Okay I am old-fashion

I have been accused of being old-fashioned, which took years of quality and continual training. And the experience has not been the result of alcohol or marijuana abuse. My experience came from hard-knocks and hard-earned lessons from teachers of moral standards and substantial intellect.

I have learned but I am not patient with modern practices that change old standards for the mere sake of change and in some cases for the sake of greed. This economy was not caused by old-fashioned thinkers. We learned our lessons from the depression and other recessions. Our current financial climate was caused by greedy, modern, thought-they-had-the-world-by-the-tail geeks. (That sounded old-fashioned…What can I say?).

Below is the “old-fashion creed” as composed by the old geezer, Chuck Plake.

Old-Fashion Creed

We believe that a budget is a tool for management to control expenses based on income. The budget must be relevant monthly and not six months down the road hoping that everything will balance itself. Controlling our expenses is paramount to avoid frequently raising dues. We must have the proper tools.

We believe that a community manager is a property manager first because that makes the community happy. Abandoned cars should be removed by the property manager.

We believe there is a need for dual signatures on the HOA checking account even though bankers don’t check signatures. It gives homeowners a feeling of security to know that a homeowner is authorizing expenses.

We believe that we should discontinue the voting of the Bylaw change, because the membership has made a statement by not voting. They don’t want to change the Bylaws.

We believe that the Board represents homeowners in the entirety not for themselves or individual homeowners.

We believe in hard work.

We believe that Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, and Mohammad are old-fashioned but worthy of good advice.

Ice Cream Social

I sent an essay to Dreyer's Ice Cream to win one of the 1500 prizes for a Neighborhood Ice Cream Social. My essay was selected and we will be having our Ice Cream Social on September 12, 2009.

Below is my entry:

I am a 72-year old retiree who happens to live in (my town), the home of my alma mater (my university's name). I live in a condominium complex of 136 units with a community pool. The residents are a mixture of college students, retirees, and hard-working people with school-age children. The college kids love to gather around the pool to mix it up, but the old folks stay away, afraid to show their wrinkles or robust bellies.

Some of us are always looking for ways to bring our neighbors together. We have tried hamburger barbecues, Arbor Day festivities, yard sales and G.A.I.N. parties with some success. But I think that a good old-fashioned ice cream social would be a huge success. This year, due to the state of the economy, we have found it necessary to cut back on expenses and would appreciate an ice cream social to bring our neighbors together.

In my opinion, the young, the old, and the ‘in-between’ would flock together for a chance to get a dish of ice cream on a hot Arizona day.

Property or Association Management Company

The owner of our property management company is trying to run our Association now. Check out the first two sentences in her website, Association management is a specialized field. We are not "property managers." Our Association needs a property manager not an association manager. The Board runs the Association. On our Association website the property management company pictures are at the heading. It's all about her and her company.

What our governing documents say

The CC&Rs state, "The performance of the various duties and obligations of the Association may be performed in whole or partly by a management company selected by the Association in accordance with the Bylaws of the said Association."

The Bylaws state, "The affairs of the Association shall be managed by its Board of Directors."

She tries to run our meetings

When a previous president was voted out, the owner of the management company ran the annual meeting. When I was president, she tried to run the annual meeting and I sat her down. At the last Board meeting with a new president, she took control causing the meeting to extend beyond the two hours allotted for the meeting. She was again beating up on our maintenance man.

Our Green Lawn Took a Dive Thanks to Our Landscape Company

In Support of Our Maintenance Man

The names have been substituted with titles to avoid embarrassment of companies and individuals and to protect the innocent.

On August 4, 2009, two representatives of the association’s property management company consumed most of the association meeting beating up on our maintenance man. The maintenance man is a homeowner and a very good conduit between the homeowners and the Board. He is well-liked by many of the residents, because he keeps the property clean and bends an ear.

Many of his emails were written to voice concerns of the homeowners. He has been banned by the president in writing emails to the property management company. Below is an email that he wrote to the Board explaining some of the work that he does.

The maintenance man is on the property more than sixty hours each month but only charges for sixty hours. The property management company management says that he is paid too much. He is paid less than half of what the property management company is paid but is on the property 30 times the length of visits of the property management company.

I have been on the Board off and on for ten years. All of the previous property management companies have visited the property for inspections at least four times each month while this company inspects the property only twice each month. The Board pays this company more that two to three times what the other companies were paid.

I think the current property management company’s real complaint is that the maintenance man points out their lack of responsibility.

Below is the email by the maintenance man.

“Board

“At the meeting on Aug 4; (the owner of the property management company) informed me that (the landscape company) representatives went to her office and complained about me; apparently implying that I'm responsible for the irrigation problems. It's difficult to respond when I don't know what was discussed; so I'll just give a brief work description.

“As my contract makes reference to, I sometimes work on "sprinklers and related equipment". One way I do this is to operate selected sprinklers in manual mode. There is a reference card provided by the manufacturer and included with the automatic controllers that gives instructions on how to do this; and I follow those instructions as written. Manual mode temporarily overrides the programmed start and stop times and allows me to operate the sprinklers and check if any are broken or not functioning. When the manual override time expires, the controller defaults back to the original program, and the original start and stop times are not affected.

“There have been at least two occasions in the last month when I shut off controllers at some buildings to allow the painters to work without getting soaked. When the painters were done, I turned the controllers back on. There is a switch in each controller for this purpose; but once again the program times are not altered when the controller is turned back on.

“Since I don't attempt to actually program the days and times that the sprinklers operate, or alter the programming; I can't think of a reason that (the landscape company) would blame me. They need to look elsewhere.

“As I've mentioned to Board members recently, one vendor who was on our property to get information for an irrigation bid pointed out to me that a controller at (a specific address) was not even wired properly. He connected it so that it was receiving power, and then discovered there were no times programmed.

“A possible reason that timers may not function properly is power outages. If you've ever had to reset the clock on your microwave oven after a power outage, you can imagine that a surge could also upset the programming on the irrigation timers. The controllers have a battery for backup; but if the batteries are dead; or the contacts are corroded; then the program will need to be reset. These are some reasons why the controllers should be checked regularly; and in fact (the landscape company)'s contract stipulates they be checked twice a month.

“I thought I had a good working relationship with (the landscape company); but if I'm being accused behind my back, then I would be very disappointed.

“There is a final issue I'd like to address. Apparently some members feel that I should not have purchased irrigation valves and sprinkler bodies; and that the components I did purchase using funds from petty may not be good quality. The best response I can offer is that I purchased the components at (the landscape company irrigation specialist)’s request; and that past (president) was present when the request was made during a walk thru. As to the quality; they are the exact same parts that (the landscape company) uses, and were purchased from the same supplier.”

(Maintenance Man)

Response by homeowner: "(Maintenance Man) is a good resource."

R. V. Lot fees are anemic.

1 vehicle








4 vehicles








1 vehicle

The fee to park a vehicle in the R.V. Lot is $100 per year. We collected $200 for 2009, but six cars are in the lot on August 8, 2009

This is evidence that the property manager is not doing their job.

Dirty Pool

This is our beautiful green pool. While the algae adds color, I prefer and our homeowners prefer a beautiful clear and healthy pool.

The property management company is on the property twice each month for inspections. Most of the previous management companies would have caught this dirty pool, because they visited the property at least once each week and were available for phone calls and emails.

The maintenance man has been banned by the president to send emails because it adds too much work to the property management company.

Below is an email written by the maintenance man about the pool:

Board

"The Pool gate has been chained and locked since Wednesday the 5th. A Bearing on one of the pumps siezed (sic); and the pump had to be shut down. (The pool man) has already replaced the bearing, and the water should be clear...soon. The repair cost should be about $50. I was there when he turned the pumps back on; and there was alot (sic) of noise coming from them, so I wouldn't be surprised if there is another failure soon due to the age of the components."

(Maintenance Man)

Complaint by homeowner: "Subject: Pool is out of order for a week . . .Do you know when it will be operational? My nephew cried his eyes out on Wednesday because the pool was green. I didn't realize that it was out of order as there was not a sign. I stopped to pick up my mail yesterday and noticed that it's still green. This is the time of the year that people
want to enjoy the pool. Can you help get this resolved?"

(Homeowner)