Barony Place I/Barony Place II

What do you think about the claims in national news of Voter Fraud? Regardless of your opinion, do you believe elections should be fair? Conducted properly? That only eligible voters should be allowed to vote?  Who checks on whether the voters are eligible? The Summit's HOA has experienced Classic Voter Fraud for years. The current board of directors seems to be no more inclined to do anything about this than past boards. Who elects Directors of the HOA? You, the homeowners, don't. Who does? The Voting Members. Every one of the 28 Neighborhoods is supposed to have one; i.e., one legitimate Voting Member. The problem is that not one of the 28 Neighborhoods has a legitimate Voting Member! And that's because no Neighborhood has been holding the required Annual Neighborhood Meeting, at which a three-member Neighborhood Committee is to be elected by the homeowners. Then that Neighborhood Committee chooses one (of its three) to be the Voting Member. For one year. I wrote to pa...

Today I drove by the damaged wall at Summit Parkway and Summit Ridge Drive. When did the damage occur? October 2023 On March 5, the board voted to tear it down.  The estimate to repair it was less than $9,000. The HOA had filed a claim with its insurance company and received $28,000! A competent bricklayer could have repaired it within two weeks. On March 4 I had written to the board and alerted them to a Board Resolution on August 3, 2004, when a former board decided    " 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)." This is found in the Procedures Reference Manual (PRM) in  Art. II, D., 5) No one on this term's (2023-2025) board was on the board 19½ years ago, but CAMS, the "prof...

Want to know more about what HOAs in South Carolina can and cannot do? On March 7, 2024 the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs presented a one-hour webinar about HOAs. The presenter explains that South Carolina law includes 1) the S.C. Non-Profit Corporation act; 2) the South Carolina Horizontal Property Act; and 3) the South Carolina Homeowners Association Act. And there are the Governing Documents, such as CC&Rs, By-Laws, and other documents. The presentation was recorded and is available on YouTube at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnpCiz7njl4 *** I was already familiar with the SC Non-Profit Corporation Act, because it was there that I found a law that a non-profit corporation, which The Summit Community Association, Inc. is, must have a board of directors. I assume the law means a legitimate board of directors, which the Summit's HOA does not have . The directors are not duly-elected, because there are no eligible homeowners (legitimate Voting Members) to elec...

 Is this the right way to deal with your insurance company? The HOA received $28,000 from its own insurance company for the loss incurred when a car crashed into the pergola and brick wall at the corner of Summit Parkway and Summit Ridge Drive in October 2023. The Board decided not to repair or replace the pergola. The HOA had received a bid of $6,890 from Voyles Masonry to repair the brick wall (February board Minutes). At the March 5, 2024 board meeting, the Board decided not to repair the wall and, instead, to remove it.  There will be some cost, obviously, to demolish the wall, remove it, and restore the median there. But it will be far less that the $28,000 received from the insurance company. How did the HOA calculate its loss at $28,000 and submit that claim to the insurance company? Isn't anyone concerned about integrity in this matter?

For months audience members at HOA board meetings have been unable to hear everything that was said. I suggested that the board resume using the sound system that it owned and used when meetings were at The Haven (pre-COVID). I was told that the office couldn't find it. Then it was found, and it was supposed to be it at the February meeting. At the last minute the maintenance man was not imposed upon to take it to the church. The sound system was set up tonight, with the speaker on the floor in front of the board members' tables.  Where was the microphone? On a chair in the first row of seats - where it did not pick up anyone's voice! But now the HOA can say that the sound system was there.  Not a word was amplified, though. Didn't anyone realize that the microphone must held in front of a speaker's mouth???

Toward the end of tonight's HOA board meeting, I inquired whether Tommy Williams is still a director. He missed the February meeting and also tonight's meeting. President Danny Trapp explained that there had been a family emergency, and that was the reason Williams was absent. That should have been explained at the beginning of the meeting. No attendance is taken as the meeting starts. The Minutes announce a quorum was present, but it's not stated at the meeting.

You may have noticed that the March Summit Scoop has not been published yet. I mean, what's the hurry? It's only March 5th. Timely publication occurred for a couple of months.  As it happens, the February Scoop hasn't even been published yet in the place where all the Scoops are listed. That's under the RECENT NEWS button on the website's homepage. I suggested the title (RECENT NEWS) be changed to SUMMIT SCOOP. That would take a reasonably-savvy computer user about three minutes to do. You can find the February Scoop by clicking on Neighborhood News (on the homepage) and scrolling down (and down) until you come to it.