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.
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, but first, I really need to make something clear to those folks that live in the community who read my take on things.
There are in fact a few factions of homeowners who attend the meetings, belong to the board and are former board members or want to be board members. I fall into none of those categories. That is to say, I do not turn away from conversations with anyone at the meetings nor do I take cues from anyone when I write these notes. Yet, I have been told to my face by members of both groups that they know I am secretly for the other side. The funny thing about it is, if someone was keeping track, I routinely agree with and write about positions supported by a faction and a paragraph later, poo poo the ideas of the same group. But in my opinion, the bizarre part isn't that people are convinced I'm part of one faction or the other, the bizarre part is that there are different factions of people who attend these homeowner meetings.
When my wife and I attended meetings and we were the only residents in the audience, we sat there and reacted to things the same way we do when the audience is packed - we either roll our eyes and laugh when we hear something stupid, or we shake our heads in agreement when we hear something we agree with. The strange thing is, when we were alone in the audience, there was no one there to tell us which side we were supporting when we had our little reactions. And frankly, there still is no one telling us how we should agree or disagree with the things the board of directors say or do.
Having said that, read on and hopefully I'll write something that falls into your faction!
This was the first meeting with the new Community Manager officially present, and Mr. Darin Laracuente set the tone from the beginning. As the directors began to find their seats complete with the new awesome sounding audio system in place, the projection screen behind the board alternated a logo of the Great Northwest and guidelines for participation in the meetings. The bottom line was, if you fell to show respect, follow the rules or get out of hand, you'll be asked to leave. If you don't leave when asked, you'll be escorted out. Bravo Mr. Laracuente!
Residents to speak included a guy concerned about his filthy neighbor who never mows his yard, has a back yard that looks like a city dump, has junk yard dogs assembled in the city dump-like backyard barking and howling and when the dogs aren't barking and howling, they are howling and barking. He asked the board to look into efforts to do something about it.
The same gentleman went on to lambaste a writer to the Passages who called for doing away with the GNW Security staff. Good Call.
Next up, senior Silver Creek Resident, Ms. Olivia queried the board about a rumor she heard regarding the management of pools. Chairman Lee Besing nipped this in the bud, stating that yes, the board had looked at some options but found that our staff does a much better job for a lot cheaper.
Finally, Mrs. Rodkey had two points to make to the board - her first was to offer praise to Director Richard Garcia for his continued graffiti abatement efforts. As I wrote previously, Director Garcia is out and about painting over graffiti and fighting the good fight to keep the neighborhood free of the stuff. Kudos!
Mrs. Rodkey also asked the members of the board to please work together and vote their conscience, and not necessarily for or against other directors based on which faction they seem to be aligned with. I have it on good authority (Mr. Joe Martinez) that every current board member has been aligned with his Sentinel faction at one time or another, so I'm not quite sure how they line up now, but regardless, I believe Mrs. Rodkey was quite correct in her observation.
I should tell you at this point that the continuing display of the "Rules" must have been working as there were no real outbursts by audience members or board members alike.
As they moved into the agenda, Director Besing introduced Mr. Laracuente to the group and reported that there has been some minor restructuring of office personnel. Mr. Laracuente announced that the office would now be open from 8:30AM to 7PM Monday-Friday, and he hoped to soon open as early as 8AM to accommodate residents.
Chief Roger Burton did recommend yours truly to fill the vacant GNW Watch Coordinator position (which my wife will surely help me with) and the board approved my selection.
Maintenance and Recreation directors gave some updates and then the new business started.
Director Sigrid Long who is part of the GNW Scholarship Committee gave a report and provided a letter and information to the directors. In probably the only real fireworks of the evening, and I should say that it was extremely civil compared to previous meetings, Director Garcia asked a few thoughtful questions regarding the Scholarship Committe.
He asked if the board had oversight. Director Long responded yes.
Director Garcia asked if the names or the applications of the past winners were available to review. Director Long reported that there were some hard copies somewhere but added that they may have been destroyed to protect the privacy information of the applicants.
Director Guy Pucci then asked if the scholarship money was drawing any interest? Chairman Besing responded that the program was actually operating in the red.
Director Long stated that it was not actually in the red, but not drawing interest and that in fact, the account was losing $5.00 a month due to some banking penalties.
Director Garcia then asked if there was any criteria that would disqualify a board member from the committee as a conflict of interest. Director Long replied that none of her kids had applied for the scholarships.
I think several suttle points were made and the meeting moved on to the next item.
Director Long questioned why an article she submitted for publication in Passages was not included in the paper. Chairman Besing responded that they ran out of space and that the article will be in the next issue.
The meeting got to the budget discussion at which point in apparent protest (or not - I don't know for sure) several residents (or members of a single faction if you choose) got up and left. Too bad. The fact is, in just a short period of time, the new CM and (once again) temporary accountant have gone through and weeded out a boatload of items that were either mis-categorized or wrong. The budget looks a lot better than it did a few weeks ago. And, because there were hardly any procedural disruptions from the peanut gallery, the department heads were able to address questions the board and other audience members had.
Only one point I care to address and that is salaries. I overheard several audience members questioning the amount of money the staff is paid. We have a staff of between 18-24 employees supporting one of, if not the largest homeowners associations in Texas, covering over 5,000 homes and multiple community facilities, and apparently, many of you would like to hire people for minimum wage or less.
I was talking to my parents and my aunt and uncle this past weekend and they laughed when I told them people are bickering over an assessment fee of $235.00 a year. They pay that a month for their associations. Don't get me wrong; I'd like to see the board lower the yearly assessment if only to send a signal to the residents that they are trying to keep fees under control. But please don't tell me that you want to run the facilities of this association with illegal immigrant wages.
And with that, I welcome your comments. I don't always get it right and I may miss a few things, but I promise, you'll get more information from my notes and sooner than you will otherwise.
NOTE: Regarding the strike through of comments about the Sentinel group, Mr. Martinez advised me via e-mail that he did not recall the conversation I mentioned and further that at least two board directors, Mr. Sharma and Mr. Miflin have never been part of his group. I have no issue with making the correction and setting the record straight.
2nd NOTE: I received a second update indicating that Ms. Long also has no affiliation whatsoever with the Sentinel group. In other words, apparently very few members of the board have any affiliation with Sentinel. I apologize to any board members who may have been wrongly identified as being associated with the Sentinel group.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
I'd like to think that if you find any enjoyment in the things I post, reading about the minutes of the Great Northwest HOA meeting would be a low priority on your list of reading. I'll try to be entertaining, but if you skip this one, I'll understand.
I took quite a few notes during the meeting and even spoke with a few folks to make sure that I understood things I didn't completely hear. Unlike my first meeting, this one had very little in the way of outbursts or comic relief.
At some point in the meeting, there was even reference to me and this blog, a result of my award winning 4th of July Parade coverage. I'm going to skip through a lot of the boring stuff and get right to a few points, so here goes.
During presentations by department heads,(and as I mentioned before) I was impressed by some of the questions Mr. Guy Pucci asked.
Examples:
- On the purchase of new computers, he asked if the old computers were still under warranty (no).
- On the auditing firm coming July 19th, he asked if there would be a pre-conference with board members (no)
- On the report from the Rec Department, he asked if there was a record of how many visitors to the pool were non-residents - the answer was "no", but they would start keeping track. The Rec director mentioned that she could go back and count money collected to figure out the number. This may have been lost on other observers, but I think the point was, if you don't keep track of the number of visitors, how do you know how much money should be in the kitty at the end of the day? Right?
- To the Security Chief, Mr. Pucci asked if there were any issues in hiring new staff (no) and also asked about any remaining life in a vehicle that the Security Department is seeking to replace. (Yes, and the vehicle will be transferred to DRACO). Mr. Pucci also asked about Logs the officers might keep.
- During the Maintenance Department report, Mr. Pucci asked about the status of diving boards (Rec director looking into it)
- And during a board discussion regarding the review of election materials, Mr. Pucci made a recommendation to help speed up the process.
Now call me a bumpkin, but in each of these cases, it sounded as though Mr. Pucci's questions were certainly value added to the process, and certainly not invasive or overstepping the boundaries of what board directors would be voted into office to be aware of before making a decision. If someone can give me a valid reason as to why we would want a board full of directors who calmly sit back and simply listen to the reports from staff with no question, I'd submit that we could save a whole lot of money and not have meetings at all.
Am I out of my mind on this?
My observation was that Mr. Pucci did exactly what a member of the board of directors should do. Make a decision based on well thought out and vetted information.
Now I stated previously, and currently stand by my position that, if you can afford to spend the kind of money Mr. Pucci did on a lawsuit against the HOA, then your priorities are a lot different than mine. But having said that, I still don't see the types of questions he asks at the meetings are anything more than in the best interests of the association as a whole.
Okay, so moving on and speaking of the lawsuit. Ms Sigrid Long, whom I had the pleasure of meeting and seemed very nice, if not a bit unsettled by my report of the first meeting I attended, added an item to the meeting agenda. She wanted the board to discuss an article that her and another board member, Mr. Steve Mifflin, had written for publication in The Passages. The topic of the letter was the story of the Guy Pucci Lawsuit. There was a lot of banter amongst the board members and I think ultimately, they decided to discuss the issue in closed session.
But since you are here anyway, let me give you my two cents. I am strictly opposed to publishing the letter in Passages, because I'm tired of seeing it used for the purposes of board members bashing one another. If Ms. Long or Mr. Mifflin would send me a copy of the letter, I'll post it here, unedited, and I'll be happy to give Mr. Pucci free reign to respond to it. But people in the Great Northwest don't read this blog to see pictures of their kid's Soccer Team or read about the pool schedule. So send the dirt to me, and keep that crap out of the association newspaper.
What I do believe should happen is, the opposing sides should come up with a joint statement which explains what was done, how it was resolved and any homeowner in good standing should be able to request that document and have it provided to them. End of story, case closed, see ya and good night.
Oh, the good news is, the guys who had requested to start an area Motorcycle Club, got permission to run some free adds in The Passages, so they could determine interest. Well done.
There were some other odds and ends, but really, I encourage any of you who want to see your board in action, to just come to the meetings. You can sit near me and we can giggle together.
Now, enough of this nastiness. I find it more entertaining to tell you about the new things I saw and did this weekend. More on that next.
Just a quick update on the HOA meeting tonight at the Great Northwest Lodge. The meeting wasn't closed per se, but it was not open to discussion by folks in the peanut gallery. For this reason, it seemed to go fairly smoothly with very little reportable fanfare. Of course, residents only stay for the open session. From there, the board meets in a closed session where I suspect they yell!
My wife, Eva, attended with me and we got to meet several of the folks I hadn't had a chance to meet last meeting including board member Ms. Sigrid Long and former board member Mr. Joe Martinez. We also met the GNW Security Chief Roger Burton.
I took quite a few notes and compared notes with some others and frankly, from my "outsider" point of view, there seemed to be only one or two minor topics that raised my "Give a Crap" meter in my mind.
What I saw as relevant and thoughtful questions posed by board member Mr. Guy Pucci to various members of staff, may have come across as micro-managing and a waste of time to others, but I suppose as residents of the Great Northwest, it would be on you as individuals to come to the meetings and find out what you think.
But more on the ongoings when I get a chance to look at my notes and such.
The reason we stopped and introduced ourselves to Chief Burton is, my wife volunteered for me to be the Block Captain for GNW Watch for our street. I'm not sure if it needs to be put up to a vote by my neighbors, but my promise is, I will hold another National Night Out Party like we did last year, and this time, supposedly there will be some sort of prizes and other swank, all being given out by local business/governments just for signing up and being "official".
So neighbors, BYOB, but let's not get so liquored-up that McGruff the Crime Dog has to make a few apprehensions.
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.
