MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL SVCA BOARD WORK ... - Sudden Valley

WORK SESSION MINUTESMay 11, 2010 6the consistent resistance by the membership to any kind of dues increase. Ofparticular note was the article written for the Views by Naomi Bunis regarding thehistorical outcome of due increase efforts, citing in particular the year that an increaseof just $10 for that year failed. For 28 years, there has been constant resistance toany effort by many Boards to raise dues. It isn’t the failure of the Boards over theyears wanting to get things done, but a constant battle between boards and members,coupled with an ongoing determination to resist any increases through the years.The old minutes substantiate these facts. Director Weide stated she would like thefocus to be on fixing the issues of staff safety first, community safety second andbeautification third. Preventive maintenance is key in all of this. Director Almondopined that Bruce clearly will fix what we want him to fix if we have the money touse for that purpose, but we also may have to decide what we want “saved” first.President Casey said this is the reason the General Manager has been asked todevelop plans – for Security, Maintenance, etc. so we can take a hard look at thingsand decide what the priorities should be and prioritize everything across the board –by cost, resources, needs, and time required. These plans are developed in detail toprovide the Board with realistic and clear detail to enable it to make the correctdecisions. General Manager, Dave Wareing, reflected on the recent training he’dhad at the Community Association Managers Training in Bellevue. One of the firstthings they said was that communities are responsible for funding the level of serviceand lifestyle that they want to enjoy. We have a problem here, in that the values thatsuccessive boards have had are not consistent with the voting majority – at least whenit came to getting something passed. A good example of that is Density Reduction.He feels that Density Reduction continues to bleed this Association, when it doesn’thave any blood to lose. Density Reduction was a necessity, but it has cost us theloss of $800,000-$1,000,000/year, yet we have nearly $2,000,000 in the fund. Mr.Wareing assured all that not only do we not have the money we need to get all thethings done that need to get done, but we do not have the enough money to take careof those things that must be done now. As an example, we need between $100,000- $150,000 just to get some things done that are sorely needed to the golf course. Weare expected to do some work on the Lake Louise Dam, and he believes thatnecessary work could cost as much a $50,000-$60,000. We have all this money thatwe can’t touch, and pitiful amounts of money available to deal with our buildings.The work that we did downstairs in the Barn - the gym and all the thing we addeddownstairs - according to the Building Association of Whatcom County, added some$700,000-$800,000 worth of value. This building is used all of the time. Morepeople use this facility than any other – it is used all the time. It provides good value.In contrast, the GM and Mike Banacek have looked at the damages to the BathHouse. Mike has photos that show all the things that are rotten. The building wasbadly designed. The Rotunda and Clubhouse are poorly designed. The work wasdone cheaply, and fast. Sudden Valley has never had the quality of people workingfor it that it has now. We have the ability to fix things right, do a good job. Thingsthat are being done now are being done properly to last a long time. PresidentCasey asked what can we do now; what will it take; how long will it take; and whatwill it cost, so that the Board can make informed decisions on what to do first. Wehaven’t seen this – haven’t seen anything about Lake Louise Dam, for instance.