SUNSHINE ACRES PROPERTY OWNERS ASSOCIATION

Board Meeting of November 7, 2005

CALL TO ORDER:  The meeting was called to order by Dave Taney at 1:30 p.m.  There were 5 Board members present, as Lew Morello was absent due to a doctor’s appointment.  We have a quorum with the 5.  Dave then called on Kathleen DeStefano for the minutes from our last meeting.

MINUTES OF 5/13/05:  Kathleen - The minutes from the last meeting have been handed out and were sent via email to the members of the Board.  If there are any additions or corrections, please let me know.  (For a full account of this report please go to the web site.)  Everett Stauffer made a motion to accept the minutes as written, which was seconded by Irma Martin.  The Board passed them unanimously.

TREASURER’S REPORT:  Irma – Irma read the Treasurer’s Report.  (For a full account of this report please go to the web site.)  Everett made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report as written and Kathleen seconded the motion.  The Board passed the treasury report unanimously. 

BOARD VACANCY:  Dave – As most of you have heard Pastor Na (John Nielson) passed away on October the 8th, 2005.  So we have a vacancy that we need to fill for his unexpired term, which would run through August 31, 2006.  We do have a volunteer to fill that vacancy.   Barry Olson has stepped forward and said he would be willing to fill the 7th position on the Board until the end of the term.  I would like to appoint Barry to that position with the Board’s approval.  Everett made a motion that we accept Barry as a replacement for Pastor Na.  Irma seconded the motion and it was passed unanimously by the Board.  Barry was then asked to join the Board. 

Open Comments:  Dave – Are there any comments from the attendees?  Les Stuhr made the comment that he thinks Muscle Beach Road should not be paved and to just maintain the drainage; that the road should just be a walking path.  Larry Meier – I am one of the Beach Road advisors and I agree with you.  After saying that, we have an obligation to fulfill what has been voted on by the membership.  For now we have to close this fiscal drainpipe.  (There was more back and forth discussion rehashing old complaints and problems.)  Everett - We have had 3 ballots at least, maybe 4, and the consensus of everyone is that they want a paved road that they can drive up and down.  The second part is, without the paving it is not going to stand up and we are going to have some drainage problems.  

OLD BUSINESS 

Mussel Beach Road:  Dave then called on Everett for an update on the road.  Everett – Part of what I had to say is what I just said regarding the drainage on the road.  There is also evidence that the road base is not compacted very well along the edges.  There are places where it is sinking between the culverts, and about the first 3 feet of the road.  That should be taken care of when we get the 1 ½ rock put on, which was on the punch list from the Beach Road Committee.  (At this time one of the attendees started arguing and interrupting the meeting.  The President of the Board told the attendees that this is a business meeting for the Board and that we were not going to get into a debate.  The Secretary of the Board said that we do not have the open comments for the attendees at this time.  Look at your agenda’s please.)  At the last meeting I asked the Board for $16,000 to do the road and the parking lot.  They approved $10,000 for the road.  Now we have the extra money in the budget I would like to get another $5,000 approved to do the parking lot.  The reason it is less is that when we applied for the permit to do the parking lot, the first permit came back that we could only do up to the surface of the parking lot for the first 50 feet.  The 150 feet from the water was considered shoreline and we would have had to get another permit, which would cost us about $2,500 without any assurance that we would get anything.  I went back and talked to them and we got permission to clean the East drain and about the last 25 feet of the west drain, line them with spalls according to the engineers plan; to clean out all of the spoils that were dumped on there over the years, plus what Kevin left; and, to put 100 yards of gravel, which is approximately 2 inches on the parking lot and role it in.  I gave the Board members a copy of that permit and a copy of the updated repair plan.  What it essentially calls for is $1,740 for additional soil, besides what we bring from spoils onto the sides of the road, to get those to drain into the culvert or away from it, anything but running down the edge of the culvert as it will wash the CVF out; add 1 ½ crushed rock to the surface of the road to make a crown and get it to drain, that’s $2,850, that’s about 175 yards; repair the west filling basin, which is about 10 yards of rock, about $275.  We already redid the concert at the top of the road and between the rock wall and the culvert which was $221.  Labor and material to do this part was about 4 days at a little less than $1,000 a day, or about $3,300.  Equipment rental to remove the drain rock which was done was $206.  That is a total of about $8,592.  On the parking lot we need to clean out the East ditch, the last 25 feet of the West ditch and line with spalls, that is about 50 yards of spalls, about $900; place 2 inches of 1 ½ crushed rock on the parking lot, approximately 100 yards at $1,650.  Equipment and operator to clean the ditches, remove the spoils, replace and roll the materials is about $2,500.  The permit was $150 and the total for that was $5,250.  We have some more volunteer work that we need to do, like seeding; any spoils that we put up on the side of the road we have to cover with seed and straw.  I estimate that about $500 should cover that, for a total $14,292.  These are estimated prices and I would like permission to go to $15,000 total.  (It was asked by an attendee if these funds are within what the membership voted for the Beach Road project.)  Everett said we should still be within.  The road will be paid off with the hold back money from Kevin Boren, since did he did not come back and to do the punch list.  There is about $8,800 that he will pay for.  What we spend on the parking lot will come out of the additional 3 years, according to Sam; it was his intention to use that as part of the parking lot.  Dave – To answer your question Bill, when we talk about the Beach Road Project we are talking about the Beach Road property in its entirety, which literally goes from the high tide water mark to the end of the County road at the top.  It is the Beach Road period, all one entity.  There are no dividing lots between parking lot, road, etc.  Everett – If you look at the plans, the drainage plan included all the way down the ditches and up to 5% crown in the parking lot.  It is all within the project.  (It was again pointed out to the attendees that this is a Board Meeting and now is not a time for open comments.)   

Plat 6 & 7 Lots:  Everett – Plat 6 & 7 lots were sprayed last year, which killed most of the Scotch Broom.  This year we went in and cut it, piled it and burned it as soon as we got a burn permit.  We had Bayview Landscaping come in and do some mowing for us.  The cost on the mowing was $162.10.  We also got a little dirt work done down there where the neighbors in the area have been dumping stuff.  We got the trash cleaned out and the dirt and sod smoothed around so that it is easier to mow and clean up.  Somewhere in the next year we might want to go in and do a little more smoothing so that it makes it easier to mow, but right now the lot looks pretty good.  Dave – To answer your question Catherine I believe the plan was to do it once a year.  This year we were a little late in getting to it, but next year we will try to do it in June.  Everett – The problem is there are a couple of property owner’s who have been dumping there stuff on the lots.  It has been going on for quite some time.  They dump it off of their banks down to the lots.  I think 6 & 7 lots are now squared away. 

NEW BUSINESS

Plat 6 & 7 Covenants:  Attendees – Catherine Woodahl asked you put the item on the agenda.  Dave Taney, President said that he did, plus Jeannette Clark.  Jeannette and I talked the other day about a meeting that is going to be announced for Plat 6 & 7.  I think it is either the 16th or the 17th.  As soon as the sign goes down from this meeting, we will ask Neil to put that one up.  Catherine – What about the people that do not live here?  How do they get notified with only 2 weeks to the meeting?  Dave – I don’t have an answer to that Catherine.  Catherine – I think everybody needs to be advised of this meeting.  Dave – That falls within the Plats jurisdiction, but I can get it on the web.  If you live in another state the odds of you attending the meeting are slim to none.  I can sit down with our data base and get a list of the people that have mailing address’s outside of the Sequim area.  You are looking at 84 people, so about 30 live outside of the realm 6 & 7.  We could probably get a letter to them.  Catherine – But should the association be responsible for that cost?  Dave – I think the SAPOA budget has $250 in it for Plat support, architectural support.  The money was originally to make copies, plan copies and things like that.  I don’t think it was specifically key holed for this type of a thing.  But, we rarely ever spent any of that money.  If you look at the past financial reports we might have spent $30 or $40 dollars a year.  I personally don’t have any opposition to spending a little for postage.  Everett – I would like to challenge that a little bit.  I would like to leave that for the architect reps.  The reason you haven’t got any charges against that is because we have been eating out of our own pockets.  I probably got $25-$30 in postage alone myself this year.  People send stuff in and making copies and getting it sent back to them, and most of us have just been taking it out of our pockets.  To just hand it over for the partisan thing seems inappropriate.  Catherine – There hasn’t been really enough time given to people who live out of state to give a response.  Dave – The problem is there are no guidelines that say what to do in a Plat for a Plat type meeting, and what the time frames are, and who pays the postage, how do you notify people, whether it is by post card or first class mail, by internet.  I can’t email them as I don’t have email addresses for everyone.  Catherine – Is there any way the Board can give suggestions to these people that want to have this meeting to keep it from being another “small click of people who want to bulldoze” and not get full Plat feedback?  That they give a certain amount of time?  Nancy - I would like to suggest that I put you in touch with people who have gone through this process and how they contacted people and kept it all in their Plat, and they achieved a covenant revision.  Catherine – Is that SAPOA?  Nancy Drake – Yes.  Dave – From a Board of Directors point of view, all I can do is sit down and write a letter to the people who are organizing the meeting and point out some of those drawbacks or flaws, if you will.  And ask them to consider doing something different, but there is really no jurisdiction from SAPOA to the Plat in that respect.  Catherine – Will someone from the Board be there to see what they want to get done or going to be put on the back of the entire SAPOA By-Laws?  Everett – They can’t do that.  Dave – Let’s use you as an example.  Let’s say you as a Plat 6 member and Larry’s a Plat 6 member, the 2 of you, for example, can try to change the covenants within Plat 6 & 7, just the 2 of you, if you want to make it a joint effort.  As long as you were able to obtain the majority of approval that you need, the 2 of you could be successful in changing any and all of covenants.  On the other hand now, let’s say you want to take something from the Plat and put a new responsibility on SAPOA or take away a responsibility of SAPOA, then to do that you would require all 65% of the entire SAPOA organization.  So that would be a much more difficult task.  Let’s say I was invited to attend that meeting and stress the word invited.  There is no obligation to invite me.  Catherine – If the meeting comes up I would like to invite you to come or any of you.  Everett – When is that meeting?  Dave – I believe it is 7:00 pm on the 16th or 17th here at the firehouse.  But that’s kind of how it falls into place.  Kathy Williamson – A lot of the people who live away and because they are not here they kind of go well, I don’t care; it is  no skin off my nose.  The people who want to start it will send the information goes out, the people get it, they go I don’t care and they vote; then you find out that this information has gone out & you run around trying to find out what has gone out, no don’t know it the information is; you don’t time to send your rebuttal and they have already voted.  Very poor planned.  I feel people ought to be able to have a chance to know about the meeting.  Dave – I think there are currently 406 or so property owners in SAPOA and I think there are 257 give a take couple or 3 that actually reside on the property in here in Sunshine Acres, so there approximately 150 that live in various cities as close as Sequim and as far away as Hong Kong, California, etc.  We have part time people that go south for the winter and stuff like that.  So we may have only about 200 property owners here in the winter time.  Larry – The problem is that we have to define what constitutes a prerequisite for filing a petition in the first place.  Otherwise we run the risk of floating postage that could, that somebody might suggest that we pay for and I don’t think that is right.  Dave – We haven’t been asked so far to pay for anything, nor have we volunteered to do so.  Larry – The point that I’ve been trying to make is if there are changes to CC&R’s it takes somebody with vision to get that process done.  One of the main things in that process is collaboration and the effort with the body of it in the first place.  To me that is the most challenging part of this whole thing.  Because I have a couple of issues with the poles in the first place, but I agree it needs to be done.  Now how we put the mechanics of that machine together, I think we have the opportunity here to lay the groundwork for solving some of these problems.  Catherine –This is a legal document before it ever goes out to ballot, it should be one pass to make sure this legal document (2 people talking at once to hear clearly what is being said).  Dave – That is one of the short comings to of when you say there is representative within the Plat, Plat 6 & 7 has an architectural representative, Woody Hill.  His job is envisioned as to look over the plans of a house & where it is sitting on the property, how tall it is, etc.  I don’t think he doesn’t envision himself as being the vocal point in the effort to change the CC& R’s.  Catherine – Can the Board put a committee together for a CC&R‘s?  Dave – No, I don’t believe so.  Nancy – I have been here 20 years and it is a matter of you getting in touch with every member of your Plat that you can; organize them and working together.  Then your final draft that you all approve of can come to the Board.  Dave – I think there is probably only 1, maybe 2 things that you really can’t change.  One is that all of the Plats are a member of SAPOA.  The other thing is that SAPOA, at this present time, has no authority over the Plats in regards to their Covenants and CC&R’s.  Those are all determined within the Plat.  Those are probably the 2 iron clad things that are really going to be difficult to change, if ever.  Catherine – One of requirements is that people have to have paid their dues to vote?  Dave – Irma, we have 233 paid out of 404.  I want to take you back a ways, in fact a year from this summer.  There were a lot of prepayments made.  So we have people that when this year’s due came up, some people owed $100 for the full year, so people only owed $25 and some people owed for 2 or 3 years back.  There was a really a big mish-mash of who owed what.  So when the fall newsletter went out we put a form in there that said if you have not made any prepayments please make your check for $100.  So we let that transpire from October 15th, which was the delinquent date, until now.  Over the past week and a half Irma and I have been sending out notifications to the people who either over looked the fall newsletter invoice.  Irma sent out 110 notifications in the $100 bracket.  I kept the $25 list until next week.  People who owed more than 2 years were sent individual letters that said they had until the end of year to pay your dues, or otherwise it goes to collection.  Irma – Something I also want to mention, because of these prepayments I am running these 2 years together for the dues entries, both years side by side.  That way I can keep a good record.  Dave – We have about 8 people that have already turned over to collection.  I guess the best way to answer is depending on the situation we sent reminders that addressed that particular situation.  I would suspect that out of the ones that $100 that just has the current year, you will see that come in over the next 30 days.  They are people who have just over looked the invoice in the newsletter, or on vacation.  Nancy – Some of us are sitting on our dues until the Board pays for the Beach Road property.  Catherine – People who are late, they don’t get to vote on anything do they?  Dave – Right, they lose their voting rights.  In fact the people whose dues were not paid by October 15th for the full amount have no voting privileges until such time as they pay their dues.  They can not communicate all.  As far as the budget goes, even though we have $5000 to work with, we have used have our budget but all the big bills have been paid.  We are in good shape financially.  The biggest thing that we need is funds coming in for the Beach Road and that’s a mish-mash of who’s paid and who hasn’t.  Irma – If any one has any questions about the payments, I have it all on record.  Dave – For information purposes, we run to data bases.  Irma runs one and my wife Vickie and I run another.  We constantly, say 2 or 3 times a week match the 2 against each other so we try to be current.  Because sometimes Irma will get a phone call and they say they have lost the form, I don’t know what I owe; tell me how much I owe.  There are other times that Irma is not available and they will call me and say I can’t get a hold of Irma, what do I owe; and I can just look it up on the computer and it tells me what you owe; what prepayments have been made, etc.  We keep a very thorough data base.  It also has all the phone numbers and addresses for mailings.  I believe Les brought up the idea for emailing the newsletters and we had a very good response to that.  Although we don’t do it for the winter one coming up as that has to go out first class by requirement, come spring will be the first one that goes out that about 1/3 of the people will be on email.  Nancy – Can the property owners get to put feedback into the website?  Dave – Sure.  Nancy – Who receives that?  Dave – My wife works with that.  Nancy – Where does it go if it is for the Board?  Dave – The email goes to my house.  Nancy – Does it come back to the Board, what the content of the email is if it addressed to the Board?  Dave – The Board members have access to it.  If what you’re asking is if this is an editor’s comments, sounding board, like the newspaper where they have critics for proposition 330 and no and yes on 336, and all that.  No.  Nancy – Can the property owners use it for feedback that is what I am asking?  Dave – Yes, all they have to do is go to www.sapoasequim.com and send an email.  We get fairly regular emails.  Irma – I want to mention that I have last year’s year end report here and that shows exactly what was in last year already.  Dave – If some body sends us an email asking for information we respond.  I am going to use Larry as an example.  I sent Larry an email the other day reminding him of the meeting.  Larry sent me one back, saying he would be at the meeting, provided he remembered.  I got an email a couple of nights ago from a man named Greg Ennis, who said I forgot to pay my dues, how much do I owe and how do I get a key for the Beach Road?  I sit down and typed him an email and returned the information.  I said call Irma and she will tell you, if I am not available, what your records show; the key will be sent to you as soon as you send us a check for $6.  He got answer to his email within a matter of a few hours.  I check it daily.  If somebody sends me an email that is critical, I respond back to them.  Kathy – Is the only reason that Plat 6 & 7 is on the agenda is to say that there will be a meeting on the 17th?  Dave – No, I put it on the agenda because Jeannette Clark called me and asked about the meeting; and Catherine called me a few days ago and said what happened to Monday night’s meeting?  I have to apologize because when she called me and asked about the Monday night meeting, I said it is next Monday.  I told Catherine if you look on the web site it is correct; then I looked on the website and had egg on my face because it hadn’t been updated.  It hadn’t changed sooner because of a Microsoft update problem and the site wasn’t accepting the change.  It is now accepting what is called the signature and so we should be fine from now on.

Bill Andrew – I came up with the idea of a help line.  The whole purpose of it, and I feel there is a need for it, is for neighbors to be able to help each other.  If there are enough younger people who could help some of the older people that need help, which are willing pay for work or maybe others could do volunteering.  We do little things for our neighbors like go to the store when we are going into town, etc.  So the thought was to just expand it and have a central line coming in and I don’t believe it should be a line that would be changing the number all the time.  The soul purpose is to be a communication link where people can get together to find help to do things and for others to put their name in as to what they are able or willing to do either for pay or to volunteer.  I feel there is a need, but the problem might be if you can get enough people to call in, which goes both ways with people who need help and those who are willing to donate time and willing to work.  It could be as easy as babysitting, mowing a lawn, maybe fixing a meal for some one who has to stay down for awhile.  If we could list their phone numbers and that is all we would be is a referral source to the people who call in.  I think there is a need, but whether we can get enough community involvement in it I don’t know.  But, I am just putting this up as a proposal.  I think SAPOA would have to be strictly out of it.  That there’s no legal liability and maybe that would have to be researched.  Larry – Maybe we could put it in the newsletter.  Dave – What I envision is putting this up as a discussion item at the next general meeting to see what the interest is.  Bill – The biggest problem would be getting enough together to either offer services or need services, once you get those 2 lists that the person who handles it is only the contact.  That they are not the contracting agency or that SAPOA is responsible.  Dave – We will pursue it Bill and bring it up at the next general meeting.

Dave – Going back to the agenda, as you know Pastor Na passed away and he handled the Beach Road Keys.  Barry Olson was able to go to the family and get some of the keys rounded up that Pastor Na had.  It is easier for Irma or I to handle it, because if somebody orders a key and we want to see that they paid, all we have to do is look on the data base.  That way if dues are owed we can tell them that dues must be paid before you can get a key.

Semi Annual Meeting:  Dave - The annual meeting will be January 14, 2006.  It is on the web.  The meeting is from 1:00pm to 3:00pm, with a potluck before hand at 12:00pm.

Meeting Adjournment:  Everett made a motion that the meeting be adjourned; seconded by Kathleen.  The meeting was adjourned at 2:45p.m.