Barony Place I/Barony Place II

You should have received an email from the office today with a series of proposed amendments to the CC&Rs and the By-Laws. Frankly, I'm shocked! Over the past 4-5 years, there has been much talk and many comments. And this is what the Board came up with??? I shall offer specific comments in following blogposts. I suggest that you print the four pages and read them very carefully.  In order to cast an intelligent vote, you need context and much more information. You don't get it in what was sent out today. I have been going to Board Meetings and reading the CC&Rs and the By-Laws for seven years.  Please read my following posts and share them widely throughout The Summit. You can forward this post and others by clicking on the SHARE icon at  the top-right or lower-left of every post. Fill in the email address of the person(s) you'd like to receive the post. FYI, I get no record of who forwards posts or who receives them. I never see an email address or name.

Are all seven Board Members working for the betterment of the Association and the community? If you were a fly on the wall during pre-board and some committee meetings, what would you observe? Is there respectful communication? Is there cooperation (which doesn't have to mean 100% agreement)? Do some board members dislike others? Are there passive-aggressive actions? You know, those fake smiles and head nods, and then back-stabbing? Have any consultants been called in for team-building exercises? "We can't afford that." Well, you cannot afford NOT to do that. Are efforts to solve problems successful? Are there any "bad apples" on the Board? If there are, then the Voting Members should take action and remove those bad apples. It is essential for enough neighborhoods to elect Voting Members in compliance with the By-Laws, so that there can be a legitimate election of directors in November.  The four unrepresented neighborhoods (Autumn Run (80), Indigo Springs ...

 The HOA's Finance Committee met last night (June 16, 2026). You wouldn't know it, though. The HOA's online calendar is completely blank, and the Summit Scoop with the June calendar has not yet been published. The Finance Committee should immediately distribute the Minutes of its June 16, 2026 meeting by email to all Members (homeowners).It won't; but it should. You have the right to inspect the Minutes of that Meeting. Make your request to the office in writing; send it to summithelpdesk@tcgrd.com Because of the importance of the Finance Committee to the fiscal solvency of the HOA, should meetings be streamed, so that Members could know what is going on? Likewise, should HOA Board Meetings be streamed? Then hundreds of Members could know what it going on, not just the 30-40 who show up at Board meetings. Meetings should be recorded and archived, which would allow Members (and residents) to watch them when it is convenient for them .

Every year The Summit's HOA is required to conduct an audit of the previous year's finances. That's why it is called an Annual Audit.      The Annual Audit is to be completed and delivered to the Board by August 31 (PRM, Art. III, §C, ¶2c). It should be posted on the HOA's website. One of the reasons for the August 31st deadline is to have it available to the Budget sub-committee for development of the following year's Proposed Budget. The process fell apart in 2025. The 2024 Annual Audit wasn't even ordered until October 2025; the Board President was Danny Trapp,  and the Board Treasurer was William Hill. It wasn't delivered to the Board until about February 4, 2026 . The 2025 Annual Audit should be underway by now. The auditor should have been selected earlier this year (preferably, in February or March).  The Procedures Reference Manual (PRM) does not spell out how the auditor is selected; it should. The PRM doesn't say by what date the auditor shoul...

If you wish to email one or more directors of The Summit's HOA, you will find email addresses on the HOA's website. Until recently, email addresses were posted for all seven directors.  Go to https://summithomeowners.com   Click on BOARD MEMBERS. Hover over the underlined name of a director. The email address will pop up in the lower-left corner of your screen. Tanisha Holmes' name is no longer underlined. Why isn't her email address shown? Who determines whether a director's email address is published? Isn't that a Board decision? Are all of the other six directors willing to receive email communications from residents of The Summit? What happens when a resident emails a director (board member)? Does the director read that email? Does the director reply? The HOA office suggests that emails be sent to the office at summithelpdesk@tcgrd.com   What happens to emails sent to that address? Are they read? Does some unnamed Town & Country employee reply? Are they...

Click to Enlarge   Here is the top portion of the 2026 budget, as posted on the HOA's website. Want to see it for yourself? Go to https://summithomeowners.com   Hover over RESIDENTS. Click on  DOCUMENTS. Click on Annual Budgets. Click on 2026. The first thing you'll notice is the heading above the right column, where it reads Finance Proposed 2026 Budget . The second thing you'll notice is the date on the page of the "Finance Proposed 2026 Budget". That date is June 30, 2025. Had the Finance Committee even started work on the 2026 Budget by June 30th? My guess is that it certainly wasn't done with the budget! Today is June 16, 2026. You would expect to find the "2026 Approved Budget" on the HOA's website. Instead, you see the "2026 Proposed Budget". WHY? There are some possible reasons. 1. Carelessness. No one discerned the importance of publishing the Approved Budget, not the Proposed Budget. 2. Inattention. Didn't anyone (Board Me...

One of the best HOA newsletters I receive is The Governance Ledger , from Common Interest Advisors, LLC.  The latest edition leads off with, It is supposed to be a financial plan. Yet every year, thousands of condominium and homeowners associations approve budgets that bear little resemblance to what actually happens. Twelve months later, expenses exceed the budget, reserves are underfunded, assessments increase, and owners are told that nobody could have seen it coming. In many cases, somebody should have. The problem is not that boards fail to approve budgets. The problem is that many associations treat budgeting as a compliance exercise rather than a financial management tool. A budget should help directors answer a simple question: Where will we likely end the year, and what should we do about it today? Doesn't this accurately describe how The Summit's HOA operates? Every month the Board approves thousands of dollars in expenses, without informing Members whether those are ...

A Voting Member is the legal representative of the homeowners in his/her neighborhood. How many (few) of them really care about those homeowners? If they did care, they would be demanding answers from the Board of Directors and informing the homeowners in their neighborhoods of answers to the following questions: Q. Why haven't  Minutes been posted for Board Meetings on March 3, April 7, May 5, and when they will be posted for the June 2 Board Meeting? Q. Why haven't Financial Operating Results been posted for September, October, November, December 2025 and for January, February, March, April, and May 2026? Q. What is a realistic estimate for repairs to the Indigo Lake dam? Is the money available? Q. Why hasn't the Board provided details of the $126,352 Annuity purchased in 2024 as an "investment" of Reserve funds and how a CD got cashed in without a recorded Board vote? Q. Why hasn't the Board revealed how much money was wasted suing Gus Philpott (me) illegal...

At the May 2026 Board Meeting it was mentioned that no Reserve Study had ever been done by The Summit's HOA. Keep that in mind as you read the following post, which was copied in part from a Facebook post associated with the HOA Reform Leaders National Group. How smart is going on a long road trip in a gasoline powered vehicle and not knowing the capacity of the fuel tank and not having a fuel gage [ sic ] with a Full display? Taking such a road trip, is like living in an HOA community with a Reserve Study that omits a Full Funding alternative as a benchmark so Percent Funded can be determined. According to reserve experts, if the reserves’ amount is less than seventy percent (70%) of a Fully Funded Balance (FFB), an owners’ association is at risk of a special assessment. A practical owner-friendly guide: 0% to 30% funded : high-risk zone. 30% to 70% funded : moderate-risk zone. 70% to 100% funded : stronger reserve position. 100% funded : at or near Full Funding benchmark At the p...

Check out the June 2026 Calendar on the HOA's website. Today is June 14. Go to www.summithomeowners.com Hover over RESIDENTS Click on CALENDAR Right!  Completely blank. Is anyone else asking, "Why?" By the way, where is the June 2026 Summit Scoop?

WARNING Landscaping expenditures have basically been paused in The Summit, while the Board waits to find out how much the repairs for the Indigo Lake Dam will cost.  The diagnosis of the full problem and the estimated cost of total repairs has taken months, if not more than a year. Preliminary estimates may be in the range of $100,-$300,000. (You can't see the Reserve totals, because the HOA is no longer publishing monthly Financial Operating Results on its website.) The Board has acknowledged that a complete Reserve Study has never been done. This Board bears the brunt of blame, when the blame belongs across many years to past Boards.  Why haven't Treasurers been waving a big, red flag? Why haven't Finance Committees been kicking up a storm? Read this paragraph from the Procedures Reference Manual, popularly known as the PRM, which has been ignored by Boards for years. One of the Standing Committees of the HOA is (supposed to be) the Asset Evaluation Committee, which is de...

Rumor has it that there may now be 7-8 neighborhoods with legitimate, duly-elected Voting Members. Why hasn't the HOA announced this? Which neighborhoods now have legitimate, three-member Neighborhood Committees and a legitimate Voting Member? That homeowner (Member) would have been  elected as a Voting Member in the past 12 months by a three-member Neighborhood Committee at a properly-convened Neighborhood Meeting with a quorum present in-person or by proxy. Here's the list as I know it: 1.  Barony Place 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 

On May 23rd I sent this email to the Voting Members (the one legitimate VM and the other "recognized" VMs): Does it seem strange to you that the Board of Directors is finally waking up to what I have been claiming for years? They know what you don't - that The Summit's HOA is in a very precarious financial state. Reserves are insufficient to meet future needs. The Indigo Dam repairs could result in a large Special Assessment. The Board cannot seek a large Assessment because there is only one legitimate, duly-elected Voting Member; she represents 3% (78/2480) of the HOA. If you were not elected as a Voting Member in the past 12 months by a three-member Neighborhood Committee at a properly-convened Neighborhood Meeting with a quorum present in-person or by proxy, then you are not a legitimate, duly-elected Voting Member. Sorry. No matter how good a job you are doing as a "recognized" Voting Member. There is only one way to become a Voting Member. It's rig...

The HOA office announced this morning that the Myrtle Pool is closed, due to finding "human feces" in it. The pool is being cleaned and treated with chemicals, and it will re-open tomorrow at 10:00AM. OK, how do they know it was "human feces"?  Will it be tested? Whose DNA will be found? Will RCSD investigate? Will the person responsible be identified and prosecuted? What do the pool cameras show? Is the recording good enough to identify the culprit? Once again, no one from the office "signed" the email. 

When a South Carolina non-profit corporation stops publishing its monthly Financial Operating Results, could there be a dark reason for its decision? The last time that The Summit's HOA published its monthly Financial Operating Results online was for the month of August 2025. Danny Trapp was Board President then. William Hill was Board Treasurer then. The HOA elected four directors on November 18, 2025, and that resulted in a power shift on the Board. On December 1st the HOA elected a new leadership team of officers. Brenda Bryant was elected Board President. Linda Potter was elected Board Treasurer. The HOA has not published Financial Operating Results online for September 2025 October 2025 November 2025 December  2025 January 2026 February 2026 March 2026 April 2026 May 2026 Apparently, I am the only community member who is complaining about the HOA's failure to do so. Town & Country Management Company took over HOA books on October 1, 2025. It is responsible for publish...

The Board of Directors has never explained the HOA's purchase of an annuity in 2024. The annuity was purchased as an "investment", using $126,352 of Reserve funds. No Board action was ever disclosed in Minutes of a Regular Board Meeting. Did the Board ever authorize the termination of a CD at South Carolina Federal Credit Union? Who cashed it in? Was there ever a Resolution by the Board to do so? What does "Unreconciled" mean in the Financial Operating Results for Line 1088? Did the Board ever discuss and approve (by vote) the subsequent purchase of the annuity? What company funds the annuity? Who is the Annuitant? According to the 2024 Annual Audit (dated February 4, 2026), the Annuitant is a current board member. That means the Annuitant is Brenda Bryant, Tanisha Holmes, or Linda Potter. Which board member is the Annuitant? See Page 8 of the Audit. The HOA is likely to need those funds to pay costs associated with repairs to the Indigo Lake dam. What is the Ne...

Why won't The Summit's HOA Office answer a simple question? " Will you please inform me what section of the Governing Documents applies to parking on the Streets in The Summit, which are public streets, owned and maintained by Richland County? " I emailed this question to Julie Brickley, Property Manager, on May 7, 2026, and requested a reply by May 14th. Julie had mentioned "street parking" at least three times at the May 5th Board Meeting. No acknowledgement; no reply. I've been asking this question for about seven years. Justin Martin, former Board President, refused to answer it, even after I presented a copy of the Deed transferring Barony Place Circle (in Barony Place II) to Richland County. William Hill emailed me on November 12, 2024, that "We are not allowed to park in the streets." He did not reply to two follow-up emails from me when I asked why not. He was the Safety Committee Chairman then and now sits on the Board of Directors. On...

Why hasn't the June Summit Scoop been published? Today is June 10th. Why haven't the Minutes of the March 2026, April 2026, and May 2026 Board of Directors Meetings been published on the website? Why haven't the Financial Operating Results been published for September 2025? October 2025? November 2025? December 2025? January 2026? February 2026? March 2026? April 2026? May 2026? Why hasn't the 2026 Proposed Budget been approved and the 2026 Approved Budget been published on the website? When will the HOA announce which neighborhoods now have legitimate, duly-elected Voting Members, following recent bonafide Neighborhood Meetings and elections? How will the Board of Directors correct the 2025 election of directors, which did not comply with the By-Laws of the HOA?  Directors were elected by people ("recognized" Voting Members) who were not entitled to vote. This was admitted in the January 2026 Board Minutes, where the final paragraph reads, New Business  A Boa...

Yesterday at 11:11AM the HOA's office sent out an email with the Subject "Activities Announcement". Someone in the office quickly realized she had neglected to fill in any information about the Announcement or attach the notice. Perhaps someone called the office. At 11:23AM the office sent a second email with this message and an attachment: " Please disregard the previous message and see the attached flyer regarding tonight's meeting. Our system sent the previous message out prematurely." Was this true? " Our system sent the previous message out prematurely." The office (nobody takes responsibility for office emails by "signing" them) attempted to blame "Our system". I think it's much more likely that an employee in the office hit Send on the first email without attaching the notice from the Activities Committee or including any message in the mail. Do they think readers of the emails from the HOA are stupid? Why not just ad...

Is The Summit's HOA operating without an approved Budget? If you look at "Annual Budgets" on the HOA's website (under Documents), you'll find one listed for 2026. BUT it is the Proposed Budget 2026! The November 18, 2025 BOD Minutes state that the 2026 Budget was available at the check-in table and would be mailed to homeowners. When was it approved?  Not at the October 7, 2025 BOD Meeting. Not at the September 2, 2025 BOD Meeting. Was it ever approved by the Board of Directors? If not, The Summit's HOA is operating without an approved Budget for 2026.  Is this proper for a South Carolina Non-Profit Corporation? Danny Trapp was the Board President until November 18, 2025. Until December 1, 2025 William Hill was the Board Treasurer. Tanisha Holmes was the Board Vice-President. Noel Weatherbee was the Board Secretary. Ask them when the 2026 Proposed Budget was actually approved by Board vote. 

Is anyone in Barony Place II missing a recycle bin? This bin wss left at #38 last Friday. It's not the homeowner's. His is in his garage.  Please come and get it, before the HOA sends a nastygram to the homeowner.

The Summit's HOA has 28 neighborhoods. Each neighborhood is to have a three-member Neighborhood Committee. The Committee is to elect one of its three members as Voting Member. They serve for one year. The 28 neighborhoods follow. The date of its most-recent Neighborhood Meeting is shown. This list will be updated as the names of the newly-elected Voting Members become available. If you know who the new Voting Member is, use the Contact Form (upper left) to let me know. Thanks. Updated  6/8/2026 ABINGTON AMARYLLIS WOODS AUTUMN GLEN AUTUMN HILL AUTUMN RUN BARONY PLACE - 5/2/2026 CHAPELWOOD COURTYARDS AT FOUNDERS RIDGE FAWN RIDGE FOUNDERS RIDGE GLEN MEADOW HUNTERS POND INDIGO SPRINGS LAUREL SPRINGS LAKES AT BARONY PLACE MAYWOOD OLEANDER MILL PEPPER KNOLL PINE BROOK PINECLAVE RIDGE CREST STONE CHAPEL SUMMIT HILLS III SUMMIT HILLS IV SUMMIT HILLS V SUMMER CHASE WAVERLY PLACE WHITNEY FALLS

I heard over the week-end that The Summit's HOA may now have as many as seven-eight legitimate, duly-elected Voting Members. Before that, it has one; only one. Barony Place Neighborhood had the only duly-elected Neighborhood Committee and Voting Member. There should be 28. The Board finally started a push to assist 27 neighborhoods in holding Neighborhood Meetings and electing Neighborhood Committees, which would then elect their Voting Member.  Will the same Board Member who challenged the legitimacy of Barony Place's proxies raise questions about the hurried efforts of the latest neighborhoods? Will that Board Member demand that every proxy be investigated and determined to be proper? When were these latest Neighborhood Meetings? Which neighborhoods now have legitimate, duly-elected Neighborhood Committees and Voting Members? Which neighborhoods still do not have a duly-elected Voting Member? ALL Members (homeowners) of the HOA are properly concerned when neighborhoods do no...

Six months ago I needed an oil change and tried the new Valvoline Oil Change Center on Hard Scrabble at Lee Road. I was satisfied with the service and price. (And you may know how hard it is to satisfy me.) I was back this morning (3,000 miles later) and received fast, friendly service. The staff there is fast and competent. When you are ready for the next oil change, I recommend this business . The address is 331 Generations Way. Turn off Hard Scrabble at the Lee Road light. Phone: 803.752.2018. No appointment needed.

Culver's is coming to Columbia. The first Columbia-area restaurant is being built at 2744 Clemson Road. That's the northwest corner of Clemson Road and Longtown Road, right in front of Lexington Medical Center. Culver's has been one of my favorites since 1996 in Woodstock, Ill. Watch for opening. Opening Day may be announced on www.culvers.com

Did the Board of Directors of The Summit's HOA meet last night?   The Board went to bi-monthly public meetings, but they are meeting many times between public meetings.  Where are the Minutes of those meetings? How do Members find out what the Board is doing to them? The By-Laws (Art. III, §14) read, "Section 14. Conduct of Meetings. The President shall preside over all meetings of the Board of Directors, and the S [ sic ] a keep a minute book of meetings of the Board of Directors, recording therein all resolutions adopted by the Board of Directors and all transactions and proceedings occurring at such meetings."  It's unfortunate that the online copy of the By-Laws contains this error. What the official copy of the By-Laws probably says is, "the Secretary shall  keep a minute book..." Further down in the By-Laws a section provides that the Minutes are to be available to Members upon request, but I have not found a section in the By-Laws that requires the H...

A Columbia jury decided that Rick Chow was NOT GUILTY.  It's about time. How will Solicitor Byron Gipson give Mr. Chow back the three years of his life that he lost while he sat in jail, waiting for trial? According to Fox News, Gipson said, in part, "As our community processes this outcome, we will continue to uplift the Carmack-Belton family in our thoughts and prayers. I ask that you honor both the family and Cyrus' memory by supporting them in a peaceful manner during this difficult time." What a load of horse manure! Who is the "we" in Gipson's statement? His office? The Columbia community? Cyrus' family?  Why isn't Gipson neutral, now that the trial is over? He respects the jury's decision? Who believes that? What about some sympathy for Mr. Chow, who was held without bail for three years? Chief Holbrook and Sheriff Lott had better be ready for riots, fires, destruction, violent protests. Chow no longer is involved with the convenience ...

Earlier this year the Board of Directors (BOD) announced that it would begin meeting bi-monthly, rather than monthly. The Board did not discuss that change in public or vote on it; the President just announced it. There was no April BOD meeting and there won't be a June BOD meeting tonight. The next scheduled BOD meeting will be July 7, 2026. If you look at the HOA's online Calendar , you will see that the June Calendar is blank, as was the calendar for May and for April. Why? Is this the "transparency" you expected from the "new" Board? This does not mean that the BOD is not meeting or is not making decisions that affect Members. The BOD is meeting and deciding; you just don't know about it. Every Regular Meeting, Special Meeting, workshop, and pre-board meeting should be on the HOA's online calendar. Every Committee meeting should be on the Calendar and indicate time and location. Minutes should be prepared and promptly published (within one week)...

Stamp prices are likely to increase from $0.78 to $0.82 in July. Pretty outrageous, eh? No doubt that First Class Mail volume drops a little, every time stamp prices go up. If you still buy stamps, now is a good time - before the increase. Visit www.usps.com and shop for pretty, contemporary stamps. There is a lot of garbage in stamp designs, too. Check out the history of stamp prices here . How much did a stamp cost in the year of your birth? How much was a stamp 100 years ago? $0.02!!!

The Board of Directors sent out Annual Meeting Instructions. They are for conducting Neighborhood Meetings that, hopefully, will comply with the By-Laws. The Instructions were faulty right from the top, where they led off with, "Requirements for electing Neighborhood Committees to appoint Voting Members and Alternates..." Neighborhood Committees do not "appoint" Voting Members and Alternates." They elect a chairman, who becomes the Voting Member. The other two members of the Neighborhood Committee are Alternates. For the first time in many years, the Board of Directors is using the word "must", as in "There must be an annual meeting..." Imagine that. Where did they get that idea? That's exactly what I have been harping on for years! The Board errs in a grievous manner by ordering, "notices must include names of homeowners interested in serving on the Neighborhood Committee..." This is an intrusion into the Neighborhood's au...

Today I made a decision to throw out a Banker's Box full of legal papers. These were the papers connected to Danny Trapp's illegal lawsuit against me. I decided not to sue Danny, who had caused a lawsuit to be filed against me in December 2024 in the name of the HOA , even though it was prohibited by the CC&Rs and was filed without the approval of the Board of Directors. That's what made it "illegal". I also decided not to sue the HOA. I could have. The grounds were strong.    No one on the Board stood tall and told Danny, "You can't do that." CAMS didn't. The lawyers didn't. The other six board members didn't. I had been thinking about writing a book about my experience. I represented myself in court, going pro se after getting a quote of a legal fee of $30,-$50,000. I believe the HOA wasted $25,-$30,000 of your money. The Board has never said how much Danny's lawsuit cost the Association. They even stopped publishing monthly Fi...