Budgeting 2010, Part I

I received my "official" 2010 BLMH budget via the mail. I also have a spreadsheet that was made available to unit owners who attended the January(1) association meeting.  As I stated in an earlier post, I refrained from publishing until after the board decisions had been made and after they had released their "official" data to us, the unit owners.

The association spreadsheet provides a glimpse of the proposed and actual budgets for 2004 to the present. Only "2010 budget" information was included. I assume the "actual" information for 2009 was not the audited data for the year, and so is possibly "preliminary" data.

For your information, here is a chart I made of the Operational and Maintenance expense portion of the budgets.

You will notice a spike in 2009. I suspect the actual for 2009 includes the expenses for concrete, landscaping modifications, etc. which were associated with the roofing and driveway projects. As near as I can surmise, the spreadsheets do not indicate the amounts spent on reserve items in 2009; for example, roofs and driveways. Or, if they do, the amounts are buried within maintenance items. However, no clarification was provided.

One item of interest was the expenditure for "Grounds Maintenance" which was nearly 59% greater in 2009 than it was in 2008 (3). The actual difference was $16,423. This is not a trivial amount. I am not aware of the explanation for this variance. Was this a one time event? Is it related to the driveway and roofing projects of 2009? Our 2010 budget increases the amount for this category by 12.4% above the actual expenditure for 2009.

You will also note that expenditures for operational and budget items continue their upward trend. Several items of interest here. First, the budget adapted for 2010 is identical to the budget for 2009. However, the actual costs for 2009 were 3.96% greater than the budgeted amount for 2009. Nonetheless, our Board of Managers decided that the 2010 budget will not be based on the "actual" budget for 2009. So it appears to me that we may have a possible 3.96% shortfall built into the operating and maintenance budget for 2010.

Second, even though costs continue their upward trend, the board has decided to hold our monthly fees at the same level as 2009. So the question is, if costs do increase, where will the funds for any budget shortfalls come from? My guess is, from reserves if the board can find a way. Third, this budget is after the great uproar by that group called the "Residents of Change" and their vow to go over the budget and bills "item by item".

Here is a graph of our actual expenditures, with 2010 using the amount projected by our Board of Managers. You will note that the trendline is continuously upwards. From the "actual" in 2004 to the end of the trend line in 2010, the trend in increasing at 3.35% per year. However, our association is budgeting for a 0% increase in operating and maintenance expenditures in 2010. I think there will have to be a few budget cuts to accomplish that. So where will those occur? I suppose our Board assumes that the annual inflation rate, which is currently 2.7%, will have no impact on us. In other words, energy, contractors who held the line on costs last year and so on, will not pass along their costs increases to us as the economy moves out of recession and expands. All  costs will be exactly the same as that budgeted last year (2), and therefore will be nearly 4% less in 2010 than they actually were in 2009. Hmm, I don't think Com Ed is going by that play book.

Please don't make the assumption that a 4% fee increase was required in 2010 to meet rising costs. That portion of the budget allocated to operating expenses and maintenance is about 75% of the total annual budget. So, if the amount allocated to reserves is a constant amount per year, then our total budget shortfall will be about 3% in 2010, using the data provided by the Board of Managers.

According to the Balance Sheet dated November 30, 2009 as of that date, BLMH had a surplus of $6,643 for the year to date. I am uncertain if that Balance Sheet reflects the expenditures for roofs and driveways in 2009. I hope some of this becomes clearer with the balance sheet for the calendar year ending 12/31/2009. You will recall, the driveway projects for 2009 are incomplete and were scheduled for completion in 2010. Of course, our new Board of Managers may choose to go in another direction, to save funds. I understand another "reserve study" has been ordered by the Board of Managers, as announced at the January(1)  association meeting. Obviously, the board is trying to find a way out.

I'll be publishing additional information on the adapted budget and I will also be publishing my projections for the driveway and roofing projects for BLMH. I had hoped the Board of Managers would have provided us with this information but they apparently chose not to, or did not do the analysis necessary. No matter, I have done mine.

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Errors and Omissions

(1) In the original post, the December meeting was cited.
(2) In the original post, was mis-spelled.
(3) the original post compared the 2009 budget.**
**With kudos to a sharp pair of eyes!

Where To Go From Here? September 28, 2009

I’ll be posting the coming events but first, I have to acknowledge that I did not publish the notes of the meeting of September 10th. I did type these, but the latest incident of violence against me intervened. I will publish those notes and eventually, our Association will produce a “formal” or "official" website which will publish a version of those notes, or so we were promised a year ago and this was again stated by our Communications Director at the annual meeting. However, no dates were given. Running a campaign is the latest in a series of more important tasks.

As to the latest incident of violence, which occurred the night of September 16th, I did send a letter to the management company and to the board, but there has been no response. As I recall, the big campaign issue last year was “about being heard” and at that time our Communications Director stated that the “current board allows no communications”. Seems to me that this has now come to be true.

So, preparing that letter and meeting with police, etc. took some of the time I would have allocated to publishing the meeting notes. But that was one of the intentions of this series of attacks, wasn’t it? To attempt to silence me, a candidate, before the election, to get a continuing message across, and to disrupt my life.

After a year under the rock, er, ROC and now that we are beyond another election, I am wondering how the latest version of enlightened governance will manifest itself. According to the latest political missive of our Communications Director, it will “cultivate a fresh mindset among our community leadership that encourages rather than stifles the individuality of our homeowners and places the highest value on sincerity, honesty and respectfulness.” From my experience, it would seem that “individuality” is to be tolerated only when it conforms to some official viewpoint.

Earlier this year, “injustice” against a unit owner was a big topic for our Communications Director, and of sufficient personal interest to make it worthy of disrupting an association meeting. Supporting people who break the rules and the regulations seems to be something that activates her. But “injustice” doesn’t include the string of violence against me. There are several subtle and not so subtle messages that are being conveyed here. 1) I should be a member of the ROC, 2) I should be a member of the Neighbors Club, 3) I voted for the wrong board members, 4) I have associated with the wrong board members or former board members, 5) I openly stated at the most recent budget meeting that I was in favor of an assessment increase, in defiance of the Communications Director, who voted for a 0% increase, 6) I openly supported our Architectural Director and provided volunteer services for our roofing and driveway projects, 7) I have criticized our Communications Director for disrupting an association meeting, 8) I have criticized our Communications Director and our Landscaping Director for their activities which have stonewalled or delayed our driveway and roofing projects. 9) I didn't roll over when our Landcaping Director accused me of accepting special favors so maintenance would be performed on the building housing my unit, and I won't accept personal responsibility for the poor real estate sales in the area, and 10) I had the unimitigated gall to be so much the individual as to publish all in this blog. 11) Finally, for all of the above and other real or perceived transgressions, I deserve these attacks, which are to be ignored and allowed to continue. Looking the other way is collusion, I am told.

Returning to more important matters regarding this association, if our Communications Director practiced what she preaches, we probably would not have lost our President earlier this year, and with her, her husband who would by now have our “official” website up and running, and the driveways would already be in progress. But we do get nice slogans. The “cultivate a….mindset” statement is one that is frequently used in yoga and meditation. For example, “Cultivate a Positive MindSet Through Meditation” (reference 1)

The statement of placing “the highest value on sincerity, honesty and respectfulness” is probably borrowed from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar or some other mystic. For example, Sri Sri says: “At this time we need only to cultivate love and understanding……The timeless values of religions are……Nonviolence…..Friendliness and cooperation… [and] Integrity, honesty and sincerity.” (reference 2).

This also refers to ontological structures, which “manifest themselves in terms of the intangible human traits that we live by, such as patience, humility, tolerance, deference, non-action, humaneness, concern, pity, sympathy, altruism, sincerity, honesty, faith, responsibility, trust, respectfulness, reverence, love and compassion.” For a typical discussion, see the article from Buddhism Today (reference 3).

Reference:
1) http://www.specialtyansweringservice.net/articles/meditation/Cultivate-a-Positive-MindSet-Through-Meditation_26278/
2) http://sawf.org/newedit/edit02032003/aol.asp
3) http://www.buddhismtoday.com/english/sociology/014-humanright.htm

I will not be deterred or intimidated

This morning, as I inspected my automobile, I discovered a nail in my tire. This is not a new morning discovery for me. Last year, at the time of the debate about assessments and that group called the Residents of Change, I stood up. I was immediately vandalized two or three times. I wasn't 100% certain the first incident was vandalism. However, that first incident alerted me, and I inspect my automobile each evening and each morning, and reported two of the incidents to the police.

This type of behaviour will continue as long as BLMH unit owners are willing to tolerate it. It will continue as long as others are complicit, or choose to look the other way. It will probably occur until ROC elected board members are willing to take a stand to prevent it. Recently, one of them told me that I am "bad for sales" in the association. This blog also received an anonymous email which stated that "People just don't like me, period". These and other reasons, may be considered as ample justification for these attacks.

The nail in the photo was not an accident. It "magically" appeared between dusk yesterday and dawn this morning, September 17th. I have again alerted the police.

An associate, who inspected my tire this morning at my invitation said "that's sick". I couldn't have said it better myself. They asked where I lived and I told them. Perhaps that will be bad for unit sales, but I prefer not to tuck my head in the sand.

I won't quit and I won't back down. In fact, this energizes me. As far as I am concerned, this association is worth taking a stand. But we already know that. So the question is, what about you?