Trabue Woods Subdivision Homeowners Association, Inc.

Meeting Minutes 8/1/06

Meeting 8/1/06

A meeting of the Trabue Woods Homeowner’s Association was held at the Maranatha Baptist Church, 4663 Trabue Road, Columbus Ohio. The meeting was called to order at 7:08 PM by Chairman Andrew Baker.

1. The purpose of the meeting is to confirm the temporary board that was elected last month.
A. Kevin Cross, President
B. Tamara Fickell, Treasurer
C. Judy Murphy, Vice President

No one else is listed as a board member. Alison’s spot is considered vacant because she does not respond to inquiries.

We can put new people on the board tonight, or elect the temporary Board. .

2. Meeting is primarily because of the rumor that people not in good standing with HOA were not permitted to vote. If this were the case, it would have been an amendment to bylaws. Andrew has not seen anything that reflects this rumor. Now, everyone has a chance to vote as it has been confirmed to Andrew’s knowledge that that is permissible.

3. In addition to the Board, the Board elects the officers. These officers facilitate the Board decisions and provide checks and balances on the board.

Anyone can run for an officer; interested people will have a chance to speak later.

4. The agenda was read.
The new board was encouraged to have open forums, board is the controlling members of this HOA, they make decisions, need to have meetings, keep the website updated.

5.The floor was opened for questions from attendees. The following is the questions and answers.

Question: Why have an HOA if they don’t have a say on what is going on in the neighborhood? Answer: The board is like a democracy; the board is supposed to vote for what the people they are representing want. It is expensive to spend money on postage paper and time to have a meeting every time the board decides something. Because of this open forums are highly encouraged.

Update: Outside of the meeting room, letters outlining phone calls to Alison, recorded conversations, meeting arrangements and her statements are available. Alison stated that she had retained an attorney. Alison stated that she did not want to go to court, and she was supposedly on her way to his office. Every day that passes she is in violation of the HOA bylaws. She has an attorney now. She wanted waiver to give us the money. We would waive lawsuit against her in the future, Mr Baker would not advise HOA at this time to waive that right. He advises preparing a release that states what the bylaws say. If you do what is in the best interest of the corporation, you are not in violation of the law. Once we get records, we can look at details of what money was spent on. Mr. Baker is willing to grant release so that we can get records. We don’t know what money was spent on. We need to get the HOA money first, then move forward with a lawsuit, if legally feasible. This prevents the HOA money from being tied up in the court system

Question: Are criminal charges possible? Yes, it depends on what records show and how she spent the money. The longer she draws the process out, the more criminal she seems.

Question: Is she any part of this HOA? No. she is not. We have voted her out according to the bylaws.

Question: Can a board member use money to defend herself? Yes, a current Board member can use money to defend oneself. She is no longer part of this HOA, and we are not making allegations that she has done anything wrong. We are asking for records and money, as she is no longer part of this. It is her duty to turn over records. Retroactive use of funds she can try but she probably will not have any luck.

Question: Does she have access to money? We don’t know. Alison’s attorney could have moved the money into his trust account; otherwise, it is in the account currently frozen at 5/3 Bank.

Question: Is account still frozen? Bank manager told him that they would contact him immediately if it was unfrozen; Mr. Baker has not been notified.

Question: She has been putting off Andrew.. what are we going to do if she does it again? Should we go to a judge? She must provide accounting, she is required to do that. Otherwise she is in contempt of court. Judge would most likely rule in our favor. A litigation battle will do nothing but lock up money.

A July 21, 2006 letter from Mr. Baker to Alison was read. It will be published on this website in the future.

A July 13, 2006, letter from Alison to Mr. Baker was read. It will be published on this website in the future.

Question: Do we have control of HOA account? No. However, a large deposit was put into the CMC account. His thought is that the HOA money went into the CMC account. This is a personal account, only in her name.

Question: Is she seeking a release because she has done something illegal? We can’t make allegations until we know. Bylaws protect her. Something smells funny. But we don’t know. If fraud or criminal activity is found, the release is meaningless and will not protect her. We think she is grasping at stones.


Question: Outside of Alison is anyone involved? Were 2 signatures required to move money into CMC account? 2 people minimum, treasurer and president, are needed to move money. Daniel may have also signed, but that is speculation. We do not know who else signed to move money.

Question: Was Alison a homeowner? No. She was not on the deed. She & Dan were not married. The house was in his name. If you read the bylaws, they state that you do not have to be a homeowner to be president of HOA. He advises that we amend that immediately.

Question: Can bylaws not be changed for 20 years? Code of regulations governs HOA, different from deed restrictions. Deed restrictions are very difficult to change. At a meeting of board members, bylaws can be changed- see article 8. We can move forward now that we will have a permanent board of trustees.

Question: What are HOA debts to? Are we going to start in the hole? We do not know that. $16k is available, so we should be able to cover debts. Escrow account total is $4,127.00.

$100/house is probably more money that this HOA needs to run organization. It is recommended that we bond the board, but this is expensive. If president disappears and civil suit needs filed, may or may not get money. Bonding is like insurance, if board disappears or does something wrong, bonding company gives you a check for the money.

Question: how much has he been paid? $2,088. Board can pay him when they get the money.

$4,125 in copied checks received from people who have paid CMC or HOA. There was a request to start campaign to have the lawyer paid. When the HOA gets money from Alison, we’ll go from there. Mr. Baker is keeping detailed records of his time spent on the case.

Question: Where are we going to go with the fees at this time? Board will put together a formal budget, insurance, utilities, maintenance for lots that do not have residents on them. Then will look at how much to charge each homeowner. 378 homes is not an accurate reflection of the amount of money the board receives. People do not pay. People that cannot come up with the dues, typically have much larger money problems.

Question: dictatorship vs. leadership. Threatening letters, etc. not paying dues b/c they are not happy with HOA. We are going to have to strike the happy medium with good leadership. Be available, have open forum meetings. Bylaws state that you must have meetings. Be professional.

Question: HOA can elect to have someone removed if one person is not complying with duties. 75% of membership, then person is ousted.

Question: What is website address? HOA will go over that. Will have meetings, etc posted. No decisions have been made, because Board is only temporary. There will be officers under the Board. Hierarchy: Board of Trustees has final say. Officers: facilitate decisions of the Board. Secretary records meeting notes. Treasurer is in charge of the money, etc. The plan is to put everything online, save money on postage, copying paper, etc. street captains will be for people that just want to know what is going on. Information will trickle to them. They will get it to everyone.

Question: HOA-pay your dues, streets are not plowed, weeds at the entrance, etc. if you want people to pay your dues, need to educate to the benefits of the HOA. What are they doing for us? In the past there has been very little advantage of having the HOA, it has been a waste of people’s time and money. Leadership has cast black cloud. Interested people are here now, things are turning around, we need to tell people that we are going to turn things around. Board will benefit the community when it is acting properly. Do we agree? We agree.

6. Presentation and order of the day.
Motion for approval of the order of business.
Multiple seconds, all yays
Motion passes.

7. Proper notice has been provided as per statute,
Any objections? No
Motion that we are in compliance with bylaws
All yays
Motion passes.

8. The floor was opened for nominations for the board.
None.

Motion to approve and confirm election held on June 26, 2006 at 6:30 pm,
Option to mention any major outstanding issue to boards
All yays,
No nays
Motion passes.

We need to contact them when we have concerns. Mr. Baker is still available for questions.

9. Officer nominations.

Positions:
President: run the meetings
Vice president: take over when President is not there
Secretary: take meeting minutes, turn over records at the termination of office
Treasurer: receive and keep all monies and disperse monies, keep correct records, allocation, distribution etc of monies. Track the finances, always have them available to the board.
Others, as necessary

Mr. Baker stated that the Officers are elected by the Board of Trustees. The President must be a member of the Board. Offices are held at the pleasure of the board. Mr. Baker recommends having separate positions. Do not combine them.
Board can form committees and each committee must have a member of the board on it.

Nominations for officer positions,
Judy is nominated for Vice President
Tamara is nominated for Treasurer.
Kevin is nominated for President.
Elizabeth Shamp is nominated for Secretary.

Everyone loves the website. Has been very helpful, open lines of communication, keeps people informed.

Andrew will be making his own internal complaints about Alison.

10. The floor is opened for more questions.

Question: Any problem with same 3 people on board and officers? Checks and balances are recommended. This HOA has been tarnished. However no one has stepped up to be nominated. We have found 3 people that we can rely on. If you have an issue with something, call Mr. Baker. He is HOA’s attorney, not the Board’s attorney.

Question: It hasn’t worked in 9 years, what can we do to dissolve it? Go to city council, make a proposal. Kevin says it is going to work. If we have a bad attitude it is not going to work. We need to have good attitudes.

Question: Who was nominated? It was suggested that someone outside of the board does the positions because it spreads the workload, gets more people involved. If someone else says they want to be a position, they can serve at the pleasure of the board. For example, someone can approach the board and ask to be vice president.

Judy stated that they are not dissolving street captains. She will still be one, also. There still will be neighborhood communication.

Are street captains listed on the website with phone numbers? No, not yet. It will be. Where are they, what are their numbers? Where are the street captians tonight? Not all streets have captains.

Judy: Sign up your emails if you want to be on the email list. Not everyone has turned in street captain lists.
We will make sure that info is given to website coordinator and put on website.
If you have resigned as street captain, you need to let the board know. Only one or two are here. How can you be a captain and not come?

Trabue woods Ct. had a car stolen a few months ago. Canaday has also had several break ins.

Let HOA know if you have vandalism.

Kevin stated that they are sending out emails if there is vandalism. He wants to start up crime watch in our neighborhood. His phone number is on the emails.

Question: The purpose of the street captains was to get us to the current point. What now? Keep them so that communication continues. Board and officer will sit down and hash these things out. Street captain committee, possibly. Costs much money to send things out, will use the website, email, as much as possible. Church wants to mow the grass, saves about $1800 a year.

Vacant lot. Bid in for that as well. Could be fined by city. Turn that into community area, if possible.

The play area is city owned, they mow an access path to get to electric lines and that is it. It is an option to use HOA money to mow that area. If the neighborhood looks good, it will increas the property value of everyone’s homes.

11. Sound Wall: Judy has been in touch with Bruce Ward at ODOT and Mary, the secretary at Mayor Coleman’s office. ODOT’s jurisdiction. Noise is the #1 cause houses don’t sell. ODOT environmental engineers are checking sound levels. Need environmental study to see what decibel level is. Not something that will be done quickly. Sound walls are done over a 3 or 4 year time frame. ODOT will come speak to HOA, give estimated timeline. Nothing has been approved. In lieu of a sound wall, Judy was in touch with Mary to get no breaking signs at interchange. We are waiting to hear back from her. City council will pass ordinance, then send out order.

Bruce Ward’s number will be posted on the web site.

Last subdivision, Worthington woods, took 13 years to get wall.

11. Motion to adjourn meeting.
All yay, no nays.
Motion passes.
Meeting adjourned at 8:56 pm.

Notes taken by Elizabeth Shamp, temporarily Secretary at the time of the meeting.