Barony Place I/Barony Place II

Recently The Summit's HOA spent $32,556 for a pickle ball court at the Myrtle Park playground. View this article about one of America's fastest growing areas of sports injuries. Guess which one? Pickle ball! Online estimates of the cost of injuries range from $300,-$500,000,000 per year.  Did the HOA inform its insurance carrier of the installation of this court? Did the insurance premium go up?  Is the HOA adequately insured for that homeowner, guest, visitor (or trespasser) who claims an injury and alleges that the HOA is liable? Will someone be looking for a quick $25,-$50,000 for a crack or stone on the court, because the insurance company will find it's cheaper to settle than to fight it in court? When the Board approved the pickle ball court, did it take this risk into consideration?

Did you receive an email from the office yesterday warning you not to park on streets in the Summit? The following email has been sent to the Board of Directors: I request that you direct Angela to retract the email she sent yesterday.  The Summit's HOA has NO jurisdiction over the Barony Place Circle roadway. And NO jurisdiction over the streets in the Lakes at Barony Place (lower end of Barony Place Drive, Lakemont Drive, and Rainey Court. And probably NO authority over  any  roadway in The Summit. The HOA cannot prohibit parking in the streets. The HOA's authority under the CC&Rs ends at the curb.  The County-owned streets in Barony Place II and in the Lakes at Barony Place were never part of the Common Properties of the HOA. The HOA cannot bully homeowners or residents. It should not represent that it has authority that it does not have. Parking on County-owned and -maintained roads is governed  only  by County ordinances and State statutes. I prove...

Would it surprise you to learn that the South Carolina Secretary of State's office has no interest in learning whether a S.C. not-for-profit corporation has no legitimate directors or officers to run it. Unless it is a charity, which the HOA is not.  Even though it has $2,000,000 in banks and represents 2,480 homeowners. No interest. No legal interest. So, who sticks up for the 2,480 homeowners? Next stop - the South Carolina Attorney General. They will try to refer me to the S.C. Department of Consumer Affairs (SC DCA), but that is misdirection because the SC DCA cannot investigate this type of problem. Thanks to the legislature. But maybe the AG's office will investigate, because it is a South Carolina not-for-profit corporation (regardless of the nature of its business) that is missing all of its 1) legitimate officers; 2) legitimate directors; and 3) legitimate electors of directors (Voting Members). What's the next step after that? (There is one (or more)). Wouldn'...

If a South Carolina not-for-profit corporation has no Directors and no Officers, would it still be in business? If that corporation represented 2,480 persons (or business entities) and had $2,000,000 in banks, would the State of South Carolina take a serious look at it and wonder if that money was being properly handled (and by whom) and who was running it? Or would it be technically out-of-business? How could it not have any Directors? Because Directors means " legitimately-elected Directors". What if there are no legitimate electors? Here in The Summit's HOA, those "legitimate electors" would be the Voting Members. But there aren't any legitimate Voting Members, because no Neighborhoods are holding Annual Neighbor Meetings or elections of Neighborhood Committees. That's the case in the Barony Place Neighborhood, which has not held an Annual Neighborhood Meeting in more than five years. I believe it is the case throughout The Summit. If you know of any...

 The South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs (SCDCA) will present a free program on Wednesday about HOA complaints. The program will be Wednesday, June 28, 2023, at 10:30AM. Register online for it at    https://atte ndee.gotowebina r.com/register/ 387375251897188 5662  and then view it on your computer. You will receive a personal confirmation link, which should not be shared.  The topic is the HOA Five-Year Complaint Report. If you have any type of complaint about The Summit's HOA (the legal name is The Summit Community Association, Inc.), use the online 2-part complaint form at consumer.sc.gov    They will tell you right away if they cannot investigate your complaint. However, it is important to file it because, even if they cannot investigate it, they will report to the S.C. legislators that your complaint about (whatever) was received. The SCDCA has a specific charter from the legislature that limits the types of complaints it can investigate...

I must admit to an error I made yesterday. When I published my article about the HOA's financial statements, I predicted it would take the Treasurer only minutes to respond to me. I was wrong. It took him until 7:02PM to send me the following message, which he copied to all of the original recipients, who are Board Members and members of the Finance Committee. "First and foremost, you might want to temper your words when it comes to Gus and his rhetoric. Second, we are now and have always been IRS, and Business compliant. Third, we are in rock solid financial position. We will not be doing an additional audit. We do our annual audit, which was done already, anymore would be financially irresponsible. We are not in the practice of addressing Gus or his twist on things. Bottom line up front BLUF. We are fiscally compliant. There are factors that Gus and his minions do not understand or realize that make fiscal financial responsibility more.complex than the naked eye can see. We ...

Would you like to see the 2022 Audit? It was presented to the Board of Directors at the June 6, 2023 monthly meeting. By now, it should be posted on the HOA's website. What can you do? Call the office. 803.865.0609 Email the HOA Treasurer.  vernellbutler88@yahoo.com Email the HOA President.  jdmartinscx@gmail.com And ask for a copy of the auditor's Management Report, too. That's where the dirt will be. Good luck.

Every month on the financial statements CAMS reports amounts of dues that are Current-30-60-90 days past-due. But are they? Dues for The Summit's HOA are due on January 1 and are late after January 31; also, due July 1 and late after 30 days. So, aren't ALL dues late by the last day of April? At that point there are no dues that are Current, 30 days late, or 60 days late. They are all 90 days late! But the Treasurer and the Board apparently have no problem with those numbers. Does anyone on the board understand finance or accounting? Why hasn't the Board told CAMS to correct that? In fact, why is it reported incorrectly in the first place? Are the reports are generated by the "professional HOA management company", CAMS? Does it have an accounting department at its home office in Wisconsin that does the accounting for The Summit's HOA?  Is that what the $75,500/year paid to CAMS is for? See Line 6000 on the financials. That Line is labeled "Management Fee...

The following email was sent yesterday (June 21, 2023) to all HOA board members and members of the Finance Committee. Good afternoon, Board Members, Have you noticed that the 2022 Auditor's Report has not yet been posted to the HOA's website? The board meeting was June 6. What is CAMS waiting for? Did you read the Auditor's Management Report carefully? If you are truly transparent, you will post  that  to the website, too. The 4/30/2023 Financials have not been posted to the HOA's website. They can be viewed in the June Minutes, but why hasn't CAMS posted them to the HOA's website in the section for "Financial Operating Results"? Have you spotted the errors in the Manager Report for aging that is part of the June 6th Minutes? Look at the "Members Receivables"? Do you see the error? It's easy to spot, when you round off the numbers and add 9+18+420 in your head; it's nowhere near 471. $    8,908.49 over 30 days $  17,675.46 over 60 day...

At the June 6th board meeting the Auditor presented the 2022 Audit. There were few, almost no, details. The Audit has not yet been posted to the HOA's website. When CAMS finally gets around to it (or gets the OK from the HOA's President or Treasurer), you can find it by going to www.summithomeowners.com > RESIDENTS > DOCUMENTS > Annual Audits > 2022 The Auditor also delivered a separate Management Report and a third document. Those documents are apparently the "meat" of the audit and, most likely, tell the board what's being done incorrectly. Will those ever see the light of day? Should the Board be transparent with the homeowner-Members of the HOA and give them the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly? Or should the homeowners just be told that everything is going along smoothly and that there is nothing to worry about? In other words, "pay your dues, sit down and shut up." The Board is well-insulated from the homeowners, because the homeowners do n...

Working for CAMS in the HOA's office must be a really good deal. I mean, in terms of days off. Of course, it probably depends on whether you are salaried or hourly. When a holiday (ex., July 4th) falls during the week, most businesses give just that day off (with pay). Some holidays are "celebrated" on the Monday of the week, but not July 4th. What's the schedule for the HOA's office? Saturday, July 1. Closed (not open 10AM-2PM) Monday, July 3. Office closes early at 3:00PM Tuesday, July 4. Office closed. "Members" of the HOA (that's you, the homeowners) should find out how many days off the employees get under the HOA's contract with CAMS. They are CAMS employees, but the HOA could contract for the office to be staffed when the HOA wants the office open. Why should the HOA's office be open on July 1st? Some homeowners will want to use the pool(s) or other amenities and may need to upgrade their ID cards. That will be impossible, of course, o...

Earlier this year the HOA attempted to enter into a revised Special Duty Agreement with the Richland County Sheriff's Department. The effective date was February 1st, and the Agreement was signed by Sheriff Lott and electronically by Vernell Butler, Treasurer. Normally, contracts should be signed by the President and the Secretary. The Board of Directors never authorized anyone on the board to re-negotiate the Agreement or to execute it, according to Minutes. In my opinion, the HOA's $2,000,000 in cash is at risk, so I sent the following email to the legal officer at RCSD.  "Earlier this year I obtained a copy of the Special Duty Agreement (SDA) between RCSD and the Summit HOA*. This was effective February 1, 2023 and is signed by Sheriff Lott and electronically by Vernell Butler, Treasurer of the HOA. The signatures of the HOA President and HOA Secretary were not on the document. "Contrary to the Authority and Acknowledgement of Reliance in the SDA, I believe the Boa...

The June meeting of the HOA board of directors was Tuesday, June 6th. The following documents have not been posted yet to the HOA's website: 1. June 6th Minutes; 2. April Financial Statements; 3. 2022 Audit Why not?

There was apparently only one job that was supposed to be posted on Indeed.com, for a part-time "Assistant Community Manager" position in the HOA's office. But CAMS had two full-time positions at $19.00/hour posted, for 40-hour weeks.  Both of the full-time ads have been removed, and the part-time job ad has expired. It can still be seen, but Indeed.com has marked it as Expired. If you want to see what is expected of a $15.00/hour employee, read the job description . So maybe a new face will show up in the office soon to take on some of the workload. Should phones be answered whenever there is an employee in the office? Is there ever a time that an employee should sit there while the phone is ringing and let the call go to voicemail?  There is nothing wrong with using voicemail, so long as all calls are returned promptly. If an employee is busy on a task with a short deadline, let the call go to voicemail. If a Member, resident, or visitor is in the office and the phone r...

Here's the message just sent out by the HOA for tomorrow's meeting. Good morning,    Safety Meeting June 15, 2023, 6:20 pm, at the office. Open to all home owners     Guest speaker Vivit Home Security will provide information on in home security systems.   The Summit HOA and or the Safety Committee does not endorse any company. It is the individual’s choice.    Thank you,  Dennis, Safety Chair Summit Community Association, Inc. (The) Aside from the typos and grammatical errors, why is the Safety Committee sponsoring a Seller of security services at its monthly meeting? Is that a wise idea? Not much harm will be done, because so few people attend the meetings. But, if anything, the Committee should not feature just one Seller. To be fair, should it have at least three Sellers there to explain, generally, how home security systems work? Or perhaps a knowledgeable homeowner (with nothing to sell)? Or weblinks to information on the internet? Why ...

Indeed.com 6/11/2023 On June 7th I wrote a Help Wanted post about the #2 clerical position in the HOA's office, recently vacated by Donna Reed, who didn't work there very long. Today CAMS seems to have two (2) positions advertised on the Indeed.com website . Either CAMS inadvertently posted the position twice, or now there are two full-time positions available. The pay in the part-time position was $15.00/hour for a 28-hour workweek. Maybe that's why CAMS couldn't hire anyone in 27 days. The pay for the full-time positions is $19.00/hour for a 40-hour workweek, with benefits.  It appears that one of the ads on Indeed.com is a revised ad for the part-time position, because the ad was first posted 30+ days ago.  The second listing was posted 3 days ago, which was the day after I went to the office for a copy of the job description and was told to look for it on Indeed. Does this mean two jobs are open?  I emailed Angela Adleman, but she is out of the office until June 16....

Should an agency of the State of South Carolina investigate The Summit Community Association (the Summit's HOA)? If it did, would the State take over the HOA? Who should investigate? Possibilities are the S.C. Attorney General and the S.C. Secretary of State. Are there others? Why? The HOA may not have a legitimate Board of Directors or legitimate Officers. So who is running the HOA? If Directors are not legitimate, then are they exposed to personal liability for their actions (and lack of actions)? Do they lose the protection of Directors' and  Officers' Liability Insurance? Officers are elected by the Board of Directors. If there are no legitimate Directors, there is no one to elect officers. Without a legitimate President and Secretary, official documents cannot be signed, including Banking Resolutions for the numerous bank accounts. There is also no one to hire and oversee CAMS. There is no one to control the cash assets of $2,000,000 in banks. Directors are to be elect...

Is this the year when the CAMS contract for management of The Summit's HOA comes up for renewal? Wasn't it two years ago that Justin rushed through the renewal months early, because Angela was pregnant? It's time to formulate the RFP - Request for Proposal. It should outline what the HOA wants, and then await the bids. Justin made a comment a while back that no other professional HOA management companies would bid, because they wouldn't do things "the way the HOA wanted". That was an immediate red flag for me, and I wondered just what The Summit's HOA wanted that other companies would not do! One of the things I figured was they probably would not fudge (lie) on listing Contract amounts in the budget as Salaries; e.g., office personnel (who are not HOA employees), Safety Patrol (the Special Duty Agreement with RCSD).  When I first looked at the financials and saw those as salaries, I then looked for the Line Item for the cost of fringe benefits, payroll ta...

After a long battle with the HOA, CAMS stopped sending Parking Violation letters to homeowners in Barony Place II. One owner received a Parking Violation Notice after her daughter parked in front of her house from 1:00-4:00PM one afternoon. I believed that the HOA's authority under the Governing Documents ended at the curb. Justin Martin assured me that the HOA had authority over the street (Barony Place Circle). I asked him to prove it. He didn't. It turned out he was wrong. It took me two years but I finally got a copy of the Deed to Richland County from the Developer. Sure enough, the developer had bypassed the HOA and transferred the street directly to the County, which owns and maintains the street. Only the RCSD and the State Police have authority over parking. You would think the HOA would have learned. One set of roadway remained to be transferred to Richland County. The developer of Lakes at Barony Place still owned a portion of Barony Place Drive and all of Lakemont D...

Offensive "Political" Material (click to Enlarge) Last month's Barony Place neighborhood luncheon at Lizard's Thicket, in a private room, included a robust discussion of HOA business affairs. This month's luncheon was at San Jose Mexican Restaurant, and I prepared a posterboard display of the $420,450 in Late Dues (90 days or more) and the $140,000 of office salaries. This month's host, Jim Ewing, quickly approached me and without introduction (we had never met) informed me that it was not a "political" meeting. Apparently, he considers discussion of the HOA as "political".  When he said it was a social luncheon, I asked him if he had attended last month. He said he hadn't. So he missed the discussion and interest of many attendees in the operation of the HOA. While San Jose has good food, the setting for a social luncheon was terrible. There was no meeting room, and there was one long table, created by placing smaller square tables to ...

At the June 6,2023 HOA board meeting the 2022 Audit was presented by Becca Brendle, CPA. CAMS should be posting the Audit to the HOA website. When they do, you'll find it at www.summithomeowners.com > RESIDENTS > DOCUMENTS > Annual Audits As she stood and quietly addressed the board, making it very hard for everyone in the room to hear, she constantly referred to her printed pages, apparently not able to make her statements about her audit fully from memory and her knowledge from preparing the Audit. In addition to the Audit, she referred to a Management Report, which appeared to be a full typewritten page. That's the report that is really important and which, quite likely, will never see the light of day. That's where "What's Wrong" will be found. That is what homeowners would really like to see. Not the fluff and standard boilerplate in the Audit, but where the "beef" is. Hopefully, each member of the Finance Committee will get the full au...

At the June 6, 2023 HOA board meeting homeowners were upset at the amounts of unpaid dues shown on the April 30th Financial Statements. Disregarding, for the time-being, the $8,908.30 that is 30 days past due and the $17,675.46 that is over 60 days, the amount that is over 90 days is $420,449.59! As I typed this, I wondered where the "30 days past due" comes from. Aren't semi-annual dues due January 1, and late on February 1. So, any amount not paid by February 1, and still unpaid, would be more than 90 days past-due. Why are any amounts shown for 30 days past-due and 60 days past-due? $294,171.42 was 90 days past due, as of 7/31/2021 *. $343,403.68 was 90 days past due, as of 4/30/2022. $420,449.59 was 90 days past due, as of 4/30/2023. * The past-due dues information appears for the first time on financial reports for the Month of July 2021. That was three months after long-time treasurer, George Reynolds, died in April 2021. Paul Hill succeeded George and became Treasu...

The Summit HOA's office is short-staffed once again. The newest employee, Donna Reed, has departed - without announcement to the Members of the HOA or fanfare. She had replaced the previous short-time employee, Ashton Redfern. The job was posted 27 days ago.  The position is advertised on www.indeed.com as part-time, 28 hours/week, including week-ends (which would mean Saturdays) during summer hours. The pay is $15.00/hour. There is no mention of benefits. Twenty-eight hours is 70% of a full-time week, and the hours would likely prevent the employee from also working a full-time job with benefits. HOA summer office hours on Saturdays are 10:00AM-2:00PM. See the Job Description here .  Could the job have been advised in the June Summer Scoop? Is there a Summit resident who would be a good fit for that job? $15.00 x 28 hours = $420/week x 52 weeks = $21,840. How do you get somebody good, versatile, smart, experienced, proficient in computer work, with good people skills for $15....

The following email has been sent to the HOA's Safety Committee (Clynton Barzey, Denise Heimlich, Auby Dellinger, Vicki McCarthy, Dennis Rybicki, and Mary Ann Game. Karen Kranz is also on the Committee, but her email address is not known. To the HOA Safety Committee, For many years the monthly crime report from RCSD was published on the HOA's website. It was usually three pages and provided information about crime in The Summit. When there was a change in the CAT officer, the reports stopped.   Crime in The Summit has not stopped. But the reports have never been re-started. I attempted to get them re-started, when Paul Hill ran the Safety Committee. He had not been successful. I was not, either.  After a number of requests, RCSD produced a three-month crime report that was about nine pages long. The office published it. Unfortunately, there was an error in transmission and every other page was blank. My conclusion was that someone had faxed the report but had neglected to...

At the end of last night's HOA Board of Directors' meeting, Justin asked for questions. I raised my hand, and Justin ignored me, announcing that the meeting was adjourned. What did I want to say? 1. That the HOA owns a microphone and speaker system that was used, when meetings were held at The Haven before the COVID lockdown. I wanted to suggest that the system should be dusted off and put to use at board meetings. There were many times last night when speakers could not be heard, due to a music rehearsal in the next room that was LOUD. Also, many, both on the board and in the audience, did not speak in tones loud enough to be heard and understood in the room. 2. That a year ago a Voting Member had suggested live-streaming the board meetings, so that many homeowners could view the meetings from their homes. I mentioned both to Justin after the meeting. He won't accept either from me. I'm just a lowly "Resident" to him. If you think either is a good idea, email...

The following email has been sent to the HOA's Board of Directors: Good morning, Board Members, Why do you allow Justin to unilaterally declare that the previous month's Minutes are approved? When the Minutes for the June 6th board meeting are published, they will read "The Board approved the minutes for the June 6, 2023 Board of Directors meeting at ____ p.m."   Just as they do every month. So, every month there is a false statement in the Minutes, and every month Justin repeats it. How would you ever make any changes or corrections in the Minutes? For the Board to approve the Minutes, there should be a Motion, a Second, a discussion (when you ask for changes or corrections to be made), and then a vote by the Board.  You do read the Minutes before the meeting, don't you? Aren't you required to sign the Minutes before they are placed in a physical Minutes Book? Is there even such a Book? Errors in the May 2, 2023 Minutes: - careless punctuation in the date of ...

The Summit's HOA is a business , not a charity. What do I mean by that? At tonight's monthly board meeting, there was discussion about the $420,449.59 of dues that are over 90 days past-due. That is a LOT of money, when you consider that the dues are $510/house in The Summit. There never is any discussion about how many homes are current on their dues, and how many are not. In addition to the above amount, $8,908.49 is 30 days past-due, and $17,675.46 is over 60 days. So, in total, it's $447,033.54. I wonder what a true and complete aging report would look like. The Board didn't seem too worried about it, because they are "tracking" it . Comments from the board included "We don't want to put anyone out of his home" and "we're sending letters".  Several members of the audience disagreed that the board and CAMS are being effective with the collections policy. The Board of Directors (seven or eight, depending on whether you count Paul ...

The Summit HOA's board of directors meets tonight, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, at 6:30PM EDT. The meeting is open to all homeowners (and, I shall add, residents (who are "occupant-bound" by the Governing Documents)). It will be held at Brookland Baptist Church Northeast, 1203 Summit Parkway. WHY SHOULD  YOU   SHOW UP TONIGHT? Will the Board officially receive the 2022 Audit tonight? Will the Auditor criticize any part of HOA financial operations? Will the Board direct CAMS to solve, finally, the irrigation problems that are resulting in very poor visual appearance of many of the Common Areas? Will the Board begin to understand the financial risk to the HOA and to all 2,480 homeowners (through assessment) of the Special Duty Agreement entered into by the HOA with the Richland County Sheriff's Department on February 1, 2023? The $2,000,000 in HOA cash could vanish in the stroke of a judge's pen, if the RCSD deputy were found at fault in some interaction on behalf of the ...