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PONDEROSA COMMUNITY CLUB
BOARD MEETING MINUTES
DECEMBER 8, 2007

Meeting was called to order at 10:40 a.m. by President, Bill Griffin. Present: Gina Wilkins, Jim Lawson, Melanie per phone connection and Association Manager, Bob Melson.
 
Bill announced the resignation of Charles Shoop. A group of members were in the process of counting ballots.
 
ASSOCIATION MANAGERS REPORT
Bob stated that his report is posted on the Ponderosa web site, bulletin board and at the office.
Worked with Dick Nicklas in finalizing the water project audit.
Performed the first group e-mail off to approximately fifty members, and received good responses.
Worked with employees and set up winter work schedules and emergency plan schedules.
Met with Pat Green regarding Thoroughbred Lane. Their water has been approved and turned on and they are progressing on the road, which will be delayed until spring.
Discussed issues with Pat Green regarding their sale of acreage above Primitive Park.
Chimney work has been completed on the clubhouse and caretaker cabin.

Two biggest issues with the Ponderosa’s infrastructure:
1) The water distribution system which requires that a plan be completed by 2009 for the installation of water metering on all lots by 2017. The current cost for a vault with meter is $374.50 per lot, totaling $219,164.00  plus construction and engineering costs with a guess at over $400,000 total.
The meters would be installed on the Ponderosa side of the system and include a one inch line so lot owners could upgrade to larger lines at their expense.
Bobis scheduled to meet with the original developer/installer of our water lines to obtain blue prints of our water system.

Member Jack Bartleson recommended that this project be intregated with road improvements. Bill stated that 1-22-08 is the deadline to include the water utilization system in our plan documents.

2) Roads: Plans to chip seal roads is guessed to cost around $300,00.00 to $400,00.00.

Bill stated that the Board will be meeting to set policy on water, roads and their financial impact.

Bob stated that he would like to improve communications with the membershipthrough technology and see better use of our play ground and clubhouse facilities in order to increase community spirit.
 
Bill confirmed with Melanie that she wishes to resign from the Board effective when we find her replacement.  Bill stated concern that we are lacking adequate board members to conduct business now that we have one vacancy, one pending vacancy and one board member absent January thru March.  He stated that the qualifications that we are looking for in our board members is that they be intelligent, articulate, reasonable and decisive, and asked that people with these qualifications be referred to him as potential board members.

Bill explained that, because the Budget Cycle runs from January through December, while the Board Cycle runs from June through May, when a Board is elected at our May 31 Annual Member’s Meeting they must assume the last 6 months of the prior Board’s plans and whatever is left of the prior Board’s budgeted money. The new Board’s plans cannot be put into effect until the following January when their own budget goes into effect, and they can only exercise the first 6 months of their plans because the next Board takes office on June 1. This mismatch between the Budget Cycle and the Board Cycle is seriously affecting continuity of planning and programs.

The Board elected last May first met on June 11 to elect officers. Their first Regular Business Meeting was on July 14 at which time the Budget & Finance Committee reminded them their budget proposal for 2008 was due on August 31! A mad scramble ensued to get plans and figures together, get them approved by the Budget & Finance Committee and voted on by the Board in the October 13 meeting. Ballots had to be created and mailed to the members by November 1 in order to get them back for counting in the December 8 meeting. Please keep this string of incredible deadlines in mind as we fast forward to our current financial problem.

Prior to 2005, a Board hired LeMaster & Daniel, Accountants, to do the annual review of our books and our tax reporting. When the 2005-06 Board took over few, if any, financial reports had been created by the Treasurer, and the 2005 books were in such disarray they could not be reviewed.

The Board hired an Office Manager at $40,000/yr, but it turned out she could not use our Quick Books bookkeeping system, so the Board hired Webb Accounting at $1,800/mo ($22,000/yr) to do our bookkeeping. $25,000 was budgeted for the calendar year 2006 ($3,000 to LeMaster, $22,000 to Webb). In addition, the Board agreed to pay Webb “up to $1,800” to straighten up the 2005 books. (This $1,800 had not been budgeted.)

When the Caretaker’s contract, which included use of his equipment, was not renewed, the Board hired two maintenance employees and began buying replacement equipment. Sometime around September, 2006, based on the skimpy financial data that was available, the Budget & Finance Committee told the Board our full year’s budget would be gone before year-end. The Board asked members to move money from one line item to another in order to pay for a backhoe, and to “borrow” $20,000 from a bank account to pay for operations through year-end. The members approved these funds.

In the meantime (back in August) the 2007 Budget had been written. It included $2,000 for Webb to straighten up the 2005 books, $3,000 for LeMaster and $22,000 for Webb, a total of $25,000. However, when the current Board took office in November, after three resignations, we found that by October 31 LeMaster had been paid $7,000 and Webb had been paid $18,000. Only $300 remained in the Accounting account. And we still owed the following bills for accounting:
Webb for fixing the 2005 books $1,600
Webb for November & December 2007 $3,600
Webb for January, 2008 when he is terminated $1,800

Total unfunded liability $7,000

The Board found $10,000 in the 2007 Roads line item that had not been spent, so they decided to move that money into Accounting to pay these outstanding and to be incurred bills. Normally, the Board would not move money between line items without prior approval of the members, but since the services had been contracted for and delivered, a vote of the members would be meaningless.

Bill asked the Treasurer to look into why the payments to LeMaster in 2007 were more than double the amount budgeted (e.g. Rate increase? Contracted for more work? 2006 bills deferred to 2007?)
 
SECRETARY
Gina reported on the new process for board minutes.  Minutes will be available to the membership on the web site, posted at the clubhouse bulletin board and copies available at the office.  They will not be read at meetings as they will have been approved by the board by e-mail before posting.

Gina reported having received three correspondences and responding to one letter from Andy Lemke. Bill stated that most of the correspondence is inquiries about purchasing of lots, water rights and of plans for the lots.  The Board’s response is that upon the purchase of a lot the owner(s) automatically become a member of the Ponderosa Community Club and are subject to our governing documents; what they do with their lot is between them and the county regulations.  They should understand that they will hear from the Ponderosa Board if they break county rules, and we will report them to the county. If they attempt to take water off the Ponderosa to somewhere else they will be subject to severe penalities under our governing documents.
 
MAINTENANCE AND OPERATIONS
Jim Lawson reported that the snow removal equipment is up and running.  Our employees were able to take care of a record snow fall of over three feet at this time.
 
BUDGET
Please refer to the Financial Report attached to these Minutes and on the PCC web site.
Gina inquired about the lack of credit for the $6,700.00 won in the Meyer lawsuit. Bob explained that this amount was given to Webb Accounting just last week and apparently was not deposited before the Nov. 30 financial report

NO COMMITTEE REPORTS

BALLOT COUNT:
 
Budget:  For 210
              Against 48
NEW Clubhouse roof & heating:  
            For 208
            Against 44
Pool Resurfacing:
            For 218
            Against 41
Purchase used vehicle:
             For 185
            Against 71
 
PRESIDENT
With the passing of the budget we now can continue with an Association Manager who will take care of the day to day operations. Members should take their operational and day to day concerns (e.g. loose dogs, garbage issues, speeding, motorized vehicles on greenbelts) to the Association Manager and address any policy issues to the Board.

Bill explained that the Board is now free to concentrate on setting policy regarding such things as governing documents ( last revised in 1998), budgets, personnel, roads, water, long-range planning, etc.
 
Bill stated that BoardWorkshops will be held monthly on the Friday before the monthly meetings.  These work sessions will be open to the members.
 
Meeting was adjourned at 12:05 p.m.
 
Respectfully,
Secretary, Gina Wilkins