GNWCIA Meeting Report: My Notes...

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

In a somewhat subdued version of meetings, we started about 15 minutes late and were finished fairly early. Incredible how quickly things can go when you don't have someone constantly wanting to consult the lawyer... (did I type that out loud?) Kudos to the staff for posting multiple signs reminding the peanut gallery that this was an executive session, and comments were not accepted from observers in the audience. I think it helped immensely.

A few things you should know:

Community Manager Darin Laracuente gave us the word on the latest graffiti situation. He reports that in addition to volunteers like Director Richard Garcia getting out and painting over the taggers mess, the Security staff has been helping out where they can. The City of SA won't provide matching colors for free, but as Director Garcia pointed out, the association should be able to afford the desired matching colors from Wal-Mart for 97 cents a can (just where he and the taggers get it).Jose Morlett, the DRACO tells us that he went to court and the city is going to demolish the half-completed house in Silver Creek, much to the delight of neighbors, and bill the owner.

Fred Murphy, our director of maintenance reports that the people who live along the drainage easement from on Tezel Road all the way to the Lodge Timberwilde are a bunch of inconsiderate A-Holes. Okay, he didn't say that at all; that is my take.

As I had previously written, many of these folks simply toss tree limbs and other assorted junk over their fences into the dry creek bed hoping that floods will carry their garbage away. Seriously, how ghetto is this? Oh, and while cars get washed away in floods at low water crossings everytime it rains, I doubt very seriously that the car engine block you tossed behind your fence is going to move itself out of our neighborhood after a short afternoon shower. This kind of behavior is more than ridiculous. Frankly, if I'm one of the volunteers who will gather to clean the area, I plan to start chucking stuff right back over the fence. (I might need a little help with engine blocks and refrigerators).

Chief Burton updated the board on the new security patrol vehicle. It has been freshly wrapped with logos and soon, the older trucks will get the fresh new design.Director Guy Pucci questioned Chief Burton about the liability incurred by GNW Security directing traffic if they come upon an accident scene. His point being that if they direct traffic in a way that causes another accident, the board could be liable. Chief Burton pointed out that if his staff simply drives by an accident scene and fails to do anything, it creates an ugly situation. Community Manager Laracuente intervened and stated that he would get a reading from the insurance company, and policy would be set based upon that ruling.

My opinion is this: Our security guys have light bars on their vehicles. When they park the vehicle at an intersection where a wreck has occurred, it helps slow the traffic much the same way a police cruiser does. Though not the ideal situation, this is far safer than having just an ordinary citizen with no light bar and no training (as most of our security staff undoubtedly have had) standing in the road trying to direct traffic. I don't want to have the association come under any undue lawsuits - we generate enough of those from within the association, but just seems to me that if an accident occurs and there is a need to direct traffic, having a huge logo on the side of an association vehicle that says "Security" drive right on by an accident for fear of a lawsuit will only generate more disdain. And, I'm no lawyer but there must be some protection under the Texas Good Samaritan Act to help us out. Just my opinion.Two other quick things: The board changed the wording on one or two bylaws to be votred on at the annual meeting and they will be sent off to the lawyer (of course) to be reviewed. Also, they are thinking of having a raffle at the annual meeting to make sure they get a quorum. Apparently, some of the associations in our general area had to hold multiple meetings to generate enough interest to get the numbers necessary to have a quorum at their annual meetings. We don't want that.

Then it was off to the closed session of the meeting where bloggers and reporters are not allowed! We were out by 8:30PM!

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!

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.

Seminar Report: Deed Restrictions, Code Violations and Conflict Resolution

How's that for a snappy and inviting topic? Okay, I'll keep it short.

My wife and a few neighbors attended a nice seminar put on by the Deed Restrictions and Architectural Control (DRACO) officer for GNWCIA, Jose Morlett on Tuesday evening and it was well worth the two or so hours.

A few things to consider. Did you know that in the Great Northwest, there are 4,958 homes? Did you know that in Emerald Valley, about 45% of the homes are rental properties?

One of the things we learned was that when a first notice of a deed restriction violation is warranted, the "door hanger" type ticket goes to the home (occupant). On the 11th day, if no action is taken, the letter with a picture of the violation goes to the homeowner. With so many rental properties, can you see the disconnect?

Another interesting thing: From 1976 to 1996, there was no full time DRACO. So, you may have been living here for 20 years with a violation and then all of the sudden, somebody comes up and says, hey, that's a violation!

The DRACO understands this and his intention is to work with homeowners to make everyone happy and work things out in the best interest of the neighbors. Jose always welcomes your reports of violations and will keep your name out of it. So call him at 681-2983 or e-mail him and let him look into the chickens in your neighbor's yard so the issue can be resolved for everyone.

John Kelly, the Code Compliance supervisor for our area gave a really nice and informative presentation regarding common violations and some of the limitations his officers have. He pointed out that the city has multiple ways of contacting his office including via the city portal and a handy code compliance reporting web page here. Check it out.

There were lots of questions from the attentive audience. One smart audience member raised the question about garage sale signs. He stated that if you pay a fee in order to obtain a garage sale permit, should that not include the authorization to post signs for the garage sale? The answer is that at one time it did! But, when some city council member got tired of seeing garage sale signs still up on Mondays, they changed it. Luckily for all of you holders of weekend flea markets, they usually won't take action on the signs during the weekend.

Officer Kelly hit too many other areas to list, but he did mention that on the weekends, they do patrol for garage sale permit violators, for people attempting to use the HEB parking lot as an extension of the Red McCombs used car lot, people selling or giving away dogs along the side of the road, and those guys who post the bandit signs such as "We'll buy your house cheap" or "Vote for Sheriff Ralph Lopez"

I'm not quite sure why I find that funny, but I do.

Ms Sandra Hackard from the Bexar County Dispute Resolution Center came and passed out some materials and gave a nice talk on the services provided and the benefits of dispute resolution. Did you know that $15 of every lawsuit filed in Bexar County goes to support the Center? I didn't.

They offer information, referrals, and other information, but they don't offer legal advice. Basically, if you contact them and they can't help you solve the problem on your own (get you to talk with your neighbor first), then they figure out exactly what the dispute is, send out letters to both parties and within two to three weeks, you go and have a resolution session.

The center has over 130 volunteer mediators - people who are lawyers and counselors and such. And, they handle everything from family disputes, child visitation complaints, sold vehicle complaints etc. This is a free service!

And that was that. By the way, the GNW provided coffee, sodas, cookies and sammitches and this was really a worthwhile event. Kudos to Jose Morlett. This guy needs a raise and a bonus!

GNW CIA Meeting Report: My Notes... (be they ever so humble)

As I mentioned in the teaser last night (I stole that idea from the San Antonio Lightning Online Paper), a few of my neighbors joined my wife and I as well as quite a few other residents for meeting of the board of directors, Great Northwest Community Improvement Association. This was a general meeting but one main order of business was discussion of the budget. I'll get to that, but let me recap the events so you can get up to date.

As I have mentioned before, residents have the opportunity to sign up to speak before the board in one of two ways; either as a topic that is already on the agenda or as a topic that is not part of the agenda. For example, if you wanted to simply get up and tell the board you think they are doing a great job, that probably would not be part of the official agenda. If you wanted to speak on the topic of the budget, last night was a good night to sign up for the other section.

Prior to residents wishing to be heard, the GNWCIA was addressed by a Mr. Jeff Peterson from Rep Jose Menendez' office.

Mr. Peterson spoke of recent state bills and such that may be of interest. I would suggest you learn more by going to the web page or calling the office. In my opinion, Jose has been a great representative for this area and I continue to support him until I find something worth complaining about.

Moving along, to the citizens to be heard. I'd like to be very delicate about this. Though I confess to often attempting to approach the information I post with a sense of humor, I have been told that some readers (and at least one director) don't always appreciate my approach. Having said that...

Sweet Sainted Mother of Charles Nelson Reilly! The first resident was, well, quite a plum. This resident, apparently a retired person, who I had not recognized from previous meetings, apparently didn't know the crowd when he got up to make his speech. The audience was filled with previous board directors, residents who have had years of involvement and participation, and at least a lawsuit litigant or two. So it made the speaker's opening statement to the assembled crowd that "You all may be afraid to speak to the board, but I'm not" an awkward confession of his lack of situational awareness.

Though a microphone had been provided at the center of the room, the man felt compelled to wander around and speak without it - for a sentence or two before one lady and several others insisted that he please use the microphone. I think this took him off his game.

The man went on to complain that he wanted to apply for the position of Community Manager, but because he did not use the Internet or apparently read any newspapers, he felt he was not provided adequate information on the process. As a fellow resident, I certainly applaud his desire to speak before the board and make his complaints known, but his approach was simply way off.

The crowd seemed dumbfounded at his long winded yammering about how he should have been able to obtain all information necessary by simply asking a person at the counter in the office. Aside from the obvious legal issues someone might bring up from this approach (okay, it isn't obvious to me, but I am certain someone can make some sort of legal complaint), I think any resident would agree that our next Community Manager ought to at least make it a point of familiarizing themselves with the Official Community Newspaper (Passages) at the official GNW Web Page - both of which have been advertising details of this position for months now.

After almost ten minutes of rambling, and I use that description purposely, Chairman Lee Besing finally interrupted the resident and advised him that he had exceeded the 3 minutes alloted to speak, and could he either listen to a response to the complaint, or at least wrap it up so we could move on. The gentleman questioned the three minute rule and several people piped up that it was in the by-laws, hopefully a document our next Community Manager will become familiar with.

The resident did very kindly take his seat, but not before warning us all that he would be attending future meetings. Bravo to him and I hope he does. He seemed like a genuinely nice man to me; just a tad bit off kilter. I hope that isn't offensive.

Moving along... Another fine audience member, Mr. Robert Rodkey, a former board candidate approached to give a long winded and ill-advised admonishment to the board about arbitrarily raising the assessments for the next budget without first collecting the fees to see how much was in the kitty. Director Richard Garcia pointed out to Mr. Rodkey that in fact, no budget has been agreed upon and further, the purpose of the evening's meeting was to discuss the budget. I had to stop myself from giggling out loud when my wife gave me the eye, but it seemed to me that several people had come to the meeting armed for bear, but really hadn't fully thought out the chronology of events.

Members of the staff got up to give presentations - Acting CM/DRACO Jose Morlett, Temp Accountant Teresa Carpenter, and Maintenance Director, Fred Murphy.

A lot of things worth skipping but a few items to note:

• Jose mentioned some new hires in the office - working out well
• Ballot documents ready for review
• Resident and former director/chair Mr. Joe Martinez astutely noted that the voting was to be done "secretly" and that by allowing a resident to review the ballots and proxies, private resident voting information was made available
• Director Garcia who witnessed the review of ballots acknowledged that information that should have been secret was in fact available to the residents reviewing the documents
• Director Guy Pucci suggested a change to the ballot and proxy documents to correct this problem
• Ms. Carpenter mentioned several accounting related things
• Director Pucci requested information on the use of the TOPS software and how it might be used for tracking GNW Security calls
• Mr. Murphy discussed several items involving spending money.
• Resurfacing of tennis courts - either asphalt which will crack again or a Rhino Court product that will last longer
• Both very expensive
• One resident questioned if the Rhino product was suitable for tennis courts
• Another resident questioned how many people even use the tennis courts
• Director Garcia suggested that the board put the cost to the residents to decide if it was worth the price to upgrade the tennis courts - ((If you play tennis, you better say something now))
• Fences at pool to separate bathrooms from pool - this allows the restrooms to be used when the pool is closed
  
• New sound system - wireless, about $3,500
• Just a side note on the sound. I hope that the new system will be fully installed and tested by professionals. Nobody expects the members of the board nor the residents who speak to be professional orators accustomed to projecting their voices as though the meeting was a Broadway play. Yet, most often (unless it is just my wife and I who show) the audience is made up of several folks who may have hearing issues. To get the most of the meetings, I'd push for spending a few dollars on a solid system that would make the important things people have to say, audible to everyone.
  

• New GNW signs - need to replace signs around the neighborhood
• Power washer is up and running to help with graffiti
  
• Lodge Painting inside and out - not cheap

Okay - it wasn't until 8:50 PM that we got to the budget. And I'm not going to say much about it. Before the discussion started, resident Mr. Ben Pucci (in case you didn't know, the father of Director Guy Pucci) gave a quick statement regarding how the board ought to proceed. I apologize for not catching it all but the gist was that the group should figure out how much money was coming in, stick to that as a budget and if anything, cut the budget.

Mr. Martinez also spoke citing the need for reductions in several areas.

Smartly, Mr. Besing opened the floor to comments from residents even if they had not signed up to speak specifically about the budget, but he felt there was too much important work to be done without hearing from those attending.

One lady, Olivia Theriot, spoke of the need to keep in funding for the Parliamentarian. This created a stir from other residents who felt the board of directors should be the parliamentarians. Further, a gentleman stated his opposition to paying the money since now, the current board gets along with the residents who attend the meetings.

Kids, cover your ears.

WTF?

In other words, what this gentleman was saying was that, we needed a parliamentarian because people in the audience - residents - could not be trusted to follow standard rules of good order and discipline if they didn't agree with the people they had voted into office as directors. That statement alone ought to put parliamentarian right up at the top of the list of things to fund!

Okay. I have to confess that my wife and a few neighbors left during the break and my neighbor Merle and I could only hold on until about 9:45PM or so before we left the budget discussions to the hardcore residents.

I urge you to go to the office and took a look at the information on the DRAFT budget proposals so you can learn more about it. It is only a DRAFT! Don't get your panties in a wad - make some suggestions if you don't agree with what you see. But as Chairman Besing was overheard saying, don't tell us to cut the budget, tell us exactly what items in the budget you want cut. Those are good words of wisdom.

So, I apologize for this being so long winded. There is a lot of information that is important to you as a resident. Please, plan on getting out to the next meeting.

Also, if you were at the meeting and I got it all wrong, please leave a comment or e-mail me so I can fix it!

Reminder Report: GNW Draco Seminar - Sep 25th

Don't forget that Jose Morlett, the Deed Restriction officer for the Great Northwest Community Improvement Association , will be holding a seminar on September 25th at the Lodge in Silver Creek.

This seminar will focus on Code and Compliance and will also feature someone speaking from the Bexar Country Dispute Resolution office. This should be a pretty good seminar to help better understand the rules that as residents, we signed up to.

The seminar will be held from 7pm to 9pm. See you there.

Also, we'll also be at the GNWCIA Board Meeting this Thursday evening. I'll take notes and provide an accounting of who said what soon after. I missed the last two meetings so I am sure the directors missed me! I'm hoping to have several of my neighbors join us. Ought to be a fun time.

National Night Out Report: A Good Time was had by All...

Close to forty folks ventured out from their air conditioned homes, away from important television viewing and Internet surfing, and braved the elements of a setting sun, a very warm breeze and the potential for the dreaded Texas-sized mosquitoes that have taken over our fair city, all to meet with friends and neighbors, enjoy some hot dogs and chili, fruits, chips and lots of great deserts. And in taking this brave alternative to a normal Tuesday evening in San Antonio, they helped in a greater cause shared by other participating citizens all over the country to, as McGruff the crime dog might say, take a bite out of crime.

We were spared rain and the brutal heat that is usually common this time of year and for the most part, even the mosquitoes tried to be civil towards us. this combination of good luck made the setting for our group to sit around and enjoy chatting with neighbors who we always seem to wave hello to but never really get a chance to talk with.

Thanks to Mrs. Betty Hood, the Great Northwest National Night Out coordinator, we received several gift certificates to area merchants that were raffled off. These merchants included Flowers Plus, Simply the Best Pro Cuts, Chick-fil-a, Red Lobster, Marie Callenders, Sportsman's Warehouse, IMAX, Crumpets Restaurant, and McDonald's Hal-John Inc. Additionally, my favorite grocer ever, HEB provided lots of pastries and cakes and such. Finally, as you may know, Target is the national sponsor for the National Night Out program. We had a really nice banner provided by Target and we got a special visit from Yvonne Rios who provided the kids with pinwheels and activity books.

Other prominent guests to our party included Mr. Lee Besing and Ms. Sigrid Long, both Directors on the Board of the GNW Community Improvement Association, and Mr. Jose Morlett, the acting community manager for GNWCIA. Mr. Morlett was accompanied by members of his staff and the Passages Newspaper.

We were especially pleased to have visits from Chief Roger Burton and several of his officers on the GNW Security Force, San Antonio Police Department, Constables office, and San Antonio's Code Compliance department.

We never did have a specific agenda of events such as games (watermelon spitting contest?), or speeches from the local dignitaries who visited, but some of the younger children were happy to assist with our makeshift raffle for the door prizes. Others enjoyed the use of colored chalk on the driveway, so as to practice their future tagging skills (just kidding).

Perhaps next year, we can bust out some of those padded outfits and do front yard sumo wrestling. Given my girth and the number of hot dogs I ate last night, I doubt I'll have to wear one of the fat suits.

In the end, I think everyone was pretty pleased with how things turned out. We held a party last year but did not bother to go through the registration process. I'd say that the added bonus of the police visits and of course, all the goodies provided for the party made it that much better. So, mark your calenders now because we are ready to do it again next year.

Here are a few more pictures to take a gander at.

More members from the Constables office swing by looking for potential suspects!

GNW CIA Meeting Report: My Notes...

My wife and I attended the Great Northwest Community Improvement Association executive meeting tonight. The difference between this meeting and the other meetings is, no comments are allowed from the residents attending. Clearly, this was not a problem as my wife and I were the only residents in the audience, and I'm much better at the non-verbals then most people and don't require the need to make loud comments!

Okay, a bunch of boring stuff... unless you live here and want to see how a small group of people are spending your money! Seriously, I confess that I have made comments about a few people being obsessive about the association and its runnings, but now, I have to say that I'm appalled at the lack of interest. At least the people I may have prematurely labeled as obsessive were interested.

But, if you can't make it to see in person, don't worry, I'll tell you about it.

First, lots of interesting discussion with the treasurer report. I specifically want to make mention of the fact that one Director, Mr. Guy Pucci, seems to get what is what with the finances and asks really valid questions. I don't get that he is asking questions just to appear concerned, I see his probing as well thought out and germane to the the details of the financial report being discussed.

An example of this was when the discussion turned to the fact that the association uses two different computer programs to run the finances. QuickBook and Topps I believe (I have no idea if these names are correct). The problem is, there are some issues that have resulted in one system not being fully used and there has been an effort to get things on track. Mr Pucci asked how much it was costing us a month to maintain one of the programs that is apparently not being used fully. $89.95 a month comes out close to $1,000 a year, and I think Mr. Pucci was right to question the need. Ms. Sigrid Long joined in with a very valid point regarding the fact that perhaps we should see if this monthly fee covers additional training for the people using the program.

When this group of people can focus on real issues of running the organization, I think homeowners would be very proud of their efforts, but as residents, we should show our support by at least coming to one meeting every few months.

A major discussion involved getting some 30 bylaws voted on by the membership. I sat there and took notes of most of the relevant back and forth, but I'll give you my brief summation in a paragraph or less.

The association spent a lot of time and money to compile and discuss some 30 by laws. You cannot appreciate how much money it costs to mail out ballots to 5,000 homes, hire a parliamentarian to keep the fisticuffs to a minimum, and to put on special meetings. I think the number was around $25,000.00. And then, guess what, it didn't get voted on. Okay, so now, one side says we owe it to the membership to explain the proposed bylaws and discuss, then get them voted on. Another camp says, bullshit! They have been presented and discussed ad nauseam. Lets have a single meeting, recap what the bylaws to be voted on are, then vote and be done with it. The board of directors are going to consider their options then come up with a plan.

Can I suggest we avoid a lot of bickering and take advantage of YouTube? Let's have two directors give 30 second video clips on each proposed bylaw. One of the directors would take a "for" position and another director would take an "against" position. The link to these YouTube snippets would be posted on the GNW Homepage and included in the Passages. One month later at a regular meeting, if at least 10 percent of the membership show up to vote, we have a quorum and we vote. If after a month of publicizing it (for free, by word of mouth, mass e-mails and marquee adverts) we don't get 10 percent, too bad, people don't care and we can move on.

NOTE: There is one specific bylaw that must be voted on regardless, due to legal issues.

Okay, some positive things. The board is considering converting a little used hall at the Emerald Valley Pool into an office focused primarily on sports and rec. This is where you could go to sign up for soccer, renew your sticker for your pool pass etc. Also, this would make it more convenient for people in the neighborhoods closer to that pool to see staff.

Some one wrote into the Passages and asked about the possibility of putting in some exercise equipment in the lodges (or in this new office). Can I just say I'm opposed to this. Yes, I'd be all for a nice gym, but really, if the idea is to put in a treadmill and an exercise bike, to me that falls in the category of "buy your own". Now if someone said we could afford to build a nice gym facility with 4 or 5 Lifecycles, 2 or 3 professional quality treadmills, and maybe a piece of Nautilus equipment, fill the room with mirrors and a bank of TV's that can be heard by headphones (so people can enjoy different channels), I'd be for it. My point is, either do it and make it worth using, or don't do it at all just to placate one or two residents who won't use it after 6 months anyway. How do you feel about it? E-mail me. Oh, and if we do this, for God's sake, please wipe down the machines after you use them. Yeeesh.

Another positive note. The board thinking ahead and remembering that it has been raining for the past 2 months had the forethought to plan for the GNW Lodge to be opened as a back-up in case of rain on the National Night Out event, this coming Tuesday, 7 August.

Another thing positive: On 25 September, Jose Morlett will be holding a class on Deed Restrictions. A guest at the meeting will be someone from the city to confirm everything Jose says is illegal, really is illegal*! I'm going to attend just so I can see what's what.

Okay, that about does it. I'll be excited to attend the next meeting where residents can sign up to speak. I'd imagine that there will be discussion of the way to handle voting on bylaws, and this should make it ripe for lots of yelling and screaming from concerned and obsessed residents! Maybe I'll see you there.

*Thanks to Ms Sigrid for pointing out that I made no sense whatsoever when I originally posted this. I did mean to use the term "illegal", but I missed a word or two to make it coherent.

GNW Watch Meeting Report: My notes...

Last evening I had a chance to attend my very first meeting of the Great Northwest Neighborhood Watch. You'd be interested in knowing that I think there were more people in attendance at this meeting than what I have seen at the HOA meetings I've attended.

Just a few brief notes to let you know of my observations.

First, if you need any excuse to attend a GNW Watch meeting, the food was outstanding. I have noticed at the board of directors meetings, they usually have coffee and some cookies and such. This event had sandwiches, a veggie spread, cakes, cookies and more. If I were homeless, I'd become a member of the GNW Watch, just for the food*.

I didn't know how long the meeting was supposed to last, but for the first hour, we got a really good breifing and Q&A session with Mr. Jose Morlett. Mr. Morlett is the GNW Deeds, Restrictions and Covenants Officer or DRACO for the association and he is actually a certified code compliance officer. You can tell from his cheerful attitude that though he fully expects people to be upset with him when he has to notify them that they are in violation of the codes, his goal is to help the homeowner fix whatever the issue is.

Mr. Morlett gave us multiple examples of homeowners who were violating policies where it was a matter of time before the city was going to come in and issue a citation. Had the homeowner taken the cue from our own DRACO and fixed the problem, they would have saved the expense of a $200 fine from the city.

Mr. Morlett did tell one story about a disgruntled homeowner who was upset about having to move his goal post away from the sidewalk. (I feel this home owner's pain - we ended up getting rid of our goal post because it just wasn't worth the hassle). Anyway, as the story goes, while the gentleman was arguing with Mr. Morlett about what the difference was between the goal post covering the sidewalk and the mail box covering the sidewalk, the man actually ripped the mailbox off its post, ran into his garage to collect some screws, and promptly drilled the box to the goal post. As Kramer from Seinfeld might say, "Installed!"

Though I confess to cheering for the homeowner on that one, Mr. Morlett did tell us that the issue has to do with accessibility and mobility on the sidewalks for disabled folks. And, it is a city violation.

There was a good half-hour of questions from residents about specific things and lots of complaining about neighbors, but his talk was extremely informative. He told us exactly how the process works when he gives someone a notice but I'd prefer not to repeat that info as I just as soon not give any violators the big secrets. Suffice it to say, Mr. Morlett will work with you to help you solve your situation and avoid court at all costs - unless you push him to it.

One other thing to mention was that he is promoting something called The A-Team. The part I liked about this effort was that these people often come together to help out neighbors in need - elderly or disabled folks who may require some assistance with minor work around the house or something. I'm personally going to look into it and see where I might be able to volunteer a little bit. Perhaps some Granny out there needs help getting her Blog started!

Once Mr. Morlett finished his talk, Chief Roger Burton took over providing the assembled folks with maps highlighting locations of incidents of mischievous behavior, car break-ins etc. Additionally, we were provided print-outs showing the logs of calls our security staff made.

Folks, in spite of my personal pet peeve of graffiti, this area is not bad at all. I mean, a few car break-ins suck, but compared to the activity we see on KENS-5 every night, we are doing quite well, thanks.

I did want to highlight one call that the security folks responded to. It seems that a resident contacted security because a garbage man (is that politically correct?) found cause to relieve himself whilst working the route. Yes, the cad in question unzipped and whizzed as appreciative neighbors gawked in disbelief.

WTF!

So anyway, I was tickled at Chief Burton's description of events as he says that the man "whipped it out in front of God and Country and proceeded to urinate." Of course, I'm easily amused, though I understand the lady who called it in, was not.

When security raced to the scene of the incident, the trash hauler had moved on and the exact perpetrator of this heinous crime could not located. Tease.

I also enjoyed Chief Burton's description of an event that occurred several years ago whereby a man (now serving some 60 years for this event) broke into a home, "wearin' nothing but a birthday suit and a gun". And it seems, the man was armed with a weapon, thus the long sentence.

Anyway, the watch meeting ended with a raffle where a very nice lady, I believe Betty Hood (Lee - correct me if I'm wrong, please), drew names for some lovely gifts donated by area merchants. I'm not talking chump-change here. She also passed out envelopes containing certificates and coupons from local business for the people hosting Block Parties during National Night Out (like me) to raffle off to the guests. You can't ask for more than that!

So there you have it. Looking for some way to get involved? August 7th is National Night Out.

* I'm certain my comments about homeless people joining the GNW Watch for vittles is offensive to some and outright blasphemous to others. I am immature and I know it. Thanks for noticing.

GNW HOA Meeting Report: My Notes...

This will be pretty short and sweet as tonight's meeting of the board of directors of the Great Northwest Community Improvement Association made it through the open to the public session in apparent record time.

I am pleased to report that there was very little turmoil, the board and the residents seemed to behave themselves, and there were very few accusations or derogatory comments from the peanut gallery.

Prior to the start of the meeting, Mr. Jeff Peterson from State Rep Jose Menendez' office let residents know that if they have any issues for Rep Menendez, they should feel free to contact the area office at 210-673-3579. If you feel like calling, maybe you can suggest that he sponsor a bill that would give first time graffiti offenders the needle. I'd definitely vote for him if he did that.

One nice family signed up to speak before the board during the "open mic night" portion. Turns out that these people had reserved the Silver Creek Pool for a party, which they have done many times in the past with great success and enjoyment. Turns out this time around, they get there and they can't use the Kiddie pool, the diving boards are gone and the slide is off limits. That sucks.

The husband gave a very clear and concise review of the situation and it was clear to me that had I been a board member, I would have immediately moved to refund the full price of the pool rental, said we're sorry and moved on. And the people on the board would probably have gone along with it.

Then the lady got up to pile on. Yes, ma'am, we get it. Kids were disappointed, nobody could dive or slide or piss in the kiddie pool - we get the problem.

What seemed like an hour later but was closer to about 5 or 6 minutes, the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Lee Besing gave explanations, made apologies, explained the history of what was happening at the time etc and really seemed like he wanted these people to be happy.

Then, the lady wanted her 9 year old kid to testify. WTF? At that point, I felt like these people had really exceeded the boundaries of good taste. It was a board meeting; not Oprah for Christ's sake.

In the end, Lee suggested that the board work with staff to give these people a partial refund and give them a discount on the pool for the kid's 1oth birthday.

Moving on.

The agenda had two pages worth of stuff to discuss but honestly, it all went very quickly. I should mention that one of the board members was not able to attend the meeting and a few residents I talked to afterward suggested that the reason for the quick meeting was that the absent director wasn't available to slow things down with her timely objections.

I missed her.

I find her entertaining.

Acting Community Manager, Jose Morlett indicated that several positions were filled, they had completed the preparation of the ballots from the last election and were ready to have them reviewed, and that they were filing some insurance claims on equipment that was damaged during a recent storm.

Ms. Teresa Carpenter from accounting indicated that the auditors had completed their audit and things were not so bad. Mr. Besing pointed out that we were $81K in the black which is good. But a gentleman sitting behind me pointed out that not long ago, we reported having over $300K. Geeze. I hope the auditors saw where the rest of that went.

One item that did concern me was that the board voted to table the minutes from previous board meetings. On the agenda, they listed minutes from meetings as late as Dec 7 2006, all the way until July 7th 2007.

I have an issue with this. If it was just some goofy guy in the audience like me taking random notes and then sitting down on the computer and spouting off a bunch of gibberish from memory, I could see wanting to have 6 or 7 months to make sure everyone agrees with what was said. But seriously, they have a person sitting at the table taking official notes, and often during the proceedings, the Chair is very precises about who voted which way etc etc.

This is just my opinion and just a suggestion that people are free to use, but why not take about $18.00 from the remaining $81K and purchase a little Radio Shack tape recorder, then if the person taking notes has any questions about what she wrote, or if the board questions any notes she took, go back and listen to the tape. If it's good enough for Dick Nixon, by God, it's good enough for the GNWCIA.

In reality, even if 99 percent of the residents of the Great Northwest don't care enough to attend the meetings, we ought to at least make a record of the proceedings at the board meetings, if only to use as sound bites if any of our esteemed board members run for public office later in life - it would be like a service to the community - proof that they stood and Pledged allegiance to the flag or voted against tabling the minutes from the previous meetings like Mr. Guy Pucci did.

Several other things zoomed by but one thing that caught my attention was discussion about setting a time line for review of the ByLaws.

You may recall that at the annual meeting, one of the things they were supposed to vote on was some new or changed bylaws. Depending on who you talk to, the bylaws never actually got voted on because by the time the board went in and out of open and closed session, many people simply gave up and left the premises. As a result, there was not a quorum to hold the vote and the meeting was closed.

More than one person has told me that this was a tactic that was purposely done. I have heard all sorts of conspiracy theories from many, many people, pointing fingers at many, many other people.

I don't care.

But what is interesting is what one former member of the by laws committee, Ms. Andrea Hall, pointed out when asked by the board. Ms. Hall suggested that it might be possible that the bylaws which would have been voted on are now void because the meeting they were to be voted on ended without the vote.

In other words, to bring them up now with no formal debate or amendment allowed would be against the rules of good order and discipline, or at least Roberts Rules of Parliamentary procedure. Ms. Hall and I both agreed that we could not remember for sure, but if someone is smart enough to verify that the motion is voided once it is not acted upon during the meeting, perhaps you could let me know and we can save on lawyers fees.

So, this is something to think about and perhaps to motivate you to attend the next meeting of the board of directors. I know it is easy to sit back and poke fun at the things I observe without the responsibility of having to sit on the board. Please always keep in mind, as I do, that these folks are regular residents like you and I and even if you don't agree with everything they do as elected members, at least they are doing something. Please, join me at the next meeting and we can sit and observe and perhaps snicker occasionally.

To any of the board members who may see this - thank you for what you do.

Now get those meeting minutes posted!!!