Barony Place I/Barony Place II

At the September 10th board of directors meeting, chaos ensued at the end of the meeting when President Danny Trapp made an announcement about the Projects Committee. He stated he was dissolving the Projects Committee and moving it out of the Finance Committee. Then he said that (Secretary) Tanisha Holmes had agreed to chair the Projects Committee. A woman's voice (VP Brenda Bryant?) could be heard ask if the Board had to vote on that, and Danny said it did not. She should have called "Point-of-Order" and asked the board to vote on whether Danny could appoint a committee chair without the board's vote. Director Dennis Rybicki said Danny couldn't do that (dissolve the Projects Committee) because it was a Standing Committee. Actually, it's not. It is listed as an "Other Committee" (PRM, Art. II Section C(2)), following the section on Standing Committees. Considerable argument and disagreement followed. Danny said the Project Committee hadn't been d

On July 14, 2020 I wrote the first post for this blog, and the count is now 750 posts. I have found many things that the homeowners in The Summit's HOA should know about operations of the HOA and actions by the successive boards of directors. Most of my posts have to do with the HOA's operations and are wider than just the Barony Place Neighborhood. Please share this blog with others. Use the "Share" button at the top-right and bottom-left of each post. Just enter the email of the person (or people) you'd like to share this with. No record is kept of your sharing a post or of the email address to which you send it. I'd love for 200-300-500 homeowners to read what "their" HOA is doing.  Remember to attend board meetings. Usually (but not always) the first Tuesday of the month. So, Oct. 1, and then Nov. 12.

Do you claim to be a "Voting Member" of The Summit's HOA? Is your name listed in The Summit Scoop? Is your name listed on the HOA's website under Voting Members? Are you a legitimate Voting Member? How did you become a Voting Member? Did you "get signatures"? The office provides a form for you to use. The on-site property manager told a Chapelwood resident at the September 10th board meeting to pick up such a form. Did you assume the role of Voting Member when the previous Voting Member moved or retired or died or just quit? Have you been the Voting Member for years and just kept doing it? Were you elected 25 years ago and your Neighborhood just never had another Neighborhood Meeting? Or did your Neighborhood, within the past year,  hold a Neighborhood Meeting and, after ascertaining that a quorum was present (1/3 of the homes being represented in-person or by proxy), elect three homeowners to the Neighborhood Committee, and then did that Committee elect one

The Minutes of the September 10, 2024 regular board meeting have been published. Presumably, they were reviewed by the on-site property manager and the board before they were published. In Resident Concerns, the name of the Chapelwood Neighborhood is misspelled as "Chaplewood". Why? The Chapelwood resident asked specific questions about how a voting member is selected. She was given completely erroneous information by the on-site property manager, and none of the six board members corrected it. "Getting signatures" is not a method that is recognized in the By-Laws. There is only one (1) way to become a legitimate Voting Member. See the By-Laws, Art. V, Section 3. A $4,800 bid from Washington Masonry was approved to replace a brick wall damaged in an auto accident. The date and location of the accident were not mentioned. Becca Brindle, CPA, finished the external audit ($3,500) and will present to the board "later this month". That means, to the board at it

The Board of Directors seems impotent when it comes to controlling the President of the HOA. Why does this state of affairs continue? Upon information and belief, members of the board are not allowed to contact the HOA's attorney. Only the President can do so. Who says?  (The President says so.) On the one hand, it is good that six (should be seven) are not all contacting the attorney for advice. The legal bill would go out-of-sight. On the other hand, when members of the board have questions about legal issues and can't get answers, is the HOA at risk of increased liability and expense? The biggest issue is probably the lack of legitimate Voting Members, because the Board of Directors is not helping the 28 Neighborhoods to comply with the By-Laws by holding Annual Neighborhood Meetings. Only one Neighborhood has a legitimate Voting Member . The President disbanded the board's Neighborhood Committee as one of his first acts. Of course, the BOD can prove me wrong by assertin

Should the Minutes of monthly Board meetings be correct? Is "almost correct" good enough? What mistakes should be tolerated? Any? Should Minutes be corrected before the Board approves them? I think I've been to only one Board meeting in five years, where a member of the Board asked for a correction to be made. The Minutes have been better-prepared in the past couple of months. Before that, there was no excuse for the Minutes of a business meeting to be published as they were. As I understand it, if the Minutes are written by the #2 person in the HOA office, then the on-site property manager reviews them before they are sent to the directors. The directors are supposed to read them and reply with any corrections. Then the Minutes are published on the website, so that homeowners (Members of the HOA) know what happened at the previous meeting. This should happen within 7-10 days of a meeting. (It's September 27th, and the Minutes of the September 10th meeting have not ye

When the 2024 HOA Budget was approved, Line Item 6005 (On-Site "Maintenance") was $150,000. That's $12,500 monthly.  Line Item 6005 had been mis-titled for years, and I complained about it continually. None of the previous three Treasurers would correct it. Line 6005 was for the CAMS employees in the office and other contracted labor services. It was NOT On-site "Maintenance"; it was On-Site Management (and some maintenance). Finally, in February 2024 the Line Item was re-named "On-Site Staff". The HOA itself has no employees. The amount approved by the Board for 2024 was $150,000. The 2024 Budget, posted online, verifies this. The monthly amount for that Line was $12,500. Here is the breakdown for the expenditures for Line Item 6005 for first seven months of 2024: $    14,729.72 January $    15,209.02 February $    13,573.89 March $    12,909.98 April $    14,617.02 May $    15,140.93 June $    14,930.14 July $  101,110.70 Total (Jan-July 2024) The t

4:30PM Here is our "inclement weather" that the CAMS regional office was so worried about this mornng. CAMS closed its Columbia office today, taking extreme precautions to insure everyone's safety. Feel better now? The worst thing that happened out here was that a neighbor's recycle barrel blew over - twice. Big deal!   "We hope everyone is staying safe and dry! "In consideration of today’s inclement weather associated with Hurricane Helene, we are taking extra precautions to ensure everyone’s safety.  Our regional office, located at 508 Hampton Street, Suite 200, will be closed today, September 27 th .   "Please be advised that our dedicated team will be working remotely during this time and remains committed to providing you the best assistance possible.  We will continue to monitor weather conditions closely and keep you updated of any additional closures.  Please visit  https://www.camsmgtextremeweather.com/  to view CAMS updates related to the stor

Call the HOA's office on Friday, September 27, and ask why it was closed on Thursday. The phone number is (803) 865-0609  If you prefer to email, email the office at hoa@summithomeowners.com The email to many (but not all) Association members from the on-site property manager could have included the reason but did not. I would call the office and then inform you, but I don't want the HOA or its attorney to accuse me again of harassing the office employees.

The HOA is supposed to hold an election of three directors in 6½ weeks (on November 12). I say "is supposed to" because it will not be able to. The HOA will not be able to muster a quorum of Voting Members. But it will probably hold an election, anyway, just as it has done in past years. The directors conveniently overlook voter fraud (allowing people to vote, who are not eligible to vote). If there were enough legitimate Voting Members (currently there is only one (1)), they should elect knowledgeable, competent, skilled homeowners who understand business and can read financial statements.?? Barony Place has the only legitimate Voting Member. Why aren't the other 27 Neighborhoods holding Neighborhood Meetings and electing legitimate Voting Members? Is it going to take a Richland County Circuit Court Judge to force the HOA to comply with its By-Laws? The Nominating Committee should be beating the bushes throughout the Summit to identify qualified candidates to run for th

At 9:19AM today the HOA's office sent out this email: " Good Morning,   "The Summit Association office will be closed today, Thursday, September 26th. We apologize for the late notice and for any inconvenience this may cause.    "Thank you for your understanding.   "Best Regards,   "Teresa Rigon Summit Association Manager" Am I the only person who wonders "why" the office is closed today? Am I the only person who thinks that some explanation should have been provided? The HOA pays the two women in the office to work. Did each take today off without pay? Every month the HOA pays CAMS $14,930.14 for "On-Site Staff (Line 6005)". This monthly expenditure is running $2,430.14 over budget every month ! The explanation on the monthly financial report is "The board is aware as to the reason this [ sic ] over budget and it will remain over budget the remainder of the year." That, of course, is no explanation at all. It sounds like

At the September 10th monthly board meeting, the Minutes of the August 13th board meeting were approved without amendment or correction. Those Minutes erroneously reported that two Barony Place Alternates were in attendance, Mary Evans and Gail Luckey. A problem was that Mary Evans and Gail Luckey were not the Barony Place Alternates! The Barony Place Neighborhood had held a Neighborhood Meeting on May 4 and had elected Della Glynn, Gwen Hayes, and Tracy Manderino to its Neighborhood Committee. Tracy is the Voting Member; Della and Gwen are the Alternates. Della and Gwen did not attend the August 13th board meeting. The office knew this, and the Board members knew this. Presumably, the office manager reviewed the Minutes before they were sent out to the Directors, and the Directors apparently failed to catch the error. The Minutes were published to the website. On September 10 the Directors approved the Minutes as written. Today (September 25) the Minutes no longer contain the names of

On August 17 I wrote, asking Where is the 2023 Annual Audit ? Now it is September 25th, and the 2023 Annual Audit still has not been posted on the HOA's website! Or distributed to Members of the Association!!! What do the By-Laws of the HOA have to say about this? (Does anyone on the Board really care what the By-Laws say about anything ?) Art. III, Section 19 Accounts and Reports , Paragraph (g) reads, ("The following management standards of performance will be followed unless the Board by resolution specifically determines otherwise: ... ") "(g) an annual report consisting of at least the following shall be distributed to all Members within one hundred twenty (120) days after the close of the fiscal year: (1) a balance sheet; (2) an operating (income) statement; and (3) a statement of changes in financial position for the fiscal year. The annual report referred to above shall be prepared on an audited or reviewed basis , as determined by the Board, by an independ

There was a little excitement on Summit Parkway about 6:45PM, when two cars tangled at the intersection of Summit Parkway and Timber Crest Drive. Two Fire Department vehicles were there, and the intersection was almost entirely blocked. It took a long time for a State Patrol car to arrive, and F.D. personnel had moved both cars out of the roadway. No tow trucks had yet arrived. RCSD must have been busy tonight, because no deputy was in sight.

  This is on the northeast corner of Summit Parkway and Summit Hills Circle (East). I first reported this street light problem to the office on September 14.  When I drove by today, it still hasn't been repaired. If this globe falls off and hits a car, bicyclist or pedestrian, the HOA will end up in a lawsuit. Isn't it cheaper to fix it before it falls off? Why does it take so long to fix it? Is it because I reported it? There was no reply or acknowledgement to my Sept. 14 email. 

On November 12th three directors will be elected to the HOA's Board of Directors (BOD). Should I be one of them? What would I do if I were on the BOD? - Lead the BOD with transparency and integrity; - Welcome Members & Residents to all meetings  (board, committees, groups); - Staff committees with well-meaning people who  have qualifications for the particular work; - Create informative communications, improving the  website and The Summit Scoop; - Impose financial responsibility, including the  required reserves for future expenditures; - Urge that monthly board meetings be conducted  with decorum and professionalism; - Require the Finance Committee to report the honest  financial condition of the HOA; - Publish Minutes of ALL meetings (pre-board,  committees, special board meetings, Voting  Member meetings); - Add Percentage-of-Change columns to financial statements, so that significant changes from month-to-month are easily identifiable; - Stick to the two-minute rule for au

Whenever a meeting of Voting Members is called, Minutes should be prepared. The reason is that homeowners (Members of the Association) are entitled to know what their representatives are going to talk about. An Agenda should be prepared, showing the items that will be discussed. The Agenda should become part of the Minutes. Was a meeting called for September 14? How many showed up? One of these days the HOA is going to have to admit that there are very few Voting Members; possibly, only one (1). If a "Meeting" cannot be held, because there was no quorum, what was discussed? No decisions or agreements should be made, if there was no quorum. The Minutes should report who was there, whether (or not) there was a quorum and, if there wasn't, what was talked about.  Did they discuss a dues increase of $50.00/year? Their approval is not needed for that increase, because it is not "more-than-10%" of $510.00. Think the Board doesn't realize that? A $50.00 increase is

This post is for all homeowners (except those in Barony Place I & II). Two thousand four hundred two (96.9%) of you (in 27 Neighborhoods) may not be properly represented at the Annual Meeting of Voting Members on November 12, 2024. To be represented, you must have a legitimate Voting Member. Without your urgent attention and action, the HOA will not be able to convene the Annual Meeting of Voting Members. There won't be a quorum. But the Board may allow it to happen, just as past boards have.  Isn't this ELECTION FRAUD , just like what is occurring all over the USA? When officials let people vote, who are not eligible to vote, isn't that Election Fraud? There is still time (52 days) to hold a Neighborhood Meeting and elect a three-member Neighborhood Committee, from which one of those three will become your Voting Member. Would you like some help? With the right organization, you can elect a legitimate Voting Member within two weeks! Contact me. I'll tell you how to

The HOA is supposed to hold an election of directors on Tuesday, November 12. Will you run for the Board? Terms of three directors expire this year. One term is vacant. Tommy Williams was appointed earlier this year to succeed Vernell Butler, and Tommy is believed to have resigned in May.  Tommy's resignation has never been formally announced, and the board has made no effort to appoint his successor. This has resulted in an even-numbered board of six, which means a stalemate when three of the directors attempt to move a piece of business forward that the president doesn't like. A tie vote (3-3) on a Motion fails. The other expiring (2022-2024) terms are those of Tanisha Holmes and Dennis Rybicki. Nominations of new members of the Board are due at the office by Friday, October 4, 5:30PM. The application can be found in the Procedures Reference Manual, Exhibit A (Page 33). The Board desperately needs directors who understand business, finances, procedures, and the importance of

Where is the September 2024 Summit Scoop? Today is September 20! The Scoop is no longer delivered to residents. It is emailed to those whose email addresses are registered on the HOA's website. It is supposed to be posted on the HOA's website in two places: 1. Behind the "RECENT NEWS" icon near the bottom of the homepage on the website; and 2. Inside the website by via this path:     a. Hover over RESIDENTS     b. Click on DOCUMENTS     c. Click on The Monthly Scoop For a number of months the office was doing a pretty good job of publishing it shortly after the first of the month. Does the office use a Checklist for taking care of business? If not, it should. The next monthly board meeting is Tuesday, October 1, 2024, 6:30PM. Brookland Baptist Church Northeast .* Nominations of new members of the Board are due at the office by Friday, October 4, 5:30PM. The application can be found in the Procedures Reference Manual, Exhibit A (Page 33). * NOTE: The Scoop continues to

Have you been following the national news about cleaning the voter registration rolls around the country? Getting all the dead people off the voting lists? Removing the names of people who have moved? Or who have not voted for many years? Or the names of illegal aliens? What about the voter rolls of The Summit Community Association ("HOA")? Is there any reason that the voter registration rolls of the HOA shouldn't be true, honest, and correct? There should be not more than 28 names on the list of eligible voters in HOA elections. These people are called Voting Members. Shouldn't only duly-elected homeowners be on that official list? Who is on the list who was not duly-elected, in compliance with the By-Laws of the HOA? Call this List 1. Who is on the list who was duly-elected? Call this List 2. List 1 would be long. List 2 would be short.* The office of the HOA, overseen by the on-site property manager, should have documentation from each of the 28 Neighborhoods. CAM

Every November the HOA is to convene an Annual Meeting of Voting Members. One important duty is the election of three or four directors, who will serve for two years. Perhaps the founders of the HOA should have been more specific and stated legitimate Voting Members. It is simple to determine whether a Voting Member is legitimate. The office should have documentation of the Annual Neighborhood Meeting for each of the 28 Neighborhoods of the HOA. That meeting should have been held within the previous 12 months (or so). The on-site Property Manager should present this documentation to the Secretary of the HOA prior to the date of the Annual Meeting of Voting Members. My best guess is that this has not been done in past years. When the Annual Meeting convenes, the very first step by the President and Secretary should be to verify that a quorum of legitimate Voting Members is present. That step should be reflected in the Minutes of the Annual Meeting.  If that quorum of legitimate Voting M

The Board of Directors is poised to announce an increase in annual dues of $50.00. Expenses have gone up. But that's not new. Expenses went up every year in the recent past. And past Boards bragged about how they hadn't raised dues in many years. The previous boards were irresponsible and, like the Federal Government, just kicked the can down the road. In recent years Boards cut contributions to Reserves. The current (2024) Budget eliminated them completely. Not allowed, if you read the Governing Document. CC&Rs, Art. X, §6 The last board approved an unbalanced budget. The 2024 Year started with a $27,000 deficit.  Not allowed, if you read the Governing Documents. "An unbalanced budget is not allowed. Income must equal Expenses." (PRM, Art. III, §C, ¶(4)l) The last board allowed a fraudulent election of four directors. Previous boards also did that. Not allowed, if you read the Governing Documents. Why will the Board increase the annual dues (Assessment) only $50.

Attn. dog owners.  How would you like to have a dog park in the HOA? I shall be proposing this project to the Projects Committee, which is currently under some stress because the HOA President attempted to disband it unilaterally on 9/10/2024. There are plenty of large lots owned by the HOA, including the really good one at 486 Indigo Ridge Drive.  Interested? Send your expression of interest by email to HOA@summithomeowners.com and request it be forwarded to the Projects Committee. Be sure to follow up.

Has anyone noticed that the Treasurer never gives a report on the financial status of the HOA at monthly board meetings? At least, a previous Treasurer used to say every month that the HOA was in great shape financially (whether it was or not). When it's time for the Finance Committee to report, she presents a series of Motions for spending money. Why isn't a report given on the state of the finances? Why hasn't anyone explained Danny's comment in the May 2024 Summit Scoop - "We have a monument hurdle to overcome financially" ? On Page 1 of the financial summary for the second most-recent month (at the September meeting, the financial report for 7/31/2024 was distributed) the Variances to the 2024 Budget are listed. They are presented in a way that might mislead many of the homeowners. For example, in the category of Electricity/Lighting Repair (GL-5010) the Year-to-Date (YTD) Variance is ($5,251.01). Many might understand the number in parentheses to mean &qu

Finally, the sprinklers on one of the three islands in Barony Place II have been turned on. Water was running full-blast at 1:00PM today - for the first time in about three years! The irrigation worker is now at the other end of the street and may be working on sprinklers there. Many thanks to the new, official, legitimate Neighborhood Committee in Barony Place. 

Here's a simple, one-question survey. Should the Board of Directors of the Summit's HOA comply with the By-Laws and other Governing Documents? Email your answer to HOA@summithomeowners.com If you are really brave, also post your answer in the Comment box below.

  As I drove into the parking lot at the Brookland Baptist Church Northeast last night for the HOA meeting, I noticed this sign. I had just turned in off of Summit Springs Drive. I was pretty sure that the Church owned that property, and this morning I looked it up on the Richland County GIS internet map. Bingo! That's Richland County Parcel No. R20314-01-01 , and it's owned by Brookland Baptist Church. So, why is this sign on that property?

Did anyone else notice the rattlesnake on the front table at last night's BOD meeting? It was right there, coiled up, ready to strike - right in front of the HOA president. Untouched (during most of the meeting). Oh, wait; it wasn't a rattlesnake. It was the microphone for the speaker system. What is the aversion that the Board has to using the microphone? Do they not want everyone in the room, including other board members, to hear everything is said? Or are they just unconscious about the business courtesy of speaking up?

Lack of leadership and of organization procedures resulted in chaos at last night's meeting. The public comment period of two minutes was announced and then immediately disregarded. A resident should air his comments, the board should listen, and then the next resident should speak. The resident should be directed to a committee or to the next step. There is no need to discussion and argument. A two-minute timer should be used. The on-site property manager could be the timekeeper. When the erroneous information about the Voting Member process was given by the on-site property manager, one or more Board Members should have corrected her. The problem is that they are all complicit in disregarding the By-Laws about selection of Voting Members. But the real chaos was at the end of the meeting, when President Danny Trapp announced he was disbanding the Projects Committee. There was no orderly discussion. Arguments ensued, with many talking over one another. Vicki McCarthy addressed the

The Minutes of the last BOD meeting (8/13/2024) were approved at last night's meeting. They were approved without being read to the public or amended of errors, if any. The Minutes had not been published as of September 5. There are two glaring errors, immediately apparent, near the top of Page 1. These must be the errors of the note-taker at the meeting. Presumably, the six Board members read the Minutes before they were published. What are the errors? Gail Luckey and Mary Evans are not Alternates for Barony Place. They never were (legitimate) Alternates. The Alternates elected legitimately at a Neighborhood Meeting on May 4, 2024 are Della Glynn and Gwen Hayes! The results of the May 4th election by the Barony Place Neighborhood were reported to the office within days. The office finally sought "official" results from the Voting Member at the end of May.  For the first time in a long time (maybe ever) the Minutes included many details of discussions. The comments about

There is an eight-letter word that perfectly describes last night's Board of Directors meeting. If you want to know it, call me. I'll be polite here and just call it "chaotic". During the meeting a homeowner in Chapelwood asked several questions about the Voting Member position in her Neighborhood. She asked about the process for choosing a Voting Member. She asked how to contact the Alternate, whose contact information is missing from the monthly Summit Scoop.  She was given misleading and completely erroneous information , and NOT ONE board member attempted to correct it. The HOA's on-site property manager told her to contact the office for the form that is used for "collecting signatures". That is NOT a legitimate method, according to the By-Laws. When the homeowner asked how to contact the Owners of properties, since there are numerous rentals, the manager said she could not give out the names of the Owners. Of course, she can. And the Governing Docu

Here it is, September 8th, and the Minutes of the August 13, 2024 Board meeting have not yet been posted. It was a rambunctious meeting, with one board member ripping the President of the HOA very harshly. Will that be included in the Minutes? The Summit Scoop for September has not yet been published. The Financial Operating Results for 7/31/2024 HAVE been published on the website, but who looks at them? Somebody, besides the Finance Committee, should be inspecting them. The Accounts Receivable (Line 1200) took a huge jump from 6/30/2024. While some temporary increase might be expected (following the July 1 Assessments due date), is this an unusual jump? Line 1300 is Allowance for Uncollectible Accounts. Line          6/30/24            7/31/24       Change 1200     $373,841.57     $556,903.80    +49% 1300    ($299,167.13)  ($299,167.13)         0% Will the Board direct CAMS to aggressively collect assessments that were past due on August 1? Is this part of CAMS work, or does CAMS char

Nominations for Directors on the HOA's board of directors are now open. An application can be found in the PRM (Page 33), Appendix A, and must be submitted to the office by October 4. The date of the election has not yet been announced. The Annual Meeting of Voting Members would normally be on the first Tuesday of November, but the board will probably change it to avoid conflict with the National Election. My guess today is that the HOA election will be November 12. This is only two months away. The Nominating Committee has a lot of work to do. The Nominating Committee does not have a chair. What does the PRM say, at Art. III, Section H (Page 22-24)? Paragraph 1) "The nominating committee chairman is named by the SCA Board President at the board officer election meeting." Officers of the HOA should have been elected on November 7, 2023. According to the By-Laws (Art. III, §B, ¶8): Section 8. Organizational Meetings. The first meeting of the Board of Directors following ea

Two lines on the financial statements of the HOA should worry everyone. But do they worry anyone ? These lines are the Accounts Receivable (Line 1200) and the Allowance for Uncollectible Accounts (Line 1300). "Accounts Receivable - Other" (Line 1222) shows up in 2022, but not in 2021 or 2023. Directors have allowed those lines to grow from year-to-year. Looking only at the past three years: Accounts Receivable Line          12/31/21               12/31/22               12/31/23   1200      $373,450.65        $428,833.59       $441,421.22 1222      $0                         $    8,079.68          $0 1300     ($340,906.19)     ($404,495.68)     ($397,279.10) Net        $   32,544.46        $  32,417.84        $  44,142.12 Between March 31 and April 30, 2024, these changes occurred: Line                  3/31/2024                 4/30/2024 1200              $498,657,27            $379,739.45 1300             ($397,279.10)         ($299,167.13) Difference      $101,378.17