Barony Place I/Barony Place II

Did you receive your notice for your HOA dues?  Before you mail your check, be sure to learn the correct P.O. Box number. Did you read the information carefully? Look at the 2024 Budget? Below is my email to the President of CAMS, Dave Orr. He'll know my name from previous emails. I sent copies to one of his executives (Ronda Bossert), Angela Adleman, five of the HOA board members (I don't yet have email addresses for Tommy Williams and Patricia Pollin (who were appointed in December to replace Greg Thomas and Vernell Butler), and the members of the Finance Committee (except Brent Mikula, CPA, whose email address I don't have yet). Mr. Orr, The homeowner with whom I reside in The Summit, Columbia, S.C. received her 2024 dues notice this week. On your website you announce that CAMS is  "... an industry leader in community association management. CAMS is an AAMC, Accredited Association Management Company, which ensures your HOA that our team has the  experience, knowledg...

Anyone go to the board meeting last night?  The "new" board is in place, and the new officers were at the front of the room. Two new Members (homeowners) have joined the board; they are Tommy Williams and Patricia Pollin. The appointments (by the board) of the two new directors followed the resignations about November 14 of Greg Thomas and Vernell Butler.  It was a good meeting. A little long, because homeowner complaints were lengthy. One involved a parking problem about a car parked in a front yard and on the parkway between the street and the sidewalk. The homeowner brought a large poster to show the board. He approached the board for help after trying to get the problem resolved through the office. A balanced budget for 2024 still has not been completed. The initial deficit was $75,000, and that has been whittled down to a $28,000 deficit. It's time to sharpen the red pencil and get the deficit down to Zero! Treasurer Linda Patton announced that a forensic audit will ...

Back in February 2023 the Minutes of the Board Meeting report that the board approved an expenditure of $42,373 for a key-fob system for new locks on the pool gates.  I don't recall hearing a vote on any Motion for the contact with Johnson Control [ sic ]. Was it decided at a pre-board meeting, out of public view? The board, at that time, was chaired by Justin Martin, President, and the money was watched over by Vernell Butler, Treasurer. The gate locks were to be installed in April, and fobs should have been available before the pools open in May. Rumor has it that there was some glitch in the arrangements, and the new system was not installed. The glitch and delay were never explained to Members. The Safety Committee report attached to the November 2023 Minutes reads, in part, "The key fob system for the pools will be installed in November." As of December 7, it hadn't been. At the December 7, 2023 Safety Committee meeting Chair Dennis Rybicki reported that pool mon...

How many homeowners pay attention to the finances of the HOA? How many understand what is happening with the finances? How many of the Board Members understand the finances? How many cared?  Look at the Financial Statements for the period ending 9/30/2023. As you do, remember that it was the old board that was in charge. That was before the election on November 7, 2023. The Financial Statement is attached to the November 7, 2023 board meeting Minutes. Invoices were approved by then-President Justin Martin and then-Treasurer Vernell Butler. I never heard a Motion for the board to approve payments or heard any board member ask questions. Look at the Year-to-Date variances-to-budget (overages): Fountain Maintenance: $7,599.97 (+317%) On-Site Maintenance*: $10,299.81 (10%) "Board was aware that this line item (6005) would be over, due to the employee turnover. In addition, to Ashton staying on to train new employees - while the new employee was being trained. Lastly the ACM...

As the result of resignations in November of two members of the board of directors, the first duty of the board should be to fill the vacancies. The By-Laws control how this is done. Art. III, A, Section 7 Removal of Directors and Vacancies , ¶2  provides the procedure. "... In the event of the death, disability, or resignation of a director, a vacancy may be declared by the Board , and it may appoint a successor. Any director appointed by the Board shall be selected from the Voting Group represented by the director who vacated the position and shall serve for the remainder of the term of such director." ( emphasis added ) Notice that these actions are by the board as a whole. No one person controls the decision. When Greg Thomas resigned shortly after he was re-elected to the 2023-2025 term-of-office, that position became vacant and is to be filled by the board. The appointed (new) director will serve the unexpired term until November 2025. When Vernell Butler resigned afte...

The Minutes of the November 2023 board meeting contains some numbers that will likely shock many homeowners, if they happen to find them and understand them. On November 7, 2023 the "new" board of directors met. Danny Trapp and Linda Potter were elected to the board. Brenda Bryant and Greg Thomas were re-elected. Mid-term directors were Vernell Butler, Tanisha Holmes, Dennis Rybicki. The Minutes of the October 3, 2023 Special Board Meeting at 8:00PM are included. Those Minutes reflect the former board's vote to continue CAMS as the management company. There is some question about the accuracy of the October 3rd Minutes. The CAMS contract amount for 2024 is stated as $69,999.96. The problem, as I see it, is that the HOA will pay CAMS this year (2023) over $500,000. Where is the rest of the deal? The 2024 landscaping contract with Green Earth will cost the HOA $558,000. In October Green Earth replaced the original landscaping contract with BrightView. There should have been...

Be sure to read the Minutes of the November 7, 2023 Board of Directors meeting. They are published on the HOA's website. If you need help finding them, let me know. Without commenting on all the errors, two on the fourth page of the Minutes stuck out. In the report of the Modifications Committee, formerly chaired by Justin Martin and now without a Chair, the short report read:  "The committee approved 131 201 Forms and inspected 76 completed projects from January to October." ( emphasis in the original ] More correct would be this wording: "The committee conditionally approved  131  201 Forms, inspected  76  completed projects from January to October, and issued no final approvals ." A good question is, "What happened with the other 55 (131-76) projects that were conditionally approved? Are all of those projects still pending? I do recall it took Justin three full months to inspect the roof (by merely driving by) on the house in which I live. And th...

Page 1, December 2023 Scoop. Election Results!! "Congratulations to Brenda Bryant for being re-elected, and to Danny Trapp and Linda Potter to have been elected to serve a two-year term on our Board of Directors." Okay, all you English majors. Grab your red pencils and start grading. How do you like that one sentence? How many errors can you find? I was reminded of Helen Gould (1868-1938), a former editor for the New Yorker. She had a reputation for having once found four errors in a three-word sentence. I'm lucky. I attended a high school where English was important. We studied about adjectives and adverbs and punctuation and writing sentences that made sense. Sentences needed subjects, verbs, and objects. We learned to diagram sentences. Is any of that taught today? I got myself in trouble at a major chamber of commerce in the Midwest, where I ran the membership department. I made the terrible mistake of trying to coach the girl who wrote the monthly newsletter that wen...

Did you see the email today about the CAMS office hours for Christmas? December 22 (Friday) Closing at 3:00PM December 25 (Monday) Closed December 26 (Tuesday) Closed Wow! Talk about bankers' hours! I guess you can thank the old board for that. The majority gave away the store. They are all gone now. When a holiday falls on a weekday, that is the day when the business is closed. When a business is closed on a holiday, employees don't also get the following day off. At least, not in the real world. And why would employees get half the afternoon off on the Friday before the week-end? It's not like Christmas was on Saturday and employees needed to finish up their shopping. What will the holiday schedule be for 2024-2025? Did the "old" board waste Association funds on excess holidays and time off and stick the "new" board with their decision?

The Summit's HOA board of directors will meet on Tuesday, December 12 , 2023, at 6:30PM at the Brookland Baptist Church Northeast. This meeting will be IN-PERSON. Come and meet the "new" board and the all-new line-up of officers: President, Danny Trapp (2023-2025) VP, Brenda Bryant (2023-2025) Secretary, Tanisha Holmes (2022-2024) Treasurer, Linda Potter (2023-2025) Director, Dennis Rybicki (2022-2024) Director - vacant (2022-2024) Director - vacant (2023-2025) The Board is in the process of appointing two homeowners, who will fill the vacancies on the board created by the resignations of Greg Thomas and Vernell Butler on November 14. Danny and Linda were elected to the board on November 7, 2023. Brenda was re-elected to the board on November 7.  To assure a good seat, you might consider arriving early. If you can't hear, speak up immediately and ask the President to ask all speakers, including those in the audience, to speak loudly enough to be heard by al...