HOA Meeting Recap

We had only two board members at tonight's meeting, so it did not vote on anything. That raises the fact that the board still has a vacancy. If you want to have a voice in running your community, email the board at board@stcharlesplace.us. (clickable link in the sidebar column to the right -->)

Or just show up at the next meeting. The board does not really govern St. Charles Place, but you can play a role in bettering where we live by serving.

That said, here's a preview of the meeting minutes, as recorded by your humble blog author.

-----------------

Present: President David Hey, Secretary John McQuiston, Property Manager John Calcagni. With no quorum, the board could not vote on anything.

Owners present: 2

Owner Open Forum: Owner asked about oak tree removal and what will replace them. She also asked about cleaning the mailbox area. We're getting bids on pressure washing all the buildings, because we've replaced the vendor who had done the cleaning.

Another owner asked about getting trees that have grown over units on Spencer Ridge trimmed back. She also expressed concern about people parking on the street sometimes making it impossible for her to back out of her driveway. Her other issue is cats that a neighbor feeds outside. The HOA can send a letter to the homeowner about the nuisance that the strays cause.

Finally, this same owner became the second one in as many months to complain about philodendron plants encroaching on walkways, and having branches reach toward her building. John Calcagni will direct our landscape vendor Patrick Brockus from Gulf Coast Outdoors to have his crews check for creeping philodendrons.

The security system at the pool is nearly installed. You can see the cameras up. A card key system has also gone in that will replace the physical key entry. This will give us the ability to restrict access to units that are current on their dues. The community documents permit stripping owners more than 90 days behind on their dues of the right to community amenities.

(Aside: If you're at the pool and someone shows up outside the gate without a key, please do NOT let them in. There's a reason that they don't have a key. We have had people who don't even live here use - and sometimes damage - our pool.)

Next step in the satellite dish and illegal deck plan is to send attorney letters to people who did not respond to the initial letter.

The engineering study of soundness of our buildings should get to us this week. This is the inspection of our buildings we commissioned to see if the water intrusion and other structural defects have come because KB Home did a poor job constructing them. If so, the next step is deciding how to get KB to pay to remedy the problems.

Our new janitorial vendor AIO Servces begins July 1. The board fired the previous one because of poor performance, lack of accountability, and bad customer relations. AIO has done work painting some of our buildings. Our community will get better cleaning of the dumpster areas.

We got a contract from a property manager to handle the renting of the units that the HOA has taken possession of through foreclosure. This happens if the HOA forecloses on a unit for lack of dues payment that a bank doesn't foreclose on.

Board member John McQuiston raised the persistent issue of the clogged gutters. John Calcagni put it near the top of his task list.

Adjournment: 7:57 p.m.

Next Meeting: July 22, 2014