SRMA board votes to extend Steiner office hours
By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News
Although the Steiner Ranch Master Association Board of Directors voted to extend the business hours of the Steiner HOA office at the board’s Nov. 28 meeting, the board was split and no action was taken on two important topics: voting in another director for Steiner District 4 and on next steps to consider third party management.
The HOA board is divided and in a deadlock on several initiatives. In general, Naren Chilukuri, Amy Colton and Rekha Garapati are advocating for changes in the HOA management structure and exploring ideas of third party management which they say could lead to cost savings and efficiencies, and Robby Roberts, Dave Doman and Erika Fletcher had been advocating to slow down the process to consider outside management, to gather more information about a potential shift, and to review and refine the current structure. At this meeting for the first time, they spoke of a shift to table this topic until the next election of board members in April. They said that is what they believe their constituents want.
Third party management evaluation
One of the biggest topics on the agenda was the onsite company management evaluation.
After the first town hall on Sept. 14, the SRMA board agreed to release to the community the consultant records it was evaluating regarding for-profit, third party management, and it agreed to do a second financial analysis.
There was a motion to hire a certified public accountant to analyze the data. This measure was presented between SRMA board meetings and the measure failed.
Roberts, board treasurer, and Fletcher, board vice president, both said they heard from the three town hall meetings that the majority of those who spoke were in opposition of shifting to third party management.
“(From what I’ve heard from the town hall meetings that) if we proceed on this path, it is a waste of time and money. My opinion is that it is not a wise use of our funds,” Roberts said. “I think spending money on this is a waste of homeowner funds.”
Statements were made by board members Colton and Garapati that the board had earlier voted to validate the consultant’s third party management recommendation and proposed savings ranging from $1 million to $1.5 million.
“We passed a motion for a second financial analysis. This completes the process,” Garapati said.
But Roberts stated he believes the consultant’s report is “based on bias and he (the consultant) never talked to staff. I don’t have any confidence (in the consultant’s report).”
The HOA controller Andrew Smullen questioned which budget was used with the consultant and made a point that the 2018 budget was not passed yet.
But Colton said that the model is still accurate with the 2017 numbers that the consultant used to make his recommendations.
“It was our decision to appoint an independent, outside person to look at that,” Colton said.
Chilukuri, board president, restated the motion of hiring an independent, outside CPA for $1,200 to validate the consultant’s report, and to give the CPA access to all records, access to the HOA staff, and the 2018 budget numbers when approved.
But not all agreed and Fletcher sided with Roberts: “I don’t feel comfortable with this person (the local CPA identified) based on this documentation,” she said.
“We made a commitment to the community,” Garapati said.
The vote was taken and the motion to bring in a CPA failed by a 3 – 3 decision.
Adding new director
There was feedback from the community and concerns expressed about the vote taken during the October board meeting to fill the Steiner District 4 director vacancy left by Craig Smyser after the SRMA first town hall meeting. Another vote was taken at the Nov. 28 meeting and the results were the same with Sarah Doolittle getting three votes and Jorge Martinez getting three votes. The board was split and no one was appointed to fill the open board seat.
The attorney present at the meeting shared that the board has the right to appoint someone to fill a vacancy for resignation (as this case) or death per the Texas property code.
HOA office hours
The HOA office hours were brought up at each of the three town hall meetings and board members have been notified about the idea to increase office hours.
Until recently, the office hours had not been requested to be extended on weekdays. HOA office hours were extended to Saturdays for a period of time but the HOA staff reported that very few homeowners used the office then and it was discontinued a time ago.
It was voted on that the HOA office hours would be extended to 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, rather than 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Fridays. The new longer hours will be reviewed after 90 days to look at traffic flow and to see how the shift is working. The longer hours will not cost additional funds because staff is already working during those times and the staff will adjust their office schedules with field work schedules for compliance and architectural reviews.
HOA staff
It was noted that Mackal Taylor, community manager for eight years, turned in her notice. Her last day will be at the end of this week. Heather Hood, was hired to replace Taylor as community manager.
Also a front desk staffer turned in notice recently and interviewing has been in process for this opening.
2018 Budget draft review
The HOA board discussed the 2018 budget but needed more time to review documents and set up several workshops with a goal to vote on the budget at the Dec. 11 meeting.
HOA’s controller Smullen would like the Jan. 1 assessments to be mailed out earlier in December this year compared to when they went out last year at the end of December. To do that, the 2018 budget needs to be approved.
Other SRMA business
There was other business done at the Nov. 28 meeting.
After minutes were reviewed and clarified, three sets of minutes were approved at the meeting from Aug. 29, Oct. 24 and minutes from a special meeting on Nov. 7.
There were motions and actions between meetings that were made and Fletcher wanted those actions reflected on the record.
A homeowner made a request for open records of the HOA staff from 2014 to 2016 and it was updated at that meeting that the request was in process.
The Steiner parking violation policy was brought up and the board needs to define what “no parking overnight” means as the definition is interpreted differently.
An update was given on the mailbox security project as the SRMA board voted to improve an older style of mailbox.
Additionally at this meeting, there was a homeowner forum to start things off but Four Points News is still waiting on responses from the SRMA about expenses before it will share what homeowners said.
The December board meeting was held Monday and there will be an update in the next edition of Four Points News.