Board Meeting Minutes



Board Meeting MinutesJuly 9, 2019 Call to order President: Dave AndersonAttendance: Dave Anderson, Dick McQuillan, Garry Moore, Karen Sumstine, and Paul Roland.Staff Present: Katy Wright (Curtis Pine was not present because of personal issues)Guests: Trevor Wright, Gary Brinegar, Bill Scheufele, Damien Czar and Sharon Gow.Quorum: YesNo association members’ issues or letters were addressed at this meeting:Reading of the Past Minutes for June 11, 2019:Several questions were brought up by Karen Sumstine directed at Dave Anderson about issues brought up and discussed at the last meeting. Letter to IRS: This letter was to address the $600 + penalty charge the association accrued because the IRS no longer accepts checks and GWA got charged a penalty because by the time they notified us that they no longer accepted payments to them the way we have always paid them we exceeded the deadline and accrued a penalty. Dave Anderson stated that he had not yet written that letter to the IRS.GWA Contribution to the employee’s retirement account: Karen Sumstine stated that it has been around 7% and Dave Anderson stated that he did do research on this issue and found out that it has fluctuated from 5% - 7% over the years. It is now at 5% and the other 2% was going to go into a bonus fund for the employees but that has not happened yet because the current budget does not allow for it.Karen Sumstine also brought up that we have 3 full time employees and wanted to know why on the 14th of June a sign on the door was saying that the office was closed and that it would be open again the following Monday. Karen Sumstine stated that she had come down to the office on that day twice and no one was there. Katy Wright stated that she did not know about no one being at the office that day. Katy Wright had taken off the 21st but does not remember the office being closed totally on the 14th. Dave Anderson told Karen Sumstine thanks for bringing it up and that we would investigate that issue.Motion to approve minutes for June 11, 2019 by Karen Sumstine 2nd by: Paul Roland - Motion approved by all board members present.Income/ Expense and Balance Sheet for June 2019: Dave Anderson brought up the issue about the capital expense for the truck cost and how it was placed onto the income/expense sheet along with the PH meter. Discussion then moved to the truck and Paul Roland explained that the Ford Ranger he and Curtis Pine looked at was not in very good shape and they decided to pass on the Ranger. While on the way back to Glide they noticed a GMC truck for sale with a contact number on it. They called the number and the seller responded. This seller wanted $4,000 for the truck and Paul Roland and Curtis Pine talked him down to $3,000 and bought the truck after they took it to a mechanic to have it inspected for any major issues that they themselves could not see.It is a 2003 GMC Sonoma 4x4 truck. Curtis Pine took the truck to a repair shop the next day to have the oil changed and purchase toolboxes and a rack for the truck. The minor repairs cost $300, the boxes and rack cost $667 and the license and registration and plate cost $230 for a total cost of $4,197. Dave Anderson stated that we had kind of gotten off track with the truck conversation and we should move on with the income/expense sheet and balance sheet. No other questions came up.Motion to approve the income/expense and balance sheets by Garry Moore 2nd by: Paul Roland - Motion passed by all Board Members present.Manager’s Report: Curtis Pine was not present at the meeting, so Dave Anderson gave the manager’s report. There was a discussion on the rest of the managers’ report which included the purchase of the truck. Discussion on when the red and green algae sampling started and why. We now must test for these algae’s every two weeks. A leak discovered on North Bank and repaired in June and a leak discovered on Roberts Ave in early July. There was trouble finding the shut off for the mainline on Roberts Ave because the shut off valve was not readily visible and Board Member Garry Moore who was helping with the repair went home to retrieve his metal detector to find the shut off. Also, discussion on if we should have people ask the GWA to come out and find shut offs and other valves before someone put gravel down on a road or wants to pave a road so we can protect our shut offs. There was also a discussion about why there was no sand bedding on that mainline on Roberts Ave because it was just laid on the clay and filled back up. Also, there was a 2” line that was leaking that came up from a riser off the mainline which was schedule 40 and probably should have been schedule 80 because it went under and across the road. Karen Sumstine stated that there had been a lot of line replaced and that they were replaced by professionals which brings into question who approved their work. Board Member Paul Roland was also assisting the repair notified people with boil water notices to all people affected by the mainline shutdown. Garry Moore helped Curtis Pine fix the leak because Mike Bryant was off that day. There was also a discussion about creating a new and updated System Map that includes all the additions and repairs made since 1987 so we all valves and pipes can be found more quickly. We also discussed having this update placed on notepad that the guys could carry with them that would give them GPS coordinates for all the lines and shut offs. There was a discussion on the road maintenance by Pacific Power laying a fiber optic line next to our mainline coming down the hill from our main holding tank off little river road. The issue is that they have exposed the mainline and that there are lots of big boulders in the ditch that they are digging and there is a chance one of those pieces of boulder they are breaking with a jack hammer attached to the excavator cold fall down and bust our mainline. It is Pacific Power’s road.Secretary/ Treasurer’s Report: The board had discussed some of the secretary/treasurer’s report.Update about going to the school board and asking them for permission to place a fence on their property to protect our source water intake. Curtis Pine and Garry Moore went to the school board and got verbal permission by the board to put in the fence. They were supposed to give GWA a letter of approval as well so we would have record that they in fact did give us permission to put in the fence. We have not yet gotten that letter. Curtis Pine and Garry Moore also offered to protect the school’s intake by placing a fence around their pump house and they would have keys for both gates. Katy Wright was to call the school board and find out when they will give GWA the letter.I (Garry Moore) got a call from a member on July 7, 2019 that there were people down at the source water swimming and that the member also thought he heard gun shots down at the source water. I got in my truck and went down to the source water and walked out onto the catwalk and told the two people down there that they were trespassing and had to leave immediately. I wrote down their license number, make and model of the vehicle for the record of who was down there and who had been chased off the property. They did leave.Old Business: Dick McQuillan started the discussion on Section 5. This section deals with membership shares. We do not have any membership shares anymore and Dick McQuillan noted that this board had already voted on doing away with Section 6 that dealt with membership shares. Dick McQuillan then stated that there are several sentences Section 5 deals which membership shares, who members are and who can be a member; the owner of the property or the occupant of the property. This discussion also covered membership fees. A membership in the association buys you one vote as a member. A $10 fee is accessed to become a member and that gets you your one vote. Discussion then moved into if you own more than one property and pay the fee for each property do you get more than one vote. Karen Sumstine then stated that it has always been that way that you only get one vote even if you own several properties. Dick McQuillan then stated that this may cause an issue for the association if someone wanted to contest this practice. The board agreed that you only get one vote even if you own more than one property. This issue does cause a dilemma as to why if you pay for more than one membership (because you own multiple properties) then why do you not get more than one vote. The members who own multiple properties have more interest in the association because of the multiple property ownership. The board decided to go with the owner of record of a property rather than the occupant being the member, because a renter could skip out and not pay their bill which then causes the issue of getting the owner of the property to pay the past due bill (which they feel that they are not responsible for). If you are the owner of the property and your spouse is the owner of another property, then you would have two votes because the owners are different even though you may be married to the other owner. If you (as a couple) have both your names on several properties, then you would pay the membership fee for each property but only have one vote. This is a complicated issue and is not easily fixed without some confusion by the owners of multiple properties. Dick McQuillan is going to check on any federal or state Co Op statues that may help us fix or define this issue better. Karen Sumstine then brought up an issue that she felt that this co-op was making a lot of money now that the rate increase went into effect and we have to pay taxes on the money we make. Garry Moore stated that we had not seen any monies from the rate increase yet because it only went into effect this month and members would not feel the increase until the August billing. Garry Moore also stated that the association is not making lots of money and that the association has many issues that we must address as an association and that we needed to make some money to address these issues. Karen Sumstine then stated that I may have a different idea of making a lot of money than other people’s idea of making a lot of money. Garry Moore then asked how we are supposed to pay for any major issue that arises if we don’t make any money to fix those issues. Karen Sumstine then stated that you get a loan. The problem with getting loans is that you are committed to paying large monthly payments for long periods of time and if you get a loan from the state or the feds then they can set the rates members pay to insure that you make enough money to pay the loan back. The other issue is that; if you get a loan and have a large commitment each month to pay for many years what happens if you have other major issues that crop up. If you are so extended in paying back the first loan what leverage do you have to get another loan to fix any other major issues? Dave Anderson stated that we had gotten off track because we were supposed to be talking about the By Laws and not this issue. Dave Anderson also stated that we could put this issue on the next board meeting agenda and discuss it at that time. Dick McQuillan then proceeded with his presentation. Article 6 goes away and what was then Article 7 now becomes Article 6. Article 6 deals with meetings of members. Dick McQuillan raised an issue about section 3 of article 6 where it states “such a notice shall state the nature, time, place and purpose of the meeting, but no failure or irregularity of notice of any annual meeting, regularly held, shall affect any proceedings taken”. Some of the board members thought that this may be considered a loophole to avoid given out notices for meetings. The key word here is “annual meeting” which refers to the meeting of the association membership held every 2nd Tuesday in February each year. The special meeting called for in August of last year does not fall under this section, but some felt that it may have been used to go forward with that meeting even though notices did not go out like they should have. A notice to all members was to be sent out by the then secretary/treasurer which did not happen. This board has tried to notify all members of any meeting that is to take place. We send out notices with the billing and try to utilize all means of notification at our disposal. Now that we have a website up and running notices will be placed there as well. The board felt that if we use all assets at our disposal (news paper, website, billing, etc) and a member still says that they did not know about the meeting then we could not help them. As a member you do have a responsibility to pay attention. We as a board cannot be held responsible for a member’s lack of attention to notices. Dave Anderson felt that this line could be changed of eliminated all together to maybe get rid of a potential loophole in the notification process to members. The discussion then turned to proxies. The By Laws specifically state that this association does not recognize proxies. Bill Scheufele stated that voting by proxy or handling any other association issues by proxy could open a can of worms that would cause many problems and issues and that he was dead set against proxies and would not vote to allow proxies. Bill Scheufele then stated that voting by proxies is not recommended and Dick McQuillan then asked by who and Bill Scheufele then stated by Roberts Rules of Order and Dick McQuillan agreed that Roberts Rule of Order is very concerned about allowing proxies. The board agreed that this issue could have potentially bad outcomes. It is a complicated issue but in the end the board decided to stick with not allowing any proxy voting or other proxy inputs by association members and to stick with the By Laws on this issue. Motion to not allow proxies by: Dick McQuillan – 2nd by Karen Sumstine – motion passed by all board members present.Discuss any progress on the source water protection grant: We did not discuss this issue at this meeting. We will update this as information becomes available.New Business: Discuss a price to put on the old vehicle. The board discussed placing a $750 or best offer on the old vehicle and come down to no less than $500. This would get the old truck off the insurance and save the association money. GWA already had a $500 offer on the old vehicle from Gary Leon. Paul Roland was given the task to deal with getting rid of the old vehicle.Note: I (Garry Moore) contacted Gary Leon the next day and told him that we would like $750 for the vehicle. He said that he could probably offer $700 but would like to take it for a test drive before committing to that number. I told him to contact Katy Wright or Curtis Pine for a test drive whenever he wished to do that.Note: Karen Sumstine started a discussion on “putting pipe in the ground” and that this board has been here for almost a year and has not put any pipe in the ground. With higher rates, the obvious fact that there are issues with the system that needs to be addressed. Karen Sumstine felt that (we as a board) we not doing anything to fix the issues. Karen Sumstine also stated that this board is not following the rules and regulations and that this board has more or less thrown out the rules and regulations. This comment started a not so pretty discussion which board members felt that they were being wrongly accused of something that was not true. The By Laws and the Rules and Regulations are supposed to work as one. There are conflicts between the By Laws and the Rules and Regulations which need to be addressed and fixed so there is no confusion between the two. That is why the committee headed up by Dick McQuillan exists. The committee is to look at the By Laws and make recommendations to the board and then after the By Laws are updated fix the Rules and Regulations to mirror the By Laws. This has turned into a process and will take some time to complete so we all need to have patience. The issue of not putting pipe in the ground holds no water. This board has tried to take things slow and try not to make any rash decisions except for our initial attempt at a rate increase which did not go over well with association members. We eventually took a lighter stance on a rate increase; we have applied for grants to accomplish task that will in the end save the association lots of money if we get the grants. If it takes us 6 months to apply for and get a grant and it saves the association $27,000 then that is time well spent. The source water protection grant is a great example of a little time spent for a huge savings to the association. There are other grants we are pursuing now and in the future that could net the association large sums of money that we do not have to pay back or pay just a small percentage that would fix many of our issues. These take time to apply for and see to completion. To jump into spending huge amounts of money (which we don’t have) or getting unnecessary loans that tie our hands into long term payment situations, rate hikes that we have no control over, or that leave us no way to handle any another unexpected major issue that could crop up with no way to get the funds to fix it/them would leave this association vulnerable. Yes, we have spent some money; mostly on things that our employees needed to do their jobs correctly. Yes, we have made mistakes. One would expect a new board to make some mistakes but to learn from them is what everyone does. From what I’ve seen on the ground helping our employees fix leaks if needed is that the so-called professionals that have laid some of our new pipe around here did not do it to code. There is no bedding on the pipe; schedule 40 is used instead of the blue pipe or schedule 80, again with no proper bedding. These so-called professionals are ones we should not ever hire again if we are to avoid future issues with pipe laid. I have always heard “Do it right the first time and then you don’t have to go back and fix bad work”. Karen Sumstine did apologize to everyone as the meeting ended. In Short, all members of the Board and Members that attend these meetings as Guests need to remember that we are here to work together to improve the functioning of the Association. This should be our only goal.Motion to Adjourn made by: Karen Sumstine 2nd by: Garry MooreNext Scheduled Board Meeting is August 13, 2019 ................
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