Minutes of the 2013 Annual Meeting

MANORS AT CENTRAL PARK
CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION

Minutes of the Annual Meeting of Co-owners
16 January 2013

(unapproved)

A) Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 7:00 P.M. in the Board Room of the Shelby Township Municipal Building.

B) Introductions: Mike Grobbel (President of the Board) chaired the meeting and introduced Larry Cybulski (Treasurer of the Board), Bhartan Amin (Secretary of the Board), and Ryan Dorner (our Community Manager with Kramer-Triad Management Group, LLC, which is the Managing Agent hired by the Board of Directors).

C) Establishment of 35% Quorum: a sufficient number of co-owners were either present or represented by proxy to meet the quorum.

D) Vote to approve the 2012 Annual Meeting Minutes:  Moved by Gerald De Mara (49847 Lexington West) and seconded by Richard Hall (6803 N. Central Park).  Motion carried unanimously by a show of hands.

E) Board of Directors Report:

2012 Results:  President Grobbel summarized the 2012 results.

Transition

·         Received $10k transition “gift” from the Carpenters Pension Trust Fund (CPTF).

·         The new Manors board elected officers and held 6 board meetings plus the Paving Special Assessment election meeting.

Hot, Dry Summer

·         We used an average of $390 worth of water each night that we watered our landscaping.

·         Because of the hot weather, we spent all $37,500 in our 2012 municipal water budget despite manually overriding the automatic controllers whenever possible to save money.

·         Had to cut back to watering every other day in September to stretch the budget dollars; discovered tampering with an irrigation valve by someone who wanted to water their lawn on the off nights.

Asphalt Paving Project

·         Received $25,795 from CPTF for the Special Assessments levied against their 47 units.

·         Project is 93% complete, based on total square footage; remainder (crack filling and seal coating of 2005 asphalt) to be completed in Spring 2013.

·         Total spending will be $3,200 under budget.

·         Received some valuable assistance from Shelby Twp., without which this project would have gone over budget

2012 Budget performance (amounts rounded to nearest thousand dollars)

·         $325,000 total income

·         about $90,000 received from all sources for the asphalt paving project

·         $10,000 from CPTF for the transition “gift”

·         The balance was received from co-owners monthly dues

·         $315,000 total expenses

·         $10,000 excess revenue over expenses; $9,600 of this is from the paving project, a portion of which is earmarked to pay for the work to be completed in Spring 2013 

Questions from the floor:

·         Do we have sufficient funds to complete the paving project?  Answer: Yes, the project is under budget and sufficient funds are set aside.

·         How many delinquent co-owners do we have in our community? Answer: as of Dec. 31, 2012, (8) of the (118) co-owners were more than 31 days delinquent.

·         How long does the Board wait before acting on delinquency? Answer: typically a couple of months, sooner if the co-owner has a past history of delinquency.

·         Will the delinquency rate go up due to the monthly dues increase? Answer: it’s too soon to tell.

·         What percent are behind in their dues? Answer: (8/118)=6.78% were more than 31 days delinquent as of Dec. 31, 2012.

·         How many units are in foreclosure?  Bankruptcy? Answer: none at this time.

·         How many units were sold last year?  Answer: 4 units were sold in 2012.

·         How many units are rented?  Answer: 7 units are currently being rented out by co-owners.

·         Have we met the requirements for FHA Project Certification and to enable mortgages to be “Warranted”? Answer: the Board believes that with the current adopted budget we will be able to obtain Certification sometime in the first quarter of 2013

2013 Budget:  President Grobbel reviewed the 2013 budget.

·         The 2013 Budget is the first Manors budget to have been developed since the transition of the Board to co-owner control.

·         The new board has received complaints about the following issues, which have all been addressed in the 2013 Budget

a.       10 to 14 days between lawn cuttings.  Back in 2008 the Budget had funding for 26 cuts over the season, which during the warm months works out to one cut every 7 days.  To save money (each cut currently costs $775), the Board reduced the total cuts to 20, which works out to one cut every 10 days. Whenever it rained near the 10^th day, our cut would sometimes get delayed for another 3 or 4 days. With more frequent fertilizations, the grass is now established and looks ragged after 10 days and long clippings were unsightly. The 2013 Budget has funding for 26 lawn cuts.

b.       Grub damage to lawns. In past years we purchased an additional fertilizer application ($1,372) instead of the more expensive grub control ($3,129) to strengthen roots against grubs; in 2012 this strategy was not sufficient to prevent root damage from a larger than normal quantity of grubs; skunks tore up large areas of weakened lawn in the fall while feasting on the grubs.  The 2013 Budget includes a grub control application.

c.       Lawn water rationing as occurred during Sept. 2012 due to the limited budget line item amount for water purchase and hot/dry weather.  The 2013 Budget line item for watering has been increased by 20% compared to 2012.

d.       Difficulty or inability to refinance because mortgages on a Manors condo cannot be “warranted” or do not qualify for FHA insurance (primarily because of insufficient replacement reserves). The 2013 Budget commits 10% of total income to the replacement reserve account.

Previous budgets gave lowest priority to building long-term replacement reserves

·         $14,000 balance on Jan. 1, 2012

·         Added $15,000 during 2012

·         $29,000 balance on Jan. 1, 2013, which is woefully inadequate for a seven year old condo association.

·         Good governance practice is to add an amount at least equal to 10% of annual budgeted income, which the 2013 Budget does

During 2013, there are two non-recurring projects that must also be funded

·         Finish the remaining brick repairs over the garage doors.

·         Replace the pump motor and controls on the irrigation well.

Therefore, in order to accommodate all of the spending and saving needs and avoid borrowing money, the Board of Directors voted to increase the monthly association fees to $225 or $80 depending on the co-owners percent of value; this results in a 2013 Budget that projects.

·         $296,000 total income

·         $288,000 total expenses, including the addition of $29,600 to the long-term replacement reserve account during 2013.

·         $8,000 net income

Questions from the floor:

·         What is our goal for reserves? How much do we want in our savings? Answer: this Board feels that the Association needs to add at least 10% of our budgeted income each year to our long-term replacement reserve account. Since our Association went seven years into the replacement life cycle without adding significant funds, we will need to conduct a replacement reserve study to determine how much we should actually be adding each year to be able to fund future projects without having to levy additional assessments.

·         There is a big red “X” on the wood trim on the front of a unit on Lexington West; Why was this unit missed when the other repairs were made in the fall of 2012?  Answer: this was an oversight and the Board will have it repaired in Spring 2013 once the weather is warm enough for painting and caulking.

·         No mulching was performed in 2012 and several co-owners did mulching on their own. What importance does the Board place on providing mulch?   Answer: Mulch is one of the few discretionary expenditures in the budget.  Early in 2012 the Board saw that spending in certain other budget line items was going to possibly exceed available funding so the decision was made to defer and eventually cancel the mulching.  The Board agreed that mulch provides important visual aesthetics as well as weed control and committed to having the mulch installed as early as possible in 2013.

·         What is the process for mulching?  Is the old mulch removed and new added or is it just added on the top of the old mulch? Answer:  the budget for mulching includes only the purchase and installation of new mulch material.

·         Manors Board president Grobbel announced that the Manors Condo Association will need to nominate new candidates for the Manors seat on the Central Park Master HOA Board of Directors.  The election will take place in April.  Mr. Grobbel is the current Board member representing the Manors and he is not going to seek re-election.

·         Note: Fountains will be installed this coming spring in three retention ponds in the Central Park Master HOA community areas.

·         Any talk of building new units on the vacant lots in our community?  Answer: the CPTF representative has indicated they are willing to hear from interested builders and the Board has recently put two builders in touch with them.

·         What is the status of the nursing home on 22 Mile Road, just east of the Central Park entrance? Answer: start of construction has been delayed but the builder is still making annual reimbursements to the Central Park Master HOA for maintaining the shared retention pond on their parcel.

·         Are we going to get a traffic light on Van Dyke exit?  Answer: The last traffic study results indicated insufficient counts to warrant a traffic light at North Central Park and Van Dyke.  A new traffic study was performed a couple of months ago, but results are not yet available.  Perhaps there will be sufficient traffic counts once the Lancaster at Central Park subdivision is built.

·         Note: Lancaster at Central Park is a Lombardo Homes community of 53 homes that will be built on the vacant land east of East Central Park, south of North Central Park.  These will be site condos and underground work is planned to begin within the next month or two.  Lancaster will also include five detached site condos that will be built on the east side of East Broadway adjacent to the Packard Proving Grounds.

F) Board of Directors Election

1. Nominations
1. Prior to this meeting, Mike Grobbel (49997 Lexington East), Larry Cybulski (50126 Lexington East), and Bhartan Amin (49831 Lexington West) had accepted nomination to run for one of the three one-year terms on the Board of Directors.
2. There were no nominations from the floor.
3. Moved by Richard Hall (6803 N. Central Park) and seconded by Gerald De Mara (49847 Lexington West) to close the nominations.  Motion passed unanimously by a show of hands.
2. With only three nominees for three positions, the nominees were elected by acclamation.

I) Open Discussion:

·         Grubs and lawn damage - what is the Board doing about it? Answer: besides purchasing a grub control application in 2013, the Board will have all damaged lawns repaired in the spring of 2013 as soon as the sprinkler system is turned on, which is usually mid-May.

·         What is the green coating on the tree trunks?  Answer: That is moss, which is usually found on the north side of tree trunks, which stays damper because the sunlight does not reach it.  With the amount of lawn watering we do, our tree trunks get wet almost every night, which encourages the moss growth.  The moss doesn’t harm the tree.

·         Expecting any monthly dues increase in 2014? Answer:  Too soon to say, but with approximately $16,000 in the 2013 Budget for one-time expenditures that do not repeat in 2014, that should help offset any upward cost pressures.

·         Any updates on the Visteon Demolition Project and ground water issues? Answer: Demolition is complete on all above-ground structures; concrete plant floor, footings and underground utilities are still in place and might remain so for quite some time, perhaps until the property is sold, at which time the new owner would probably apply for State of Michigan Brownfield grants or loans to make the site ready for reuse. So far, the groundwater testing has revealed no contamination beneath the Central Park residential areas; contamination in excess of EPA limits has been detected in localized area beneath the undeveloped parcel to the north of the Manors as well as beneath the former Visteon parcel.  Additional test wells have recently been installed on both parcels and more data will be forthcoming. Visit http://grobbel.org/demo for more information.

·         Any plans for the Visteon property? Answer: The current owner, Indiana Metals, has already placed the property on the market.  It is currently zoned for industrial uses and is likely to stay that way.  Indiana Metals has previously indicated that they will consider breaking up the property and selling it as multiple smaller parcels.

·         Street light on Regent – not functioning properly. Answer: Noted, and a work order will be issued.

·         Light sensor issue from a co-owner on Watling.  He has noticed the lights are sometimes ON till noon. Answer: photocell switches for garage lights and street lights are beginning to fail and this is one of the symptoms that they are nearing the time for replacement.

·         Usage and appearance of general common elements in certain areas are at odds with the Bylaws. What can be done about this? Answer:  The Board suggested that they could use some help in deciding what is acceptable.  Article VII, Section 1, Paragraph (b) of our Condominium Bylaws gives the Board of Directors the authority to “…. appoint an Architectural Control Committee and may delegate to it responsibility for establishing rules relating to the appearance of units and common areas…”   Two co-owners indicated their interest in serving on such a committee.  The Board took their names and will place an item to discuss the establishment of such a committee on the agenda of their next Board meeting.

·         Maintenance of the vacant lots.  How often are the weeds cut? Answer: The CPTF is responsible for their maintenance.  When the Board believes that a cutting is overdue, they can only submit a request asking the CPTF to take action.  Typically they cut the vacant lots three times during the growing season. The Township weed ordinance is no help because it is more liberal than the Board and our residents could tolerate.

J) Motion to Adjourn:  Moved by Richard Hall (6803 N. Central Park) and seconded by Alan Slowke (6771 N. Central Park) to adjourn the meeting.  Motion passed unanimously by a show of hands.  The meeting adjourned at 8:32 PM.