Barony Place I/Barony Place II

  12/31/2021 3:00PM Another nice brick wall on HOA common property bites the dust. This wall is on the north side of Clemson Road, west of Summit Parkway and east of the entrance to North Springs Elementary School. Hopefully, the Board of Directors will hop on this and direct CAMS, the HOA's management company, to get the debris hauled away quickly. If the brick can be used, it should be moved up against the back side of the wall, out of sight of passersby, and a couple of ribbons of warning tape stretched between the two columns remaining on the sides of the damage. CAMS has had plenty of experience with damage to Summit brick walls in the past few years. There was a wall damaged on Summit Parkway, just east of Summit Ridge Drive, and it took a l-o-n-g time to get repairs completed. By now, CAMS should have recommended a few pallets of brick to be stored on the HOA's construction site and should have identified a reliable bricklayer to have on speed-dial. This damage is so rec...

  12/30/21 9:05AM This attractive welcome sign and shelter were damaged recently, reportedly when a motorist fleeing police lost control and crashed into it. I've requested the crash date from the HOA board and office. At the December 7th Regular board meeting the directors heard a report that there had been a delay getting repair bids. Now three more weeks have passed and repairs have not commenced. The Summit needs an aggressive board and management company that will do something besides sit and wait for somebody else to do something. Is that structure HOA-owned and maintained? If it is, then it is the HOA's responsibility to bring it back to pre-crash condition. If the delay is with the driver or his liability insurance carrier, then the HOA should flex its muscles and give them seven more days to commence repairs (repairs being to the satisfaction of the HOA). Would repair approval be by the office, the board, or by one or more of the board members? But could there be a pro...

Following are some of the failures of the 2021 Board of Directors of the Summit HOA. To protect your property interests, you might want to start attending the monthly board meetings (and the pre-board meetings held one week prior).  Hold the Board accountable. Contact your Neighborhood Representative/Voting Member. Start with determining whether your Neighborhood Rep. is "legitimate". Ask when he or she was elected at a Neighborhood Meeting. (Many VMs were put in place by a procedure referred to as "getting signatures". That is not an approved method under the By-Laws.) There are important, unresolved issues created by the board including - failure of the board to declare the vacancy on the board following George Reynolds' death in April; - the failure of the board to appoint a successor to fill the unexpired vacant term ending in November 2022;  - the failure to announce and hold the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Voting Members; - the improper election of  five (5...

Has the Board of Directors of The Summit's HOA gone into hiding? You may have already noticed that their names and email addresses are no longer on the website of the HOA. So the one place that you should be able to rely on - the website at www.summithomeowners.com  - no longer displays the names of the board members, who the officers are, and how to reach them. Are you satisfied with that? When I wrote to the President of the HOA. Justin Martin, at his previously-known email address of jdmartin@sc.rr.com, my email was undeliverable. Strange. Did he close that email account? Was there a "glitch"? Or had he blocked me? I found a second email address for him and wrote to that one. His reply was that was his work email address and not to use it again. he did not explain about his undeliverable email. So, honoring his request not to use his work email address again, I hoped that only a glitch had prevented my first email from reaching him. I emailed him again at sc.rr.com and...

The Summit HOA has been claiming the authority to enforce the CC&Rs and By-Laws against vehicles parked on Barony Place Circle, the street through Barony Place II.  The following letter was sent today to the members of th eBoard of Directors of the Summit HOA. The late George Reynolds, you and I have been at odds for more than two years over the authority of the HOA to enforce CC&Rs and By-Laws over the public roadway in Barony Place II; i.e., Barony Place Circle.     The Richland County Recorder of Deeds Office has provided me with a copy of the Deed by which Barony Place Circle was conveyed to Richland County. That Deed is attached. The roadway was conveyed by The Mungo Company, Inc. to Richland County on November 1, 2000. The name of The Summit Community Association (SCA) does not appear in the Deed. Since the roadway was never owned by the SCA, it never became a Property of the SCA. Barony Place Circle was  not  conveyed to Richland County  subj...

Should Board members' names, email addresses and officer positions be listed on the HOA website? That information used to be there. Now? Nowhere to be found. Officers were selected (not quite elected) at the "workshop" (pre-board meeting) on November 30. According to the By-Laws, they should have been elected in public at the December 7th regular board meeting. They weren't. Justin announced them. Why aren't they posted on the website??? An inquiry was sent to the "Barony Place" Neighborhood Representative, Billie Jones, on December 10. Awaiting her answer. The inquiry was sent to her, as suggested to me by board member Vernell Butler. 

The following email was sent to all board members after the December 7, 2021 board meeting: If board meetings are to continue on Zoom, will you please provide headsets for each board member and committee chairman? Tonight it was very difficult to understand Auby, Paul, and Jeff. The management company (CAMS) should be providing professional advice to you on conducting board meetings. Board members should have been elected tonight, rather than at the recent workshop. Workshops (pre-board meetings) are not Regular Meetings. The By-Laws provide guidance on election of officers. Art. IV, Section 2. Election. Term of Office, and Vacancies. The officers of the Association shall be elected annually by the Board of Directors  at the first meeting  of the Board of Directors following each annual meeting of the Voting Members, as herein set forth in Article III. ... The workshops (pre-board meetings) should not be used for decision-making. Reviewing bids and making decisions in the "sec...

How important is it that the board of directors complies with the By-Laws of the HOA? Are the By-Law and the Covenants just "suggestions" for how the HOA is to be run? Can the board pick and choose which By-Laws it complies with (and which ones it ignores)? Can the HOA President just make decisions and announce them, as if the board had decided? How does the Board "decide" anything?  Here's how it should happen. A board member makes a Motion. Another board member seconds the Motion. After discussion (and there should be discussion), then the board members vote. And the Motion and vote get recorded in the Minutes. How many months has it been since "the board" decided anything, even just approving the Minutes of the past month's board meeting? While the Minutes state that the board approved the Minutes of a past meeting, the fact is that "the board" did not approve the Minutes. Justin merely stated that "The Minutes are approved as mai...

Attention all Homeowners and Residents of The Summit, including the Barony Place Neighborhood (Barony Place I and Barony Place II). Be sure to attend the December 7th virtual monthly meeting of the Board of Directors. It should be interesting. Call the office to be sure that you receive the Zoom link in time for the 6:30PM meeting. One of the most important responsibilities of the Board at the December meeting will be to elect the officers for 2022. Four officers are to be elected: President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer. The By-Laws, Art. IV, Sect. 2 dictate how the officers are to be elected: "Section 2. Election. Term of Office, and Vacancies. The officers of the Association shall be elected annually by the Board of Directors at the first meeting of the Board of Directors following each annual meeting of the Voting Members, as herein set forth in Article III. ..." The Board is already a month later in electing the officers, because the first meeting following t...

Well, they did it.  The HOA Board of Directors (Martin, Dellinger, Hill, Thomas, Game, Butler) succeeded in disregarding the By-Laws and conducted an election yesterday to elect Directors to the FOUR legitimate positions AND to one 2021-2023 director position that does not exist. There were seven candidates, and Voting Members were instructed to vote for FIVE, even though only four (4) positions should have been on the ballot. Four incumbents were re-elected (Martin, Hill, Thomas, Game). One of the challengers was elected. Brenda Bryant was among the top five vote-getters. The number of votes received by each candidate was not disclosed last night but will be reported here in the future, as soon as I can get them. All directors are at-large, so it's impossible to know which of the five who were elected is the illegitimate one. Significantly, and rudely, the two candidates who received the least number of votes were not recognized at all . They were Dennis Rybicki, Sr. and Sidney Ru...

Here's the agenda for tonight's HOA board meeting. It was finally emailed out at 3:14PM today. Nice, eh? If you are looking for mention of the 5:00PM Voting Member Annual Meeting and election of Directors, you won't see it. Also, you'll see there are no Old Business and no New Business. So I guess no newly-elected Directors will be introduced tonight.  What about the budget for next year? Will they talk about that? Is there any chance at all that they might conduct business in a more formal fashion, such as following Robert's Rules of Order ? Like, might a board member actually make a Motion on some important item, to be seconded and discussed, and then Voted on? Does anyone remember the last time that the Board made a decision by voting, rather than Justin's just announcing the way it was going to be? And what about the vacancy created on the Board, when George Reynolds died last April?  SUMMIT COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION      ANNUAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS ANNUAL MEET...

The question: How to stop an election that should not be held? The Office of the S.C. Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) will not help. There are apparently insufficient laws in this State to allow that office to step in and stop the election. The Office of the S.C. Attorney General will not help. It refers most homeowners association complaints to the DCA. Plus, it is impossible to reach a live person there. The voicemail message first tells a caller that the Attorney General doesn't handle HOA complaints and directs the caller to contact the DCA. The next option is x2 for Constituent Services. All other calls? Ext. 3.  The problem is that, after pressing "3", the voicemail greeting plays again. This morning I wanted to speak with a live person in the Attorney General's office about my two-page letter that I emailed to Attorney General Alan Wilson on November 3. I was hoping that the State would take an interest in protecting 2,500 homeowners in the Summit Communit...

All the votes for the new Directors of the HOA should have been cast by now. Ballots were due at the HOA office by 5:00PM today, Friday, November 5. Even though the Voting Members were supposed to vote for only four directors, they were told to vote for up to five. The By-Laws call for only four (4) directors to be elected this year. The president of the HOA, Justin Martin, decided unilaterally that HOA would not comply with the By-Laws to appoint a successor to fill the unexpired term of George Reynolds, who died in April. Instead, Justin decided that the Voting Members would elect a fifth director. Recently, Justidn decided that the fifth director would have a two-year term on the 2021-2023, rather than just serving out George's unexpired term (2020-2022). This presents a MAJOR legal issue for the HOA. The other five members (Auby Dellinger, Paul Hill, Greg Thomas, Mary Ann Game, Vernell Butler) of the board did not oppose or challenge Justin, as they should have. By electing a f...

Recently I have been corresponding with Justin Martin, President of the HOA, about what I consider a fraudulent election of Directors about to be held on November 9. On November 4, he wrote, in part: " You misheard what Jeff said. Jeff Never said a position  will  be filled by appointment, he had a recommendation as part of the Convenience committee that one director  should  be appointed, and I pointed out the reasons in an email a week or so later, just as I’ll point them out to you… again. " Justin Martin misunderstands the By-Laws about how to fill the vacant position on the board, created by George Reynolds' death in April. The By-Laws call for the board to appoint a successor. The Voting Members have no authority to elect a successor in the middle of that vacant two-year term. When Jeff Lummel, chair of the Covenants Committee, spoke to the board at the October monthly board meeting, he reminded them that the By-Laws call for the board to appoint a successor to...

Why would one of the most important committees of the HOA not have any members? Who even knew there was such a committee? What committee? From the HOA's website, "Summit Assets "Mission: This Sub-committee, is responsible for establishing a balanced annual budget, and presenting it to The Summit Community Association, Inc. Board of Directors for approval. The budgeting process considers input from all levels and includes members from the general community. OPEN, Chair" The website lists it as a "Sub-committee". Of what committee is it a "sub-committee"?  Notice that is is "responsible for establishing a balanced annual budget". That's pretty important. In fact, that is IMPORTANT.  Notice also that it has no Chairman. Notice also that it has no members. No members at all. None from the "general community". Does this mean that the Board of Directors really doesn't consider it a very important committee? Where can you find...

If you are a homeowner in the "Barony Place" Neighborhood (Barony Place I or Barony Place II),  do you realize you will have NO say in the upcoming HOA election of four directors? Why not? Because your Neighborhood does not have a legitimate Voting Member. For a Voting Member/Neighborhood Representative to be a legitimate representative of a Neighborhood, an annual Neighborhood Meeting and Neighborhood Election should have been held within the past 12 months. The Neighborhood of Barony Place did not have a Neighborhood Meeting in 2021 or in 2020 or in 2019 or in 2018. A Voting Member is in office for one year only. It is not perpetual. It is not continuous. It is not renewable. A Voting Member can be re-elected. The HOA has not followed the By-Laws for years. And nobody on the board cared. And nobody on the Board cares now. So, quite likely, four incumbents will be re-elected on November 9. Each year every one of the 28 Neighborhoods is to have its own annual Meeting. At that...

Where is the October Scoop? Not in the newspaper boxes. Not on the HOA website. Why can't the Board of Directors get a simple thing like timely publication and delivery of the Scoop handled? Maybe it's time for a brand new board. That's not likely to happen. Look at the list of candidates for the November 9th election: Brenda Bryant Mary Ann Game Paul Hill Justin Martin Sydney Rubey Dennis Rybicki Gregory Thomas Game, Hill, Martin and Thomas are incumbents.  Bryant, Rubey and Rybicki are challengers. Rumor has it that FIVE (5) directors are to be voted on by the Voting Members on November 9th.  I'm trying to confirm that the number is Five. According to the By-Laws, only four director positions expire in 2021, and only FOUR should be on the ballot. If five slots are on the ballot, that will mean that the current Board of Directors is failing to comply with the By-Laws. 

                                                                  10/25/2021 10:30AM Recently the HOA had brick work done to repair a wall at the entrance to Barony Place II. That's at the corner of Barony Place Drive and Barony Place Circle. Here's how the HOA works. They paid a bricklayer to repair the wall. It was probably the only crack that has been repaired since the wall was built way back in, maybe 1999-2000? Maybe before? What the did brickwork cost? $500? The crack was caused by a root of an old, mature, beautiful tree.  So what happened today? A crew of three cut down the tree! What did that cost? $2,000? More? To save $500 maybe in another 10-15 years? Why destroy a beautiful tree because of a crack in a brick wall? Nobody bothered to ask the residents of Barony Place II for an opinion about "their" tree. So...

The Minutes of a Board meeting are critical, because they are supposed to reflect what happened at a meeting. When they are inaccurate or incomplete, what is the effect? First, when matters are left out, then it's like they never happened. For example, at the October 5th HOA board meeting one committee chair brought up the seventh position on the board, which became vacant when George Reynolds died in April 2021. He explained that the board must fill that position by appointment, and not by election by the Voting Members on November 2nd. And then the board did nothing.  The board position has never been declared vacant. The board has never appointed a committee to recommend a homeowner for appointment as the seventh director. Why not? Also, at the meeting several matured CDs were brought up. The management company, CAMS, just allowed them to roll over. Apparently, CAMS did not inform the Treasurer or the Board that those three CDs were maturing. One is a 6-year CD, and the manageme...

At the October 5th monthly board of directors meeting the following schedule was announced for the upcoming election of directors. Note - directors are elected by Voting Members, not by the homeowners. Four directors are to be elected; these terms of office expire in 2021: Justin Martin, currently President Paul Hill, currently Treasurer Greg Thomas, currently Secretary Mary Ann Game The other three Directors' terms expire in 2022: Auby Dellinger Mr. Butler (Vernell, to some people) The 2-year term (vacant), formerly held by the late George Reynolds. This term cannot be filled by the Voting Members. The Board is to appoint George's successor. So far, it hasn't even declared the seat vacant. Why not? Justin announced that Jesse McClinton would be the new chair of the Neighborhood Committee. There probably should have been a Motion, Second and Vote, but formality has been absent from the HOA board for some time. No one asked Jesse if he is committed to complying with the By-L...

Is The Summit HOA operating off a current approved budget for the year 2021? If you go to the HOA website, click on Residents, then Documents, then Annual Budget, then 2021. You will see that the 2021 Approved Budget is NOT there. What you will see is a side-by-side view of the Approved 2020 Budget and the Proposed 2021 Budget. But the 2021 Budget (the one for the current year) is not published. Why not? It should have been published on the website in the Fall of 2020, after it was approved by the Board of Directors. It should have been published well before April 2021, when the then-Treasurer died. It should have been published when the new Treasurer was elected by the Board of Directors. It should have been published when the first resident asked where it was. The Proposed 2021 Budget may not be the final budget, because some of the numbers don't match. The Proposed 2021 Budget contains errors in the Salaries item. The HOA has NO employees and pays NO salaries.  Why didn't ...

If Ali Hughson lived in The Summit, rather than in South Queensferry, Scotland, where he works for IKEA, and wanted to build this Hobbit House in his backyeard, would his Modification Form be approved? Hughson's backyard house is  2 meters (6.5 feet) high and 2–3 meters (6.5–9.8 feet) in width, so it would meet the 10'x10'x10' size limits.  Isn't it nice how his shrubbery blocks it from his neighbors' views? You can read more about it here .

The HOA board failed to hold a meeting in September. Why? The first Tuesday (September 7) was the day after Labor Day. Last month, without announcement, the meeting date of the board was changed to September 13. Presumably the board was told, but at least one committee chairman wasn't. There was no announcement to Members (homeowners).  Why was it changed? No explanation was given. One could guess but shouldn't have to. Then the September 13th meeting was canceled. Rumor has it that the president was out-of-town. Well, the HOA has a vice-president, and that's Auby Dellinger. Auby is a board member with years of experience, and he is fully capable of conducting a monthly board meeting. Why was the meeting canceled? Board members, Voting Members and homeowners (the Members of the HOA) should be demanding the answer. That should not happen again!

Today is only September 25, so it's a little soon to be griping about non-delivery of the September Summit Scoop. Right? For months the board has been grappling with delivery of The Scoop late in the month. Recently, they did institute one change, and that is when the August Scoop, for example, came out, it contained the September Calendar. That was good. For the Scoop to be delivered early in the month, several things would have to happen. I don't even need to list them. You know what they are. So, when the Scoop isn't delivered early in the month, you know those things are not happening. The question is, Why not? Last month the August Scoop was posted to the HOA website before the Scoop was even delivered. That was a great move, but who knew to look for it there? Anyone? The board should create a Publicity Committee and put a detail-oriented person in charge of it. Then improvements might happen. If they don't, you replace that person with someone who will make change...

How should unauthorized signs on HOA (or homeowner) property be handled? This sign popped up on Timber Crest Drive at Barony Place Drive, in the Barony Place Neighborhood. This is a popular corner for advertising and garage-sale signs. When I emailed the photo to the office and asked for it to be removed, I suggested that Neighborhood Representatives could be authorized to remove such signs. I received a reply from the HOA president that read, " It's not illigal [ sic ] to remove signs that shouldn't be there in the first place. " I'd like to agree with him, but I don't own the HOA property. If I took the sign, I'd be committing theft. When I lived in Illinois, I contacted the police department in the small town in which I lived to ask if there was any reason I could not remove Garage Sale signs that were placed in violation of a City Ordinance. The cop and the city manager told me I would be subject to arrest for taking something that did not belong to m...

For months I have been relying on the By-Laws for the correct annual meeting time for the Voting Members. Today I found an amendment to the By-Laws. The annual meeting of Voting Members is to be held in November of each year. "Section 3. Annual Meetings. The first meeting of the Association, whether a regular or special meeting, shall be held within one (1) year from the date of incorporation of the Association. Meetings shall be of the Voting Members or their alternates. Subsequent annual meetings shall be set by the Board so as to occur at least thirty (30) but not more than sixty (60) days before the close of the Association’s fiscal year, on a date and at a time set by the Board of Directors.  "Recorded in Deed Book 1280 at page 674-676 on September 26, 1995"

Remember the protests in Lakes at Barony Place in April? How could you forget? The State newspaper reports today that Sgt. Pentland is being transferred from Fort Jackson to his next permanent duty station. As a result of unfair and uneven reporting of this news, I shall cancel my subscription to The State. Here's the article, if you care to read  it:    https://www.thestate.com/news/local/military/article253972593.html Now who is Deandre Williams, the man whom Pentland confronted? Little has been written about him. Today I found this article:    https://conandaily.com/2021/08/24/deandre-williams-biography-13-things-about-northeast-columbia-south-carolina-man/ Read it for the details that should have been included in articles published by The State. Remember that 150 protestors (99% of them black) showed up and mobbed the street on April 14. Remember that the sheriff's department refused to clear the street so that emergency vehicles could have gotten through. T...

The following email was sent to Ryan McCabe, the attorney for The Summit HOA, on August 30. A copy of the email has been sent to the six board members (one Director position has been vacant since April) and to most of the Voting Members. Five-six of the Voting Members have asked that I not send email to them. They need this information but will not receive it. A few of the Neighborhoods don't have Voting Members. Refer to The Scoop. Dear Mr. McCabe, Your client, The Summit HOA, desperately needs your legal advice. There is a pre-board meeting on August 31, in advance of the September 13th Regular Board Meeting. I understand you cannot reply to me without authorization by the board. I hope they will seek your legal advice on these important matters. The Board is misinterpreting the By-Laws - Art. III, A, 7 Removal of Directors and Vacancy. The Board apparently intends to ask the Voting Members to elect a director this fall to fill the vacancy resulting from George Reynolds' deat...

If you are a homeowner in Barony Place Neighborhood (Barony Place I and Barony Place II), you are legally entitled to be represented at the Board of Directors of The Summit Community Association (HOA). Would you be concerned if you were not? The By-Laws provide for each Neighborhood to be represented by a Voting Member/Neighborhood Representative. What if the person holding the title as Voting Member for Barony Place is not a legitimate Voting Member? Then you are not represented at the Board. This problem occurs for many of the Neighborhoods in The Summit. Why? Because the Neighborhoods have not held Neighborhood Meetings annually. There have not been the required annual Neighborhood Elections. There is no three-person Neighborhood Committee. It is from that Committee that the Voting Member and two Alternates come. In 2019 Doris Covert was listed in the Scoop as the Voting Member for Barony Place. The last board meeting she attended was in October 2019. In January 2020 the Scoop liste...