Board of Directors Minutes 9/22/22

HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE PROPERTY OWNERS’ ASSOCIATION

BOARD OF DIRECTOR’S MEETING

Thursday, September 22, 2022

UNAPPROVED

Board of Director’s Members Present: Jeff Fuell, Doug Gabbard, Scott Giska, Patricia Hawkins, and Ken Horn

Board Members Absent: None

Community Manager: David Wismann

September 22, 2022 Motions:

Approval of August 2022 Minutes—Board Secretary
Approval of August Financials-Finance Committee
Approval of Performance Bond Returns 09/22/2022—Architecture Committee
Motion to Approve the 9/25/22 Doggie Dip – Parks & Recreation Committee
Motion to Add Bonnie Klopp to the Safety, Security, & Elections Committee—Safety, Security & Elections
Request for approval of the Halloween Walk, Haunted Hayride, and Cookies and Crafts with Santa—Children’s Activities
Motion to Adjourn

Call to Order: Scott Giska

President Scott Giska called the Board of Director’s Meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

Pledge of Allegiance:

The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance.

President’s Report: Scott Giska

Good evening, Everyone – it’s the 1st day of fall, and it sure has felt awesome today, right?

A key thank you is in order before I hi-lite some active key initiatives.

1) If you attended the Labor Day Bash or 50th Anniversary Lake Float, I know you join the entire Board and Civic Club in thanking Steve and Denice Siereveld for their contributions across Hidden Valley for the years they have called HVL home! Their effort and energy has been tireless, and they have put the “F” in FUN.

2) We met as a HVL Leadership Council last night across the Board, Committee Chairs and additional invited community leaders to continue our work on the 2023 POA and Golf Course Operating Budget. We have a solid collaborative progress in motion against some real challenges that include:

1) Unprecedented inflation that impacts many services, labor and material costs

2) Access to quality outside labor

3) Escrow planning for the future

4) Anticipated significant cost increases in our employee health care benefits. We are committed to our high quality and dedicated staff. We need to balance as best we can, merit increases and health care availability. They provide for their families too as they service and care for all of us, each and every day!

As we move beyond finalizing the ’23 budget and communicating decisions to you so you can plan your own family budgets next year, the Board is going to be very focused starting next month on two extensive, and key initiatives. They will both have a detailed project plan and timeline to insure completion.

1) We will be reviewing and making necessary and smart changes to our bylaws and processes, where needed. Pat Hawkins will initially lead this process. (Pat spoke briefly on her plans). We will accomplish this by working on a monthly basis to shorten copy, simplify the language and making it far more clear how we all desire to live and conduct ourselves as community members. For those who love rules our focus will be to make them easier to understand and enforce. The changes should feel like tweaks. For those that hate too many rules, we will look to modify or eliminate anything that is counter to a true sense of individual and family independence and a healthy community. This process will be relatively methodical as our important “2 reading process” will dictate our pace. We will be thoughtful, communicative and deliberate to get the changes right.

2) Our second key initiative, that will be led by Doug Gabbard (Doug spoke briefly on this process) is to review the vision, roles, and guiding principles of the Board and Committees as important leaders in our community. The Board is learning from the process Eric Fox is leading with the re-organized and re-focused Lake’s Committee. While every Committee won’t 100% align based on needs and realities, we will all operate on aligned strategies, objectives, plus healthy conduct and behavior. One of guiding principles will be “there is a time for debate and discussion, then we must move on, and align to execute for the good of the community”. Let’s all be a part of the solutions that maintains what is working and corrects what is not.

Thank you all for your support as we strive to get better every day and serve you.

Treasurer’s Report: Jeff Fuell

Financial Position for the month of August 2022:

Our Cash Position on August 1, 2022—$ 984,660.00

Ending Cash on August 31, 2022—$ 1,076,538.00

Note:

All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.
HVL POA plans annually for a balanced budget (i.e., anticipated annual expenses are planned to not exceed anticipated annual income).
Some infrequent expenses are predictable such as replacement of vehicles, maintenance of our roads, the many lake dams, swimming pool liner, lake dredging etc. Funds are escrowed each year to cover those future expenses and are included in the totals.
Projected cash at year end is generally equal to zero dollars plus escrowed funds for above mentioned expenses as well as necessary reserves. Reserves include two months of operating capital, capital for asset purchases, and Architecture bond payments to be refunded.
All financials will be audited by an outside auditor annually.

The last Leadership Council meeting was held on September 21, 2022, and the Budget Project Request Form and the Budget Project Request Procedure guidelines were discussed at length. Notes from those discussions are as follows:

The Budget Project Request Form can originate from the POA Board, a POA staff member, a POA standing committee, a POA task force, a POA sub-committee, or an individual POA member. The form and process assist in project funding and board decision making.

The Budget Project Request Form will assist the originating individual or group in developing the request and will also provide needed data for the Finance Committee during budget preparation.

The originator of the Budget Project Request Form will own the form and process. Once a project is approved by the board, the ownership would likely move to the community manager to execute.

A project could be for one-year, multiple years, or ongoing like the roads.

A project will generally incur one-time installation costs as well as annual maintenance costs. Estimates for both should be part of the completed project form.

During a project process, the form with all details will be submitted to the Finance Committee for their financial recommendations to the board.

The Finance Committee may ask the form originator to attend a Finance meeting to answer questions, or may choose to handle through the board liaison for that committee, task force, etc.

This form and process will be modified over time, as required.

Secretary’s Report: Patricia Hawkins

Motion for Approval of August Minutes was made by Doug Gabbard and seconded by Jeff Fuell. Motion passed 5-0.

Golf Course Report: Scott Giska

No report

Community Manager’s Report: David Wismann

Infrastructure Management

We have moved our road project work on Alpine Drive to mid-October. Once work starts, the contractor hopes to have the work done in a few days. This will necessitate some road closures of Alpine Drive. We will announce these closures prior to the commencement of work.

We have purchased a new 2022 dump truck to replace the 2002 Ford flatbed truck. We paid for this with funds that had been escrowed for that purchase. Our team has been looking for a vehicle most of the year and there just is not much out there. We found out about this truck through our connection with Haag Ford.

Our maintenance team has been working on several ditching projects that were stalled for some time. The most noticeable one is at the entrance to Schmarr Drive by Willie’s and the POA building. These ditches have had standing water issues for some time.

Golf Course

The cart path work is complete and under budget and the grass is being restored near the edges.

Office

The POA office will close at 11:00 am on Thursday, October 13, for the annual Employee Golf Outing.

Security

I announced last month that several of our security staff members have applied for Special Deputy status with the Sheriff’s Office. The process is ongoing and taking longer than anticipated.

Our security chief, Jason Hoffman, has purchased a portable radar speed limit sign. The sign will move around to known HVL areas of concern. This sign can track the number, and speeds, of vehicles which will build our volume and speed knowledge.

Update on Fiber Optics

The contractors are catching up on restoration work before beginning new drilling. This addresses complaints that yards were not restored properly before the crew moved on. We are working with the REMC/SEI teams to make sure the trickier sites are restored.

Yard Waste Dumpster

There was a question regarding the yard waste dumpster at the board meeting. Rumpke was unable to pick up yard waste for some time during the summer and early fall this year due to labor shortages. If residents called about yard waste, we allowed them to leave it next to the dumpster and our maintenance team would put it in the dumpster when a new one came in. Resolution took longer than anticipated, but we are now getting regular pickups. It will take a bit to catch up, but we are getting back on track.

COMMITTEE AND CLUB REPORTS:

Finance Committee: Bonnie Starks

Motion to Approve August Financials made by Jeff Fuell and seconded by Ken Horn. Motion passed 5-0.

Architecture Committee Report: Tom Cross

Performance Bonds for Return 09/22/2022

Bond Returns

Lot # 1553H Michael & Stacey Palmer

Property Address 19799 Longview Bond Amount $2,000.00

City, State, Zip Dues Owed $0

Fine/Fees Owed $200.00

Lot # 2349H Katherine & Michael McAfee

Property Address 19397 Par Drive Bond Amount $500.00