Gana Sita Board Meeting Minutes.                  March 14, 2023, 6:00PM (Zoom)

Roll Call:

Glenn Ullmann-P

Bette Crowder-P

John Murphy-P

Alex Ingols - P

Greg Ferrin-P

Ellen Kahn-P

Jamie Moran-Absent

Bette Crowder moved to approve the February 19th Board Meeting minutes. Alex Ingols seconded, and it passed unanimously.

Finance Committee Report-Bette

    We paid $2,545 in bills for February. Fourteen homeowners have paid the $2000 annual fee in full, another is on a payment plan for that, and the $800 assessment(due in May), and one has not paid the $2000 nor the $800 assessment (Mason). Bob has called her, because sometimes she doesn't remember. We have collected $11,200 from the $800 homeowners assessment so far. Three unimproved lot owners have not paid the $400 annual fee for lots: Lein, Monohan, and Stone.

    We now have collected $11,200 from the $800 each homeowners assessment. We have a fiduciary responsibility in dispersing the collected special assessment into the infrastructure account, which was used last year to repair the water system. Therefore, Bette made the motion to instruct Marvetta to transfer $11,200, collected to date from the special $800 assessment, from the general operational fund into the infrastructure account, as repayment for water repairs spent last summer. Alex seconded that, and the motion passed unanimously. $1600, two $800 payments (one on payment plan), are still owed.

    On April 2nd the payments (except for plan) will be 30 days past due. Our documents allow us to take action. Bette prefers to be gentle, and asked for someone to call Monohan and Stone. Glenn said he had talked with both Monohan and Stone after the annual meeting, had a rapport with them and would call. Stone has said he would pay, but his lawyer says he doesn't have to, and all his calls to the past president regarding the lien on his property brought no response. Hopefully Glenn's gentlemanly call will help.

    Glenn asked to be brought up to speed on the Stone background. Ellen explained that for 50 plus years no one that owned an unimproved lot in GS was considered part of the association, nor voted, nor made decisions, nor was billed for that lot. The people that wrote up the first association papers did not include lots as part (it was a Homeowners Association). Stone had not been billed for at least 15 plus years because his lot was not included. Dr. Ott owned a parcel including those two lots, the Moran house, the Kahn lots, the Murphy property, and Susan's extra lot. He had signed the Consent to be part of the Association for the Moran house, which included all of the other(except Stone) property. That is why those few lots have been being billed and voted in/for the association, and no others. Stone was excluded because it was only a lot. Suddenly someone decided to bill him without any notice. 

    Glenn asked Bette to find out the first time Stone, Monoham, and Lein were billed. Bette reminded that they are not part of the association, as they have never signed "Consent" forms. Discussion proceeded to discern exactly which unimproved lot owners have not paid: Lein, Monohan, and Stone. The homes of Grier, Cox, and Schiltz always pay, but have never signed membership agreements. (Schiltz's lot behind Crowder is paid but not signed into membership*.)

    Bette explained concern that Bill Cannon has no history to understand to make some decisions, and besides the fact that we have no money to pay him. Glenn mentioned that he and Jamie had talked about giving Bill Cannon access to our website. Ellen was concerned that what's on the website would be available to him, but would confuse him because there are things presented, but not correct. For instance Stone has never voted or been a part of our decisions.

    Bette made a motion to ratify the payment plan for the one homeowner. Ellen seconded, and all approved.

Current Operating Account

                     $39,638

  Minus.          $11,200. To go (return) to                                               infrastructure account

                    =$28,438 for the balance of the year ($2843 for 10 months of 2023)

  Current February P & L shows months deficit of $2,142.38

    Bette said we need to have a REAL budget, assess what we have to pay, figure the costs to run GS for 1 year, as well as a contingency fund, and emergency fund.

    She has asked Marvetta to have State Farm Insurance correct the name on our liability policy. We just paid the GSPOA payment for $785 for Gana Sita POA payment. Alex reminded that Marvetta would probably consider that a billable hour because it falls outside of her regular duties. Glenn is willing to call if the statement is scanned and sent to him, but it is believed she may have done it already.

    Bette has reserved the Cashiers Library Meeting Room for Saturday, July 8, at 11:00 for our Annual Meeting. There is a kitchen. We could serve food, brunch or lunch, and or drinks. Decisions to come.

Governance Committee Report - John

    The committee had a brief Zoom meeting Sunday (Jamie could not be there), and is currently comparing the 2017 Covenants, the Proposed 2022 Covenants (with all that previous work!), the 5 pages of single spaced notes from Bill Cannon, and the Short Templates of Covenants and ByLaws samples we have received. Deciphering the "MUST HAVES" and the contentious points are a current focus. When Cannon mentioned in our annual meeting that he had not known about previous associations, and other of  our documents, we asked for his folders with GS. When asked he categorically said he did NOT write the 2022 writings. There are many similarities of 2017 to 2022 documents in the first few pages. John has been comparing these, but there is also a lot that is not...... the 2022 mentions that everyone is a member, and we already have been discussing that that is not correct. There certainly are things Cannon says are not there,  but we must include. He referred to being a homeowner or lot owner, and being a member. Maybe comparing 2022 to 2017 is a good way to start. Maybe we just need to fine-tune proposed 2022. Maybe we could compare what we have., appease the people, and get what we need in a revised document. We know we need to address the water issue.

    Glenn and John both suggested we talk to each owner that voted no, and find out exactly what they were voting against, so that we can fine-tune, like,  do we need all the rental stuff?... Do we just replace something...Do Covenants apply to this or that...voting rights, etc. John asked for the names of members that voted no, and Ellen will give him that list, as voting has never been a secret, usually done in person.

    To try to get the revised documents passed, John suggested also knowing why people voted FOR the 2023 Covenants. What would it require for the"No's" to agree with it. Maybe we can talk to our neighbors. Glenn said he had voted no because there wasn't discussion...questions hadn't been answered, and although advocated for, no pulling together of the community to ask Cannon simple questions. If the covenants in 2017 passed, do these documents apply to all members whether they voted for it or not? We assume they do. Bette said ask the 3 homeowners, (that always pay and vote) --they would tell you they are not members. The membership issue should be part of the covenants, but something we can't solve with Covenants and ByLaws. Voting is connected. We must keep trying to get to the finish line with documents. And member concern is another topic, but Bill Cannon, and those homeowners might have to get together for that.

    Bette suggested we could have a hard time getting 67% to approve, if lot owners are not in the association(not taking water), would Bill say that since they never signed a membership agreement, they are not part? When Glenn asked Bill if he had written those documents, he said categorically "No". He did reference 2008 Covenants. We will have a lot of tweaking, but don't want to invent the wheel.

    John said he is in line with the comments Bob has sent.

    Bette said Ed Henson uncovered that there were two Association names, and that had to be resolved. Ed's 2016 letter was succinct and clear, but he said the beginning association was gone because the creators were dead or property sold, which was not correct. There was reference to water rights. His conclusion basically said since the water sources were defacto, that this didn't pertain to all the other lots. His determination was that it didn't work, but Bill said because of estoppel,...you have a new water system, you've been using it, it "carries through". Glenn will check will Bill regarding "carrying through". Bette noted that until someone sues someone, we will not get a full legal opinion on it to know the answer--and we can't afford that. Glenn said send questions, documents for us to gather for Bill to see. Think: If we could have Cannon in front of us, "What documents would I want him to see to understand?". Make sure we get ALL the questions we need. The bill is being sent to Glenn to pay. He said we have not spent the dollars to find out what will be held up in court. We DON'T want to continue to suck down money we don't have---but we as a board need to know exactly where we stand. Glenn has committed to pay the bills so that we can get answers. He wants to provide Bill the time and space to afford him to get answers for us.

    Bette asked if Glenn could be subjecting himself to having Bill "in his pocket". We were previously not kept informed, and was one reason Bette & Bob didn't vote for docs. We don't want it to appear as though anything is not being done on the up and up. "By doing this are you having yourself subject to criticism? We do not want you in that position." Is it better to bill the association? Ellen asked could we not just consider it a loan to be paid back at some future time? We could keep Cannon paid that way. It was considered a good idea.

    Glenn and Bette agreed we can't live with this budget--they will work on improving it. How does this get reported--get it out in the air in a Town Meeting?--tell folks we will have to have an assessment? Explain that we have no money for emergencies or infrastructure issues?We can't drop (not pay) anything--surely not for the water system. We'll just have to hope for no storm with trees to be removed, etc.

    Glenn said we need to present this to the community at the Town Meeting, to ask for ideas, that we need everyone's help. "What if 107 went bad and we needed to drill another well?" Also we should tell the community that we will be paying off a loan to pay Bill Cannon.

    Bette questioned if we shouldn't rescind the 2017 document. It was said that Cannon addressed some of that in the 5 pages he wrote. We'll check.

John--Cont.

    We could table revising documents till we have money, because no matter what there will be revision. We will continue to work on them. We can only be successful with input from the people. Part of the problem with the documents not passing was that they never addressed the water issue--just left the lot owners with "you don't have"--no way out. This all ties into who is and who isn't a member. Even if one has to drill a well on their own property, it needs to be decided how to do that, so you don't drill and still have to pay water fees. Bette said we also must have rules for conducting business (not in template).

    John--A lot is left out of Cannon's short version--not intended to have all. We will continue on and try to get questions together for Bill, especially for water.

    John is trying to make sure we are complying with NC law, and including what we know we must have, and not discounting the large amount of previous work that will be included. The 2022 document and 2017 have a lot of the same. As Alex has just looked at a lot of documents, he asked Alex to let us know if he sees that we have something missing. Possibly Cannon could be the deciding factor for disagreements of what should be included. 

    Glenn mentioned a need for us to understand how to get something added to a deed, because there are parts of our roads that have property connected, but are not part of Gana Sita, and have no agreement for payment for road damage during building. We need to know the answer for our responsibility to allow our road to be used just because of geography, when there might be access from other roads. Glenn will put this on "the list".

Infrastructure Committee Report - Alex

WATER---(See graphic on last page)

    What is our goal? Are we going to work toward developing a water system that can serve everyone?

    John-If we don't have the capacity, I'd get off the system, put money towards my own well, and exclude myself, with my tap becoming available--not paying the water fees or assessments. But it must be clarified with the association.

    Bette-50% or so might not have a lot that could be drilled--parameters could prohibit. 

    John-We must update the documents to be straightforward regarding water--to work within the confines that we have.

    Glenn--Bill Cannon and others have said we should get out of the water business, especially in case the 107 well can't perform. Then we'd have to decide who might have water and who couldn't. We need to check old wells.

    Bette-How often do we test for uranium?

    Alex-This will have to be clarified, schedule is not defined. We are not sure. He is getting with Environmental Inc. soon. Glen suggests we figure out our-water issue first, then ask.

    Alex said we could drill the well by the tank, that we CAN get water, it is just an issue of how deep and how much we want to pay. The deeper we drill, the larger the size of the pump($).

    Ellen asked Alex to give us an estimate of cost for drilling a reasonable depth if we go deeper. $25-$28/Ft. If we went 500 ft it could be $12,500, just for the drilling, then the pump.

    Bette asked Alex about billing the Stiwinters for 107 well maintenance. This is under review with Environmental Inc.for clarification. We have made them unhappy sometimes, but we have also spend $3200 grading their driveway (last year).

ROADS

    Kesslers have paid their $400 yearly road fee, but we have the right to assess them for their remodeling causing damage to our roads. Jerry Srebalis had a non-exclusive deed easement in their deed, so that we have the power to levy them reasonably, as we see fit. Glenn asked Alex to take pics of the road damage, figure out what we can do, and go talk to them before we bill them 

    Harriet Holiday is remodeling, but not changing the footprint of the house. Architectural committee will check Holiday home for remodel paperwork and billing. John said we need to know how to be going forward with fees for dumpsters (maybe size restrictions) and trucks damaging our roads. She is remodeling the kitchen now, but intends to do work on the garage area as well.

    Bette brought up the need for separate bank accounts for accounting for infrastructure-- water and roads. Right now infrastructure and reserves are together. Glenn said as long as there is no cost for the account, let's just open another, and figure how much in each later.

    John said we had found that for new construction the $15,000 fee had been broken down to $5000 (road) and $10,000 (water) previously. Ellen will find specific minutes regarding this. Maybe we will have an initial deposit for damages, returnable if none.

     Glenn asked Bette to come up with a date for a Town Hall Meeting, at the Library or someone's home--Glenn volunteered upon checking with Lisa.

    Bette reminded Glenn that it would be good for him to write a letter to the community stating what our documents say for election of Board Members, and that we are trying to get back on schedule by meeting July 8th. We will be voting "Yes" or "No" for the full slate of officers as they stand. Typically by mid-June most people are here for all/most of the summer, so we could always meet again later.

    Ellen reported that Marvetta said we just needed to send out a letter explaining the vote, and a backup email, and voting could be by email. (We would have to ratify at Association meeting.)

    Glenn will 1) write a letter, 2) get Bill questions, 3) Pay Bill 4)Make Loan

    Ellen said Cedar Creek wants one representative from us to be their contact person. It was decided to be Bette. We should send Bette emails, and she will forward.

    Quickly Bette brought forth the need to ratify the payment plan we voted by email to accept. Ellen seconded, and all approved.

Meeting was adjourned.

*Added by Ellen for clarity