It is remarkable what can happen in plain sight at a Pine Mountain Club POA Board meeting. The PMCPOA Board of Directors made a long series of votes in yet another marathon meeting April 20, 2019.
Several of those votes illustrate in eloquent detail why there is tension in the community about due process, selective enforcement of governing rules and sound financial accounting.
Can We Please Have Fun and Fiscal Responsibility Too?
There were numerous tales at the members’ forum part of the meeting from people telling what they love about living in Pine Mountain Club.
There were also new members, taking it all in, who asked that more information, more clearly presented, be made available to the homeowners.
Engineer Ariel del Aguilas suggested more rigorous questions need to be asked before spending millions of dollars on a building project.
But first, in a nutshell, let us salute the board for a long list of votes on issues that will have a long-term impact on the community and its homeowners. In just one session, this board made history.
• It adopted a budget that included the largest assessment increase in over 10 years, most likely the largest increase in the history of PMCPOA. They increased member assessments by 10%, $140, to $1,604 per parcel per year.
• It did this despite last year’s spending being projected on March 9 to be as much as $573,000 under budget—meaning about $200 in excess assessments per parcel were collected. Some members fear this is due to a practice of padding PMC budgets, resulting in overcharges to members since 2011 rising to well over $1 million.
• This board voted to keep that admitted $200 per lot in excess assessments.
They will commit 75% of the total to the reserve fund—along with $138 of this current assessment increase. This amounts to a charge of $340 per lot this year above what it actually costs to operate the association.
This newspaper is quick to add that there is no evidence of fraud to benefit an individual in this practice, but the net effect is contrary to transparent financial accounting by associations, and raises appropriate concern for the membership.
According to those who watch these numbers closely, if one adds the $407,000 in assessment increases to the estimated $573,000 in prior-year excess assessments, that could total $980,000 going into the reserve fund this year—a 30% increase in one year.
Accounting Manager Beth Blackmon confused the issue further by telling the members in the meeting that the excess assessments she estimated on March 9 had not yet taken into account “budgeted springtime expenses…such as re-seeding the golf course.”
This was questioned several times by Director Bryan Skelly.
Failure to subtract budgeted expenses for the remainder of the current fiscal year from the estimated “excess” calculations was surprising to hear about, as that is not how such calculations are normally performed.
The June Ballot
• The board majority (by 8-1 vote) refused to place on the June ballot any of the bylaw amendments proposed by member petitions this year.They said the petitions are “in conflict with the existing bylaws” that the amendments were seeking to correct. None of the petitions were deemed “illegal” by PMC’s attorney.
“Of course they will be in conflict,” Director Skelly said, because they were written to correct overreach by the board in matters such as putting the association into debt without consulting the homeowners.
There was discussion about less than optimal phrasing in some of the petition bylaws, but that debate will never be heard by members because the amendments were deleted from the ballot.
• The board approved the June ballot (to be mailed this week). It includes the names of these candidates:
Finn Myggen
Philip Gabriel
Shirin Murphy
Jack Throckmorton
Cameron Acosta
Tom Loewy
Pamela Plouffe
Tony Harmon
Voters will select three candidates to replace directors leaving the board: William Gurtner, Sandy Browne and John Cantley.
Inconvenient Governing Documents Ignored
• Directors voted to ignore governing documents they found inconvenient.
A resolution submitted by Skelly proposed to add the $5 million Facilities Task Force Master Plan on the June ballot, to comply with Bylaw 10.08, which was passed by members in 2017 to guard against the board taking the POA into debt without homeowners’ approval.
PMCPOA Bylaw 10.08 Infrastructure projects: All final plans and budgets for PMCPOA infrastructure projects that exceed $1 million must be approved by the majority vote of PMCPOA membership….
As a member, this reporter was mesmerized by the notion articulated by the chairman, several directors and Philip “I-Own-Six-Lots” Gabriel (which is how he typically introduces himself at the podium) that the universe of about 3,000 PMC owners was represented by the 40 members in that board room.
The board voted to ignore PMCPOA’s Bylaw 10.08, refusing to refer the $5 million building project to the homeowners for a vote.
“They have had their opportunity to come to these meetings,” Gabriel said.
“They have made their votes by electing these people. Move this along. Let’s get it done,” he urged. Investors who own multiple lots will profit from clubhouse renovation.
Business Procedure E-11: Any contract over $10,000 must be bid out to three vendors.
Chairman William Gurtner asked for a motion to appoint Gwynne Pugh the architect of record for developing Phases 1 and 2 of the Facilities Task Force Master Plan (the pool and associated decking, plus infrastructure work).
This would be making a “sole source” assignment of a contract for a project of over $10,000. Director Bill Lewis II, who is the board treasurer and a member of the PMC Governing Documents Committee, read Business Procedure E-11 to which the board is obligated to adhere.
Director Sandy Browne objected, saying it would be “rude” to Pugh to go to bid after he volunteered his time with the task force. Lewis and Skelly voted “No.” Seven directors voted to ignore their policy.
They directed Pugh to develop a contractors’ bid package.
“They are playing games with us and manipulating the members,” Finn Myggen said after the meeting.
On a Lighter Note
• Helicopter rides for Lilac Festival May 18, and
• A 50-foot equestrian center round pen with a steel roof for (not to exceed) $78,000 were both approved.
This is part of the April 26, 2019 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
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