Liz's UNOFFICIAL Notes from 10/6/12 Board Meeting: Part 1

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Liz's UNOFFICIAL Notes: October 6, 2012Meeting was called to Order at 9:28 am by L. Barth, Chairman D. Atkins recorded the meeting for the minutes.Barth reminded those in attendance that we would be following parliamentary procedure and a hand-out was provided for reference – how motions are made and protocol for speaking.Board Members and Park Manager were introduced.Quorum was established (all 4 directors were present) and no additional agenda items were added. Bunn made the motion to approve the Minutes from the 9/1 Board Meeting -- Unanimous approval.Unfinished Business:       Committees: Some Committee volunteers have resigned and new volunteers have been appointed. o   J. Homer will serve as Communication Chair for 6-9 months and K. Miller was added on 9/10 via e-mail.o   On 9/15 (via e-mail) B. Vannerson was elected Chairman of the RAC, D. Crabtree as Co-Chair and L. Elfrink is Vice-Chair. Members to be: S. Bunn, J. Barth, D. Leininger, T. Moore and P. Skaris (as Technical Advisor)o   The ECC new members we appointed on 9/24 and they are: Jim Barth, Chairman (until 6/01/2013), Tim Walch and Ray Godfreyo   Laura made a motion to accept the resignations of S. Roberts, A. Vest and J. Nickle from ECC effective 9/4; C. Roper from Sec. of Communication effective 9/30. D. Crabtree was appointed as chairman of Fire Mitigation (could not find in records) so made it effective August 7.o   Bunn seconded the motion. Barth asked for questions from the audience. There were no questions and the vote to accept the resignations and appointments was unanimous.Treasurer Position: Barth made a motion that Liz Wilson be appointed as FPLOA Treasurer.  Bunn  seconded the motion. Barth asked for questions/comments from the audience. There were no questions and the vote was unanimous.Status of Purchase of Road Equipment:  The grader was purchased in May and is being operated. (Bunn) The purchase order for the loader was put out at the end of August but the financial part was not complete when the new board was seated.  Bunn made comments. Current RAC reported loader expenses this year will total $115,259.00 – 70% of their budget and other alternatives were described. Their final recommendation was to rent for $8659.00($51,950.00 for 6 months) with 100% going towards the purchase if we choose. It would allow to work past the budget crisis and would give us a trial period to see if it is the right equipment for our needs. The $20,000 we have already put down would go toward the rental.  Bunn made a motion that we go with a 6 month rental on the 644K front-end loader because it will save money and give us time to look at it and it’s the advice of the RAC.Question (Waters): What about the $40,000 for the RV Move and the $40,000 for the Capital. What about the $60,000 we were under the RAC budget in 2011-2012?Answer (Bunn): We have received additional expenses that we didn’t know about are showing up from last year. (Barth) The payment made in July for $25,000 was for work done in May and the next bill for $25,000 (grader work, loader work, belly-dump work…14 sheets) is from July and no payments were made in August so it is probably a legitimate bill. If true, this will come out of the $60,000 that was left in the road budget. The 2013 $10,000 budget for maintenance that was approved, we are already $17,000 over budget six days into the month because we had to sign a Prev. Maintenance Agreement that was not negotiated in May on the grader ($13,000) and we have $10,000 in supplies that are required to operate the machinery and another $10,000 is the estimate for six chains for the grader to get us through the winter. So we’re already eating up the $40,000 that was in the budget to move the RV Storage in the second week of the budget year.Wilson seconded the motion.       Questions and comments were solicited from the audience.o   Will a track vehicle (like the dozer) cause a problem with our roads? (D. Corder) o   Answer:  “No” (T. Moore)o   Bunn voted for the loader and lots of research was done before it was purchased. We need to add assets.(D .Roper)o   We will also be responsible for the loader maintenance, fuel, oil, insurance and chains (Barth)o   We have some supplies already (Waters)o   This piece of equipment isn’t the end all. We are going to need other pieces of equipment – backhoes, trucks and a dozer would be nice because some of the roads in the back of the park are going to have to be re-built. (D. Leininger) o   The grader and loader, added together, total about $550,000. A used JD 644G just sold at auction on 9/14 for $60,000 (Bunn) o   If this has been researched so long, why was such a large purchase not surveyed and decided on without membership approval? (M. Schrotenboer)o   Most of the members would not want to spend even $60,000 on year-round maintenance. If they ever became a fulltime resident they would change their tune. Things can go wrong with used equipment – extra expenses. The loader should be able to be used for something besides snow removal. (D. Armstrong)o   Owning versus renting should save about $90,000+ over three years. The equipment would be paid off in three years and that is when the real savings would take place – estimates between $150- 175,000 a year we would save. Plans were to keep the loader for 10 years. It has a bucket that comes with it and it has attachments that can be purchased. In 3 years, the two pieces of equipment should be worth close to $400,000 so we’d have an asset. You can never build an organization by spending and consuming and having nothing to show for it. We were totally dependent on one company. (Waters)o   In the winter, the machine that does the work is the loader. It is not the grader. The people that live in the back of the park, if we get snows like there were in April in May, it would be two weeks before they could get out if all we had was the grader. (D Roper)o   Another option that was not addressed was to stretch the payments from 3 years to 4 years. (Barth)o   If we rent the loader, it will cost another $20,000 more than a purchase. (P Waters)o   It will be used more than 5 months a year. We have trees growing into the edge of the roads and we rented equipment from RMS $90.00/hr just to take the tree stumps out. The loader will take care of that. (D. Crabtree)o   How many fully-trained experienced drivers do we have for this equipment? (K.Smith)o   We have at least two and probably two more. What concerns me more is an affidavit that was signed that stated were going to use this equipment for farming and ranching operation so we would not have to pay sales tax. This is not true and we’re going to have to pay a lot of sales tax. (Bunn)o   We wrote a check to the county for $9775.00 for taxes for the grader and a penalty of $1500 because we didn’t register by the end of June. (Barth)o   How much did we pay RMS for the use of the loader in the last three years? (B. Moss)o   Snow Removal was about $119,000 last year (Barth).o   It sounds like to me we’d be saving a ton of money if we bought the loader (B. Moss)o   I don’t think the question is whether or not we need a loader. I think the question is whether or not we can afford a loader right now. Based on the bills that are popping up, other expenses (like repairing Wagon Creek), increases in reserves to cover hard assets means we have to save more money. The question is if we can meet our financial obligations. (L.Wilson)Barth re-read the motion from Bunn, it’s been seconded. Call for a vote to rent as opposed to purchase the loader.  Result: Wilson- AYE, Bunn- AYE, Waters – NO, Barth –NO.Financing is not done. It’s not secured. John Deere may come back and say we don’t have the money and then it’s back to the drawing table.Purchase price of the grader was about $227,000 with tax. We are making payments of approx. $ 5800.00 per month, insurance is about $3500 and we’ll pay about $3,000 every year in ownership tax. The loader is more. (Barth)The loader is $275,000 without tax. Payments are$ 7393.00 per month in the current purchase order for three years at 1.9%. (Barth) Audience Comment: Last year, per records, was the second highest snow year posted in 19 years and they used a second operator 4 times. (D. Crabtree)The studies that were done over the last 3 years should have been put out to the landowners. It should have been talked about at every committee, board and annual meeting. We were all told that these pieces of equipment were going to be leased for two years. (Barth)Audience Comment: The only people that really care are the ones that are here today. What makes you think that you are going to get people to respond to surveys? We can’t even get a 1000 people to vote. I think the membership should be polled but you’re not going to get a response. (S. Roberts).The vote is dead so we have to go back to the previous board’s vote to purchase the loader. (Barth)