Replacement for Quickpass?

The replacement of the Quickpass system has lit up our community message like no issue in almost two years.  Residents posting on the matter are universally unhappy.  This is my letter to our community manager on the subject:

Ms. Tatman, good day.

We received your letter regarding the proposals to replace all or part of the residents’ vehicle access system.  Due to a business commitment I shall be unable to attend Thursday’s Board meeting, so I will be obliged if you will pass this e-mail to the Board verbatim.

1.        The proposal to require residents to have access transponders permanently affixed to their vehicles is arrogant, presumptuous and poorly thought through.   It is flatly unacceptable.  Out HOA has no right or domain to fix anything permanently to our vehicles.  I might also add that for those of us owning property in CA, to which we often drive, it presents something of a legal problem since CA vehicle code § 26708 (a) (1) states: “A person shall not drive any motor vehicle with any object or material placed, displayed, installed, affixed, or applied upon the windshield or side or rear windows.”  I own a home in FL too and have a car there.  Suction cups work fine for the toll transponders there.  They’re good enough for Cimarron Hills access transponders.  Also, I doubt you will guarantee the eternal life of these transponders.  Permanent fixture means that the driver, car and transponder will have to be in the same place to fix any problem.  The mail currently works fine for our existing transponders.  Such a use of time may not bother the majority of retirees on our Board.  Some of us have jobs and businesses to run.

2.       You say we may only have two transponders?  My home has a three-car garage. I have paid for three transponders.  Why do you think it is acceptable to short-change me?

3.       I have lived at my home here for more than several years.  You receive money from my bank every month.  There is no reason for me to produce you photo ID to let you know who lives at my home or to obtain access to my community.  I’m sorry, but once again this portrays an arrogant and presumptuous attitude.

This project needs a radical re-think. 

I might also point out that, on December 3^rd 2012 at 2:15pm you wrote:

“Trident Security will be coming on board.  There will be a substantial savings without compromising service. “

And, later at 3:07pm the same day:

“I wanted to clarify that it is only the contracts with Safeguard that involve access control with the security officers at the guardhouse and the evening patrol that are being changed.  The transponders that allow you access into the community and how you set up your visitors are done through Quickpass and will remain the same. Trident works with the Quickpass system just as Safeguard does.”

I don’t expect it was your intention to intentionally mislead the residents to be sanguine about a cost-free change in our security arrangements, but that is what you did.  I distinctly remember Safeguard holding out to us that Quickpass was a proprietary system of theirs.  Other persons now on the Board were present at that meeting.  It stretches our credulity to suppose that our new security firm would not need to replace an access system controlled by their predecessor and competitor.  Members of our Board either knew that or should have known it.   So, having told us some two and a half months ago that the transition would be cost-free, now we find it isn’t.  If I missed it, how much is this new access control project going to cost?

You should not read this e-mail to say that I am against all changes to our access control system.  I have consistently championed security at our gate, and can be persuaded that changes might need to be made and money spent.  But not this project as planned. 

By the way, on the subject of security, the Safeguard guards who did not recognize us had a password in the system to verify identity if we drove through the guarded side of the entrance.  The Trident guards just take our word for it.  Not good.

Regards

Anthony Humpage

Congratulations to our winners!

Congratulations to the winners in tonight's CH HOA Board election.  They were Bob Crandall, Ron Freidman and Barry Werbelow.
I am sure we all wish them the best of luck in their upcoming terms of Board service.

Questions and issues for our AGM

As you may know, our HOA annual general meeting is this coming week.  This would be a good time to confront some serious issues that really do call for answers from our two most senior Board members.  I speak, of course, of Mr. Flink and Mr. Feldman.

Indeed, it was Mr. Flink, who, at our Meet The Candidates evening in April, posed the question to the panel: "Can we trust you?".  It was my belief then, and is now, that Mr. Flink would rather have asked us when we had stopped beating our wives, or, in Mrs. Bulkin's case, her husband.  However I suspect he knew that that would not pass muster with our affable moderator for the evening, Mr. Russell.  In light of what I have found out, it would seem to be a fair question for Mr. Flink and Mr. Feldman, though, turn about being fair play.

Excessive speed on Queen's Wreath.

This issue is the one that has been the subject of most debate on our community forum.  There are two groups of people involved on this issue, and they actually address different things.  There are those who live at the top of the hill who are glad to see the back of the speed bumps.  There are also those who live on or near Queen's Wreath who are concerned about the sometimes wildly excessive speed of vehicles on that street.  The general consensus is that  speeds have increased since the speed bumps were removed, although to the best of my knowledge and belief there has been no objective check.  The Board refuses to answer my questions on this issue.

With all due respect to the first group, this is not an issue about speed bumps, it is an issue about safety.  I personally do not care how speed is to be controlled -- but it does need to be controlled.  Residents of our HOA may reasonably demand that their directors look out for their safety in our community.

With that in mind, I researched the issue in our Board minutes.  In the minutes of August 20th, 2009, an engineer engaged by the Board attended the Board meeting.  This is an extract from that meeting:

OK, well at least we now know what the priorities were. I don't think this is originally what was said, as the bit about individual drivers was added in the approval of these minutes the following month.  We will never know now, but, as I say, at least we know how the Board's priorities were ordered.

Fast forward now to the Board meeting of  February 18th, 2010, when the issue was voted on:

Speed Humps – Bill Fuchs made a motion the remove the four most easterly speed humps and then stripe bike lanes and start a communication program with speed limits and verbal reminders as well as quarterly mailings as additional reminders.  George Jurrow seconded the motion.  There was further discussion about this motion.  Joe indicated that he would like to see a stronger form of education for the homeowners in regards to the safety for the kids.  George Jurrow mentioned that it is a parental responsibility and not the HOA’s.  It was discussed that communication through a newsletter was a good form of communication without coming across as though they were lecturing parents how to drive.  George explained that bad behavior happens on other streets as well and that there is a human nature aspect that needs to be considered.  George also explained that the motion on the table was strongly suggested in the engineering report that had been received.  George said that it repeats in the report that speed humps are strongly discouraged due to emergency response vehicles.  He said that the there was strong support in the engineering technical report to remove the speed humps.  David George disagreed with George Jurrow.  He did not recall it saying in the report to remove speed humps.  David’s recollection was to add bike lanes along with speed tables.  David mentioned that speed bumps will not hold back emergency response vehicles from getting to a scene.  After the discussion, the motion was passed with four votes in favor and one against.   

Having read the report to which Mr. George refers, I conclude he was the only Board member who actually read it it, or at least remembered it.  Two of the four parties voting for that motion were removed from the Board in January this year.  That leaves Messrs. Flink and Feldman.  Now let's look at the report of the engineer commissioned the Board, Gutierrez Civil Solutions, LLC.  Copies of the full report may be obtained from our community manager or I will send you a copy if you e-mail me.

This extract is from page eight:

OK, if we take out the speed bumps speeds will increase.  Later the engineer discusses how effective "education" is:

And here are the engineer's recommendations:

So, our Board had been told in no uncertain terms that to remove the speed bumps without replacing them with another traffic calming measure will result in increased speeds on Queen's Wreath.  By the way, bike lanes are discussed in the report but not as a traffic calming device.

So, to summarize: Mr. Flink and Mr. Feldman, knew, or should have known, that removing the speed bumps would lead to higher speeds on Queen's Wreath, but they went ahead anyway, AND, have proposed nothing to remedy the situation since AND are defensive when confronted by homeowners at Board meetings.  That's a problem.

And, in addition to decreasing road safety in our community they have also probably exposed us to liability as if anyone is injured on Queens Wreath and litigates the issue, this engineer's report is bound to come up in discovery.

January Board Minutes

Another question that remains unanswered is who is responsible for the shameful and scurrilous additions to the January Board minutes.  The issue is covered in detail in the two preceding blog posts, so I won't rehash them again.  Mr. Flink was the Board President at the time, but that does not mean he was the author of the additions.  Given the mean-spirited nature of the writing I have my own suspicions, but who knows?   Someone needs to man up here, stick his hand in the air and tell us why he felt the need to adjust the minutes as he did.  Someone apparently had enough courage to write the edits, but that courage appears to have disappeared now it is time to claim pride of ownership.

Meet The Candidates

At the April meet the candidates evening, in posing me a question  referring to the banking of cash in the  May 2006 financial statements of Cimarron Hills HOA , Mr. Feldman concluded his presentation by asserting that "the bank failed eight months later".  Which would have been January 2007 by my estimation.

It was clearly Mr. Feldman's intent that his statement suggest that the choice of bank was unwise by alleging that it failed shortly thereafter.

According to the FDIC, the bank in question was merged into Mutual of Omaha Bank at the FDIC's direction on July 25th, 2008, some twenty-six months after the date of the financial statements offered, well after I had left the Board, when Mr. Feldman was Treasurer,and when many other national banks were also turning to the government for assistance.  For the record, no-one lost any of their deposits in that merger, or even access to their funds.

Now, I may choose to attach various adjectives to Mr. Feldman, and he to me, I am sure, however careless and stupid are not among them. So, I have to conclude that Mr. Feldman knew or should have known that his statement was untrue and likely to mislead.  I have twice asked Mr. Feldman to substantiate his assertion.  He has failed to do so.

It's a sad thing to say about your HOA treasurer, but based on this experience I will forever have to question if I am hearing the truth from Mr. Feldman or if he has again chosen to mold the truth to meet his needs.

On to the AGM.....

The original January Board minutes (pre-"edits")

Following are the original January Board minutes before the three remaining members of our Board decided to "edit" them to assuage their egos.  I would have to say that these minutes, before the enhancements provided by the Board, look much more like the professional minutes I have come to expect.

Everyone becomes angry from time to time.  It's human nature.  But what is worth remembering is that, absent the entry annotated in hand by the scribe, the "enhancements" made to the original minutes were not done in the heat of the moment, but in the cold light of day some days or weeks later.  What that tells us is that ego is a huge deal for our remaining Board members.  In fact, I think a reasonable person might conclude that ego is clearly more important than service to our Board.  If you ever wondered why some people seek office, now you know.

As I stated in my previous post, I believe resignations should follow swiftly.  I doubt they will.  Please consider this when you cast your votes for Cimarron Hills Board.

Click on each page or image to view it full size.

The scandal that is our Board Minutes

The minutes of our HOA Board meetings of January and February were recently posted to the Rossmar and Graham website.  To save you the torture of negotiating the R&G site to obtain your own copies I have attached them here.  I have had to upload these as images so to view each page full-size, just click on the image.

In Matthew 7:20 we read: "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them"  These minutes -- and more to the point, the edits provided by the Board -- tell us more about these gentlemen and their ethics than we should ever want to know.  Since I first read these minutes I have been struggling to find a word to describe them.  That word is scandalous.  When I was on the HOA Board we would never have countenanced either writing or publishing such documents.

I was not present at the January Board meeting, although I gather it was quite heated.  Given its proximity to the special election that removed two Board members it is entirely understandable that feelings would run high, both from the floor and the Board.  That does not excuse what has been added to these minutes by the Board (see following).

Today Mr. Mayer posted this on the Cimarron Hills discussion group, and I take him at his word: 

I received a call from Rossmar this morning.  Mr Hanley (President), Mr CogHill (VP), Deanna (Recording Secretary) and Don Russell were all on the phone.

 Mr Hanley said Deanna's Jan/Feb meeting minutes were changed by the board.  Mr Hanley did not feel comfortable in disclosing what the changes.   Mr Hanley did apologize about the inappropriate personal attacks recorded in the minutes.  He said that should never had happened.    Though Mr Hanley said it will be an uncomfortable situation, Rossmar will tell the board changes like the ones directed in Jan/Feb will no longer be allowed. 

In my judgment the January minutes are, as I have said before, tortious.  By amending and propagating the minutes as they did, our Board not only engaged in stroking their petty piques and egos, they subjected our community to potential monetary damages.  Any of the three who partook in this "editing", and/or voted to approve these minutes should promptly resign, and withdraw from any elective office they may happen to be running for.  At the end of the day, the President, who acts as Chariman, has the final responsibility.

The February minutes are less egregious than January, however they still contain expressions of opinion added after the fact that have no place in professional minutes.  I might also add that the minutes are inaccurate and incomplete as they relate to my question about the speed humps -- actually I asked if we had before and after speed tests -- and as they relate to my question about admittance of visitors to open houses.   

Board election candidacy

You will know that I have stated in previous posts that while I have been seriously considering offering myself for election to our HOA Board, I had not absolutely decided.  Reason being that, while on the one hand I plan on being a very long-term resident of Cimarron Hills and care deeply about our community, I am also under no illusion about what the commitment entails. I've done it before. I received a letter today from  part-time CH residents Jerome and Linda Carlson which made up my mind.  I will be a candidate for our Board in the forthcoming election.
The Carlsons, apparently, take umbrage at a section from my Manifesto for Cimarron Hills, which I am reproducing below:

Maintenance of the quality of life and security of our community should be the primary concern of the Board consistent with conservative and sensible financial and operating practices.  This does not strike me as being that hard to grasp, but apparently it is for some.

In our most recent Board meeting I watched a resident who, from what I heard, was rightly quite angry and despairing about the unwillingness of the Board to enforce our CC&Rs.  What I heard about were not minor infractions, so, if I can grasp that enforcing our important CC&Rs (we are not talking about a bin left out overnight here) is essential to maintaining our quality of life, how is it that our Board does not?  I asked Mr. Friedman very directly if he had consulted our HOA attorney on legal remedies.  I did not receive a reply.

Other residents have complained about excessive speed in our community since the Board removed the speed humps.  I asked Mr. Friedman a direct question about measured speeds in our community at the February Board meeting and did not receive a reply.  If we do not know if traffic is faster or slower now, how might we even begin to address the issue of road safety in our community?

I believe I am correct to question the quality of the judgment that is, and has been displayed by our Board members on these and other issues.  If you agree with me, I will appreciate your support in the upcoming Board election.

Expansion of McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

Being lucky enough to live, as we do, on the border of the beautiful McDowell Sonoran Preserve, you may be interested to read that Scottsdale is working to purchase another large chunk of land to add to the preserve:
http://bit.ly/eOPGco
While I may not always appreciate some of the  machinations that went on in the process to bring us the Preserve, I am always glad when I am in it.  It is a great asset to our community.