Posts

Insufficient Response by HOA to Complaint

On June 12th I filed a Complaint with the S.C. Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) about street-parking enforcement by the HOA. The HOA missed the 20-day deadline to respond but, on July 27, Julie Brinkley, property manager for Town & Country, responded. In my complaint I asked the DCA to find out what Section of the Governing Documents allows the HOA to enforce parking on the publicly-owned streets in The Summit, which are not part of the Common Property. The HOA responded, over Julie's signature, as follows: "The Association is governed by the recorded Declaration and any duly adopted rules and regulations regarding parking. The Board administers and enforces the governing documents in good faith and in accordance with its authority." While what Julie wrote is true, it does not address the enforcement of so-called parking "violations" on the streets in The Summit. She answered a question that was not asked. She failed to answer the question that was asked...

Why the Extension?

Last week the office sent out this email on behalf of the Board of Directors. THE SUMMIT COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, INC. NOTICE OF EXTENSION OF VOTING DEADLINES FOR PROPOSED AMENDMENTS July 30, 2026 Dear Owners and Voting Members, The Board of Directors of The Summit Community Association has approved an extension of the deadlines related to the proposed amendments distributed on June 19, 2026. This extension has been granted to allow additional participation from homeowners and Voting Members. Please note that the proposed amendments, ballot questions, voting standards, and approval requirements have not changed. Only the deadlines for submitting ballots have been extended. The revised deadlines are as follows: Owner Direction Referendum due: August 31, 2026 Voting Member ballots and certifications due: September 14, 2026 No new ballot is required. Please use the ballot included in the original mailing. If you have already submitted your ballot, no further action is required. If you have ...

Board Minutes not published since February 2026

Why hasn't the Board of Directors published Minutes of all their Meetings since February 2026? The Board holds several different types of meetings: Regular (bi-monthly) Board Meetings, Special Meetings, workshops. They may be making decisions during telephone calls and by using email. Every one of those decisions should be reported to Members promptly and accurately. For example, they made a decision to replace Town & Country Property Management with RealManage on October 1, 2026. All the Boar, did at the board meeting on July 7 was announce the change; they did not publicly discuss the proposal from RealManage, explain the reasons for the change, or vote of the change.  It is the Association (you 2,480 Members) for which the property manager works. You deserve Information! Why doesn't the Board report its actions? Why isn't anyone asking? The won't be another public Regular Board Meeting until September, and the meeting in November is when three directors are to b...

Gone to Idaho

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  On July 13 I drove away from The Summit and Columbia and South Carolina and headed 2400 miles northwest to western Idaho. I had a terrific four-day drive with my dog, Callie Mae, as my co-pilot. Support any good people who run for the Board in November and get rid of the others. The HOA faces some hard financial decisions, because past Boards did not act responsibly. Vote down all those stupid proposed Amendments to the CC&Rs and By-Laws. You need much more information than you were given. Demand a return to monthly meetings. You must know what is going on. The Board is not giving you enough critical information. Hiding half the monthly board meetings and not reporting them in Minutes is totally unfair to you, the Members. I'll probably have a hard time separating from The Summit, after six years of reading the Governing Documents, Minutes, and Financials. Good luck to all.

Proposed Amendment 11 - Hard NO

The final Proposed Amendment being sought by the Board is Amendment 11.  First of all, aren't ALL 28 neighborhoods in the Association unincorporated? Approval of that proposed Amendment would result in an enormous increase in power and authority in the hands of the seven-member Board of Directors or, really, in the hands for four of them (the majority). Every one of the 28 Neighborhoods is supposed to have a legitimate, duly-elected Voting Member. Over the past ten-plus years Boards have ignored that requirement. They ignored the CC&Rs and the By-Laws and allowed homeowners to "get signatures" to be called a Voting Member. Boards should have appointed competent chairpersons to the (HOA) Neighborhood Committee and told them to carry out the Mission of that Committee, which is stated on the HOA's website. And Board Presidents should have monitored whether those chairmen were carrying out that order. (They weren't.) The two most-recent chairmen did absolutely no...

July 7 Board Meeting - a Train Wreck

It's a good thing that The Summit's HOA Board Meetings are not live-streamed for the whole community to watch. Last night's meeting was a train wreck.  During the first 30 minutes there was a noisy child who interfered with the meeting. It's nice that the parent wanted to attend the meeting. The Board President should have addressed the parent at the child's first whimper.  Law Enforcement's dog-and-pony show was far too long; it was entertaining at times, but too long. Limited them to five minutes, including audience questions. Previously, the Board announced that questions from the audience would be taken during the public comment section. Then why do they allow questions during Committee reports?  A woman seated in the first row asked many questions and made many comments. The Board President should have shut her down until the public comment portion. Then during the public comment period a woman seated behind me raised questions about the annuity purchased b...

8 Legitimate Voting Members - Who Are They?

Does anyone know which Neighborhoods now have legitimate Voting Members? 1. Barony Place, May 2, 2026 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Why do you suppose they weren't identified in the July Summit Scoop? Has the listing of Voting Members been corrected on the website?  The answer to that question is No, because 24 Voting Members are named on the website's list. Four neighborhoods don't have any representation at all, legitimate or not. Only eight (8) Voting Members are legitimate, and not necessarily any or all of those named (except for Tracy Manderino of Barony Place). The Board has finally acknowledged that its scheme of allowing a homeowner to "get signatures" or just remain in office because they think they "own" it, is not valid. In the July 2026 Scoop (Page 3) some unnamed person wrote, "To date, eight neighborhoods have successfully completed the election process by forming a Neighborhood Committee and electing their Voting Member and Alternate."* ...