Barony Place I/Barony Place II

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...

The Summit's HOA is not an after-school club. It is a South Carolina non-profit corporation. The 2026 Budget is in excess of $1.5 Million. It should operate like a business. The HOA used to have a lot of money in the bank (Reserves). That's not the case now. Where did that money go? The Board never talked about it at monthly meetings (according to Minutes). It's hard to know, because the last financial statement published on the HOA's website is for August 2025. Why did the Board stop publishing them? Why not ask at the March 3, 2026 Board Meeting? Be sure to get an acceptable answer. Do you attend monthly Board Meetings? If you owned the HOA, what message would you have for your seven directors? Would you allow the chaos of the past several months to continue? The Board asked for communications to go through the office. Do you ever get a response? If one person asks a question, probably ten or more others have the same question. Why doesn't the HOA devote a section...

Two years ago, after the election of directors in November 2023, I called myself a hypocrite. Why? I knew the election had been fraudulent, but I liked the result. Justin was out. Danny Trapp was in. I thought Danny would lead the Board and the HOA in complying with the CC&Rs and the By-Laws. Was I ever wrong! Why was the election fraudulent? Because the Board allowed people to vote for directors (at the 2023 Annual Meeting of Voting Members) who were not eligible to vote! But this is nothing new. It happens every year. It happened in 2025. The HOA allows Voter Fraud. It lets people vote who are not eligible to vote. Correcting this is the most important job in front of the new board of directors. The Board should appoint a strong chairman to the (HOA's) Neighborhood Committee and tell him to carry out the Mission of the Neighborhood Committee. Now! The HOA will be unable to amend the CC&Rs or the By-Laws before this is done. Every neighborhood should have a bonafide, legit...

You decide. Is the HOA being fair? A few months ago a friend in a different neighborhood in the HOA told me that he thought the HOA owed me "something" because it was suing me. In January 2025 a lawyer told me that he'd charge me $30-$50,000 to represent me all the way through. That's why I had to represent myself.  And I did. Pretty well, too.  In November Danny was out and a "new" board was in. They wanted to drop the lawsuit. They didn't want to throw good money after bad. They offered me $5.00 and a ton on conditions. I countered with $100,000. They caved. We agreed to the dismissal with no conditions. The case was dismissed on January 13, 2026. My position was that we didn't need to go through protracted (expensive for the HOA) negotiations. My view was, "If they are fair with me, I'll be fair with them." Then I asked for a meeting with the Board. And they refused.  Is it "fair" for them to refuse to even talk with me now...

If you spot an error in this blog, please let me know. Use the Contact Form at the top left of this page. If you disagree with anything I write, please let me know. You'll find me polite and receptive. I've been told that people don't like what I write. It doesn't do any good to complain to them. Complain to me! I'm the only one who can do anything about it. The HOA complained. It accused me of false accusations and harassment. It spent a year in Court and a lot of your money. And then the Board completely dismissed the case on January 13. All it took was getting rid of Danny Trapp, who had started the lawsuit in violation of the CC&Rs and without the approval or authorization of the Board. (Why didn't any Board members complain?) How much money did the HOA waste? I estimate $25,-$30,000. The Board should issue a final report on that litigation and its cost. Board Member and Board Secretary Angelo Moore revealed my name at the February 3rd Board Meeting. He ...

The Minutes of the January 6, 2026 Board of Directors Meeting indicate that the Board will be looking into the way in which homeowners are chosen to be Neighborhood Representatives. I did not attend that meeting, because the lawsuit against me had not yet been dismissed. At the February 3, 2026 Board Meeting there was no follow-up to this.  Mary Ann Game (Voting Member* for Pine Brook) made some comments about the Neighborhood Committee (some of which I did not think were accurate, based on the By-Laws). For example, the By-Laws do not state that all Voting Members are automatically members of the (HOA's) Neighborhood Committee. A homeowner who is a Voting Member certainly can become a member of the (HOA's) Neighborhood Committee, but the Neighborhood Committee is not a committee of the Voting Members. The Minutes of the January 6th meeting read, in part on Page 5, Neighborhood Representatives & Election Process   "A detailed discussion occurred regarding the neighborh...

On January 30, 2026 I met with the HOA's Board President, Brenda Bryant. I requested a meeting with the Board to discuss a settlement of two issues.  1) the HOA's illegal lawsuit against me that was dismissed on January 13, 2026; and 2) retraction of the letter sent by Danny Trapp (as Board President) in September to the Brookland Baptist Church Northeast. What response did I get? "I have discussed your request with the board and it was unanimous that no settlement will be offered. There is no need to meet with the board.  "I have tried to be polite, but I am requesting you not contact me with suggestions or comments on how to run the Association. I am aware of the many issues that need to be tackled." When I met with Brenda, I did not request a settlement. I requested a meeting with the Board to discuss a settlement.  I told her, "If the HOA is fair with me, I'll be fair with it." I was harmed by the HOA's illegal lawsuit (started without auth...