Barony Place I/Barony Place II

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...

On November 18, 2025 a "new" Board (majority) was elected. Rays of hope began to show on the horizon. Would things improve? Are those rays dimming already? The first meeting was that same night, November 18. Then they held Regular Board Meetings on December 2, January 6, and February 3. Plus the unannounced, unpublicized and unreported (by posted Minutes) Special Meetings and pre-board meetings (workshops). In all that time why was no attention paid to the HOA's website, where committees and committee members are listed? And where board members are not listed. The revamped Summit Scoop (February 2026) contains many (but not all) new Committee chairpersons and members. The following list compares the "new" committee chairpersons (from the Summit Scoop) and the "old" (from the website), as of February 15, 2026.  Committee                       New / Old Activities: Lauver / Trapp Contracts: McCarthy / Bryant (Brenda) Covenants: B...

How many Air BnB's and other short-term rentals are there in The Summit? Anyone know? Think the HOA office knows? Does the Board know? Does anyone know of any provision in the CC&Rs or By-Laws that prohibits them?

The Richland County Fifth Judicial Circuit Public Index reports a civil case involving Vernell Butler and four residents of The Summit. These four residents are also directors of The Summit's HOA. The  Public Index  lists civil and criminal cases. Vernell's civil case is Nu mber  2025CV4010405381. It was originally filed on December 12, 2025 in the Dentsville Magistrate Court and then transferred to the Blythewood Magistrate Court on January 27, 2026. Online Court records indicate that Vernell Butler is the Plaintiff and that the four Defendants are Brenda Bryant, Thomas Lummel, Linda Potter, and Angelo Turley-Moore. (Thomas Lummel is known as Jeff Lummel.) Court documents are in the public domain, and a request has been made to the Blythewood Magistrate  for the Summons and the Complaint. Further information will be posted after the Summons and Complaint have been received.

Have you recently driven by the damaged brick wall on Summit Parkway, west of the Middle School? It was damaged in December. At the February 3 Board Meeting, a statement was made by the property manager that the insurance proceeds had been received and repair work would be starting. Why did the HOA delay until the money came in? The HOA's responsibility is to repair the wall promptly ("immediately"), regardless of any insurance claim or claim against the party causing the damage. Twenty-one years ago the Board of Directors passed a Resolution. You can read it in the PRM (Art., II, §D, ¶5; Page 11). " Repair Common Area Damage Immediately .      "To ensure that Common Areas are kept in good condition, the Board of Directors adopted an operating policy to initiate repairs to damaged Common Areas immediately, documenting said repairs with itemized costs for submission for repayment of required repairs/replacement (approved 8/3/2004)" Do you think anyone on the...

How does an executive, such as President of an organization, function? How does that person get everything done and keep his sanity? I think of the president of Sears, Roebuck and Co., for whom I handled customer complaints that got through all the filters (and there were many filters) to his desk. The only thing he did with them was send them to me for handling.* He never asked for a report on what I had done to handle them. It was the best part of my five years at Sears! I had no one standing behind me with a stopwatch and a clipboard. When I was VP of Membership Services for an 1,100-member chamber of commerce in the Kansas City area, I called on the General Manager of a commercial laundry. His executive assistant said I could see him between 8AM-5PM, Monday-Friday. "Don't come before 8 or after 5." What was his management style? He told me he worked 40 hours/week, just like his employees. He said that he hired competent people to manage things when he wasn't there...

At the February 3, 2026 Board of Directors meeting, when Public Participation was underway and before it spiraled into chaos, a question was asked about how many lawsuits the HOA was in. Vernell Butler, former director and past Treasurer, asked that question from the Neighborhood Representative seating area.  I don't recall who answered him with "None." His response was, "Really?" Why did he respond that way? (I know the answer.) Vernell shouldn't have been sitting in the Neighborhood Representative section, because he is not a Voting Member or Alternate. (Reference, Summit Scoop and HOA website) Vernell had been an Alternate for Summit Hills V until he was elected to the Board in December 2020. When a Neighborhood Representative (Voting Member or Alternate) is elected to the Board, he must resign as a Neighborhood Rep. Whether he did or not is not known at this time. The HOA has been careless about "details" for years. Vernell was a director and T...

Are people in the South polite or are they passive-aggressive (or something else)? Today I heard from a neighbor in The Summit that his phone is blowing up with complaints about my blog - this blog. He wanted to know why I am taking off on the Board the way I am. That's news to me.  I told him that he should tell anyone who calls him to complain about me, to call me . In a seminar in the early 1980s in Denver, I heard this: "Don't complain to anyone who can't do anything about it." "Don't allow anyone to complain to you, if you can't do anything about it; instead, re-direct them to someone who CAN do something about it and support them in contacting that person." If you think there is something wrong on my blog, tell me about it. If it's wrong, I'll fix it. If it's not wrong, I'll explain why it is correct (based on the CC&Rs, By-Laws, or Guidelines). In 5½ years (since July 14, 2020) no one has ever called me about an error...

When the Finance Committee gives a report, what does it mean? Below is the report of Finance Committee chair, William Hill, at the Board Meeting on October 7, 2025.  This information is from the Minutes of that meeting, which I did not attend. Remember - this was the monthly meeting before the November 18 election, when a new Board (majority) was elected and seated. Danny Trapp was still the President. If these are all bids to be approved, is the Finance Committee "report" the proper place on the Agenda for them? Why was there no report on the financial state of the Association? The "report" is only about money to be spent. ATV Maintenance: $648.90 – Approved  Column Repair (56 Barony Place): $600 – Approved Waverly Place Sign: <$100 – Approved Light Poles (10 units) by C.E.S.: $18,846 – Approved Fountain Repairs by McCormick Lifestyle: - Front: $28,980 - Entrance: $29,380 - Total: $58,360 –Motion by Tanisha, Approved (Did anyone ask what "Front" means ...

In the past, financial statements were posted every month on the HOA's website. They made for interesting reading for only some of us, but they were posted - whether or not anyone ever looked at them. And then they weren't. The last financial statement posted on the website is for August 2025. No financial statements have been posted for September, October, November, and December 2025. The December statement is especially important, because it contains the year-to-date for the entire year. Members should be asking: Why aren't these being posted? When will they be posted? Will they be posted regularly and on-time in the future? Who is responsible for posting them? Did the Board advise the management company not to post them? Suggestion: contact the office today and ask these questions.

When did this ever work? When two people try to resolve an issue (or when one person tries to resolve an issue), has it ever gotten resolved, when the other person (or here, the Board of Directors) refuses to discuss it? Or when the Board of Directors plays Three Wise Monkeys? In August 2024 the HOA (actually, just former Board President Danny Trapp) had its attorney send me a cease-and-desist letter, accusing me of false accusations and harassing board members. I quickly contacted the attorney and asked for information. What was the attorney's response? " Mr. Philpott, as I explained in my letter, you’re not a member of the association, and therefore I have no obligation to respond to you.  ." If we had had a discussion then, they probably never would have filed the lawsuit against me. The legal fees of $25,-$30,000 would be in its bank accounts, instead of in the law firm's bank accounts. But that isn't what caused me to think of the ostrich or The Three Wise Mo...

Check out the new format of The Summit Scoop. The February 2026 issue displays a completely different look. You'll find it at www.summithomeowners.com/february2026   You can also find it (and past editions) on the HOA's website. Go to the homepage, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click on RECENT NEWS.* The list of Committees has been updated. It now includes the names of the chairpersons and the current members of most committees.  Several important committees are without chairmen and members: Neighborhood Committee, Nominating Committee, Projects Committee, Youth Committee.  The Newsletter Committee is missing from the list, and it too lacks a chairperson (who should not be an office employee, as it was in the past). The Neighborhood and Nominating Committees are absolutely essential. Their duties are among the most important in the Association. Each must be conducted in compliance with the By-Laws, which has been a major problem for this Association for more ...

[Please see the Edit at the end of this article.] Rumors have existed since last Fall that William Hill was going to resign. He was at the February 3rd Board meeting. The February Summit Scoop was published today (February 12), and his name is no longer listed as a Director. Did the Board accept his resignation? When did it do that? Not at the February 3rd meeting. Their next opportunity to accept that resignation will be March 3. Who removed his name from the Scoop? If his resignation was accepted, now the Board will have to announce a vacancy on the Board. The By-Laws (Art. III, §A, ¶7) provide the guide for the next steps. The Board then will appoint his successor. Hill's term-of-office expires in November 2026. The vacancy should be filled as quickly as possible, in order to restore the Board to the full number of directors - seven. According to the February Scoop, the Nominating Committee is open. It has no chairperson and no members. Both are needed. The Nominating Committee ...

After seeing the RCSD CAT Officer's name misspelled for months in the Summit, Scoop, I emailed the office on February 1, 2026 and suggested that the office correct the spelling of Deputy Gillespie's name. It doesn't take an English major to recognize that "Gillepsie" contains an error. The Summit Scoop for February wasn't distributed until February 12th. There was plenty of time to correct her name, if they cared. The other suggestion I offered was to remove "Team" from her title as "RCSD CAT Team Officer". Would anyone around here say RCSD Community Action Team Team Officer? That suggestion wasn't accepted, either.

The Board and a few committee chairpersons are doing a good job of letting homeowners know that their participation is invited and welcome. Why isn't the online Calendar on the HOA's website being kept up to date? For February, dates for only four (4) committees are listed for meetings: Activities (Feb. 10 (yesterday)); Landscaping (Feb. 11 (today)); Finance (Feb. 17); and Contracts (Feb. 19). What about a date for each of these Committees? Covenants? Modifications? Safety? Ponds/Lakes? Youth? Nominating? Projects? Neighborhood? Newsletter? Why are meeting dates scheduled online only for the current month? And not for months ahead? Almost every committee has a chairperson who is not listed on the HOA's website. The listing of committee members may be incorrect. Is the word "Delegation" absent from the vocabulary of Board members? There might be lots of people wanting to help, The Board can provide guidance and oversight. It doesn't have to micro-manage.