2006 Annual Owner’s Meeting - Part 1
Monday, July 31st, 2006
The Annual Hidden Lake Propertry Owner’s Meeting, Part 1
As I start to write a summary based on our notes from Saturday’s meeting, I am beginning to discover that it will take a very long time to get it all down. This meeting was long, it was unpleasant for some, and some very important business was handled. I therefore have the problem of scheduling enough time to write this up properly, and still get on with other obligations in my life.
I have therefore decided to write it in sections, and publish the information as I get it written down. That way, you can at least read the parts I have so far, and not have to wait for it all at once. I apologize for this inconvenience, but at least you can see it as it’s written, and not have to wait for a long time for the official minutes to tell you what happened.
Background
It’s important to point out that the actions that took place on Saturday were not single, isolated incidents; nor were they arbitrary on the part on individual owners. They were the result of a significant number of people who were increasingly dissatisfied with the behavior of the present board’s management of Hidden Lake. Many of us have decided that enough is enough. While several property owners have actually sold their properties up here specifically because they don’t feel a need to deal with the politics of an out of control board, others of us have decided that it’s time to take back the board and require it’s behavior to be in the interest of the property owners.
The Meeting:
Saturday, July 29th, was the annual Hidden Lake property owner’s meeting. Like meetings in the past, this one was filled with lots of spirited discussion, but unlike meetings in the past, this one looked like it was going to go all night!
There were many seriously dissatisfied owners at the meeting, a few who were not all that worked up, and a few who were just trying to figure out what was going on. Before you read further in this article, you should know that I was one of the seriously dissatisfied people, and therefore will probably slant my writing in that direction, even though I try to be factual in every way.
You should also know that this report is by no means an official report. These are not minutes. While I have most of the meeting on video tape, I’m writing this from memory in order to get it out quickly, so I may miss a couple of points, and may be just plain wrong in others. Please don’t take these comments as the absolute record. Having said all the disclaimer stuff, we’ll move along.
The First Hour
The meeting started with a few words from various people; Joe Stehling gave a good report about Firewise, I gave a brief talk about fire department issues, and county commissioner Bill Conley talked about a few things that are of interest to Hidden Lake folks.
According to Bill, the county is looking at placing dumpsters at one of two places; maybe both. The first location is at the spot along Highway 120 where it turns to dirt. The second location is at the Black Lake Fire Station, along Highway 120 near Angel Fire.
Mr. Conley is planning to meet with some state officials in the next couple of weeks to discuss the possibility of improving Highway 120 from the Moreno Valley to Ocate. The obvious reasons are that it would result in an important improvement for the people who live in the area. Commuters (yes, people commute to work every day on that road) would have a safer, more effiicient road, and tourists from Oklahoma and Texas would enjoy about an hour less travel time when coming to the Moreno Valley. Tourism is an important industry here.
He reminded us that locking the gate at Hidden Lake is not an option since the roads at Hidden Lake are public county roads.
Mr. Conley also gave us some advice: If we’re planning to seek political action, consider doing it as a unified group. He says that groups like property owner’s associations get more attention when they act as one rather than as single individuals. Important words to remember as we move forward, especially in light of our current level of hostility.
After Lunch:
The Roads
We moved right into business. Joe gave a report about the roads. Essentially, we’ve done nothing for the roads this year, except to have a contractor come up just prior to this meeting and grade some of them. The cost of that grading will be about $3,000.00. As for the rest, Joe says that to repair the roads will cost about $30,000 per mile. Being that we don’t have the money, he elected not to do anything.
It wasn’t clear if the price Joe was quoting was to bring the roads up to county standards, or to simply repair them. My impression was that he was talking about bringing the roads up to county standards, which means to lay down several inches of road base.
I wasn’t sure why we don’t simply repair the roads, and not worry about “county standards”. The county isn’t going to take over these roads anyway, so what exactly are we doing here? In the meantime, since the $3,000.00 grader job a week ago, the road that I drive every day to my home has portions of it that has no road base. It’s just dirt.
By my elementary mathematics, and based on Joe’s comments, it will take about 18 years to go over all the roads at Hidden Lake. Fortunately, there will be a different group running things here shortly, and the hope is that we can get back on track; doing what’s reasonable!
There was a long discussion about what causes the roads to go bad. One homeowner pointed out that small vehicles travelling too fast causes washboarding; that it wasn’t the large vehicles doing all the damage. This discussion then moved into why we were charging an assessment for people building homes if it wasn’t the big trucks causing the damage. While the discussion centered around the idea that small vehicles traveling too fast was actually causing the problems, I must admit that I am not aware of a “washboarding” issue here. I’ll make a point to look more closely at the roads to see if there is evidence of significant washboarding.
The real point of the road damage is that damage happens for all sorts of reasons. We need to be able to repair them and move on, and so far we’re failing at this task. Again, there were changes at the meeting yesterday that will most likely solve this problem.
Minutes From 2005
Approved the minutes from last year. Not much to report there.
Kay’s Motion To Limit Speaking Time
Kay made a motion to limit our speaking time to 1 minute to keep things moving along. Discussion seemed to reflect that we meet only once a year, and we should take as long as we needed to make our point. Motion failed.
The Frank Collins Presentation
Frank Collins gave a discussion outlining the chronology of purchasing the “30 year old dump truck”. While Kay corrected him several times; that it was “snow removal equipment”, it seemed clear to at least me that it was a “30 year old dump truck”.
Essentially, Frank outlined compelling reasoning that the board had clear instructions from the membership to purchase snow removal equipment in the form of a back-hoe. The specific model and year was left up to the board. The special assessment was set for $500.00 per lot, which would potentially raise about $50,000.00. Instead, the board purchased a “30 year old dump truck” for around $65,000.00!
It’s important to mention that the board did indeed know that their instructions were to purchase snow removal equipment in the form of a back-hoe that would suppliment the grader. This was specifically outlined in their original notice of assessment to the property owners.
I will contact Frank in the next few days to see if I can have permissin to print the entire speech here for everyone to read. His points were well made, and based on verifiable facts.
While there’s been no credible reason for the decision to change the type of equipment purchased, the board did produce a list of pros and cons for one piece over another. The list, in my personal opinion, seems to be flawed in several ways, which is probably in part responsible for the flawed decision on the part of the baord. That’s another discussion we could have later. For now, we’re talking about the meeting.
Shortly after Frank’s speech, one owner asked the Board to resign, based on their mishandling of the “30 year old dump truck”.
After this presentation and disussion, a property owner made the motion that a committee of three be formed to review the “30 year old dump truck”, determine its value, and make a recommendation to the owners to either sell this equipment in favor of a more suitable machine(s), or keep it. The motion carried. The committee will be formed and report back to the membership. Expect a special ballot in a couple of months.
New Property Manager
Kris Perrault was introduced to the membership. He is our new property manager. Some of the work that Kris is doing, including significant improvements to the cabin inside and out, new septic system, and a new roof over the garage to replace the one that was improperly installed when Luis was here.
Kris and his wife Emily have been working hard to make a home for themselves in our community. They appear to be deeply rooted in the Angel Fire community, attending church on a regular basis, and socializing with many friends in the area.
As many of you know, I have been critical of the apparent lack of good business sense in keeping a caretaker up here in the past. While I still have that opinion, I appear to be in the minority. When I was trying to remove Luis in the past, I was doing so based on work performance, not because of my opinon about the usefullness of the position itself. It therefore should be no surprise that I support Kris and his efforts here at Hidden Lake. He is working hard and, in my opinion, is performing the tasks asked of him in an outstanding fashion. Would I have hired Luis in a personally owned business? No, I wouldn’t! Would I hire Kris? You Betcha! In a flash. If we are going to have a caretaker, this is the guy.
Some other property management issues
During the caretaker introduction, some other interesting issues came up. It was brought out that Joe Stehling had authorized the tree thinning contractor to take/purchase a significant amount of diesel fuel. Kris says he was ordered by Joe to dispense the fuel. Joe says that he knew nothing about it. It’s important to mention that the contractor was working Joe’s property at the time. Kris also expressed concern to me at the time it happened because he was concerned for the property owners’ resources, and didn’t know what to to. I advised him to follow Joe’s orders. I sat on the information because I knew there was no one on the board I could report it to that would give it any credibility, and I didn’t want to get Kris into hot water for no reason.
Another property owner expressed dissatisfaction that the tree thinning contractor had been given permission to drive their equipment across his property on an old logging road. He said that his information says that Joe Stehling had given the contractor permission to drive across. Joe said that he knew nothing about it, which puts the responsibility back on Kris.
You need to know that this is one of those portions of the report where I am somewhat predjudiced. I have here the problem of, do I believe Kris, or do I believe Joe? All I can tell you is that I work with Kris on the fire department. We do things that are potentially very dangerous in our volunteer firefighting efforts. Would I go into a burning building with Kris? Well, yes, I would. If I’ll do that, it should be no surprise that I believe him to be a truthful and consciencious young man. Do I believe Joe? I believe that Joe wants to tell you the truth, but I have on occasion known Joe to get the truth a little confused. I won’t go into a “Joe smashing campaign here”, I’m just relating my personal experience.
End of Part 1
This ends part 1. I’ll get to the rest of the story later today. Look for one, possibly two more parts shortly. I have left this story open for comments, so if you dispute my view of things, feel free to make your comments. If you agree, feel free to comment on that too. This web site is open to everyone to use, and folks need to know what the rest of the owners think.
Don Fink
