Meeting Minutes Annual 6-2-07

1. CALL TO ORDER: The 2007 Annual Meeting of the Sandia Heights Homeowners Association was called to order by President Dick Cline at 10:07 a.m. at the Church of the Good Shepherd. A majority of the Board members was present.

2. WELCOME: The President welcomed everyone, stating that it was a 2-part meeting, with the annual business portion first, and then a town hall meeting following that. At this time we only have 35 members present so please use your cell phones to call a neighbor.

3. INTRODUCTION OF BOARD/COMMITTEE CHAIRS/OFFICE STAFF: The President introduced the board members in attendance and stated the committee each served on (Ed Tull, Ed Tull, Ed Whitten, Kerney Bolton, Marsha Thole, Sylvia Cline, Gene Church, Sy Caudill, Larry Desonier) Also serving: Kevin Koval, Jim Irving, Deborah Liebner, Mike Winokur (Absent/excused): Bill McCall, Burt O’Neil, Thomas Coyne, Suzanne Lowell Popejoy, Sue Tombaugh.

Also noted were the chairs of Special Committees: Don Wortman, Bob Francis and Bob Chistman; and office staff, Sheraz Saint-Lôt and Lena Martinez (present).

4. APPOINTMENT OF THE MINUTES APPROVAL COMMITTEE: The President appointed the SHHA BOD to serve as a committee to approve the minutes of this annual meeting.

5. QUORUM: The President announced that the quorum for this meeting was 40 members. We do not yet have a quorum, and therefore we will continue with the meeting and wait for a quorum.

6. REPORT OF THE 2006 MINUTES REVIEW COMMITTEE: The minutes of the 2006 Annual Meeting which were reviewed by the Board of Directors at its July 2006 meeting and found to be correct. Those minutes are on file in the official record book in the office.

7. REPORTS OF OFFICERS: These are the summary reports covering July 2006-June 2007. Complete reports are on file in the Official Record Book for SHHA 2006-2007.

Article II Section 2 of the bylaws charges your Board with presenting reports to the membership. Board members and others appointed to special groups do this by reporting on and submitting meeting reports for the official record, which are available in the office. In addition, we keep the membership informed via the publication of the information in the GRIT, our association newsletter and on the website.

I would like to highlight our accomplishments from June of last year through last month, run down some of our future plans, and give you some concerns where we need to involve the members of the community.

a. Email voting: This was eliminated to make sure all board members in attendance at the appropriate meeting could hear all comments on each issue before voting.

b. Committee requirements – The statute requires that a committee have at least 2 board members on it. This required renaming some of our ad hoc committees as special groups, and putting them under a committee.

2. Area Projects – The ACC continues to work many projects within Sandia Heights. Kerney will cover these. We’ve had representatives at several County Planning meetings for the following 4 major projects:

a. Maestas Property – at the corner of San Rafael and Tramway Blvd. The County Planning Commission approved 8 homes in the 1.4 acres.

b. T-Mobile cell tower at Futures for Children – still in the works. Ed Whitten has worked this very hard and hopefully T-Mobile has designed an acceptable solution.

c. 900 Tramway Lane - at the corner of Paseo del Norte and Tramway Blvd. Don Wortman will cover this later.

d. We were again successful in working with our state Representatives Bill Rehm and Kathy McCoy to request and receive Capital Outlay money for road improvements in Sandia Heights. The legislature did approve $575k for 2007 paving which includes $200k switched from a 2006 sound wall project that is not needed. The current road work underway, which I am sure many of you have seen, is a result of SHHA's efforts working with our representatives from last year’s state budget.

3. Questionnaires - We’ve sent out 2 questionnaires this year to which we have had a great response.

a. Traffic and Safety survey – the results have been tabulated and are being provided to the appropriate county authorities. We would like to get the appropriate authorities together to do a comprehensive review of all our traffic devices (speed humps, stop signs, etc.), speed limits, and walking areas, to see whether there is a way to improve the overall safety of our roads.

b. The Communications and Covenant compliance survey – the Communications & Publications Committee will incorporate recommendations into our communication products, and the Covenant Support Committee will review the way they enforce covenants.

4. Subdivision assignment to SHHA. Last year, there was a review of the paperwork that assigned each subdivision to the SHHA for ACC and CSC compliance. It was found that units 21 and 26 had not been properly transferred to the SHHA. We subsequently found the appropriate paper work assigning Unit 26 to the SHHA. However, we never found Unit 21’s paperwork. After much contact with Centex, the builder, we still have not been able to correct this shortfall. We will continue to work this issue.

5. Social Events: We held several social events. After reviewing the state liquor dispensing requirements, we found out we were asking our volunteers to break the law. By serving alcohol at a social event, and the person serving did not have the correct liquor dispensing license, the person serving was committing a felony. Also, the SHHA was liable if someone had an accident. The board voted to eliminate alcohol at our social events, except for the wine tasting event, if everyone involved were licensed properly.

6. Unified Covenants: After 6 neighborhood reviews, the board felt that there was not enough support to continue, at this time, which requires in most units a 75 percent affirmative vote to pass. The Unified Covenants are not dead, but more discussion with property owners is needed. A comparison between the new proposed covenants and the current covenants needs to be presented to the property owners before being sent out for approval.

My main efforts this year have gone toward getting a sense of the Sandia Heights’ community concerns. In doing so, we’ve sent out 2 surveys.

The first was the Traffic and Safety survey, which went out in the February GRIT. We received more than 370 responses and almost 1000 comments related to the 11 survey questions. The April GRIT included a quick snapshot of the Yes/No count. The comments have been grouped by question and unit. Our Traffic & Safety committee now has the task of reviewing your responses to determine a plan of action.

The second survey dealt with Covenant Support and Communications & Publications committee issues. It went out in the April GRIT. As of the end of May, we had received more than 230 replies. We’re in the process of grouping the comments by question and unit.

I’d just like to thank you for filling out the surveys and quickly returning them to the office. Thank you for your support.

The Board accepted this report and the result of the financial review is available in the SHHA office if you are interested. The next Independent Financial Review will be scheduled in 2008 to examine the financial records ending December 2007.

I have also included copies of the 2006 cash flow report, and the 2007 cash flow report through May 31st. As you can see from the reports, we continue to run in the black and are growing our reserves. The 2006 annual report will be included in the July issue of the Grit. Are there any questions?

Thank you, Ed. These reports, as well as all the other officer and committee reports, will be filed in the Official Record Book and with the report to the State.

QUORUM: The President announced that the quorum for this meeting was 40 members. As of 10:28 we have a quorum, the voting body of this annual meeting was thereby established.

The residents of Sandia Heights continued to remodel their homes and build new ones at a fast pace. The ACC manages between 100 & 150 projects at any given time during the year. And, this past year, it took action on 312 new projects as well.

The ACC continues to focus its efforts on fair and evenhanded covenant enforcement and increased transparency of its decision-making processes.

In 2005, the Committee began publishing a Project Log on the SHHA website. Last year, 2006, the Committee began publishing an Activity Log in the GRIT each month. As a result, we hope that homeowners are now more aware of what the ACC does and the basis for its decisions.

This year the committee revised its Design Guidelines for Walls & Fences, Solar Collectors, and Landscaping. Most significantly among these changes, the Committee will no longer approve the planting of trees, which can be expected to exceed 26 feet at maturity. This change was made in direct response to comments received from a questionnaire published in the GRIT. Also new is a requirement that ground-mounted central AC units conform to the County’s noise pollution ordinance.

In order to reduce its response to application times, the Committee is now meeting twice a month, on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, instead of once a month.

Commercial development activity in Sandia Heights this year once again centered on the property on the northeast corner of Tramway Boulevard and San Rafael. The developer of that property dropped its request for a day-spa on part of the property and received a special use permit from the County for 8 patio homes instead. The ACC will be working with the developer to assure appropriate control over the development of that property.

Taken all together, the past year has offered many challenges and opportunities for the Architectural Control Committee and the Committee believes that it has grown more open and fair in the process. We hope that you agree.

During the intervening time since the last annual meeting, the Covenant Support Committee (CSC) has received 38 complaints from SHHA members using the complaint form provided for such requests. Several complaints were received either in the form of letters from SHHA members, unsigned letters, or on complaint forms from non-SHHA members. Those SHHA members submitting letters were requested to submit the appropriate complaint form. In keeping with a long-standing association policy, unsigned letters and complaint forms from non-SHHA members were not acted upon.

Of the complaints received, only a few complainants had contacted the violator prior to filing. As has been noted numerous times, the CSC prefers that communication between neighbors precede any involvement by the committee. Surprisingly, this initial contact between neighbors often clears up the problem and prevents future misunderstandings.

Of the complaints received, 4 were referred to the Architectural Control Committee, 12 resulted in a request for support from the Bernalillo County Zoning Department, 1 resulted in a request for support from the Bernalillo Count Sheriff’s Department, and 2 involved intervention of the SHHA attorney.

The most common violations during this term concerned unused vehicles, shining lights, and trash and trash containers.

Following the town hall meetings last year concerning the proposed Unified Covenants project, there was concern that the residents had not had sufficient input to the development process. To alleviate this concern, it would have been necessary to hold another series of meetings with the specific objective of gathering further input. The Covenant Review Group would then have had to modify the existing version of the proposed covenants, incorporating the suggestions where appropriate. This would have been followed by a Board of Directors review and possible modification.

After four years of effort, and now facing a shortage of support, the Review Group decided to incorporate the pertinent comments from the town hall meetings into a final version, and to give that version to the BOD for further action.

The Finance Committee met monthly this year with several objectives to accomplish. Some of these objectives were intended to streamline the internal procedures of the office operations and several were to reduce or minimize cost. The internal Finance Procedures were significantly modified to reduce office staff workload and eliminate potential errors in financial reporting. The committees reevaluated our insurance cost and refined the 2007 line item budget to better track and control spending. We also changed our tax year to the calendar year to be compliant with our bylaws. All our goals were accomplished and the association met its budget objectives for 2006.

Membership has increased over the past year. In July we had 1586 and ended this May with 1632 members.

This committee has three main areas of responsibility: publication of the GRIT, our newsletter, publication of the Resident Directory, and managing the website.

The Resident Directory has been updated and has a wealth of general information on utilities, emergency services, government services, and pertinent miscellaneous member information.

The SHHA website also contains a wealth of information specific to residents. The site is constantly updated to include current useful information, such as updates on special issues—an example is the cell phone tower issue. We also have an email notification list that we can use for timely notifications.

We plan to post the GRIT on the website. This will allow us to include color photos/graphics, audio and video. We are in the process of including affiliated links to our GRIT advertisers (and charging the standard fee). This usage will save on tremendously on postage, paper, and printing costs, since posting on the Internet is free.

Finally, the committee is in need of people to help. If you have an interest in this area please contact the office.

Trails & Pathways – The 240-foot asphalt trail along the south side of San Bernardino and within the county right-of-way from Little Cloud Park was completed by the Bernalillo County Road Maintenance department in 2006. It is intended to determine community acceptance and gain experience in developing a pedestrian trail system within Sandia Heights. No issues about this trail use have been brought to the committee. Therefore, the assumption is that this is working as expected. We will be looking at the surveys for comments to see how the committee can support the community in this area.

Security – The committee has been looking at the possibility of helping Security monitor radio bands so that they can facilitate police and fire response in Sandia Heights. However, due to new laws in homeland security, this will not be possible.

Capital Improvement Projects – The committee has been monitoring the progress of resurfacing some streets in Sandia Height. This work will continue for some time.

Fire Hydrants – The County has done some trimming around fire hydrants and has installed some new blue reflectors during the last year. As an overall reminder, residents are responsible for trimming vegetation in the easement area of their property.

Traffic & Safety Survey – There was a T&S survey published in the GRIT, and many comments were received. The committee is working on analyzing the responses. The initial data has been published, but more data will be published as the analysis continues.

Although this committee has not been functioning, Bob Christman has been working with Bernalillo County parks on the Jackson park and his efforts show in the excellent park. We’ve had several calls about access to the national forest from within Sandia Heights however, due to lack of interest or volunteers, we were unable to work this issue.

The Bylaws Committee was approved as a standing committee in July 2006. Its continuing role is to serve as the main resource in providing the Board with its authority, along with assessing and tracking situations where bylaws and related documents may need to be amended. The Bylaws Committee is writing a revision to the SHHA bylaws. The office now has a library of parliamentary publications to assist board members, and is using Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised as its parliamentary authority. We can use some volunteers.

According to the County’s letter to Mr. Mhoon’s representative agreeing to a postponement of his re-zoning request until July 11, 2007, they were to have their site plans submitted to the County by May 21. This did not happen. Earlier, on May 16, SHHA’s lawyer for this issue, David Campbell, sent an email to Mr. Mhoon’s lawyer, Tim Flynn-O’Brien, inquiring about the status of their plan. As far as I know he has not had a response to that inquiry. At this time we are uncertain as to what happens next. It would appear that the July 11 County Planning Commission meeting will not have this item on its agenda.

As a person living adjacent to this property, I want to thank the officers of SHHA, especially Dick Cline and Bill McCall, for their leadership in this effort.

We will continue to apprise you of any new developments as we learn of them on the SHHA website.

a. The Sandia Heights Homeowners Association elects the officers in April, and new board members are elected by the homeowners in June. Any positions on the board that become vacant during the year are filled by a vote of the board members at regular BOD meetings.

The report for the election of officers is filed with the minutes. This year the positions of president and secretary needed to be filled. The position of vice-president and treasurer remained the same. The following officers were elected for 2007-2008: President - Sy Caudill, Vice-President - Ed Tull, Secretary - Bill McCall is elected secretary pro tem. This means he will remain in office until someone else is elected. Treasurer - Ed Whitten.

Sy Caudill was chairman of the nominating committee. Thank you Sy for all of your efforts to recruit new BOD members.

I have the pleasure to announce the candidates for the vacant director positions. Their bios were published in the Grit for your information. It is not required but as I introduce each of you feel free to take one minute to say a few words about yourself. After the introductions we will hold the election. As I call the candidate’s name, please stand:

Leroy Wheelock from Unit S14. Mr. Leroy wishes to withdraw his candidacy because he realizes that there are already board members serving on the board from Unit S14

MOTION (Sy Caudill): At this time, we do not have more candidates than we do vacant positions. Thus, I move that we accept, by acclamation, these candidates to fill the vacant positions currently existing on the board.

Seconded.

Motion passed – by show of hands. 06-02-06-1 GEN-ANN. MTG

Motion made that speed bumps be installed on Cedar Hill by the Jackson Park for the safety of children in the area. This motion is out of order because the board has no authority to install speed bumps. This subject can be discussed further at the Town Hall Meeting and the motion was withdrawn.

a. The President announced that, following the formal business meeting, there would be a 15-minute break, and then, as we have done in the past, we would hold a Town Hall Meeting. Anyone wishing to speak during this meeting was asked to sign up at the sign-in table with their name, unit number, and the topic. This was done to determine the topics, and to ascertain the amount of time each person would be allowed to speak based on that.

At this time, Mr. Lenton Malry, the Neighborhood Program Coordinator was announced and he briefly talked about services he can provide. Mr. Malry has been a great help with some of our CSC complaints.

Then we will have a 15-minute break followed by the Town Hall Meeting for an hour.