Open Letter to Voting Members

The following is an open letter to the Voting Members of the 28 Neighborhoods of the Summit's HOA.

Do you believe that the Directors, Officers and Voting Members should comply with the By-Laws of the HOA?

Will you attend the Special Meeting of Voting Members this week?

The HOA's President and Secretary should attend the meeting. Other directors should not. The President conducts the meeting. The Secretary keeps the records of the meeting and prepares the Minutes. But remember - it is YOUR meeting. The President is there to conduct it in accordance with the published Notice; it is not HIS meeting.

The HOA's Secretary should establish that each Voting Member is actually a legitimate Voting Member, elected in compliance with the By-Laws. I suggest that you take your Neighborhood's documentation with you to the meeting. Did you have a Neighborhood Meeting within the past 12 months? Was a quorum (1/3) of your property owners present in-person or by proxy?

The first order of business should be a roll call to ascertain whether a quorum of legitimate Voting Members is present. The quorum requirement is tricky. Consult the By-Laws. No quorum? No meeting.

There is an high likelihood that the HOA has only one (1) legitimate Voting Member (Barony Place held a Neighborhood Meeting on 5/4/2024). "Getting signatures" is not a bonafide method to become a Voting Member, although past boards have improperly allowed it. Remaining in office for years without an Annual Neighborhood Meeting is not a bonafide way to continue as a Voting Member.

Are you concerned about the personal liability that attaches to acting "as if" you are a Voting Member, if you really are not?

As of June 3, 2024 the office did not have an accurate count of the number of homes in each neighborhood. The count from the office was 2,595, which was 115 higher than the correct number of 2,480 properties in the HOA. The office never provided me with an accurate count.

You should demand that the Board of Directors appoint a director now to succeed Tommy Williams, who is believed to have resigned in May. That should have happened at the June BOD meeting. The BOD has failed to announce Tommy's resignation and to the announce the vacancy on the board. A full board is needed to avoid a deadlock of 3-3 tie-votes. The BOD should maintain a short list of potential directors, in case the need arises.

Find out what Danny meant when he wrote in the May 2024 Summit Scoop that "We have a monumental hurdle to overcome financially" and inform the homeowners in your neighborhood.

Ask if the Board is still making decisions in pre-board meetings and not announcing those decisions. (The answer should be "Yes".)

Ask the President how many lawsuits the HOA is facing.

Ask why the 2023 Annual Audit has not yet been provided to all Members. It was to be distributed to all Members within 120 days of the end of the fiscal year (December 31), according to the By-Laws. This would mean by May 1, 2024.

CAMS believes "Audit procedures adopted by the Board of Directors April 4, 1996, state that an audit conducted by a CPA will be completed by August 31 for the previous year." 

However, the Board could not "adopt" a procedure that was less restrictive than the By-Laws. That would have required an Amendment to the By-Laws, for which there is no record.

You may be interested in this blogpost that I wrote on July 30th. I invite you to read other articles I have posted. The HOA needs legal advice, and the full board and the Voting Members are entitled to know exactly what the attorney's advice is.

If you do have a meeting, please be sure that Minutes are taken and published, as required in the By-Laws. Please report to your Neighborhood's homeowners the content of the meeting and any action(s) proposed and/or taken.

I have said before, and say again, "If the HOA complied with its By-Laws, the Board and you would never hear from me."

• Did every Voting Member listed in the Scoop get notified? Only 10 have email addresses listed in the Scoop. 
• Four Neighborhoods (487 homes) don't have any Voting Member; that's 19.6% of the HOA. 
• At least two Neighborhoods (231 homes (9.3%)) have listed Voting Members who "got signatures" and are, therefore, not legitimate Voting Members. 
• At least three Neighbors (186 homes (7.5%)) have listed Voting Members who "moved up", when the previous Voting Member became a director. Did the Neighborhood Committee meet to elect an Alternate to become the Neighborhood Representative/Voting Member?
• If your Neighborhood hasn't had a Neighborhood Meeting within the past 2 months (or so), then you are not a legitimate Voting Member.
• Only the Voting Member (OR an Alternate) should attend the Special Meeting of Voting Members.
• Only the President and Secretary should attend from the Board. It's a Voting Member meeting, not a Board meeting.
• Will you be asked to make any decisions without allowing time for you to inform your Neighborhood's homeowners and seek their input?
• The Minutes of the meeting should be available to all Members (homeowners) within 7 days of the meeting.