Annual Meeting, Part 2, January 28, 2024, Wasatch Commons Community Association

Topics: Annual Budget

Decisions: Approved budget.

Sunday, 3:00-4:20, common house & online.  Facilitator Linda Reed, Note-taker Kay Argyle.

Present:

1  Laura DeBacker	8  Lila & Joe Sweeney	15  Kerry Terrazas	22  Tobi Werkhausen
2  proxy to Cheryl Keil (Kellie Henderson & Tysic Cummings)	9  Hannah Kumlin & Stephen Smart	16  Lynda Angelastro	23   not present
3  not present	10  proxy to Cheryl Keil (owner Kerri Jo Finney)	17  Vinnie Mazzone	24  Gheybin Comish, Jordan Smith
4  not present	11  Kay Argyle (plus proxy for Mary English)	18  Cheryl Keil	25  Emily Buckner, Michael Abrahamson
5  not present	12  Linda Reed	19   not present	26  Mike & Vicky Wason
6  (online, Renae Skordas; doesn't count for quorum)	13  Ben Trueman	20  Alexandra Parvaz
7  Robin & Jorge San Pedro	14   not present	21  proxy to Joe Sweeney (Marina & Scott Price)	19 units represented, 73%

Note:  ACM is rescheduled from February 14 to February 7, to avoid Valentines.  Will have an insurance presentation.

Action Item

For the households that pay automatically, the amounts pulled need to be updated by Wednesday to avoid needing make-up checks.

Annual Budget

Presented by Ben Truman.  Proposed budget is a 15.10% increase. Income from Association fees is 1 month at current fees, 11 at increased fees. 

Income

Interest.  Q. Estimate $6K in interest. Realistic? Rates are expected to go down.   A. Rates probably won't go down a lot, and we will be putting additional money in CDs.  Most of our current CDs are ~5.5% interest. 

We have $103K in our reserve and now transfer $4,700/mo.  At UFirst, we can get APY of 5.55%; they pay higher for CDs purchased with new deposits. Jorge asked for maturing CDs to be put in high-yield money market but they appear to have been renewed. $50K maturing in July. 6mo CD just purchased $4.7K.  Will deposit $5K and purchase a CD each month. Each CD no higher than ~$5K for flexibility in emergencies.

In operating fund total in CDs $18K including 1yr CD $2K in July, $8K purchased Nov/Dec.

Pay or Play.  Income estimate from pay or play is based on current system.  We will be discussing revisions.

Cash Back.  Some vendors charge us a fee is we pay by credit card; they get a check.  Otherwise we try to maximize our cash back.

Expenses

Electric.  Almost all our common electricity is covered by the solar panels, but there is a flat fee each month for the meter, so our electric bill will never go to zero.  OTOH, we have a large enough credit to use more electricity from appliances and electric cars without increasing the bill.  We can't use it for units because we aren't an electric reseller.  We are "battery-ready" if we come up with the money to purchase a battery.

Landscaping.  Lowered request by $1K, reallocated to maintenance.

Maintenance.  See email from Vinnie for details.  Stucco damage at north end of west carport was discovered recently. (Possibly a dump truck backing into the support beam; mark on beam shows rust.)

Water.  Q. Line 08790 "Reimbursement East Side (Mary)" is zero. For field north of the east garden.  A. Need to bill Mary.  The field has been sold to Hans. Scott is supposed to relay to Hans that Hans needs to work out his own water for it -- probably a line will need to be run from the street.

Reserve.  The money we are pulling from the operating fund float (unspent previous budget) to put into the reserve doesn't show on the budget, so it won't cause a problem like we had one year from a title company who wanted all expenses paid by new income.

Q. How was the reduced increase from the previous draft achieved?  It is mostly from putting a bit less in the reserve and offsetting part of it, $8.5K, from the float. We are still working on getting the reserve closer to fully funded, but not as aggressively.

Showed a table showing anticipated reserve expenditures, contributions, and ending balance for 2024-2031.  Request.  Can we see a report of reserve expenditures and contributions going back a number of years? 

There is a legal requirement to keep set aside at least enough to cover a deductible on an insurance claim.  We raised the deductible from $10K to $30K.  Not clear yet whether this money needs to be in a separate account or simply earmarked.

A copy of the new fees was included in the emailed spreadsheet.  Increase ranges from $37 to $50.  Formula is more complicated than just square feet.

Straw poll.  All thumbs up.

Any concerns?  No.

Call for consensus:  Approved, no stand asides.

Emailed 1/28/2024.