GNWCIA: We Have New Board of Directors...

If you only show up here just to get the latest details of the Great Northwest Community Improvement Association (GNWCIA) then I've been a pretty crappy correspondent in the last few weeks, wouldn't you say?

Well, herewith the latest news available to anyone with two functioning fingers and an account on the Google: Our sitting board of three remaining directors appointed three more folks to take the open positions good through 2011. They are (in no particular order) Lee Besing, our former Chair, Janet Doherty, our former vice-Chair, and Ida Rodkey, one of the five folks who ran in the recent failed election attempt. I offer my personal congratulations to them all and hope they will continue the good work and progress the board had been making in spite of the buffoonery that some of the other directors had attempted to inflict upon the association.

And of course, comments like that can often upset folks, so I am pledging to myself to limit such observations in the future. I've never tried to be some sort of rebel voice attempting to sway opinions one way or another for issues faced by my HOA, but I can tell you when I see stupid.

A year or so ago, through no input or request from me, the fine people in charge over at the office added a link to my friendly neighborhood Blog on the front page of our HOA's official site. That decision was almost immediately attacked by a few board members who felt I was a threat to good order and discipline, certainly sophomoric in nature and quite often in bad taste. I don't know those to be actual quotes by the way, but I certainly accept them all as accurate descriptions of what I do here.

Upon hearing rumors of the complaints, I immediately contacted people in the know and suggested the link be removed to avoid any problems. You people should not be subjected to someone like me but, I'm happy to report that those critics were denied their requests and the link remained for some time (almost a year, really).

But all good things come to an end. Just as a matter of normal updating and such the link to the page was removed and I harbor no regrets or ill-feelings as a result. I'm just glad that a lot of my neighbors who looked over the community-sponsored web page followed my goofy picture to this page, and as a result, my wife and I have met quite a few neighbors we may have never met before. So thanks for the exposure.

Different topic: I received word from Councilwoman Delicia Herrera's office that Mr. Sean Fitzgibbons, aide to the Councilwoman, will begin attending our Neighborhood Watch meetings instead of the GNWCIA Board of Directors meetings, because they felt it was better for interaction with the community. Ya think? I'm sure the idea is that he won't have to wait for a lawyer to be consulted if he asks a resident "How's it going?"

So if you live in the GNW and think you'd like to get involved with things, why not try to do it by becoming a Block Captain? It's fun and, next Wednesday the 28th of May, we are going to precede our meeting with a cookout - burgers, dogs, chili, sides, dessert! Want to know more? E-mail me!

GNWCIA Meeting Report: My Notes...

A quick note: Sorry to be delinquent with the posts this week - I have been overwhelmed with watching TV now that many of my must see shows are on (Lost!) and I have also been doing some work which causes me to have a little less time to fritter away my life banging away notes into the computer and posting pictures of people being goofy. But, I will try to do better and provide those of you who make this Blog a daily visit on your Internet journey, a rewarding experience each day. No, I'm not running for any elected office.

So, then. My wife and I made the short trip down the street to the Lodge of the Great Northwest so we could attend at least the first hour and a half of the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Great Northwest Community Improvement Association. The audience was , dare I say, packed, with residents compared to normal meetings we attend. I don't have an exact head count, but it was easily triple or quadruple the normal crowd we see. Thank you residents; we need more people to show interest, and mark my words; you will enjoy the show, especially if you are a closet Springer Fan.

But I digress.

Following the fully participated in moment of silence and pledging to the flag, the meeting was called to order and such, then we heard from residents to complain:

Up first, Former Board Chair, Mrs. Kathleen Callahan and a few comments about the the content of letters from Board Chair Besing and Vice Chair Doherty in last months paper. Read it here. I'll save you some time and tell you that she was upset that two sitting Directors made comments in the official paper regarding intentions to run for the board. Multiple theories as to how this was a disadvantage to other potential candidates, and potentially, caused some candidates not to run knowing that they have to run against incumbents.

I don't know how I feel about the first part - is it an advantage? Who knows? Will it keep other people from running? In my estimation, if some potential board candidate made the decision to run based on whether or not an incumbent was running, I'll tell you right now, that person would not get my vote. Either do it because you intend to win and do a good job for the community, or don't run. If announcing their (Doherty and Besing) candidacy via Passages weeded out any crappy candidates, then I'm all for it.

Former (even before Mrs. Callahan) Chairman of the Board of Directors, Joe Martinez gave his concerns about a new GNW Group called The Happenings, not getting fair use of the GNW Lodge. I didn't quite get the full story, so I'd appreciate if someone from the Happenings group could fill me in, but the gist of it was that the Lodge people made the group meet at a smaller venue (Emerald Valley Lodge), which is not fair. That facility is not conducive to meetings, and I can testify. My understanding was that the reasoning was that it costs more money to open the GNW Lodge, so it needs to be for a group large enough to show that it is serving the interests of the community as a whole. I'm gonna have to side with Mr. Martinez on this one (at least the parts I understand). If a group is an officially sanctioned group of the association, let 'em have the good room. I recall my wife and I being the only attendees of a Board of Directors meeting, and our last GNW watch meeting only had about 5 or 6 folks in the audience.

Okay. You may recall the folks in Emerald Valley who had some drunk guy plow his car into their house. The residents spoke before the board to address their concerns and seek assistance from the board and security to help with the problem. This family has already made contact with the city and other agencies to try to address the problem, but you could see the look on the collective faces of the directors and most audience members; this is not an issue that the association can address in any substantive way. The resident made many informative and helpful points, explaining the problems with the street, the fact that vehicles speed and such. But, unfortunately, her suggestions of having the GNW Security basically sit on her street after hours and write down plate numbers of speeders is obviously a no go.

I was extremely proud of how Director Sigrid Long handled the matter in addressing the residents concerns. She made several suggestions on how to proceed and of course, mentioned the fact that the GNWatch group might be a place to start. (I later gave the family my e-mail address and number, and hope they will join the watch soon).

Have you had enough yet? There is more.

We had a surprise guest speaker, Judge Marcia S. Weiner who is the Justice of the Peace for Precinct Two, Place One. If you get in trouble, you will find her over in Leon Valley. It just so happens that my son is doing his Criminal Justice internship in her office, so, needless to say, I have nothing but glowing comments about Judge Weiner and her thirty or more minutes of informative material.

Seriously though, Judge Weiner has an informative pitch involving the the problems associated with truancy and the escalating troubles youth get into. She gave us ideas of the ways she deals with the little criminals to get them back on the right track. Turns out, she often gives the screw-ups community service and that if they live among us, they could perform said service here in the GNW! Sign them up! We need some fences painted.

Anyway, I believe the Passages will soon be running an article written by Judge Weiner, and if you'd like, she left some informative handouts with the office staff.

Okay. On to Committee reports.

Chairman of the Scholarship Committee, Mrs. Callahan gave a stirring report on the status of the committee and the resulting happy kids. Then the questions from Directors Garcia and Pucci started. There seem to be two concerns from the board members: Are there any conflicts of interest, and how is the money accounted for?

You should know that I have been sighted by two of the three factions of the GNW community for not giving a crap about all the details of every little thing in our community. But in the GNW, there are actually three factions.

One faction is made up of people who align themselves with former board chairman Martinez. A second faction is made up of people who align themselves with former board chair Callahan. The other 95 percent of the people in the GNW fall into my faction. We are the people who just want to pay our assessments, live in the community and not be inundated with this petty, petty, petty crap.

In this case, if some residents want to donate money to a scholarship fund and they want to take the proceeds of the vending machines at the pool to add to that fund, go for it. Keep it all legal and open, but go for it.

I have a better idea.

Do it, but do it as a private thing and don't even involve the association with it. They got a whopping $35 from the vending machines last year. My son is in college. $35 doesn't cover half the cost of his parking permit for one semester. The association (as far as I understand) doesn't provide any of the funds to the scholarship, right? So just do it on your own, and be done with it.

But, in the mean time, the deadline for this years scholarship is early April, so contact your high school and do whatever it takes to get the scholarship money.

I don't want to sound like I'm in a hurry, but it should not take 20 minutes of my life to hear about some stupid (Stupid is such a harsh and opinionated word - please don't let it taint the meaning of this report) scholarships at an HOA board meeting. What impact does that private group of well meaning neighbors (and I do applaud them) have to do with the running of the association? I'd like equal time for the Line Dancing committee and the Bunco team, please.

I was unexpectedly asked to give a few words about the GNWatch meeting coming up next Wednesday. I didn't expect to be peppered with questions from the board, but I was.

I have mentioned it before. I have a great deal of respect for Director Pucci. He asks everyone who speaks before the board questions that are intended to provide information he needs to make a decision. I'd like to think I had my shit together, but who knows? Bottom line, come out to the meeting next Wednesday, the 27th of February. I'll write more about it next week.

Our community Manager, Mr. Darrin Laraquente broke down a series of complaints he has received from residents and addressed each. I'm going to tell you right up front; Mr. Laraquente has hit the ground running and is doing a fantastic job for this association. He is still getting to know the community and trying to put people's complaints and concerns into perspective. Kudos to him and to how he is motivating the staff to get things done.

What he is facing is a series of things that are happening in neighborhoods all around San Antonio. First, people are tagging and vandalizing The Five Oh (78250 - get it?) daily. If that isn't bad enough, we have otherwise upstanding residents who are doing ridiculous things.

On a recent tour of the greenbelts in our area (also known as drainage ditches and dry creek beds), he got to see first hand how some residents simply dump garbage over their fences into the open area. Imagine this. You cut your tree limbs and you toss them right over the fence. Someone looks at them and can see exactly where the tree in your back yard has been cut, and exactly where the branch that matches the cut limb is laying on the other side of the fence. Hello? This isn't CSI people. You don't need a sperm sample to figure out who the donor is.

Okay. If you are still reading this, this is where it ends. My wife and I had another, more important meeting to attend, so we left promptly at 9PM.

On the way out, one resident stopped me to suggest that I stay for the next round of action. I'm sorry, but I'll wait for the official minutes.

Oh, I did hear from several people who stayed that there was an attempt to censure a few directors, but in keeping with my new policy of not reporting anything that I don't witness first hand, I'll have to read about it in the official minutes, and so will you.

Help me out people. We need more eyes and ears at these meetings. Why don't you come on down on the first and third Thursday of the month and sit in with us. You can pick any faction you want to sit with - there are no assigned seats.

As always, I tend to get things wrong. Don't file a lawsuit, just send me an e-mail or make a comment and tell me how bad I screwed things up. If you were at the meeting, I'll be happy to print your take on events, unedited, with or without attribution. My goal is to get the information out to my neighbors.

GNWCIA Meeting: My Notes...

My wife and our son and I all made the short trip down to the Lodge of the Great Northwest Community Improvement Association so we could enjoy another fun filled, excitement packed meeting of the Board of Directors. Thankfully, someone made coffee and people like my neighbor Ruby brought in some delicious Christmas cookies, otherwise it may have been a wasted trip.

Nothing to see here - move along now...

Okay, they did have the auditor's report provided by a member of the Goldklang, Cavanaugh & Associates Certified Public Accountants firm. There were no major zingers here and the gentleman was kind enough to answer questions from the peanut gallery. I have a copy of the presentation and I'm guessing if you are so inclined, you can get a copy from the office. Really, I'd just wait for the movie.

But, as just an aside, there is a line item for Allowances of Doubtful Assessments. What that means is, there are people who have not paid their annual HOA fees and in fact, they are so overdue that the account has been deemed "doubtful". Doubtful as in getting that money from the homeowner who owes it to the GNWCIA who it is owed to. The amount is only $266,814.00. I know, chump change. But seriously, I agree with those who say, if we aren't going to pursue it, just write it off and be done with it. Why list it and feel miserable about it?
Okay, so after the report from the CPA, it was time to start the meeting. As has been the format with the meetings I've attended and as indicated on the agenda, they start with a Moment of Silence then the Pledge of Allegiance. Then they hear from people wanting to address the board and finally, the meeting is called to order. Once the meeting has been called to order, someone is supposed to move that they adopt the agenda (If you are keeping track, of the 8 items listed on the agenda, adopting the agenda is number 5.), then they start the new business.

So I point this out because during the moment of silence and the pledge, one of the members of the board, Director Pucci, chose not to participate. This created a visible stir amongst members of the audience and other directors on the board.


Before we all run out and get a rope or call for the McCarthy Commission, I must tell you that while I prefer to stand and go along with the assembled mob, I can't seem to find anything in the Bylaws of the association that explains why we start the meeting off with a moment of silence or the pledge. The association is not a church, a school nor a government entity, so I have to wonder where this little ceremony started.

Please don't misunderstand, I gladly say the pledge of allegiance whenever I get the opportunity in the same way that I proudly stand for reveille and retreat when I am over at Lackland AFB. These are things I do out of pride and habit. But I'm not about to tell the next guy (no pun intended) that he has to do it or should do it.

Would I be upset if the board didn't have a moment of silence or say the pledge? Not at all. But since someone is offering, why not go with the flow? Or, more importantly, why not make the board put it in the bylaws that it be required if everyone else feels so strongly about it?

Anyway, it wasn't a big deal; just awkward to those of us lemmings who can't be bothered to ask why we do the things we do - just because. NOTE: Please check out the Comments Section below - Director Pucci responds, revealing my inept journalism skills.

On to bigger and better muckraking.

One resident got up to thank the board for the recent cut in the yearly assessment and to let the board know that many of her neighbors appreciate the way the board is coming together recently. Bravo indeed.

Another resident had some concerns about the delivery of Passages, our neighborhood newspaper. It seems that the delivery of said publication has been spotty at best. I do recall not receiving it at least once in the last several months. Anyway, she was concerned about application process, do we have enough information about the kids doing the delivery and do we have back-up delivery boys. All valid concerns. The Community Manager is addressing this issue and informed the board that a plan is in the works.

Not to be adversarial (because after all, if these kids are getting paid to deliver the paper, it should be delivered), but out of curiosity, I asked the board if there was any thought of reducing the printed number of the paper and directing people to read it online, but making it available in hard copy format at the office for those who like to read it the old fashioned way. I must tell you, Passages has adorned the upstairs library on more than one occasion in my house if you get my meaning, but I just wonder how many people have it delivered to the door and promptly toss it in the garbage?

Director Doherty was very quick to point out that many residents enjoyed receiving the paper and not all folks are into the computer age, and as a service they are paying for, they should not have to go to the office to get it. Agreed.

Someone (I think Director Pucci) Chairman Besing added in that they could even offer a delivered version to those residents who opt to receive the hard copy but simply not deliver it to those people who opt not to receive it.

Who knows? I'm not really some kind of environmentalist but why add more paper to the trash can (or the recycle bin) when many people could read it online and be done with it? Just a thought.

And with that bit of excitement, the little party was over for the peanut gallery and the board moved into the executive session where they talk about the real issues.

GNWCIA Meeting Report: My Notes...

Wow! That was a fast one with little to no controversy to report - which is a good thing, right?

My wife and I made the short trip down the street to the Lodge of the Great Northwest to attend the meeting of the board of directors for the Great Northwest Community Improvement Association.

A very brief agenda and Chairman Lee Besing knocked it out in near record time. Kicking off the reports from the department heads, Community Manager Darin is getting acclimated to the new position and the community. He and the staff have the yearly assessments ($222.00, down from $235.00) in envelopes and you should be getting yours soon. Pay it!

Jose our Deed Restrictions officer is back on the streets and hitting it hard. Having filled in as CM for a period, he had not been able to focus as much time on notifying residents of their crimes against good taste, and thankfully, he is back at it. He mentioned that yes, he does understand French, and many upset residents give him quite an earful when he cites them. Keep up the good work Jose!

Jose also mentioned that the five members of the Architectural Committee should be given new three year terms beginning in January so their tenure's can be normalized. It seems that there had been many members leaving and new people filled the slot. By resetting everyone's tenure to the same month, it will normalize things. Director Guy Pucci agreed and made a motion to do it and the board agreed.

Speaking of the Architectural Committee, did any of those five members approve the new color scheme of the painting project on the Lodge? Apparently, the color is Mustard (on the bottom) and Yellow (on the top). Egads! As I looked at it to take the picture, I could tell how it might work in an industrial sort of way, but again, Egads!

Then again, nobody has ever accused me of having taste or style.

Stephanie, our director of all things Recreation made note of the Hot Chocolate Social scheduled for Thursday the 13th of December. Santa is supposed to be there and apparently, pictures will be taken. Check out the GNW website for more details. She also mentioned that T-Shirts have been ordered for the Polar Bear Swim scheduled for New Years Day. If I weren't so concerned for the wellbeing of the public, I might consider plopping my own fat ass into the chilly waters, just to be able to report the commotion here. We'll see.

Chief Burton was out on business so Chairman Besing made note of the security related details: A new truck and new security systems. Taggers, beware.

Fred from Maintenance gave us details on lots of good work being done to improve the parks and also to make sure the board knows they are getting their money worth from the painters.

With that, Directory Janet Doherty wanted to bring to the boards attention that certain groups renting the lodge during December had some issue with the Christmas tree and associated decorations being in the lodge during their events. Though Jose had no issue with removing the tree to accommodate these folks, I think the idea of someone being offended by these type of decorations was equally offensive to many others.

Chairman Besing, though finding the idea (of being offended by the tree) silly, suggested that this was not so much a board issue but a personnel issue - as in, do we pay the staff to remove and replace the Christmas tree every time someone doesn't want it for their party? (Agreed).

At least one audience member voiced his disgust for these tree haters and asked what's next, are they going to want us to remove the Texas flag? Actually, they do remove the flags when the lodge is rented out.

Here's the deal and this is just my take on it from the perspective of someone who just recently rented the lodge. First, it is not a minor expense to rent the lodge if you pay for security and clean-up (security is required if you have any beer/alcohol). So, I don't recall the exact fee we paid but it was well over $650 from roughly 7PM to Midnight. Don't get me wrong; it was very much worth it.

Here's the deal. A Christmas tree would not have fit the scheme of my daughter's daisy-filled wedding. When you rent the lodge, you get the use of tables and chairs and such, but you are not required to use all the tables and all the chairs. In other words, the staff assists with set-up and sometimes the tables get set-up classroom style, sometimes they get set-up dinner style, or sometimes, there are no tables and only chairs. For all the work that it takes to set-up the tables and chairs, moving the Christmas tree once or twice during one month out of the year is not the back-breaker, or the offensive anti-Christian thing that it might appear to be at first blush.

Oh, and by the way, it was actually a religious group who rented out the room who were opposed to the tree. Go figure.

Sorry folks, wish I had more dirt to stir up but really, it was all very calm and everyone behaved rather nicely. My own observation is that our new community manager has had a calming affect and is quick to defuse things when blood pressures raise.

The final order of business had to do with adopting of the a few changes on the budget and there was one insignificant issue (to everyone but the person who raised it) and the CM was able to immediately rectify any concerns and the vote commenced. Great work!

NOTE: I appreciate the feedback that I receive from people present in the meetings, especially when they are able to clarify something that I might have recalled or mis-recalled. That was the case in my notes reported from a month ago. Specifically, I did something that I try to avoid with my blog in general and that is to present information that I wasn't first-hand aware of. Several folks e-mailed me to tell me that I got a few things wrong and of course, I made the corrections to the blog entry. But, I wanted to be clear that it is my intention when I present these notes, that I do so in an honest and hopefully accurate way. This doesn't mean that I expect you to agree with my take on things or agree with my opinion about them. I do appreciate when folks (especially Directors) leave comments that help expand the notes or at least give their opinion. I hope that these notes can make residents (and people interested in HOAs in general) aware of the activities with our little association. But by all means, if I get it wrong, let me know!

GNWCIA Meeting Report: A Real Barn Burner...

This evening, I was otherwise detained until around 8:30PM and was not able to make it to the first hour of the meeting of Great Northwest Community Improvement Association Board of Directors. Based on my brief attendance and by all credible accounts from what I missed, this was quite the event.

Herewith my notes of the short time I was available to dictate. And by the way, if you were one of the many residents who attended the meeting, held at the Emerald Valley facility, or a member of the board, please don't hesitate to pipe in with a second opinion. This particular evening, I wrote as fast as I could, but honestly, couldn't keep up with much of the banter and bickering.

When I came in, the discussion was hot and heavy about the tennis courts. If you recall from my last report, a few residents had voiced concerns about the crappy state of the tennis courts, and some people opined that there was not enough interest in tennis to spend the money needed to repair them.

A counter to that argument has been that if the courts were in good shape, people would use them. I fall in the group of people who probably will never step foot on the courts, but want them maintained simply because in a deteriorated state, they do not provide any added value to my home, and possibly detract from same.

So apparently, before I arrived, Director Guy Pucci must have been talking about spending the needed capital on the courts to bring them back to serviceability. Director Richard Garcia brought a quickly assembled plan before the board to propose a 30-day feasibility study with at least some of the following points:

• 30 days of free tennis lessons to interested kids and adults
• Fixing up/cleaning/painting the courts enough to make them usable
• Paying a tennis pro a reasonable fee to give the lessons

Director Garcia proposed that the board could do this study for $1,500 to $2,000. Director Pucci pointed out that this idea was less of a feasibility study and more of a new program. He countered with the idea that the Rec Director could poll the participants of existing sports programs to see what the interest was. Further, he would like to see a determination of how much other programs charge for participation. In other words, in the same way that the association charges a participation fee for soccer and other team sports, if we engaged in a program of tennis lessons or something like this, it would be for fee.

There was much "discussion". I had seen people in the audience yell out remarks in the past, maybe one or two people with brief comments such as, "Mr. Chair, Director Long is out of order.", but this was different. People through out the audience were making statements; hell, even I piped in with an unwarranted comment or two. One gentleman sitting behind me prefaced his remarks with, "I know I'm not allowed to say anything, but..."

Finally through all of the ruckus, Director SK Sharma, whom I had never heard speak before, gave quite an eloquent statement regarding the fact that he has lived in this association for over 22 years and when he finally retires and sells his house, he expects to turn a profit. Further, he pointed out that the facilities, including the tennis courts are intended to raise the value of the homes, not detract from that value. I don't have the verbatim quote but the gist of it was that even if a single person doesn't play tennis, we need to maintain the courts. At some point or another, he also used the word "Bloody". In the end, his remarks drew applause from the audience, though I must confess, I think I instigated it with my loud clapping.

Director Janet Doherty pointed out that the demograhics of the neighborhood has changed in the years since the original tennis courts were built and there is far less interest these days. Director Sigrid Long rebutted that if the courts were in proper shape, perhaps people would utilize them.

To this, Maintenance Director Fred Murphy made a suggestion that we could go from four tennis courts to two, relocate the basketball court onto the other tennis court, then turn the abandoned basketball court into a parking lot. This would relieve some of the parking issues at the pool. Brilliant!

In the end, Chairman Lee Besing had Director Garcia restate the motion about the feasibility study and it simply was not seconded by any other directors and thus died.

Up next, an issue near and dear to my heart: Grafitti. Turns out that this past weekend, the Lodge at Silver Creek got tagged. It was mentioned that Director Garcia has been going out and painting over the tagged areas on his own and sure could use some volunteers. Director Long brought up the fact that they should take advantage of the A-Team to help, but that drew lots of discussion from the crowd (myself included).

As a side note - and unrelated to the meeting, my wife and I along with several neighbors had signed up to volunteer for the A-Team a while back. Apparently, it has taken some time to get things going because none of us have been contacted by the coordinator. We'd still like to learn more about this program, so if you happen to be coordinating, please leave a comment or e-mail me.

In the end, I did volunteer to assist Director Garcia with his painting efforts and if you feel like you can help out, I'm sure he would love the company.

Given that the meeting was supposed to go to the discussion of the budget, Chairman Besing noted that a lot of time had already been spent on other business and that perhaps they should delay the budget discussion for a special meeting next week.

Director Pucci instead presented a motion to set the 2008 assessment to $222.00. This is a rollback from the current assessment of $235.00. His motion drew lots of quibbling amongst the crowd. Most residents were for the rollback but at least one person, former Chair Joe Martinez pointed out that it was senseless to make such a decision without having come up with a budget. Director Garcia quickly seconded the motion and Director Doherty immediately was in favor.

There was a very humorous exchange between Directors Long and Sharma during the confused discussions. From my seat, it was obvious that Director Long had been out of the room when the motion was made and seconded. It appeared that the other board members did not realize she had slipped out for a short potty break. So when Chairman Besing asked her if she had any comments, she was clearly confused, thinking the discussion was about a budget item. When Director Sharma started to restate the motion, Director Long interrupted him and Sharma quickly and bluntly stated that if she wanted an explanation she should be quiet and let him explain. This drew guffaws from the assembled crowd.

This time, when the vote was taken, Directors Long and Sharma voted against the motion and stating that it would not be prudent to set the assessment, Chairman Besing also voted against, killing the motion.

But this created a further discussion point and that is, that the GNWCIA has $926,000.00 in the bank. Yes, of course there are bills to be paid. But there are also assessments (whether they are $222.00 or $235.00 or more), the pot only gets bigger.

In the end, the board could not agree on a day to hold a special meeting next week to discuss the budget, so they will wait until the next scheduled meeting.

See you there!

GNW CIA Meeting Report: My Notes...

My wife and I made the short trip down the street to attend the meeting of the Great Northwest Community Improvement Association board of directors this evening. Herewith my notes for the portion of the meeting we stayed for. Frankly, while I know it is important, I don't have any interest in the bickering over the budget as long as the assessment doesn't go up; so we only stayed for the fun part - all the bickering about everything else.

I don't think it is said often enough and by enough residents, so let me say once again, to the members of the board of directors; thank you for your service to our community. Your volunteerism is appreciated, even if I don't always agree with the way you do things.

Following the standard opening, which by the way sounded great on the new sound system that is partially installed, several residents had signed up to speak.

Former Director Joe Martinez asked the board why meeting notes could not be assembled and e-mailed to the board of directors to allow them to be reviewed, thereby speeding up the adoption of minutes. As it turned out, according to Chair Lee Besing, this was in fact done. Mr Martinez also queried as to why security didn't maintain mileage logs on the security vehicles so it would show trends of whether or not the staff was consistently patrolling. As it turns out, Mr. Besing reported, they do check mileage and in fact a new security staff member was let go after only a few shifts when the mileage didn't reflect what was expected.

Moving on, a resident named Joy requested that the tennis courts be upgraded and repaired. I think her interest caught everybody off guard because just a few weeks (or maybe it has been months) ago some people questioned if anybody even uses the tennis courts. Director Guy Pucci asked the lady how often she used the court. She quickly responded that she doesn't use it as much since the court is in great disrepair, however, she would use it several times a week if it were in good shape. Mr. Besing opined that perhaps we could consider going from four courts down to two courts to save money but still make them available.

Another resident named Sandra agreed with Joy and expanded on her concern about the repair of the tennis courts. She said she used to always use the tennis courts but had not been able to in recent years due to the poor upkeep, bad lighting, and unusable backboard. Further, she pointed out that they never seemed to be swept and that trash was often overflowing in the cans.

Director Richard Garcia asked that any residents interested in tennis should please make their feelings known to the board, perhaps in the form of e-mails, letters to the board or even letters to the editor of Passages. Quite frankly, a few people out of the thousands that live in the GNW are not going to be able to sway the board into spending the close to $225K that one bidder suggested it would cost to put things into working order.

So, if you are a resident who wants to play tennis or you feel that the tennis courts add value to your home and the association, you really need to speak up. The GNW Homepage has links to the board of directors and to Passages. Let them know how you feel. And if you'd like to make your case for or against the expense to keep up the courts, tell me about it. I'd like to know your thoughts.

Following the residents comments, the meeting was called to order and a few items were added as new business.

Next, Mr. Chuck Christian representing a potential new business in the area came to provide an informative briefing on the plans to request rezoning of property near the Great Northwest. Near the open field at the intersection of Culebra and Village Park and beside what is a Daycare Center and a big cell tower (directly across the street from the Valero Corner Store). The property is currently zoned as C2 which means they can build retail stores there. What his client is asking is to zone the property as C2S which will allow the use for commercial soccer fields. The idea is to build a regulation sized soccer field and then a smaller kiddie sized soccer field, a retail store for soccer related products, and a concession stand. Mr Christian was not briefing the board to ask for permission, but as a way to proactively be a good neighbor.Based upon the experience of our own GNW soccer fields and the parking situation every weekend, several directors and audience members questioned the plan for parking. The drawing showed about 30 parking spaces. That won't cut it for sure, but the good news is, the space would be yet another place to give kids and young adults a place to keep them occupied when they aren't tagging up the skate park. I wish the guy luck in his venture. If you have questions about the rezoning efforts, they will be approaching the zoning board on 6 November. If you would like to contact Mr. Christian e-mail me and I'll give you his number.

Next came the adopting of meeting minutes from past meetings. Director Sigrid Long (having received the minutes in advance via e-mail) found several problem areas that she requested to be corrected. During a flurry of comments and complaints amongst the directors and occasional rolled eyes and laughter in the audience of residents and staff, I overheard a discussion about signs being posted in the GNW facilities that indicated no use of foul language was permitted. I didn't fully understand what was being said, but what I gathered was that the board had adopted a plan to post signage reminding residents that on GNW grounds, that no cussing was allowed. WTF?

I guess. But I highly suspect that the people who would take their kids to a soccer game or swimming, then cuss it up, are not very likely to adhere to a few signs. Just a guess.

Rec Director Stephanie gave some updates on pool costs, the positive outcome of the masquerade party and reminded folks of the pending Halloween Party. They do need some volunteers if you'd like to help out.

Director Long announced that former Board Chair Kathy Callahan has agreed to coordinate the GNW Scholarship Committee. Kudos to her.

Vice Chair Janet Doherty had a concern that the GNW Garden Club was turned away from using the office Xerox machine. It turns out it was simply a misunderstanding regarding codes and such, and with only minor infighting amongst the board, it was moved and approved that the garden club could make copies.

I'm very pleased to report that the meeting was well attended (compared to times my wife and I were the only two residents in the audience). It is good fun and I encourage everyone to get out and meet the neighbors. We seem to meet new people every time we attend and it is not only nice to get to know others, but it is nice to learn how fellow residents perceive the actions of the board etc etc.

But, as I said earlier, I just don't have the stomach for the budget process, so my wife and I left at the break.

If you attended the meeting and I got anything incorrect, please leave a comment and set me straight. Likewise, if you stayed for the budget discussions and want to fill us in on it, please either e-mail me or use the little comment button below.

GNW CIA Meeting Report: More of the Same...

Last night, my wife and I skipped some other plans in an effort to be civic minded and attended the Great Northwest Community Improvement Association board meeting. This is the version where residents are not given the chance to speak, (though Chairman Lee Besing smartly opened up discussions of the DRAFT budget to the audience). The end result in my mind was, same stuff, different week.

The first part of the meeting where members of staff present information to the board went pretty quickly, though getting to that point seemed difficult. After the formalities, and an attempt to adopt the agenda, Director Sigrid Long wanted to add items, specifically discussion of scheduling special board meetings and discussion of an editorial that her and Director Steve Mifflin had written regarding the months ago settled lawsuit with Director Guy Pucci. The Scheduling discussion was added as new business and the letter to the Passages issue was added to the closed session. Hopefully someone brought a taser.

Moving on, there were minutes from three meetings that were to be adopted but after what seemed like an eternity of board members fumbling through stacks of papers, it could not be determined which if any of the directors had received copies of the minutes, and Director Mifflin smartly moved to table all the minutes for another meeting.

Following that fiasco, the meeting continued with an attempt by DRACO Jose Morlett to give an update in his capacity as acting Community Manager. Unfortunately, the borrowed sound system experienced a major malfunction and after a moment or two of observation, Chairman Besing pointed out that the system would function with greater fidelity if perhaps we would plug the power cord into the electrical outlet. This task was accomplished and Jose was on the air, broadcasting to an increasingly irritated audience as he tried to speak above a small daycare that had moved into the meeting room.

Jose introduced the newly hired Assistant Community Manager/Accountant, Cindy Johns. ACM Johns brings several years of experience as a Community Manager for another HOA, and she was warmly welcomed by the residents attending the meeting.

Jose also discussed the successful graffiti removal project held this past weekend. He mentioned that 16 out of 17 targeted locations to clean-up were taken care of by volunteers and that he had already received calls from several people thanking this group for their effort.

Next up, Rec Director Stephanie Larrabee had several items for the board including some budget concerns which would be addressed by the board during the budget discussion. She brought up issues regarding pool repairs and costs and Director Pucci made the request that she receive separate bids to cover some potential plumbing repairs, prior to the board approving a contract. Good idea. Ms. Larrabee also had some positive news regarding other activities including an upcoming Masquerade Ball (October 12th at the Silver Creek Lodge). This is a 21 and up event and they will be checking IDs at the door. She also mentioned the Great Northwest Haunted House scheduled for 30 and 31 October between 7 and 9PM, for the youngsters.

During the course of Ms. Larrabee's briefing to the board, some of the chillin's sitting behind my wife and I became disruptive to the point that their mother had to escort them from the meeting. I would like to make a motion that board meetings be limited to those old enough not to whine and carry on, but that would potentially eliminate some members of the board of directors. (No lawsuits, please).

Maintenance Director Fred Murphy got up to discuss the planned painting for the lodge and the new and much needed sound system. The good news is, the original bids close to $10K are now down to a reasonable $2k or less, and the man kind enough to lend the board the temporary sound is also offered his assistance in getting the new system installed. Kudos to him.

New Business: Apparently, there was a special board meeting called by Chairman Besing. He notified the directors via e-mail of this meeting, however, at least one director, Ms. Long, did not receive the e-mail in time to attend the meeting. On the outset, her complaint was met with rolling eyes, shaking heads and sighs of disgust, - and frankly, that was just my wife and I giving each other the, "here we go again" look. But technically speaking, Director Long was justified and on target with her complaint. She mentioned the by-law which requires that the Directors be notified in writing or orally (should that be verbally?), and when Vice-Chair Janet Doherty asked her to quote the by-law, director Long did so and it very specifically stated that the written correspondence must be delivered to the residence of record. In other words, as much as I think e-mail should be sufficient, the fact is, Director Long missed a meeting because she was not notified per the by-laws. Chairman Besing quickly made it a point to correct that by mandating that they will re-institute the use of Security Staff to hand deliver notices to the directors.

This little episode brings up a more important note in my mind, and that is that there is clearly turmoil amongst board members. And part of that comes from the "gotcha" attitude that is so prevalent in what we see at the national level in politics. That is, we care less about what a particular issue is and more for how it will play for or against our own side. From the time that I have attended these meetings, I have heard over and over about things requiring review by lawyers or this or that is against the by-laws. One resident and former board member told me that this was the reason you needed a strong Community Manager - someone to handle all the big issues and details, leaving the board to simply vote for or against things and get out of the weeds. I disagreed with her at first, but must say that I see myself coming around to the idea.

And hopefully, we will get a well qualified, strong CM and soon.

The budget discussion was in my mind a waste of time. It is a draft at this point, but as we found during the initial talks, the numbers were totally irrelevant. Hopefully, the various staff members can correct this and when the real work is done, behind closed doors and away from the prying eyes of the residents, the board and staff can get it knocked out.

Are you sensing a little frustration? I'd love to read your comments. Leave them here (click the comments button below), or e-mail me.

HOA Selling Your Home?

News-4 WOAI will do a Troubleshooters report tonight on an HOA that is selling some folks home due to the fact that these people failed to pay the yearly assessment. Not GNWCIA, but it should be of interest to any person who lives in an association community like ours.

Want to learn more about stuff like code compliance and mediation? You can attend a free seminar this evening, 7PM to 9PM at the Lodge of the Great Northwest.

See you there!

Also, in case you didn't hear, The Great Northwest received an Honorable Mention from the National Night out folks for our display about our events. Likewise, Janet Doherty won an award for her event.

The GNW contingent was represented by our own Chief Roger Burton, NNO Chair Betty Hood, Chairman of the Board of Directors Lee Besing, Vice Chairman Doherty, and several other GNW residents.

Thanks to Lee for the photo and the info.

Labor Day Report: Parade in the Great Northwest

As a make-up for the annual 4th of July parade that had to be canceled due to inclement weather, the Board and Staff of the Great Northwest Community Improvement Association put on the 1st annual Labor Day Parade this morning. Though the sky was a tad bit cloudy, rain failed to put a damper on the assembled parade participants or the crowd that gathered along the route to watch the patriotic event. Yet another reason to be proud to live in this area.

The parade was escorted by members of San Antonio's finest, on motorcycles, patrol cars and truck units.As the festive parade participants made their way from Zachary Middle School down Timber Path, The Grand Marshall, Mr. Lee Besing was driven in the "mini-'Vette" (or Geo Metro) by fellow board director, Mr. Richard Garcia.
Next, a large group of Scouts who show up for parades, rain or shine, walked, rode, and sang Jodies along the route.Another board director, Mr. Guy Pucci passed in review cool as can be in an old LTD, accompanied by his beautiful pooches!Director Janet Doherty showed the patriotic spirit with her van fully decorated for the occasion.As the parade made its way toward the turn onto Timberwilde and the Lodge, residents of the old folks home enjoyed all the pomp and circumstance.In fact, residents of all ages enjoyed the short but enjoyable parade including this couple who cheered on the parade as it passed in review.When the parade ended at the Lodge, participants readied themselves for a nice Labor Day Picnic.Smells like it's time for a hot dog!

My GNW HOA Minutes: Okay, Hours Really...

As I wrote earlier, I attended my very first meeting of the GNW HOA on Thursday. I have been planning to attend for years, but never found the time. I’m glad I made it.

The meeting has a format which affords residents wishing to address the board of directors a chance to do so before the formal meeting agenda kicks off. There is also a sign-up which allows residents to speak while agenda items are discussed. I found this to be a great format though the execution was not as formal as it was probably intended.

A few residents to speak had clear, seemingly non-confrontational issues for the board regarding the pools. One lady asked about the diving boards being removed and another asked about hooligans hanging around at the pool. Okay, hooligans was my word, not necessarily hers.

Then it got interesting. A lady chose to ask a specific board director, Mr. Guy Pucci, if he had planned on giving the money he received in a lawsuit settlement from the association, back. She called him unethical for sitting on the board after costing residents $75K for his lawsuit against the very board he was now a member of. Before he could respond, Mr. Joe Martinez (publisher of the Sentinel Newsletter) admonished the board that this woman (whose name I did not catch) was out of order. “Out of order!” he repeated multiple times, to which the lady replied, “Sir, we aren’t in session; how can I be out of order?”

At this point there was a lot of talk between board members and onlookers in the audience, and I could see factions of people dividing like a wedding with the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s. I realized that the descriptions of board meetings given to me by neighbors who have participated before were pretty accurate. Another lady whose name I did not catch provided a formal letter to the board and then stood there and read it. She had three different complaints, all of which seemed petty to me, but the one that came up again in the formal portion of the meeting revolved around a particular volunteer having been let go by the board some 6 years ago. Whatever. I think audience members and the board all agreed that as long as the volunteer wasn’t doing anything bad now, let’s move on. Agreed.

Two gentlemen fully decked out in motorcycle gear spoke of their desire to form an area motorcycle club that HOA residents could join in and have twice monthly rides, perform community service events and perhaps hold meetings at the lodge. They were seeking permission not to form the club, but to be recognized as residents, and not as Hells Angels if neighbors saw a group of them meeting in the parking lot of the lodge etc. If ever there was a no-brainer, this was it. My gut feeling was that a member of the board would immediately move to have a proclamation of some sort, naming this new motorcycle club as a Friend of the Association or some such ceremonial convention. Instead, board member Ms. Sigrid Long brought up the fact that this group could somehow be a liability to the HOA, and that lawyers would have to be consulted.

Beyond being shocked, I was distressed that during the course of the meeting (which still was not actually in session yet) the “need to consult lawyers” had been proclaimed numerous times by Ms. Long and others.

Mr. Lee Besing, the chairman of the board was quick to dismiss Ms. Long’s concerns, citing that unless the motorcycle club was going to use the name, “Great Northwest Community Improvement Association, Inc. Motorcycle Gang” and perhaps use the GNW logo, there really wasn't any issue. Mr. Austin Sheldon, one of the club founders, confirmed that they would not be wearing leather jackets emblazoned with the seal of the GNW.

Interestingly enough, later in the meeting Mr. Besing noted that a group offered to let GNW board members ride in Corvettes during the 4^th of July parade. I couldn’t help but wonder if Ms. Long would want to consult lawyers for liability issues prior to jumping in for a ride down Timberwilde.

Another topic that came up in the early “residents to speak” session and then in the formal meeting was the use of e-mail addresses. Ms. Kathy Callahan pointed out that one board member; Mr. Pucci in particular did not wish to correspond with her via e-mail. Given an opportunity to explain his reasons, the fact that she was sending mail to his work address, the matter was resolved somewhat. Later, Ms. Long made the suggestion that board members should only be using official e-mail addresses for correspondence with residents and further, that any e-mail sent to one board member should go to all board members. Somehow, this good idea of making board members accessible via official e-mail addresses turned into a free-for-all with board members recounting the various e-mails they had received from their adoring public, and how they responded to them. This was fine, but it seemed as though the meeting never gained any momentum toward getting through the stated agenda because every sentence uttered required some legal review or interjection from an audience member.

During a break, my neighbor Eric introduced me to board member, Janet Doherty and former board member Kathy Callahan, both of whom seemed to be very nice folks just concerned about making the HOA work.

This brings me to the point. For all of the infighting and ruffled feathers over seemingly insignificant matters, these people all seem very concerned about doing the right thing for the community, yet I think there is some one-upmanship and pettiness spoiling what would otherwise be a tough job in the first place. Listening to the temporary accountant and one of the department heads discuss the very real and important issues facing the people who do the day-to-day running of this HOA and all the facilities, it comes across as unsettling to observe otherwise well intentioned people act like 6^th graders.

The Great Northwest is bigger than many towns in the state of Texas, and with a budget that far exceeds what I dismissively thought of as a pool and a few security guards. There are many hardworking people (the ones that have not quit, anyway) who have an important job to do to keep our community facilities running. To help guide the direction of the community are a group of volunteers who have been elected by a very small percentage of the total HOA membership (which by the way doesn’t diminish the fact that they are elected). It seems such a shame that the meeting could go on for so long (two hours before I gave up and left) to contain really only 20 minutes or so of real content; the rest of the time taken up by petty sniping and quibbling.

I’m no stranger to immaturity though, so I plan to be back at the next meeting and perhaps I’ll bring a cowbell or one of those air horns to give off an alarm each time someone starts being stupid. I feel like I’m going to like these people; they are my neighbors after all.

* If I mentioned your name, please don’t sue me, but please don’t hesitate to e-mail me if you’d like.

*No, I'm not really going to bring an air horn or a cowbell next time.