if Jay could keep the Board in the loop on possible plans because we want this project done in a way that we don’t have future flooding and washout issues.  Jay said he would communicate through Danielle.

Brian asked how many lots are being placed in the new Platt and Jay noted it is approximately 100 new plots.  Brian asked for a copy of the plans for the neighborhood.  Jay offered to send them to Danielle.  Jay estimates it taking two more years before moving into the newest development phase.  Danielle asked about a sidewalk going in behind the hedge row bordering the newest portion of the development.  Jay noted he would prefer not to put a sidewalk in this area.  Brian asked about Jay’s plan to plant trees, he said its all speculative at this point.  Brian noted that pine wilt disease continues to kill pine trees every year and our Scotch and Austrian pines are susceptible.  Jay noted a possibility of putting in cedar trees or maiden grass on a burm.

Board discussed wording for the Board’s agreement with Clint Miller regarding the sidewalk fix.  A letter will note that Clint Miller is to: fix east and west sides of sidewalk and approach pursuant to City Code, submit drawing and copy of permit to Board, and conduct work no later than April 15^th.  When Clint Miller provides us with a signed copy of the letter along with documentation of request for city permits, we would agree to sign over the deed.  In addition CMC will pay all associated fees for filing, surveying, deeds, and other related expenses.  Danielle moved to approve sending CMC a letter with the above language regarding the proposed land solution, Kendall seconds, motion carries 6-0.

Brian asked how Jay got on the agenda.  Danielle noted she amended the agenda at the beginning of the meeting to allow Jay time to speak.

Approval of January Board Minutes:  Tabled, as changes were made by Brian via e-mail but that copy wasn’t available to the group.  Danielle will send Brian’s proposed changes to the January Minutes.

Resident Open Forum: No residents in attendance.

Treasurers Report: $143,000 free cash in reserves right now which is higher than anticipated.  Expecting to spend approximately $40,000 expenses in March depending on how the Board votes on some of the items today.  Landscaping, security company, tree trimming, commons expenses, signage, pool opening, etc.  Noted there wasn’t a response from Mil-Tell regarding invoice specifics; HOAMS noted there may have been staffing changes and asked to try contacting someone else.  Tyler asked about how to get onto the Fidelity account as an approved signer.  Connie noted he just needed to take his identification along with minutes approving the officers and Fidelity would make the change.  Tyler noted he has still been reviewing HOAMS’s reporting of expenses and he is trying to see if there are other ways to report the principle payment as both an expense and a liability reduction.

 DRC: Joe doesn’t have any open requests.

Landscaping Committee:  Nothing outside of commons project which will be discussed in Priority Business.

 Priority Business:

• Approved Countryside to install beds, irrigation, etc. Hoping to start Wednesday
• Approved final payment to BYO/NPC. Brian and Tyler came to a resolution with BYO/NPC regarding settling damages and costs associated with broken equipment.  BYO/NPC agreed to send an invoice directly to Southern Ridge, we will make payment to them and they will send us a lien release.  (This invoice was part of Studium’s change order #9 which was sent after abandoning the project.  Connie noted that in Pay App #2, we paid $31,000 for equipment/mulch and $15,000 for install.  Tyler noted that Studium did not pay the vendor the full portion of our payment for the playground installation.  This was at the same time we were notified that Studium hadn’t paid Voegeli and the sport court provider.   We had to settle directly with Voegeli as well.  Tyler stated his intention to directly pay vendors; Jennifer noted that she wants to make sure we don’t double pay for the same work.
• Tyler noted two things: We have not agreed to the amount Studium is billing and Studium has not finished the project per the original contract.
• Tyler noted that Southern Ridge issued payment in December for $18,000 which left our account with an estimated $10,000 in remaining unpaid charges. Tyler noted that he and Brian have both called and e-mailed numerous times to get details on billing and to request completion of work, but Studium personnel are not responding.  Brian noted that before we can agree to anything, we need a very detailed accounting of charges.  Ryan asked if Studium sent anything regarding their accounting details.  Tyler said we have only received very generic pay app with general detail.
• Tyler noted that the focus has been to get contractors/Studium to complete work that has not been completed 100%. Danielle asked if the bids Tyler and Brian are seeking are part of work Studium didn’t fulfill.  Tyler and Brian said not all bids being sought are for completing Studium’s unfinished business, some is for landscaping.  Tyler explained that in the last meeting/walk-through, it was noted that Southern Ridge still owed Studium $10,000; then we the Board was ambushed with a $40,000 bill.  There were two change orders from the beginning which were signed and have been paid.  Studium has been sending additional change orders with items which were not accurate, so we haven’t signed further change orders because there hasn’t been agreement.  Connie and Tyler expressed disappointment with the process for working on the change orders.  Brian and Tyler have asked for communication on a clear and detailed accounting of invoices, but we haven’t been provided with any additional information.
• Danielle expressed concern that we need to first protect the interest of the HOA community. Studium has repeatedly refused to lower their bill and stated they are done with the work even though the Board disagrees.  She noted that the problem won’t go away on its own and no one on the Board is savvy on the legality of our rights and options in this matter.  Danielle noted that refusal of payment will cause vendors to file liens against the HOA, costing the community more money.  Furthermore, HOAMS noted that we would be making double payments by working with additional vendors to deal with unfinished work while we have already paid Studium.  As an example, Jennifer stated that Studium has already been paid for the playground and now we have made a payment directly to the vendor for the bill Studium never paid.  Tyler countered that he doesn’t consider it to be double payment for same work.  He noted that even if we have to pay the entire amount, we still have an unfinished project that still has work to be done.  Brian stated regardless, the work still has to be done.
• Danielle asked what part of the original scope of the Studium Contract that has not been completed. Tyler noted unfinished projects as: electrical Install for the Sport Court and Pavilion, retaining wall (Studium failed to address the drainage issue and further dirt work was never completed to spec as promised in original scope), playground repairs for fixing monkey bars on playground, trash blind/fence enclosure (pad poured but no enclosure built).
• Ryan interjected that per the contract we have 30 days to respond to Studium regarding the punch list of items to still be completed. The second part of the contract would be that the “owner” would work with Studium to identify what work isn’t completed to satisfaction.  Ryan noted that we need to generate a certified letter including a list of the items not yet delivered and explaining the reasons we don’t agree with the total project cost.
• Jennifer with HOAMS will write the certified letter to include items on non-conformity to address all the punch-list items and explain why we aren’t paying the final pay app. She noted she needs to talk with Rodney at HOAMS to determine if and how she can do this.
• Brian moved to send a certified letter to Studium with a punch list noting that we are not able to approve the final certificate of payment. This letter would also request a fully itemized explanation of all charges and accounting.  Brian motions to have Jennifer write the letter to send to Studium via certified mail, Danielle seconds, motion carries 6-0.  Jen noted that she will need the official punch list from Tyler.  Tyler stated he’d send the list to Jennifer tonight, after the meeting.
• Brian also submitted bids to construct a retaining wall on the East side of the 8 ft sidewalk. Connie noted that she went to the commons area to look at the water collection after the major rains last week. She noted no major erosion issues.  Joe noted that most of the proposed wall is over an easement and the covenants don’t allow for permanent structures over an easement.  Brian disagreed that most of the wall will install on an easement and clarified to the board that reserves are not “lots” by definition and are not subject to the same rules as lots.  Brian discussed the installation with three landscape architects who indicated a segmented retaining wall, such as that proposed, are easily moved if required.  Danielle commented that this is not a permanent structure.  Brian motioned to install the wall using Miller, it would be 60’ long and range from 6” to 18″ tall for a total of $4,845, Tyler seconds, motion carries 5-1 with Connie opposing.
• Brian asked that we move forward on a vote to approve the lighting infrastructure and locating of conduit. The cost to run infrastructure for the landscaping is $1226.40 (conduit and wire).  Tyler motions to approve laying conduit and wire, Brian seconds.  Motion carries 6-0.
• Locating electrical power conduits to the pavilion and sport court and pulling wire in the conduit will cost $1,200. This will provide power to the boxes on the pavilion and sport court so that we can move forward with irrigation additions.  Brian moves to approve Miller’s bid to locate the conduit and pull the wire, Danielle seconds, motion carries 6-0.
• Board was presented with the new contract for HOAMS. The new contract adds that the annual taxes will be part of the basic services of the contract.  Previously that was billed separately.  The new contract also added the on-site weekly inspections (which had previously been set as an amendment to the 2017 contract).  HMS will issue and track pool keys and program the pool key system.  Rodney proposed maintaining the monthly unit fee for three years. Brian asked for more time to review contract.  Danielle noted that we can push the vote to the next meeting, but all need to do our best to prepare for a vote next meeting.  Several board members noted that there is a need to keep a service.  Tyler noted that we are not seeking bids for other contracts at this time so he wants to make sure we do our research on our ability to get out of the contract if needed.  There is a $21/month increase compared to our current contract (with this we’ve added more homes and are receiving more services.  Tabled to next meeting.
• The rest of the agenda items are tabled due to time constraints.

Adjournment: 8:42 pm

* Next Board Meeting will be held on March 25th @ 6:30pm at Reliance Community Church (119th/Pawnee).