Minutes – SIA OPEN Board of Director’s Meeting Monday September 2, 2024 – 9am 1991 W. Barefoot Pl.
Attending: Board members John Lehnhardt, Steve Mechiori, Walter Garrard and Michael Flax. Members Ed Seemann, Andy Dlugosz, Lil Fox, Dave Wolfram and Diane.
- Financial update – financials were distributed through 8-31-24, 11 months into FY 23-24. Out of a budget of 22,200, $13691.34 has been spent with another $2050 committed for trimming along the roads, mowing and annual mailing costs. This leaves $6858.66 available in contingency funds for this fiscal year. If unused this FY, it will be added to our reserve fund, which currently stands at $80,011.12. We are in a good financial state.
- Vote on allocation of reserve funds for road resurfacing – est. max $20,000. The roads have not been refurbished in 7 years. Our grading contractor suggested adding 3 to 5 14 cu yd loads of substrate to each street and then box grading, being sure to maintain the proper drainage grades on each road as currently established to deter runoff flow into low-lying properties. He estimated this cost at 15,000 to 20,000 depending on the material chosen and final amounts delivered. Unfortunately, the gravel/shell material used in the past is not available and the available substrates do not really match our current road substrate.The grading company also suggested that scraping down the roads and removing the current material would be beneficial to prevent raising the road levels, which contributes to the drainage issues to lower lying lots. This would be much more expensive, maybe in the $50K range. After much discussion of the various options, it was decided to wait to vote on use of the reserve funds and seek other bids and recommendations. Steve Melchiori will talk to a contractor he has used in the past for a recommendation and Andy Dlugosz would talk to his contact at Fischer also and report back. In the mean time John L will continue to fill potholes with road base to get us by until refurbishment can be agreed upon.
- Review of new state HOA laws effective 7-1-24 and their impact on SIA
a. SIA is required by 10-1-24 to deliver to or post on its website all governing documents and rules and notify all members.
SIA ACTION – SIA already has this information on its website and will post notification to all members by the Oct. 1 deadline. New members are notified of all governing documents and the website during their membership interview and required to sign an acknowledgement form indicating they have been made aware of all governing document and that these are all on our website and that they agree to abide by these documents as a condition of membership.
b. All HOA boards must hold quarterly open meetings and provide financial reports at these meeting for review by members.
SIA ACTION – The meeting today will meet the third quarter meeting requirement. The annual meeting in November will meet the fourth quarter requirement for this year. Both these meetings will include full financial reports. The Board elected in November at the annual meeting will decide on the meeting schedule for next year to meet this requirement.
c. All Board members must within 90 days of assuming office, take at least 4 hours of certified HOA management training and sign a letter that they have read all the HOAs governing documents. They must take one certified hour of annual refresher training. These certificates and letters must be kept on file and are valid for seven years as long as the Board member maintains uninterrupted board membership. There is also an additional 1 hour of certified training required annually for each director.
SIA ACTION – The SIA Board will review available training programs and make this information available to all candidates for the next Board so they can fulfill the requirement prior to the election in November.
d. HOAs can require members to adhere to existing Unified exterior building schemes.
SIA Actions – Our ARC Guidelines and covenants set these requirements and are in sync with this law.
e. HOAs must adopt hurricane protection specifications.
SIA ACTION – The ARC will recommend an addition to the ARC guidelines stating that all county codes must be met when installing hurricane protection on any structures within SIA.
f. Pickup trucks and work vehicles cannot be banned from parking within the association, either of members or guests.
SIA Action – none needed. No pickup ban exists. Work vans with advertisements of their business were not allowed to park overnight based on our covenants but that is no longer enforceable.
- ARC Guidelines review – complete now or wait until next year? The group realized that a full review of the guidelines could not be accomplished before the Oct. 15 deadline for mailing out voting packages for the annual meeting. Instead the ARC will meet to draft a new guideline regarding metal buildings and submit it to the Board for review prior to October 1.
- Fencing non-compliance at 1881 E. Pebble Path – the member owners of 1881 E. Pebble Path are in non-compliance with three member approved requirements all relating to the fence on the West side of the property facing SR A1A.
a. The fence needs to be clad on the outside per ARC rules
b. The SIA Post and rail fence removed by the owners without SIA approval needs to be replaced.
c. The fence needs to be planted with hiding vegetation.
Extensive discussion ensued. There was not consensus on what sanctions would be best applied. The property is up for sale. Some favored fines. Others favored SIA doing the required work and then charging the costs to the owner. Others recommended a letter from our attorney to the owner outlining the potential results of continued non-compliance, which in addition to the above mentioned, include estoppel listing of the outstanding non- compliance, which could impact the sale of the property.
Concern was raised that the current SIA President was not aggressive enough in going after this non-compliance issue and that a previous long term president would have been much tougher. The current President countered that it is his belief that the Board members act for the people that voted for them. The Board elects their President and gives that person direction on what actions should be taken. At the next election the new Board can select a new president to better represent their approach if they so choose.
It was concluded that the Board and ARC could not agree on the sanctions and asked for a complete review of all communications around this issue before coming to a decision. A summary of the situation follows here.
The new fence was installed and the SIA fence removed without SIA approval. The owner, new to the Association, thought the process was to apply for the county permit, the county would then ask the Association for approval and things would move forward from there. This is not the method outlined to the new owners in the new member interview or in the covenants and rules of the association. The owner, once talked to by the president, submitted ARC requests for the fencing, plus a pool, and paving to the ARC. The fencing had already been installed but not the pool or paving. This submission was emailed to the ARC members and a majority of the ARC approved the project in Feb. 23’. The owner agreed to make the fencing changes. Approached later in 23’, the owner asked to have the membership discuss this at the annual meeting and requested the new fence stay as is and the old post and rail SIA fence not be replaced as it is old and not very attractive. The owners did not attend the annual meeting in 23’ and the members voted to require the full compliance issues. The owner was informed after the meeting of the decision and agreed to come into compliance with the fence issues. There were several communications with the owner during 24’ and a notification was sent at the board’s request in June 24’ to the owner and realtor regarding potential sanctions for the non-compliance issues. The owner reiterated he would come into compliance and planted some plants in front of the fence. The owner was again contacted prior to the Open Board meeting of Sept. 2 that sanctions for their non-compliance would be discussed. The owner was invited to attend the meeting but did not attend.
Subsequent to the Sept. 2 Board meeting the owner was contacted again and he promised to come into compliance within the month. As of Sept. 9 cladding on the outside of the fence had started.
6. Microphone for annual meeting – It was suggested we rent a microphone system for the annual meeting as many people cannot hear in the back. One with two microphones can be rented for less that $25 locally. It was approved to rent the system.
New business – Matt Quickel stepped down form the IA Board effective 8-28-24. The Board decided not to appoint anyone to the vacant Board seat as we are only 2 month away from the new Board election and we still have enough board members, 4, to provide a quorum for meetings.
The meeting was adjourned at about ten thirty am.