Approaching the HOA Election 2017

There will be some surprises at the 2017 association annual meeting. I guarantee it.

As I write this the annual HOA election is approaching. Our association operates on a calendar year, yet we hold elections in September and the new board, or the re-elected old board will promptly sit down in October and jockey for positions. They will also create the budget for 2018. That budget will determine owner fees commencing January 1, 2018.

This year we have three open board positions out of seven. However, all of our board members have been on the board for at least two terms. One has been on the board for more than 30 years, with a brief vacation when overthrown and the board of 2008 was elected in a "palace revolt".

It will be interesting to see who runs for the three open positions.

I will be making some serious announcements at the annual meeting, and an equally serious presentation. About a third of our owners may attend. We have a substantial number of new owners. I won't reveal my presentation here, I may post it after the election. However, I don't want to promote an apartment dweller mentality in our HOA. So it is likely the posting of my presentation will be delayed by about a year.

After the election, the first task for the board will be to determine positions.  I've been the president for several years, simply because the leader of the group which previously screwed it up didn't want to take responsibility and because some board members decided a new path was the better one.  So we came to a "truce" and I was the lucky winner.

2018 will be a new year. Perhaps we'll return to the tired, politically motivated past?

I have worn the dual hat of "Architecture&Projects" director as well as "Architecture &Projects &Maintenance" and also as "president".  The position actually encompassed "architecture, projects and maintenance" but under my suggestion one of our newer board members has taken on the maintenance aspects. Maintenance is part of the "Operations & Maintenance" budget. Architecture & Projects is related to the "Reserve" budget, which pays for all of our infrastructure/capital project expenditures. A lot of coordination is required between "maintenance" and "projects" directors.

In our HOA nearly 75% of the annual fees goes into maintenance, landscaping and architecture/projects. Which is why our fees and budgets got so far out of kilter by 2001. Back in the "good old days" boards focused on Operations & Maintenance and glossed over Reserves and long term projects. So the average increase in fees to handle O&M was about 1.5% each year. That is, until they board began planning the roofing project. From the period 2001-2010 that board increased fees for reserves by about 65% each and every year. Reserves rose from about 6% of our annual budget and owner fees, to a peak of more than 33%.

That's the price owners pay for letting boards run wild. It gets worse. In 2010 a new board, unfettered by the shackles of the old guard, commissioned a reserve study. First ever. That study revealed a scary scenario. As a consequence, the board of 2010 further increased the fees for reserves. As the newest board member I acquired a target on my back. One little old lady screamed "I hate you" as I walked the property.  I actually saved their butts, while the real instigators, the boards prior to 2008 ducked and played political games. So much for one's oath about "fiduciary duties." I concluded that "stupid is as stupid does."

These fee increases have since stabilized. Why that is so is one of my topics for the annual meeting. Will such fee moderation continue is another. Has the past few years been merely the "eye of the hurricane"?