Rooney Valley News

The Board Meeting August 19, 2019

If you were unable to  find the notice of the August 19 meeting you are not alone.  They were posted in the three obscure locations (it would be fun to host a scavenger hunt to try to find them) where Brookfield used to and the current Board still does post (hide) the notices,

We could have received 24 hour notice prior to the meeting by email, but we didn’t.

The special district act, Title 32, now permits 24 hour prior to meeting email notification but the Board has decided not to use 24 hour email notices, relying instead on the mysterious postings in three obscure locations in the community (I think one resident once found a notice hanging on a barb wire fence somewhere).

We know from the abundance of notices regarding the pool openings and closings how easy it is to communicate the agenda and packet to residents as soon as it is available.

So, we did finally get email notice of the agenda and board packet,  at 10:55 am about 6 hours before the meeting, after the work day had already started.  So if you work, odds are you never saw it.

Here it is:

http://solterra-connect.com/Portals/0/FRMD%201-3%20-%208_19_19%20-%20Regular%20Meeting.pdf

(Note that the document is now security protected so it cannot be copied – you will have to log onto Solterra Connect – see a pattern of non-transparency here. 🙂  This is the first time the materials are security protected – from the residents – so they cannot be copied)

Now, this is an ongoing saga.  In the summer and fall after the board was elected they stopped providing the agenda and board packet prior to the meetings.  Even Brookfield provided these materials well before the meetings.  I raised the issue – was referred to their attorney – and we finally resolved it with this message from their attorney:

“I am following up on our correspondence related to the Board Packets.  The Board has decided to post its packets on Solterra Connect in advance of the Board meetings when they are distributed to the Board.”  October 16, 2018 email from Board Attorney

Now I seriously doubt the first time the board saw their packet for their 5;30 pm meeting was at 10:55 the morning of the same day.  And if they did, how did they have reasonable time to read and consider the materials.  Especially those Board members who work.

So much for transparency to the residents.

Here are the highlights of the meeting:

The Board plans to meet 6 times a year – every two months.

I discussed in the budget report how the board has decided to fund YMCA and Overlook this year, but delay for yet another year a critical evaluation of their services.  This function  is an essential element of passing any budget.  There is also a legal requirement that they review and approve the contracts every year at the time of passing the budget.

So, the Board has decided to ignore that rule and delay critical review of the YMCA, Overlook and CRS contracts.  I expect we will simply repeat next summer the same complaints about the pool we have heard at least the last three years.  And the time has long since passed when we should have reviewed the necessity of paying two management companies – Overlook (Brookfield management company) and CRS.

There was a lengthy discussion about charging renters of the Retreat for the pro rata share of insurance for the retreat.

May 5, 2020 election for the Board.  Here is a picture of the election schedule and cost options: (again, the new security protection – to protect the Board from the residents – feature prevents copying the document and posting it here)

The Board is seriously considering eliminating the mail in ballot.  If you have an opinion about this you should contact the board members.  As noted in the report on the budget, this maneuver will limit the number of residents who are able to vote, discriminating against folks who work.

The Board’s attitude about mail or polling place voting reflects a dominant attitude that also surfaced with respect to the social committee.

The Board, primarily Waterman and McGraw, have complained regularly about the lack of people volunteering in the community – almost suggesting that residents should be punished for not participating at the same level as folks they associate with most – retirees.  In the context of voting, the attitude appears to be that if people cannot be bothered to volunteer and show up at meetings, then they shouldn’t be allowed  to vote.  Only people who will take the trouble to go to a polling place should be allowed to vote.   This is a problem.

It spilled over into a discussion of the social committee.  The former head of the social committee, Libby Anglin resigned from the Board.  At her last meeting several months ago, the day before she resigned, there was a discussion critical of the social committee initiated by Waterman and McGraw about how the residents should pay their own way to present social events instead of funding a social committee to do it for them.  Waterman and McGraw referenced their social group, the “Empty Nesters” as the model the community should follow in providing social events.

At the meeting this week, August 19, Jenn Penn, who is an active member of the social committee and and took over leadership from Libby, presented her budget request for an October Fest social event.  Waterman was aggressively critical of Jenn demanding that she produce more details about the proposal, including names of people who will volunteer to work on the programs.  It was an embarrassing display of hostility toward a neighbor working just as hard as anyone else on behalf of  the community.  Ms. Penn took the tongue lashing, said “Ok” and walked out of the meeting.

This attitude, also reflected recently in the pool committee’s initially defensive response to concerns about the pool management this summer, does nothing to encourage people to volunteer.  And there is a clear schism being projected between the folks who are retired and have more disposable time than those folks who are working.

We are all one community and our leadership needs to reflect an acceptance of and ability to work with the diversity.

Thank you Jenn and Libby for all your hard work.

And to be clear, it would be great if more people could volunteer more time.  But we all have different needs and priorities.  We all do what we can.

And Brookfield as well as the Board have been exclusive from the beginning.  Many folks who worked hard on the recall campaign in 2017, volunteering a significant amount of time, have been deliberately excluded from the Board’s work because the board members opposed the recall campaign.  Even though their position was in the small minority, the Board leadership actively excludes folks who don’t agree with them.  This is a problem.

And both Brookfield and the Board on the one hand wanted exclusive control and yet on the other hand complained when people don’t volunteer.

Budget Update – the final budget proposals from the Board “teams” are due to the CRS special district management company August 31.  There will be a meeting of the residents September 23.  There will be public meeting on the budget October 15.

The Board is studying the need for more reserves – saving more money to pay for future maintenance.

Terry Larsen again reported on the status of Brookfield completing the punch list items before turning the new sections of built out developments over to us.  There was discussion about how the strategic growth initiative vote in Lakewood limiting new development may impact Brookfield’s ability to add more homes.

Note:

I was unable to attend the meeting personally but obtained detailed written notes from a resident and reviewed the events in more detail a couple of days later in person.  Others who attended, please add to the report in the event we missed something important.

Libby once proposed to video tape all the meetings.  That idea was not supported by the Board.  Too much fresh air and sunshine I guess.

John Henderson