Management Dec 6, 2022 minutes
Topics: tree work in reserve or operating budget, large spend process, general committee policies
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 say contracts must be signed by the Management President. (This is already true, legally.)
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.
Tree Work
In the Operating Budget or Reserve. The reserve analyst regards it as legal to put tree work in the reserve.
A rationale for putting it 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.
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.
Tree work report at last ACM was that three bids were sent to project manager, not to Management, 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.
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.
Changes made on the wiki in the Large Spend Process were responding to changes Management decided on.
On wiki, "Guidelines for Vendor Payments", project manager is responsible to know the vendor's payment policies ahead of time and to verify that the work gets done. If same-day payment is required, the project manager is responsible to make arrangements ahead of time with Management and the bookkeeper to arrange payment.