Finance & Legal minutes: 2019-05-28

Minutes:

Minutes of 5-28-19 F&L Meeting
7 pm in CH Sitting Room


Present: Becky G., Becky H., Debbi, Amy
Guest: Bennie
Absent: Sharon




1. Basement Egress proposal: Debrief 5/20/19 Comty Mtg and plan next
steps.


The meeting went surprisingly well. People had a lot of questions. Since
the meeting, we’ve heard from a couple of people in the relevant buildings
that they do not want to pay for the path behind their building.


Some questions we couldn’t answer at the meeting:
* Don’t remember if the quote from Reid includes the little sidewalks
connecting the households to the new main path behind the buildings.
* Can a household refuse to have a connector sidewalk if they don’t want
one?


There was discussion about how we don’t yet know the actual cost. We’re
awaiting an actual bid from Reid.


GOCA paid for all the initial front sidewalks and pedway as part of the
original building project. The expense benefitted all households, and was
divided between all households. The difference here is that the walks
behind the buildings primarily benefit certain households who will be able
to make money by renting out their basements. The rest of the community
doesn’t have the opportunity to break even on the expenditure.


The process for getting the sidewalks built is multidimensional and won’t
happen overnight, so there needs to be something to limit the liability to
the community now. For the time being, until there is safe access to the
walkout doors, leases need to say that the front door is the primary access
point. Becky H. will send Bennie a copy of the current draft lease that
F&L has been working on, and will request language from our attorney
requiring front door egress until such time as there is a safe pathway
behind the buildings. This will be added to the draft lease.


It’s conceivable that the project wouldn’t happen at all. The work
wouldn’t start until 50% of the money is put in by homeowners, and if not
enough people are willing to put in funds, it could stop altogether.


If this happens, what then? Could be sub-optimal for both renters and
landlords. We know this is frustrating for the people who really want
this. F&L is trying to balance the needs of individuals vs. the needs of
the community. We hope the community will approve the proposal.


Bennie pointed out that there is a fairness issue. Debbi agreed and
suggested an amendment to the proposal, that any household that refuses to
contribute would be prohibited from renting out their basement for a few
years unless they pay their share.


F&L’s job is to provide a proposal for the community to discuss and decide
about. We’ve done that. Now it’s up to individuals to persuade others
that it’s in the community’s interest to support the proposal.


People in the households who don’t want to contribute seem to be coming
from two main places: the certainty that they will never rent their
basements, or the financial difficulty of paying. GO has a culture of not
asking people to pay for things that financially hurt them.


It would be a shame if it didn’t happen. The stairs to the wetlands have
been in the community plan since the beginning and people want them. There
seems to be interest in getting this done.


It would be possible to ask others for donations. This would be a private
arrangement, not organized by F&L or the community. But the community
would still need to oversee the work.


Bennie asked if this would be a Master Deed change or Bylaws. Debbi thinks
it would be a Master Deed change. Our attorney would verify.


This is an issue that people have thought about a long time. But it wasn’t
until last year that we had a person with a rental unit on the north slope
where people didn’t use want to let the renters use the front door. We
hadn’t talked about putting sidewalks in before.


What will happen next? The legal lease language needs to get sorted out so
the Association is not liable. When this proposal is agreed upon, it will
become part of the Book of Agreements, and we can move forward with the
project even if the Master Deed changes are not yet done.


We need to clarify in the proposal about the connecting paths. We need to
go through the proposal again to make any changes before we bring it back.


Becky G. will read the minutes and the proposal again, then resend the link
to F&L by our next meeting (June 12). We will keep the formal quote
numbers from Reid in an addendum with the caveat that while this is a final
quote, it could change.


Becky G. reported that the conversation with Reid had some interesting
points:


* As requested, Bennie contacted the Township about code, and a woman named
Laura sent him the code, saying the path has to be ADA compliant.
* Becky G. said she doesn’t think this would apply, as there’s no way to
get to the proposed sidewalk except by stairs.
* Reid and Becky talked about what we want the path to be made out of, and
what’s to code.
* His dad rents out properties. If it is not a completely separate
apartment (sep utilities and address) - in his experience a gravel pathway
would be just fine.
* But, we have issues like snow removal, etc.
* He also didn’t think ADA would apply because you have to take stairs to
get down there.
* How do we decide, or will it be a Grounds decision what the path will be
made of? Grounds.
* There would have to be a site review by Scio Township for this project.
* We’ll have to figure out if we need to change our official site plan
and how we do that and pay for it.
* In order to bring in the heavy equipment to do this job, they very likely
will have to level the land behind Sharon’s building, perhaps not at the
same level of quality as they do behind the buildings we’re focused on.
Who pays for that piece? They need to make it level enough to traverse it.
The only reason it would happen would be to make the main part of the
project happen, so GO would pay for this. The people in that building need
to be told about this. We’ll put it in the background of the project.
“Partially leveled.”
* Brainstorm: Sharon’s building could decide that it wants to participate
in making a level, smooth path along behind all the buildings, so that it
could be ADA compliant and improve access to the community. Just a thought.
* Reid said that permeable pavers can be as expensive or more so than
concrete, and don’t do as good a job as concrete as far as ice removal goes.


An obvious pro for the proposal is that it would make it so that we don’t
have to force people to provide primary egress through their front door. If
the proposal doesn’t go through, one of the implications is that people
*will* have to let their renters use the front door. Whatever’s decided
needs to be explicitly stated in our legal documents.


At our next meeting, we’ll discuss a process for introducing the landlord
lease, as well as the changes to the basement egress proposal.


2. Bookkeeping updates
a. Arrears
* There were a couple of unpaid association fees that showed up in the
books mid-month that hadn’t been there before
* One household with a payment plan made a payment in April, but has not
yet made their promised payment in May, so they are not yet current.
* Another household has fallen behind—unusual for them. Becky H. will
follow up.
* The household with the largest arrears said they would submit a
payment to get under $1,000 by the end of May. If this doesn’t happen,
we’ll need to ask Rick to file a lien. He sends a letter ahead of placing
a lien, so there will be additional fair warning to the household.
b. Becky was sick last week and is still behind on sending out reports.
Will do so at the beginning of
next month, reflecting all bills paid by the end of the May.
c. Unit 24 had condensation, they thought it might be a leak, but it
wasn’t. Buildings did not send Becky the invoice right away. When they did
send it to Becky, they said Adi needs to billed for it. But it’s too late
to bill him; he no longer owns the unit.
f. Becky will draft a message to Buildings that says if there’s work that
needs to be done that turns out not to be the community’s responsibility,
they can only charge it to the household if the household has been advised
that it might be charged to them.


3. Polly & Drew’s roof - Becky G. will request a letter from Rick to
the solar panel company asking them to reimburse GOCA for the repairs since
the roof damage was clearly caused by their actions. We have documentation
in the form of an email trail.

4. Progress on Priority items
a. Master Deed & Bylaws - tabled
b. Reserve Study - Amy to prompt Mary; but both have been away
c. Basement egress issue – in progress
d. Truck Proposal – Amy to share proposal with Grounds
e. Calendar of routine tasks – underway
f. Landlord leases – discussed above in #1; will be discussed again
next time.
g. Unit modifications/Documenting build-outs (Master Deed, insurance,
Buildings/ARC process) – the
MD part has already been discussed in a plenary conversation.

6. Ongoing items
a. CH Com re: CH Leases and proof of insurance - Awaiting Syndallas’s
proof of insurance.
b. Canoes by pond - Dale and others moved the canoes onto the stands,
and removed the oars. The first canoe was donated by Dale. We don’t know
where the second one came from. The canoes need to be locked up. This is
a Grounds issue. Either lock or remove the canoes, and post a sign saying
that the canoes are for co-housers only.
c. Pallets - a group of volunteer Great Oakers removed the worst of
them, so it’s now safer than it was.
d. Path into wetlands We’ll also recommend that Grounds post a sign
saying that this is private property. Amy will follow up on these messages.



7. Matters arising

Cooler doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_dmnNJmHmrwwFIfnscnRbPK-_8_kmahfFsOTn_fEvTY/edit
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