Barony Place I/Barony Place II

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...