Finance & Legal minutes: 2017-05-11

Minutes:

GO Finance & Legal Committee
Minutes of 5-11-17 Meeting

Present: Becky G., Becky H., Debbi, Amy, Sharon, Rod


1. Welcome Sharon & Rod!
Sharon is our newest counted member, and Rod has a special projects job
focusing on insurance.

2. New Insurance Policy (Rod)

George from Goodman Venegas was supposed to call Rod today and send a copy
of the quotes he was expecting from a couple of companies, Travelers for
the truck, and Berkshire Hathaway Guard for the Association policy. Rod
did not hear from him today and sent an email during the meeting, and will
call him tomorrow, as members of the committee were concerned that the
truck and association policies are set to run out on Monday, May 15.

However, George gave Rod the impression that the extension we got from
Michigan Millers was for 30 to 45 days, not just 30 days, and that they
would work with us.

We asked Rod to request from George something in writing saying that we’re
covered with the truck and GOCA, with dates in writing. We noted that we
could take the truck off the road if necessary, but we need a property
insurance binder for sure.

Rod told George that when we get the new policies, F&L will review them and
get back to him quickly.

We briefly discussed the fact that F&L is not empowered, but since there’s
money in the GOCA budget for insurance, and this is an urgent matter, it
seems appropriate for F&L to move ahead with the decision without community
consultation. We did not get community approval last time we changed the
insurance. But if it turns out that we do need more community support, we
could work with Steering to make a decision quickly.

There are areas in particular that insurance companies are concerned about:
the treehouse, fireworks, and the way we use our truck, because we have so
many drivers. George thinks the truck can be covered by a new firm. The
other company may decide to write a policy with the treehouse and
fireworks, or possibly they will say that they won’t cover these items.
Rod asked if we could get itemization to see how much these elements add to
the cost. George said there’s no way to do that directly, we can only
compare the old and new policies. He did say that he expects the cost to
go up.

Earlier, George had told Becky G. that we don’t have to worry about the
fireworks coverage right away. We might be able to get a one-day event
coverage for that.


Rod will talk to Syndallas sometime soon to learn more about her thinking
about insurance. She is knowledgeable and has ideas about how we could
improve GO’s process around insurance. She originally connected GO with
Goodman Venegas.

3. Bringing Sharon up to speed on F&L’s current priorities

a. Audit – Becky G is getting all the stuff together for Jessica for
the 2016 tax return (we filed an extension) and 2016 audit. As Treasurer,
Amy will sign the contract. The taxes and audit combined will cost $2400,
as we budgeted.

b. Khalid is our new CPA since Len retired. Susan is the same
bookkeeper who does our reconciling, late fees, etc. It’s good to have
checks and balances by working with an outside firm. Len used to do our
taxes, but we’re going to have our auditors do them this time. Sometime
soon we should meet the new guy.

c. CH Assessment Liens – After a delay since the agreement to place
liens on households with CH Assessments, we informed the eight households
who are still paying that we would be placing the liens and charging them
for the attorney fees and filing expenses. Two households have chosen to
pay off their balances, and two more households have said they want to pay
theirs off. The deadline is May 30.

d. Insurance – discussed already.

e. Master Deed – A year ago, we picked up the MD update work that had
previously fallen by the wayside. Debbi is in the lead on this and had
brought forward several pieces to the community for initial discussion and
approval. So far, we have agreed on garage usage rights and how to
transfer them, and that we need to have language in the MD that empowers us
to do special assessments – this is implicit in the Condo Law, but most
condos have it in their MD. We have identified some language in the Bylaws
that needs to be updated (such as our committee structure). We’ve also
gotten some agreement on what the association is responsible for and what
individuals are responsible for, but this needs to come back.

A piece about putting a monetary value on the work requirement had been
discussed in the past, and writing it into the MD was aired with our old
lawyer Keast. We need to discuss whether to pursue this or not. We don’t
think it would survive a community conversation.

Overview of GO governing docs: Debbi thinks it would be worth doing this
again since we have quite a few new people since this was last done.

Committees need to write into their mandates anything that the MD or Bylaws
require them to do.

Regarding the big spreadsheet about responsibility that had been created in
the past, the intent had been to make it comprehensive and complete. We
have moved away from this concept, because it’s inevitable that it will
miss something, and because things change more frequently than we are
likely to be able to update the Master Deed. Instead, we want to make sure
the examples in it are correct, and perhaps add more examples, but above
all, to make sure the MD specifies the organizing principles. Make sure
it’s clear why something is in a category, to help us direct the inevitable
new things.

Responsibility for any additions or build-outs in units needs to be
clarified. And damage stemming from one unit into another also needs to be
defined.

We don’t keep track of additions as part of the ARC process. Our lawyer
recommended that we have people sign a document making it clear to them
that any build-outs or additions are their responsibility, and that their
insurance will cover it, not GOCA’s. When they sell, this needs to be in
their disclosure documents.

At the next regular F&L meeting, Debbi will have an outline of how we will
move forward on the MD work and get it wrapped up.

There was a conversation with our lawyer about whether to edit or amend the
MD, or redo from scratch? He seemed to think amending was the way to go.
TS’s MD is very different from ours, the language is much plainer.

The Association has to do a formal vote to approve MD changes, and the
mortgage holders also have to vote. They have time to respond, but silence
is assent.

Then there’s a deck refund for some units after that, if changes to the MD
are approved.

f. Truck. We are waiting for the new insurance policy to be in place
before finalizing the truck policy. We reviewed the history for Sharon. It
appears that the insurer concerns are that we have SO many drivers.

Since Keith is no longer on F&L, no one has been updating the truck
billing. Maybe we go with a flat fee to use the truck? We billed $198 in
truck usage for all of 2016. Anyone who wants to be a driver puts $10 in.
Put in your own gas. Only turn in a receipt when you’re doing GO
business. Just an idea, but sounds interesting.

4. Old business

a) Review of most recent draft minutes – Amy asked members to review the
past meetings minutes so she can send them out.

b) We discussed a request from a household for a waiver of late fees. Our
policy is that we will waive late fees if the household establishes a
payment plan in which they keep current, plus they pay an amount toward
bringing down their arrears.

5. New business
a) Meeting schedule adjustments.

We reviewed the dates of F&L meetings for the season and adjusted to meet
member needs. Our next meeting will be on May 22.
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