TLPOA Board has seen quite a few resignations in the past few years.
Looking at our current TLPOA make-up raises questions of legitimacy.
Current 2020 Board of Directors
President: Brooks Rice, 2018 – Resigned * Dick Miner was appointed by board in January 2020, was voting member (2018: Brooks Rice -resigned). Term expires in 2020.It is highly unusual that the board did not appoint the elected Vice-President to fill this position.
Vice-President – Rona Thornton, 2018
Treasurer – 2019 – Joe Mancuso, Resigned * Rick Thompson – appointed by board to voting member July 2019, appointed to parks chair at the same meeting, appointed to treasurer in February 2010. Term expires in 2021. Rick was not elected by the community members, but is now on the executive as both Treasurer and Parks Chair.
Secretary – Margie New, 2019
Voting Members
Jeff Bennett, 2018 * Rex Bull, 2018, appointed by board July 2019 over candidate from annual meeting Greg di Donato, 2018 * Larry Marques, 2018, appointed Feb 2020 Maggie McLening, 2019 Byron Tapley, 2018
Summary:
1 of 4 executive position is appointed (unelected), another position (President) was appointed above elected Vice-President from Voting Member
2 of 6 voting members are appointed (unelected).
Seven (7) of the terms have expired, both appointed voting members, two executive members (including the appointed president).
Yesterday (Tuesday Nov 19, 2019), I attended the monthly TLPOA meeting at WCID#17. Here are some random notes of interest. This is not a source of authority, just some notes for neighbours.
Water Service in Big Park
TLPOA will be getting a water service from WCID#17. This will be installed; meter outside gate, hose bib (and TLPOA shutoff presumably) inside gate.
Cost of this service is approx $25 minimum / month (+over usage) if we commit to this with WCID#17. There will be $0 installation fee. Cost over 15 years is $4.5K (against > $350K in association fees in those same 15 years). Cost per year is $1.5 dollar per TLPOA property. Seems money VERY well spent and an excellent service to bring to the park at a very minimum impact our annual budget (<1.5%).
Email Guidelines and Policies
The TLPOA Tech Committee presented some minor changes to the Email Use Policy/Guidelines. The intent of these policy changes is to make it clear that the email lists are not to be used for endless complaints (aka Platform for Complaints) or personal diatribe, and/or harmful content.
The goal of these changes is to allow the Tech committee or TLPOA Board to temporarily “block” individuals who cannot maintain a positive/constructive demeanor on our discussions@ emial list.
Language was insert to attempt to block Harmful content. It is not the intent of the Tech commit or TLPOA Bpard to block “all” Compaints from discussions. Rather, discussions is there as a platform for discussions.
An alternate recommendation is to create a distinct email list called “complaints@” and make the board@ a member, with open membership for any community member. Open/transparent communications are encouraged and the intent of these email lists.
Email policy / guidelines of inter-personal decency will STILL APPLY and Moderation of our TLPOA lists MAY occur at the DISCRETION OF THE TECH COMMITTEE with appeal to the TLPOA board for abuse of Moderation privileges.
It is important to note that membership and the right to post to the TLPOA email lists are not a Right of the property owners (with the exception of Business@). It is a privilege that can be revoked. All efforts will be made to encourage alternate opinions and perspectives, just don’t be mean or a bully (aka Troll).
Fire Safety in the Park and Habitat Removal
Rick Thompson presented the Park Committee report. There was quite some discussion of all the fire safety advise that has been received from the fire safety experts who our community has been visiting with.
Fire Safety is being used as justification for more pruning of habitat and trees in the Big Park. I question the value of this action. We have very little fuel in the park and few ignition sources (almost zero power lines). There is almost no undergrowth and our trees in the main part of the park have been well trimmed in recent years. As a matter of fact, our park was called out as a potential Hudson Bend “safety meeting location” in the event our neighborhood were blocked from exit.
My request would be that the Park Committee present a much more precise report of what they plan to do as far as future pruning jobs in the park. What are the requirements, how have they been vetted, what projects are being under taken by whom and when? Preservation of nature in our park is a top priority of many of our community members. Let’s make sure these are actual fire risks.
With the old website, we would document each of our pruning projects. This would be an Excellent use of our new webite.
CapCoG – Emergency Communications Network – Regional Notification System (RNS)
Meeting participants handed out a flyer on how to join with CapCoG.org (Capital Area Council of Governments) Emergency Communications Network’s Regional Notification System (RNS).
Existing keys are 7 years old and there are legitimate concerns about authorized access into the park (presumably using lost or stolen keys?). Our keys are Medeco “high security” keys (makes them difficult to copy).
During the October 2019 TLPOA Board Meeting, a decision was made to re-key the gates. During the November 2019 TLPOA Board Meeting, a decision was made to yes, go ahead and re-key as soon as possible. Start with 200 keys.
Automation of the big park gate
Some new (and existing) neighbors are asking that we revisit opportunity to have an automated park gate. Fact are, numerous people like the manual gate process we have today for good reasons. However, many others would prefer an automated gate for MANY other great reasons.
Amenities and capital allocation is a difficult business with TLPOA (and presumably other home owner associations), as there is some belief that any given item needs a “majority” to have desire for it. Rather, there is a good strong budget of > $20K year (on a wee per lot cost of $125/year). Amenities should be looked upon as a collection of features that meet the needs of most by addressing the desires of a many smaller interests. This is an effective manner to properly distribute association fees to the meet the wants of a larger majority of neighbours.
An “ad-hoc” survey was created and sent to TLPOA to gauge interest in the automation of the park gate, and further solicit offers of donations to the project. This survey went out in a slanted fashion and did not use proper methods to assure single answers (supposedly).
Regardless of the scientific nature of the survey, there was PLENTY of enthusiasm for further feasibility planning for an automated park gate.
The TLPOA board acknowledged that any park gate automation project would require neighborhood approval and not be installed until well into next year. As such, we should continue with the re-key of TLPOA park gates at this time.
The President has Resigned – Who will rise?
TLPOA President has resigned …
TLPOA President has resigned for personal reasons (apparently as of Jan 1 2020). There is some discussion of what should happen to the post of President. Do the TLPOA By-laws that state “vacancies to be appointed by board” or such, or use “Vice-President fulfills President roles if absent”.
Obviously it is the intent of the neighborhood (and framers of the TLPOA By-laws and pretty much any other deliberative body), that the Vice President will fill in.
If the TLPOA board takes action to appoint a different person to President (other than Vice President), their actions should be fully explained.
Has an announcement been made to “business@” and “notices@” that the President has resigned (with date)? Don’t forget, please ask them to respond to “discussions@” or the Forums at TLPOA.org
