Barony Place I/Barony Place II

Remember when a second crash took out the pergola? You know, that four-legged thing in the median on Summit Ridge Drive that kept attracting drunk drivers? On your way to tomorrow night's Board meeting, drive by the corner of Summit Ridge Drive at Summit Parkway, right there at the light. Look at that ugly piece of ground. And ask yourself, "What was the Board of Directors thinking when they accepted that design work?" Keep in mind that it wasn't "this" Board of Directors that approved the project to restore that corner. So don't blame them for the ugliness. But they can do something about it now. There needs to be a "beautification project" for that corner! As I recall, the HOA received about $28,000 from its insurance company. And it spent about $8,-9,000 on that corner. Look at what they got. Ask yourself two questions? 1. Is that all they got for $8,-9,000? 2. What happened to the other $20,000?  Did that go into Reserves or was it just sp...

On your way to tomorrow night's Board meeting, drive by the damaged brick wall on Summit Parkway. Drive west from Clemson Road or Summit Parkway Middle School. It will be on your right. When you get to the Board meeting, ask exactly what is taking so long. The wall should have been repaired within two weeks. January is probably not the hottest business month for bricklayers. Somebody needs work. I think the wall was damaged in late December. Both the Safety Committee chairman and the office have not responded to my requests for the date. Should I spent $15 and order the crash report from the Highway Patrol? The Property Manager stated at the February 3rd Board Meeting that the HOA had received the money for the damage. Whether or not it had, the HOA was responsible for the repairs. How much did the HOA receive? How much was the bid on the repair work? Why are the damaged bricks still on the ground? Why wasn't the crash site cleaned up? Kind of makes you sick to think that someb...

This is not a rhetorical question. Literally, what is the deal with Schroeder Towing? The Minutes of the November 18, 2025 Board Meeting read, in part, "Safety Committee - William Hill "- Schroder Towing contacted regarding parking enforcement at Birch Park  and both pools.  - Management company to handle violations (e.g., illegal parking, expired  tags).  - Homeowners should not confront violators; instead, take a photo and  email the office.  - Warnings will precede any towing actions." Under what conditions will Schroeder Towing haul your car away? Will it tow on-sight? Or must the office call for each tow? Will towing be only from Birch Park and both pools? "What is "illegal parking"? What towing will occur from publicly-owned streets in The Summit? What "warning" will be given? By whom - the office? Schroder Towing? Will the tow driver stand by the alleged violating vehicle and whisper, "This vehicle will be towed in 20 seconds"?

The HOA is now two months into the new year. Why hasn't the 2026 Approved Budget been posted on the HOA's website? Was the 2026 Proposed Budget ever approved? When was it approved? What Minutes of which Board Meeting contain the discussion, vote, and approval of the 2026 Budget? The Minutes of the November 18, 2025 Board Meeting read, in part, " Finance Report  "The Board announced that the 2026 budget was available at the check-in tables and will also be mailed to all homeowners with the January assessment statements. Homeowners who did not receive a copy were encouraged to stop by the oAice, although printed copies will accompany the January bills. No further questions or discussion was presented under Finance." To be available at the November 18th Board meeting, it must have been approved before November 18th, right? Who was President and who was Treasurer before November 18th?

 ... why no Financial Operating Results have been posted on the HOA's website since August 2025? Where are the September Results? Where are the October Results? Where are the November Results? Where are the December Results? Will the January 2026 Results be available at the March 3rd Board meeting? And posted on the website on March 4th? Will the Treasurer explain the delay? Will the Voting Members demand them? Will Members (homeowners) at the BOD Meeting demand them? If you owned this company, would you permit the Board and the Treasurer to avoid publishing the financial statements?

In December Summit Hills V homeowner and former board member Vernell Butler filed a Complaint in Richland County Magistrate's Court against four homeowners in the HOA. The four homeowners are Brenda Bryant, Thomas (Jeff) Lummel, Linda Potter, and Angelo Turley-Moore. Could Vernell's filing of the Complaint end up causing The Summit's HOA to freeze or shut down? In his Complaint he asks the Court for the "immediate dissolution" of the HOA's Board of Directors. Will that get any traction with the Court? The four Defendants have until about March 16th to file their Answers to the Complaint.  But what would happen if each of the four Defendants decided, "I'm not putting up with this nonsense. This job doesn't pay enough. (The "job" doesn't pay at all.) I quit!" If four directors quit, the Board would be unable to function, because there would not be a quorum of directors (four). The three remaining directors (Holmes, Hill, and Weath...

Here are some questions that Members (homeowners) might ask the Board of Directors on March 3rd: Q1. What concerns did a Board member have about the recent election process? Were there election irregularities in November 2025? Did the HOA fail to comply with the Governing Documents? What needs to be corrected before the next election cycle (November 2026)? That was "New Business" in January. Why wasn't it "Old Business" in February? Q2. Why wasn't the 2024 Annual Audit ordered long before October 7, 2025? Should it have been ordered in January or February, 2025? Why did the Board pick a Greensboro, N.C. CPA to do the Annual Audit for $7,039? (The 2023 Annual Audit cost $3,700 (paid in Oct. 2024.) What i s the deadline for receipt of the 2024 Audit? It was due by August 31st, according to the PRM. Q3. What, exactly, is the Board doing about getting duly-elected Voting Members in place for 27 Neighborhoods before November 2026? Q4. When will the Board Presid...

The March Board of Directors meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, 6:30PM at the North Springs Park Community Center, 1320 Clemson Road. Last month's meeting was well-attended by homeowners. The room had been arranged in an unfamiliar setting, with committee chairmen facing the board, Voting Members were seated on an angle to the Board's left, and homeowners were seated on an angle to the Board's right.  Many good questions were asked by homeowners, almost all of which went unreported in the Minutes of the meeting.  During Public Participation one Board member, Angelo Moore, left the board seating area and roamed the room. Without pointing me out, he mentioned my name freely as the person who had been sued by the HOA. While I didn't mind that, I did wonder about confidentiality of lawsuits. That did give me the opening to identify myself to a number of the homeowners and speak with them after the meeting.  No one from the Board bothered to apologize to me for ...

Will the Board of Directors direct the management company or the Covenants or the Finance Committee to prepare a full report on the lawsuit that was started by Danny Trapp in December 2024 against resident Gus Philpott (me)? The lawsuit was dismissed, with prejudice, on January 13, 2026 The report should include: how it got started without a vote by the Board of Directors (and who was on the Board at the time); how it got started without a request to the Voting Members to approve the lawsuit? who was/were the point(s) of contact with the lawyers; were the other directors told not to contact the lawyers; whether then-Board President Danny Trapp got an estimate of the costs of starting and continuing the lawsuit; whether Danny Trapp kept the entire Board of Directors informed continually of the status and costs of the lawsuit; whether the full Board was consulted each time a major expense was about to be incurred; how the amounts paid to the law firm and reported in monthly financial sta...

The Procedures Reference Manual (PRM) spells out exactly how a resident's complaint about a CC&R violation is supposed to be handled. I wonder how many Voting Members are aware of this and how many accept the responsibility of receiving complaints from homeowners and residents in their neighborhoods. Here are the rules: Art. III Administration (Page 32) P. Residential Complaints 1) General a. When a resident has a concern or sees what he believes is a CC&R violation, the resident should discuss the concern with the neighborhood chair (voting member/representative). b. The neighborhood representative may address the concern with the violator or transmit the concern to the board of directors. c. The board of directors may designate the property manager and its onsite management staff to receive and address the CC&R complaints and concerns. d. If the complaint is not addressed to the satisfaction of the resident and representative by  the property manager, the concern is ...

Watch for the new crosswalk signs on Summit Parkway, at the crest of the hill east of Summit Ridge Drive. Thanks to the Richland County Roads & Drainage Department for their prompt response to my message on February 16th that signs were needed in both directions. The crosswalk was marked on the pavement, but there were no signs to alert drivers. Drivers, you do know what to do when a pedestrian is standing at the curb, waiting to enter the crosswalk, don't you? A. Step on the gas and speed up? B. Slam on your brakes and stop, causing the driver behind you to smash into you? C. Stop and wave the pedestrian to cross in front of you, regardless of traffic in the adjacent lane? D. Honk your car's horn. Hope the pedestrian doesn't step off the curb in front of you? E. Slow and stop far enough back that the pedestrian can see other oncoming traffic? F. Don't know what to do. G. None of the above.

What's the delay in getting the brick wall on Summit Parkway repaired, where it was damaged in December west of Summit Parkway Middle School? It's the wall behind 14 Ricemill Ferry Drive. Repair work has started. It should have been finished long before now. The HOA should have an established procedure for brick wall repairs, due to the frequency of damage. The HOA should have a trusted vendor for brick repairs. If the right procedures were in place, about five minutes of office time would be required. Just call the vendor; tell him where the damage is, to fix it, and send the bill. The Property Manager reported at the February 3rd board meeting that funds had been received. Presumably, he meant from or on behalf of the driver who caused the damage. Repair should have been made in early January. A Board Resolution passed 20+ years ago directs the  repairs, regardless of any anticipated claim against the party causing the damage. In the PRM, Art. II, §D Resolutions, ¶5 (Page 11)...

How will The Summit's Board of Directors address the $25,000+ in illegal disbursements of HOA funds for the lawsuit against Gus Philpott (me)? What is the accurate total of costs and fees for that litigation? Will the HOA recover those funds? Why were disbursements (for legal fees and costs) illegal? Because the Board of Directors never approved the litigation! In fact, the litigation was prohibited by the CC&Rs (Art. XIII, §10). After the Covenants Committee informed the Board at the Board's August 5, 2025 board meeting that the litigation violated the Covenants, the Board did not address that violation at its August, September, or October Board Meetings. Danny Trapp was President then.  Will the current Board investigate those expenditures? Was a crime committed? What action will the Board take to recover those funds? Who was responsible for spending that money? The Board President? The Board Treasurers? The Board members who silently allowed it? CAMS? Who will investiga...

On December 12, 2025 Vernell Butler filed a case in Richland County Magistrate's Court against four residents of The Summit.  Butler is a former Alternate for Summit Hills V (until Dec. 2020), Director of the HOA (Dec. 2020-Nov. 2023), past Treasurer, and unsuccessful candidate for the Board in November 2025.  Butler filed a Compl aint (Case Number   2025CV4010405381)  against Brenda Bryant, Linda Potter, Jeff Lummel , and Angelo Turley-Moore. The case was originally filed in the Dentsville Magistrate's Court and was transferred to the Blythewood Magistrate's Court. The allegations in the Complaint are:  "BRENDA BRYANT, THOMAS LUMMEL, ANGELO TURLEY-MOORE and LINDA POTTER [ emphasis in the original ] have violated the South Carolina Nonprofit Corporation Act by holding an invalid election to improperly seat board members, which is in clear violation of this act." The Complaint continues,  "I believe, because of the above information, that The Summit is...

  (S.C.) WBX 831 This guy went flying by me on Hard Scrabble last week. Guess who was stopped right in front of me, when we got to Clemson Road? Obscured licenses plates are one of my biggest pet peeves. The driver knows it's illegal; he covers his license plate for two reasons. It's hard to get reported to police, when the plate can't be read. He can drive like a wild man, knowing he won't get reported. I'd love it if the Highway Patrol would stop these guys. Cite them and remove the cover and the plate for evidence. Then have the car towed, because there is no license plate on it. I can just hear the caterwauling and gnashing of teeth now ....

On Page 1 of  the February Summit Scoop is the usual monthly reminder that four neighborhoods in The Summit do not have a Voting Member. The four are Autumn Run (80 homes), Indigo Springs (141), Pineclave (33), and Waverly Place (264). This means that 518 homeowners in the Association are not represented. That's 20.9% of the homeowners who have no voice in the Association. On Page 1 of the Scoop it reads, in part, "If you are interested in representing your neighborhood as the Neighborhood Representative, please contact the Summit office..." What does the office tell you?  Does the office tell you to comply with the By-Laws? Or do they tell you to pick up a form and "get signatures"? Do you want to be a legitimate Neighborhood Representative ? Every neighborhood is supposed to have three (3) Neighborhood Representatives! Those three elect one of them to be the Voting Member. The term of a Neighborhood Representative and Voting Member is one year. If you become a...

The Board is presently dancing around the (HOA's) Neighborhood Committee (NC) and failing to take control of it.  As an example, it tolerates a discussion that the (HOA's) Neighborhood Committee gets to appoint its own chairperson. A few months ago two women assumed the role of co-chairs. Previous Minutes referred to an election of the chairperson by that committee. The Neighborhood Committee is one of the most-important of the Association. Why? Because it is the Neighborhood Committee that is supposed to assist each of the 28 Neighborhoods to hold Annual Neighborhood Meetings, elect Neighborhood Committees, and elcct Voting Members who serve for one year . The Board President should appoint the chairperson, with the approval of the Board. That's the only way to ensure that the Mission of the (HOA's) Neighborhood Committee will be carried out. That  Committee has been AWOL for a long time. A long time! The last board president did nothing to see that homeowners were pro...

The  Minutes for the February 3, 2026 Board Meeting have been published. See them on the HOA's website. Hover over RESIDENTS. Click on DOCUMENTS. Click on Board of Director's Minutes. Click on the Month you wish to view. Do Board Members and the Property Manager read and correct the BOD Minutes before they are published on the website? They should. The Board does not welcome comments from me, so I'll publish the errors here.  The  RCSD non-emergency phone number is NOT 803-977-9866. That is the CAT deputy's direct number which, in my opinion, should not even be published. She is not the police officer for The Summit. Previous Minutes were not reviewed or corrected before approval. They were approved without comment. Finance Committee A special meeting was held on January 19. The Committee cannot approve a $44,000 expenditure. It can only recommend approval to the Board. The Board never approved that $44,000 expenditure at the February 3rd BOD Meeting! Who approved the $...

Today I emailed all the S.C. State Representatives about a new bill introduced in the House last week. Will you personally contact all the State Reps you know and ask them to sign onto the Bill and support it? This was my message: Good afternoon, Representative, Your colleague, Rep Jay Kilmartin, has introduced H 5204. Will you please co-sponsor it? Thousands of your constituents live in HOAs and need some of the protections in that Bill, especially increased authority at the S.C. Dept. of Consumer Affairs. I have personal experience. I was sued by The Summit's HOA (NE Columbia). Illegally. The CC&Rs prohibited it. The Board President ignored the CC&Rs. So did the HOA's lawyers.  After a year and legal fees of $25,-$30,000, the HOA dismissed the lawsuit. I represented myself because I could not afford the estimated defense legal fees.of $30,-$50,000.

On February 18, 2026 S.C. State Rep. Jay Kilmartin introduced a bill in the South Carolina House of Representatives that could be the start of reform of South Carolina HOA laws. Several months ago I got acquainted with Rep. Kilmartin (R - Lexington) and introduced him to Patrick Johansen, founder of the HOA Leaders Reform National Group (HLRNG). On Wednesday Rep. Kilmartin introduced H 5204, which can be read here . As you may already know, South Carolina laws are very weak in the area of rights of a HOA Member  (homeowner). The South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs has virtually no authority over HOAs. This Bill, if passed into law would change that.  The reason it has so little authority is the state legislature. Currently, when you make a complaint to the Department of Consumer Affairs, all they do is receive it, write a letter to the HOA, receive a reply, file it, and close the complaint. The Department cannot force the HOA to follow the CC&Rs or By-Laws. I hav...

How should the HOA's Board of Directors respond to the email sent by Director Noel Weatherbee to Gus Philpott (me), after I requested a meeting with the Board? If you haven't read Noel's response yet, click here .  I call it Arrogance Personified. Just for the record, I wouldn't recognize her if she was standing in line at Food Lion or the Dollar Store. I can only hope she doesn't pull at "Mrs. Davis" on me. It's not the first time she has gone into a similar attack mode without provocation. Just the first time with me. Earlier this year she sicced RCSD on a Voting Member after a board meeting. She apparently had some disagreement with him and tried to use RCSD to fight her battle. Her complaint to RCSD went nowhere. How should the President of the Board respond? The President of the Board should have a private "counseling" session that should end with a caution and a warning. "Clean it up or resign from the Board." How should the B...

What does it mean to be a Director on the Board of The Summit's HOA? Directors of The Summit's HOA are elected (or appointed) "at-large". This means that each represents the whole of the HOA. It does not mean that a director represents only one neighborhood or a section of the HOA.  What would provoke Noel Weatherbee to respond in the manner she did? With a response like that, it's very clear that she doesn't like me. (Ask me if I care.) But what does she know about me, other than what she might have heard from Danny Trapp, the person who appointed her to the Board. Technically, it was "the Board" who appointed her at a Special Board Meeting. But the Board was controlled by Danny Trapp.  Was she even legitimately appointed? At that Special Meeting, which was never announced to the membership and for which no Board Meeting Minutes have ever been published, the Board had five* members. LaToya Adams and Ciara Bates had resigned in May.  The members at t...

This morning I sent an email to the members of The Summit's Board of Directors, except Board President, Brenda Bryant. I had met with Brenda on January 30 to request a meeting with Board. The Board had dismissed its lawsuit against me on January 13, 2026, and the TRO expired on that date. Brenda and I had a good meeting, and I expected her to get back to me with a meeting date.  When I followed up with her, she replied that no meeting would be set up. She told me no settlement would be offered. I don't know what she told the board, but I had not requested a settlement. I had requested a meeting! Brenda also told me not to contact her again. So this morning I submitted my request again for a meeting. Within an hour I received this reply from Noel Weatherbee, who was appointed to the Board by Danny Trapp last June.  Noel wrote: Sir. I did not give permission for you to have my email address. You are hereby put on notice with this email that you are not welcome to have any furthe...

Who is Michael Novak? Recently I began receiving Novak's emails and access to his writings about a large condo association in Chicago, the  175 East Delaware Place HOA, which is better known as the  former John Hancock Center. His newsletter this week addresses a study of Reserves which, he writes, hides $67.7 million in capital needs. He believes that the reserve study firm " assumes 0% taxes on tens of millions in reserve investments, creates unviable funding plans, and accepts unauthorized revisions from other than the majority of the board while ignoring their own written policies." What does this have to do with The Summit's HOA? Reserves of The Summit's HOA have plummeted in recent years. How far below safe levels are they? The HOA has not published monthly financial statements since August 2025! In 2020 the  Members' contribution to Reserves was $163,965. In 2021, 2022, and 2023 the mandatory contribution to Reserves dropped.  In 2024 the contribution w...

In September 2025 Danny Trapp, then Board President of the HOA, sent a letter to the Brookland Baptist Church Northeast, at which the HOA was holding its monthly Board Meetings. There is no record in Board Meeting Minutes that the Board ever approved or authorized Danny Trapp to send that letter to the Church.  As a result of that letter, the Church issued a Trespass Notice that banned four men from church property. The four men were Dennis Rybicki, Angelo Turley-Moore, Mike Bryant, and Gus Philpott. The first three are homeowners in the HOA. Two of them (Dennis and Mike) were (are) Voting Members. Angelo was about to become a Voting Member. Gus Philpott is a resident of a property in the HOA. Summer HOA meetings had been loud, perhaps bordering on too loud. The Church secretary told me that some women in the choir, whose rehearsal started before Board Meetings ended, had complained about being afraid. I know Rybicki, Bryant, and Moore. They are not trouble-makers.  I (Gus) ha...

How much did the HOA spend to sue Gus Philpott? $25,000? $30,000? Will the Board of Directors report to the Members what the total cost was? On behalf of their neighborhoods and the Association Members, the Voting Members should demand a report. If they don't, then the Members should demand it. But will they? The Secretary and the Covenants Committee should lead the charge and prepare a well-documented, written report and present it to the Board in an open, monthly Board Meeting. And then post it on the HOA's website. It started when Danny Trapp had the lawyer send me a Cease-and-Desist Letter in August 2024. There is no record in Minutes of Board Meetings that the Board had authorized that. When I contacted the lawyer to inquire what it was all about, he refused to communicate with me about it. I knew legal action would follow. In December 2024 Danny had the lawyers file the litigation against me in the name of the Association but without approval or authorization of the Boar...

Have you ever emailed the office (since October 1, 2025)? Did you receive a reply? If you didn't, how long did you wait before you followed up? Or did you follow up? It seems to me that the office ought to reply within two weeks. If you have a question for an officer of the Board (President, VP, Secretary, or Treasurer), did you send it to the office, to be forwarded to him or her? What happened next? If the office isn't going to answer your question, should they respond and say so? Or should they just ignore you?

William Hill was rumored in October 2025 to be resigning. I had heard he submitted his resignation.  The game plan was, as I learned, to hold it until after Danny Trapp was re-elected; then Danny would appoint Vernell Butler to succeed Hill, unless Vernell was elected to the Board. But the election upset on November 18 2025 changed all that. Danny wasn't re-elected. Vernell wasn't elected. Yet the new Board didn't accept Hill's resignation. Did he rescind it? Can you do that? Once you turn in your resignation, can you just say, "Oops, I didn't mean to to do that"? Or does the Board have to decide? But maybe the rumor was just a rumor. Maybe there was no truth to it. Why do I care? William Hill is the guy who, as chairperson of the Safety Committee, emailed me on November 12, 2024, that "We are not allowed to park in the streets." When I emailed him, twice, to ask why not, he didn't reply. At all. Or ever since. After the February 2026 Summit...

Do you know that the Association has rules for its meetings? Imagine that... These rules are found in the Procedures Reference Manual, commonly referred to as the PRM. Article II, §A, ¶6 lists these rules. They read, in part: 6) Meeting Guidelines All SCA Board, Voting Members, Committee, Annual, Special or other meetings shall follow these guidelines: a. (proper  place; not residences); b. (quorum required to qualify as "meeting"); c. (responsibilities of person calling the meeting); d. Recorded Minutes are to be reviewed, approved/corrected at the next meeting and published with a copy going to the office. Where are the Minutes of the Voting Members' meetings, including the Annual Meeting of Voting Members held each November to elect three or four directors. Teresa (former CAMS property manager) told me no Minutes exist of the Annual Meeting of Voting Members. Why not? Isn't that one of the most important meetings of the year? Where is the record of persons elected ...

Be sure to mark your calendar now for the next Board of Directors meeting, March 3. That's only two weeks from now. The meeting will be at the North Springs Park Community Center, 1320 Clemson Road, and it will start at 6:30PM. Arrive early to get one of few copies of past minutes and financial statements. Should there be a pool on what time the chaos will start?  Hopefully, the Board will implement a Plan for maintaining civil and polite decorum throughout the meeting. You might wish to read the Minutes of the February 3rd Board Meeting before you go to the March meeting. They haven't been posted yet, but perhaps they will be before March 3. 

Recent happenings with the HOA have reminded me of a t-shirt I saw years ago in Colorado. I DON'T GET MAD I GET EVEN I'd rather be friends with the Board of Directors and the office than be their foe. I'm in charge of my end of the relationship; they are in charge of their end. If they are fair with me, I'll be fair with them. Complying with the CC&Rs and the By-Laws isn't negotiable. The Board is required to do that. If they don't, they are violating their obligation to the Members and their fiduciary responsibility. The Board is not accountable to me. I'm a resident, not a Member. But that doesn't mean they can run willy-nilly over the Members (homeowners), disregard the Governing Documents, and get away with it. For years various Boards have talked about amending the CC&Rs and the By-Laws. The truth is the HOA cannot do that. The reason? There aren't enough legitimate, duly-elected Voting Members. The lack of enough Voting Members doesn...