Barony Place I/Barony Place II

... how many legitimate ( duly-elected ) Voting Members there are? ... how many "Voting Members" became so by getting signatures? ... how many "Voting  Members" have been hangers-on for years without holding Annual Neighborhood Meetings, as required in the By-Laws?* ... how many homes in each neighborhood are owner-occupied? ... how many homes in each neighborhood are not owner-occupied? And does the office have copies of the leases or rental contracts for each of those? ... how many homes there are in each neighborhood? As of June 2024, the office gave me a list, and the number totaled 2,595. (There are 2,480 properties in the Association.) ... accurate ownership and mailing addresses for each home that is not owner-occupied? ...  the current, accurate status of collection efforts for every property that is in arrears? * One current Board member believes that, if a Neighborhood held a Neighborhood Meeting and elected a Voting Member 25 years ago and never held ano...

At the June 3, 2025 Board Meeting, the "Voting Member"* for Whitney Falls, Keisha Shropshire, mentioned renters who are not in compliance and asked who reaches out to the homeowner and, according to the Minutes of the Board Meeting, "how do we know when something is being addressed". The Minutes further state, "The board president stated that when you see a change." If that's all there was, that response was an insult to the "Voting Member". It's how you lose homeowners who are participating in the affairs of the Association. Was a more-complete answer provided at the meeting but omitted from the Minutes? * "Voting Member" is in quotes because Keisha was not elected by the homeowners in Whitney Falls. Keisha moved up from Alternate, when Tanisha Holmes was appointed to the Board in November 2023 and had to resign as "Voting Member". Holmes served the unexpired remaining Board term of Vernell Butler, after he quit abrup...

There is a director appointed to the Board of The Summit's HOA who was not, and is not, eligible to be on the Board. Upon information and belief, when Danny Trapp wanted to appoint Patricia Pollin to fill the vacancy on the Board in November 2023, she was not eligible because she was not a Member of the HOA (homeowner named on the Deed) and she was not the spouse of a Member. She should not have been nominated, and she should not have been elected. But she was. Some board members voted for her because they were not told that she was not eligible. She should either remove herself from the Board or the Board should ask her to step away. If the Board doesn't, the Voting Members should remove her. All of the votes by Pollin, beginning in December 2023, are invalid and should be reviewed. If any motion was approved with her vote as the deciding vote, that decision must be re-visited. There are board members who know she is not a bonafide board member. The President of the Board (Dan...

At the July 1, 2025 the HOA attempted to install two new Directors by appointing them. The procedure failed. William Hill and Noel Weatherbee are not the new Directors, even though they were introduced as such. And they are not the Treasurer or Secretary of the HOA. To protect themselves from personal liability, they should insist that correct parliamentary procedure be followed. Otherwise, they are usurping the office of Director and the offices of Treasurer and Secretary, respectively. The appointments (and therefore, the elections) were done in a private, closed, pre-board meeting that was incorrectly referred to as an "executive session*". The appointments and elections were not conducted in the open, public, monthly Board Meeting on July 1. At the August 5, 2025 Regular Monthly Board meeting the President (Danny Trapp) should call for nominations for appointment of Directors to fill the two vacancies. Then the Board should vote - IN PUBLIC.  After two directors are appoi...

Compliance or Non-Compliance? Where does it start? It starts right at the top - with the officer who is President of the Board of Directors. While this person is just one of seven directors of The Summit's HOA, he has assumed more authority and power than the governing documents give him. And the other six on the board have let him get away with it. The President is supposed to lead the board and develop a cohesive body that will serve the interests of the Members and follow (comply with) the CC&Rs and the By-Laws. This Board, prior to July 1, and previous boards have been divided into Us vs. Them. Disagreement is good; it often stimulates respectful discussion and progress. That doesn't happen on the boards of The Summit's HOA. If you don't agree with the President, you become an outsider. You are tolerated until you can be replaced. For example, the HOA started a lawsuit in December 2024. The CC&Rs (Art. XIII, §10 Litigation) prohibit that, unless the Board fi...

Do you grumble about the HOA? Do you moan and groan about what your HOA is or is not doing? Too busy to go to meetings? Or pay attention? Do you read the financial statements enough to understand them?  Or are you "too busy"? Or just not interested enough? Just want to pay your money and be left along? Recently I came across HRLNG - The HOA Reform Leaders National Group. After inspecting what they do, I quickly connected with them. Check them out on Facebook. Not everyone who lives in a HOA will be active, just like you are not in The Summit's HOA. Some homeowners are involved in the HOA. Seven on the Board (none legitimately*); more on committees. You can be involved by just communicating your observations and your wishes to someone who is involved. For example, to me. I will be working as a volunteer to contact state legislative leaders, including our own State Senator (Overture Walker) and State House Representative (Hamilton Grant), to encourage HOA reform and laws th...

The first line in the Finance Report in the July 1, 2025 Board Meeting Minutes is "Tanisha Holmes reminded everyone that the 2026 dues are going up $50 per year." Oh, really? When did the Board of Directors vote on that ? (Hint: they didn't.) At the June 3rd Board Meeting, according to the Minutes, there was no mention of a dues increase and no vote. In the July 2025 Summit Scoop, on Page 1 in the President's Report, Danny Trapp wrote, "It has been determined that, based on our current expenditure and the future financial pending obligations, it will be necessary to raise our regime fees by $25.00 each six month period, for a total of $50 annually." First of all, does that sentence even make sense? What does "our current expenditure" mean? What does "the future financial  pending obligations" mean? Will regime fees go up $25.00 every six months? Or just in 2026? When was "that" determined? And by whom? Was it done in one of thos...

The following recognized* Voting Members and Alternates attended the July 1, 2025 Board of Directors meeting. Nancy Gaymon (Abingdon) Janet Friedman (Autumn Run) Tracy Manderino (Barony Place) ** Sherri Lauver (Chapelwood) Mike Bryant (Fawn Ridge) Karen Kranz (Founders Ridge) Carmen Claud (Hunters Pond) Randdi Trapp (Hunters Pond) Chris Danner (Lakes of Barony Place) Chanel Taylor (Maywood) Willie Myers (Pepper Knoll) Dan Fuente (Pepper Knoll) Pinebrook (Mary Ann Game) Cynthia Johnson (Summit Hills III) Glenda Edwards (Summit Hills III) Reginald Mack (Summit Hills IV) Keisha Shropshire (Whitney Falls) How many of those 17 are legitimate, duly-elected Voting Members or Alternates who were elected by their neighborhoods? The office should be able to answer that question in two minutes by counting the number of official documents filed by the Neighborhood Committees after their last Annual Neighborhood Meeting (within the past 12 months or so). By my count, the answer is one (1).  Ba...

And now for the huge error in the July 2025 Minutes ... Just before the Committee Reports, there are two lines in bold print: "The new board members were introduced: William Hill, Treasurer and Noel Weatherbee, Treasurer." There is no mention whatsoever of the "executive session" held before the Regular Board Meeting started at 6:39PM.  Hill and Weatherbee were "introduced", but they were never appointed by the Board - in public. Hill and Weatherbee were never elected as officers - in public. If the appointments and the elections were not held in public, when did they happen? Why aren't those essential events recorded in the Minutes? Because the appointments and the elections were made in a secret, closed, private  meeting - out of sight of the Members of the Association. And that's wrong!!! Because those appointments and elections were not conducted during the open July Regular Board Meeting, the appointments and the elections of the officers are...

The Minutes of the July 1, 2025 Board of Directors Meeting have been posted on the website. Who do you suppose wrote them? For them to be posted on the HOA's website, they must have been distributed to the Board members for review, and then any corrections should have been made before they were posted for Members to read. I especially liked the report of the Activity Committee about the Father-Son Bowling Day.  "... a nice time was had by all that attended." Since at least 1986 I've said that phrase had to originate in a high school newsletter! The Covenants Committee reported that changes in the governing documents will need to be reviewed by an attorney. The first thing that needs to happen is that the Board needs to review and agree on the proposed changes! How long have they had the proposed changes? Months? More than a year?  After the Board received the proposed changes, apparently they were given to the ad hoc Committee. Who is on that committee? Anyone beside...

If you are reading this, I know that you are not the problem. The financial stability of the HOA depends on all property owners paying their dues on-time; i.e., by July 31. As of April 30, 2025 the Accounts Receivable (Line 1200 in the financial statements) of the HOA totaled $479,433. That is, likely, almost entirely unpaid dues and is $99,694 higher than one year ago. And a year ago they had just written off approximately $100,000 of bad debt without ever discussing it at an open Board meeting or voting on writing it off. The Board did not follow the rules in the PRM (Art. III, §C, ¶3 Bad Debt Write-Off Procedures .) The Allowance for Uncollectible Accounts (Line 1300) is $299,167. This number hasn't changed for 12 months and cannot be accurate. In six years I haven't heard the Board discuss the bad-debt problem or make any decisions about reducing it. Why haven't they addressed this growing problem? If you think the Board needs to pay closer attention to the Collection P...

Would you be interested in helping to improve laws in South Carolina for the benefit of homeowners and residents in HOAs? Get involved with a national organization whose members work on legislation in their own states. Even though the legislature is full of lawyers and preachers, they can be persuaded to do something good for people who live in HOAs. The South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) is basically toothless when it comes to HOAs. They receive many complaints every year about HOAs. They investigate and resolve few of them. It's not their fault. The legislature did not give them enough power and authority. Every year the DCA prepares a pretty report and sends it to the legislators. And there it dies. It is possible for homeowners in HOAs to band together in a way that positively influences legislators. Writing occasional letter or making a phone call is like a nibble, when what will get their attention is a big Bite. Just imagine the result, if a State agency co...

How big a problem on the HOA's Board of Directors is Deceit? What would constitute deceit? Who is the Board Member who should know the CC&Rs and the By-Laws the best? That would be the President; right? Who should be the Number One steward of the funds of the HOA? That would be the President; right? When a board member receives information detrimental to an action the Board is about to take, should he inform the rest of the Board? Or should he "bury it"? Can the President act unilaterally in the name of the HOA, or must the Board of Directors first approve the action? When the HOA has started a lawsuit, should the President (the point-of-contact with the lawyer) keep all Board Members fully informed or just a select few? When the President leads, or even just allows, decisions to be made in private, closed, "secret" sessions, is that Deceit? Is merely announcing results from a closed-door session proper, when no decisions are supposed to be made out of Membe...

 On July 1, 2025 the Board of Directors of The Summit's HOA held what it called an "executive session" prior to the start of the Regular Monthly Meeting of the Board at 6:30PM. It appointed two homeowners to the Board (succeeding Ciara Bates and LaToya Adams, both of whom resigned in May) and then elected the two new Directors as Secretary and Treasurer. The "executive session" was not a legitimate executive session, and the appointments and election were not valid. Here is the Google AI Overview for the query "permitted actions under S.C. executive session rules": In South Carolina, executive sessions are limited closed-door meetings of public bodies. Actions that are  permitted  during an executive session are restricted by the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Section 30-4-70.   Here's a breakdown of permitted actions: 1. Specific purposes for discussion Executive sessions are permitted for discussions on specific matters, inclu...

How many kids, or even adults, know that July 14th is Bastille Day? What the heck is Bastille Day? Ask around. Ask family members, neighbors, co-workers, acquaintances. "When and what is Bastille Day?" Here's one site where you might refresh your memory. Check out Britannica . What was happening in America on July 14, 1789?

Five years ago, on July 14, 2020, I published the first post on this blog. The count is somewhere about 1,100 posts now, and the reader count is increasing. I've been accused in the HOA's lawsuit against me of having an agenda. I do! My agenda is to get the Board of Directors to comply with the CC&Rs, the By-Laws, and the published Guides, such as the PRM. And that makes me a nasty, evil, bad person. Almost every day I find something new to write about.

Legal expenses are reported on two different lines in the financial statements.  In May 2025 the HOA paid out a whopping $13,643.41 in legal fees. How much of that was for the lawsuit against Gus Philpott (me)? Line 4219 is "Attorney Legal Fees". This is where a problem is in the March 31, 2025 monthly report. Line 6500 is "Legal/Professional Fees". This is the Line I have been watching.  First, Line 6500. In May 2025 the HOA paid out $8,269.92, bringing the YTD total to $13,024.69. My guess was the HOA was finally catching up on billed legal fees from Turner Padget. HOWEVER , also in May 2025 the HOA paid $5,373.49 in legal fees (Line 4219). THE PROBLEM? Year-to-Date (YTD) total for Line 4219 is only $1,362.22.  The YTD total for Line 4219, as of March 31, 2025, was ($4,256.74). How could that be? Here's how, but not why:   Line 4219      Month         YTD $     508.47 Jan 31, 2025  $508.47 $    ...

Just over a year ago, The Summit's HOA retained a new law firm, Turner Padget. There was a Motion and a vote of the board at the May 7, 2024 Board Meeting to "hire" (retain) that firm. I was at that meeting. The Motion is in the Minutes. I have heard, but do not know with certainty, that it was Danny who found the new law firm. As I recall, the Board was uninformed about the fee structure of Turner Padget for legal services. One of the board members said something like, "They have attorneys who do everything." I recall thinking, "They certainly do, for a fee." At another meeting, the Board should have resolved (that's an important legal procedure) to authorize the President (Danny Trapp) and the Secret ary (Tanisha Holmes) to sign an Engagement Letter. That important step (the authorization by the Board) never happened. Who signed the Engagement Letter? The Board has never terminated its relationship with the prior law firm, McCabe, Trotter & B...

  How many managers does The Summit's HOA have? A high school education is a wonderful thing. A public school education is, too. Do schools still teach English? Grammar?  How many times have I looked at "Managers' Report" and not questioned it? The HOA has one Property Manger; a/k/a Association Manager, office manager, site manager. So it should be Manager's Report. It has been that way since March 2018, when it first showed up on Page 1 of the Scoop. My grade-school English teacher would be so proud of me.

Do you still have your 2023 Summit ID card? Did you even live here in 2023? I didn't plan to attend the Summit Day party on July 12 but, after reading what happened to Sherri Lauver when she tried to attend the Activities Committee meeting last Thursday, I changed my mind. Today I went to the office at 4:55PM to deliver my housemate's dues check and to renew my Summit ID card. Danny Trapp was in the office and stood silently about 15 feet from me and never said hello or even looked at me.  Why would a president of the HOA act like that? When I returned home, I looked again at the Summit Day announcement in the July 2025 Summit Scoop. "Summit 2023 ID required" Now where am  I going to get a 2023 ID before 10:00AM tomorrow?

For the first time since May 14, 2018, I read the back of my Summit ID Card. The wording starts with  "By receipt and acceptance of this card, the holder agrees to abide by the rules and regulations of The Summit Community Association." Each Board Member must have an ID Card, or he wouldn't be able to get into the board meetings. Who checks their cards as they enter the meeting room? Do you think each Board Member knows the wording?  What should happen to a Board Member who fails to abide by the rules and regulations of the Association?  Please type your answer in the Comment box below.

Read this Facebook post carefully. This was posted yesterday (7/10/2025) on the new unofficial HOA Facebook group that was started about a month ago. Sherri Lauver is a homeowner and Member of the Association who serves as the Voting Member for the Chapelwood neighborhood. She has been active at meetings, representing her neighborhood and herself. Last month she posted about showing up at the Activities Committee scheduled monthly meeting on June 12th with several others, only to find the office closed and the door locked, lights off, and no notice on the door to explain why. Later she learned that Danny Trapp, chair of the Activities Committee, and one of his fellow board members, Patricia Pollin, had both had "emergencies" and didn't show up for the meeting. Danny offered no explanation, other than "emergency", and declined to apologize for not giving notice to anyone that the meeting would not be held. Is Danny's nose out-of-joint because Sherri speaks u...

For more than two years the Board has been talking about updating the CC&Rs and the By-Laws. The Covenants Committee has spent many hours reviewing the CC&Rs and the By-Laws and has submitted the proposed changes to the Board at least two-three times. Apparently, an earlier set of proposed changes vanished when Justin Martin was not re-elected to the Board in November 2023. About two months ago Danny Trapp, president of the HOA, said there were more important things for the board to attend to. The status of the proposed changes came up again on July 1st. Board Member Brenda Bryant reportedly said at the meeting that she had asked Danny two months ago to be appointed to the ad Hoc Committee, but she has not had a response from Danny. Why would Danny delay that appointment? Who is on the ad Hoc Committee? Is anyone on it besides Danny? That Committee is not listed on the HOA's website or in the Summit Scoop.  Was the ad Hoc Committee ever officially established by the Boar...

A Voting Member's summary of the July 1st Board meeting, published on the unofficial HOA's Facebook group page, mentioned that the last dues increase in the HOA was 15 years ago. That apparently was mentioned at the July 1st Board Meeting. Is there anyone here who thinks expenses did not go up in the past 15 years? Did the Board do homeowners a favor by not increasing the dues? Even last November (2024) the Board blinked on a dues increase. And now homeowners will pay the price! A $50/year increase is not enough! Where did Board get the money, if it didn't increase dues? It collected money budgeted for Reserves and spent it on Operations. Today large chunks of money are needed for expensive infrastructure repairs (pumps, earthen dams), and Reserves are dropping.  Some people have said, "Look at all that money in Reserves." But none of it was "extra" money. It all should have been earmarked for future repairs. But the Board ignores the Asset Evaluation Co...

How are successor Directors appointed? Who appoints them? A director (Greg Thomas) on the Board resigned in November 2023. Two directors (Ciara Bates, LaToya Adams) resigned in May 2025. Who appoints their successors? Does the President (currently, Danny Trapp) appoint them or does the Board of Directors appoint them? The By-Laws cover this at Art. III A, §7, ¶2 "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." "it" means the Board ! It is crystal clear that the President does not appoint the successor of a director who resigns. It is the Board that appoints the successor! The President might nominate a successor; if he does, then a Second is needed. A Second is not a problem for Danny, because of the composition of the Board. How does the Board appoint a successor? The Board votes. The Board should only vote in an open, public Board Meeting. The Board should not vote in a ...

You have to know what you are looking for, in order to find out what is missing! The Financial Overview Report for May 2025 was available at the July 1st Board Meeting. It should be online by now (May 10), but it's not. If you want a copy, call the HOA's office at 803/865-0609. On Page 2 are the Variances. Variances are Over-Spending. Variances are shown by Month-to-Date (MTD) and Year-to-Date (YTD). One huge omission on Page 2 is the line for Totals.  Q. Why is that left off?  A. So that you don't easily know how much the Over-Spending is. There are 13 Lines of Over-Spending on Page 2. And there is one very important, 14th line that is omitted: Line 6500 Legal/Professional Fees. Looking at the YTD Variances, the 13 Lines on Page  2 total $63,574.09. A reasonable person would ask, "Where is that money coming from?" You won't hear that question asked at a Board meeting, and you won't hear an answer. Shouldn't that worry you? Now, about Line 6500 Legal/P...

On December 28, 2024 The Summit's HOA sued Gus Philpott (me). In doing so the HOA and its Board of Directors violated Art. XIII, Section 10 Litigation  of the CC&Rs. The Board did not ask for or get approval of 75% of the Voting Members. That was an impossible goal, because there is only one (1) legitimate, duly-elected Voting Member. The Voting Members did not ask for or get approval of 75% of their neighborhood's homeowners. The Board of Directors never voted to approve the lawsuit. The Board of Directors never voted to authorize its President, Danny Trapp, to tell the lawyers to file the lawsuit. Did the lawyers read Art. XIII, Section 10 in the CC&Rs? How much has the lawsuit cost so far? Not even all the Board Members know. All they have to do is ask the office. The HOA and the Board are violating the CC&Rs and wasting HOA funds on a lawsuit that is prohibited by the CC&Rs.  Board Members should stand up to Danny. They aren't. Voting Members should be...

After writing the previous post about the July 1st meeting summary on the new Facebook group's page, I inadvertently searched for the wording that I had copied from the Facebook post. That wording was: Inquiry made regarding why Ms. Bryant (Board member) was not allowed to join the CCR committee, despite requesting two months ago — no response from Chair (Danny). Meeting Accessibility Request made to reinstate microphone use for hearing assistance. Board response: They will "just speak louder." Take a look at this "AI Overview" response from Google: Committee Selection : Ms. Bryant requested to join the CCR committee two months ago but hasn't received a response from the Chair, Danny. According to one source, unless an organization's rules specify otherwise, a committee chair lacks the authority to refuse or accept membership offers; the authority to appoint members usually rests with the parent body or the assembly as a whole. If the organization's ...

There is an excellent summary of the July 1st Board Meeting posted on the new "unofficial" Summit HOA group on Facebook. The group's name is "The Summit Community Neighborhood, NE Columbia".  (Note: There are other Summit HOA groups on Facebook, but they are not "our" Summit HOAs.)  Sherri Lauver, Voting Member for Chapelwood, wrote the summary and did a fine job. You'll see information in her summary that will never reach the Minutes. For example, she included these: "Inquiry made regarding why Ms. Bryant (Board member) was not allowed to join the CCR committee, despite requesting two months ago — no response from Chair (Danny)." and  Meeting Accessibility " Request made to reinstate microphone use for hearing assistance. Board response: 'They will just speak louder.'" As to the first, Director Brenda Bryant should have been allowed to join the "CCR committee". [The reference here is actually to the ad Hoc C...

When the Board of Directors met on July 1st, the Financial Operating Report for May 2025 should have been available on the back table of the room. Was it? If it was, then it was released to Members.  Why wasn't the Report published on the HOA's website on July 2 (or July 3, 7, 8), where all Members could inspect it? If you haven't seen the May financials yet, do this: Call your neighborhood's Voting Member and ask for a copy. Contact the HOA's Treasurer and ask for a copy (Oh, wait: the HOA does not have a legitimate Treasurer.) Call the office (803.865.0609) and ask them to email you a copy. Ask when it will be emailed to you. Also, request that it be posted online. Attend the August 5th Board Meeting and ask why the HOA does not make the Financial Reports available online sooner.

To the Voting Members of The Summit's HOA: July 9, 2025 Shouldn't you be all over the Board of Directors for conducting an illegitimate "executive session" on July 1, 2025?  In that session, which was held before the Regular Monthly Board Meeting began, the Board picked two directors to fill the vacancies on the board that were created by the May resignations of Ciara Bates (Secretary) and LaToya Adams (Treasurer). The appointments of two directors on July 1 are invalid, because the executive session was not legitimate. Further, because those new directors were then chosen as officers (Secretary and Treasurer), they are not legitimate officers.* The appointments of two directors should have been made during the open, public, monthly Board Meeting.  The elections for Secretary and Treasurer should have been conducted during the open, public, monthly Board Meeting.  As a result, the HOA still has two vacancies on the Board (should have three) and still has no Secretary ...