Management Dec 6, 2022 minutes

Topics:  budget, tree work, large spend process

Tuesday December 6, 2022, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Present: Ben, Marina, Coleen, Linda, Mary, Joe, Scott, Kay (notes), Cheryl

Decision:  Leave tree work in the operating budget this year.  Add note to Large Spend Process, contracts must be signed by Management President.

Action Items

Ben will request a new draft of the reserve analysis without the play structure or the trees.

Ben will edit Large Spend Process to clarify that contracts must be signed by the Management President, per the CCR.

Linda will check what account transformer was paid from.  Should be operating budget.

Budget

There are several large-ticket expenditures without adequate certainty for the budget process:  tree work, c.h. play structure, safety & security requests of AED, cameras, and fire mitigation.  The annual meeting will go more smoothly if there is more information and education on those items in advance.  Only one ACM in December.

Tree Work

Motions from Scott: 1) Don't put the funds for tree work in the reserve. He feels trees are a regular every year expense which will vary by year but not predictably. 2) Project manager involved with tree work in 2022 not to be in charge of tree work for at least two years. 

Operating Budget or Reserve.  The reserve analyst regards it as legal to put tree work in the reserve. 

A rationale for putting tree work in the reserve is to make it part of our planning every year. There have been a lot of years we haven't spent enough on tree work.  It doesn't affect the total needed for the budget because we just talking about where to store the money until spent, in operating or the reserve. 

Putting tree money in the reserve gives us a bigger pool of money to draw on without wiping out the operating budget during a year there is more work to be done than average.

A lot of people feel strongly about trees. Does putting tree funding in the reserve reduce control and transparency? Management seeks input but not approval from the community for things like roofs.  OTOH for other items people have strong feelings about, Management does extensive consulting with the community.  Being in the reserve need not impact how much influence the community has on what tree work is done. 

Where did the amount of $12K for this year's tree budget come from?  $12K was the amount planned for Phase III of the tree plan, created in 2020.  Spent $9,900 this year.  Expect most years the amount will be in the $5K range.

A number of other management members lean towards tree work being in the reserve, but don't feel strongly enough about it to risk it being an issue during the budget process. 

Decision: Fund tree work through the operating budget. this year, to be reconsidered at some future date.

Project Manager.  Tree work report at last ACM was that three bids were sent to project manager, not to Management, which is not in accordance with large spend process.

Some feeling that Management should not be involved in "interpersonal" conflict.  OTOH project managers have an obligation to be able/willing to work with all stakeholders.

Play Structure

Reserve is for upkeep and replacement of large capital items, not new capital items.  Is it appropriate to pay for new c.h. play structure from the reserve? The new play structure will be a replacement of an existing play structure.

Play ground plans are still in the research phase.  Parents committee is trying to pull together information for budget discussions.

Large Spend Process

How does the Large Spend Process differ from how large expenditures have been done previously? All bids must be equivalent as to specifications and what work will be done.  Management, not the project manager, selects which bid to award contract to.  The default is to award contract to lowest bid; however, a higher bidder can be selected if there is good reason. The project manager (or any other stakeholder) can make a case that there is good reason, and Management will take it into consideration. Reasons might include qualifications, licensure or insurance, ability to accomplish all bid requirements, reviews and reputation, responsiveness, etc.

Management had decided on some changes in the Large Spend Process, which were the alterations Ben made.

We had another instance of someone asking for vendor payment with only a few hours' notice. That not only puts a burden on Management members, it risks disgruntled vendors if Management can't oblige.  Add to wiki, "Guidelines for Vendor Payments", that the project manager is responsible to know the vendor's payment policies ahead of time and to verify that the work has been done before payment is made.  Same-day payment is discouraged, but if a vendor requires it, the project manager is responsible to make arrangements beforehand (not that day!) with Management, the bookkeeper, and/or the credit card holder to have payment available.  (Questions to ask vendor: Our standard policy is payment by check within fourteen days of receiving an invoice. Are you good with that? If you accept credit cards, do you charge an extra fee for them?)

Committees

Part of persuading people to participate is not making it difficult, but some expectations on how to participate exist because of experience that things go better when they are followed.  Community policy has always been that committee meetings are open to all community residents (with rare exceptions such as confidentiality). To achieve that, meeting dates/times should be announced ahead of time and minutes should be kept and published. Ben added a note in the wiki to this effect. Please post committee meeting schedules in common house as well as on email. 

Emailed 12/7/2022.