By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News
The Steiner Ranch Master Association board voted last week to shift from a seven member board to a five member board without districts. There is now one open board position.
Some in the community have voiced concerns about this and about filling recent vacant board seats at the board meeting and on social media.
“We’re sorry we didn’t share more at the meeting to clear up any confusion,” Amy Yukich, president of the SRMA shared in an interview on September 26. “There has been nothing nefarious about what we’re doing.”
Yukich shared that the board should have shared more at the meeting because there was a lot of speculation being made on social media that is not true. She also shared that she was disappointed that no one creating posts on social media reached out to her or other SRMA board members to find out what happened and why.
On September 18, the SRMA board held its regular meeting and voted to amend its governing documents to remove two board positions and remove voting rights in districts. This was advised by the SRMA attorney and it has been in the works for several months.
The main reason given to removing board seats was to streamline decision making and increase efficiency to conduct business. Also mentioned that seats on the board are not easy to fill.
Now all residents will decide on all five board members rather than board members defined by five districts.
“In theory the districts sounded great but in reality they ended up being limiting,” Yukich said. For workshops and other meetings, “logistically we could not get them (seven board members) all together and that’s the reality.”
A handful of residents were at the meeting and some made comments, asked questions and challenged the board on this decision during the meeting and after the meeting’s business was conducted. The new AMG manager, David Mercado, had to remind homeowners to keep decorum during the business portion of the meeting.
Most of the board did not address the homeowners directly but let the manager Mercado run the meeting.
Homeowner Kathy Adams voiced concern about this.
“Why is AMG running the meeting?,” Adams said. “The board should be run by a board member or HOA member not a contractual vendor, is how I look at it.”
Adams was at last week’s board meeting. She was also one of three homeowners interested in one of two open board seats. She filled out the application a couple of months ago. She does not approve of how her efforts to volunteer were handled.
Adams felt the vetting process was extensive. She wondered why the community’s management company would be meeting with her.
Yukich shared that those meetings with the management company are the typical process for board appointments.
During the vetting process, Adams said that she was told elections cost $10,000 and the board wanted to avoid that so it was suggested that if one of the three candidates could step down, then the two would be appointed.
Yukich said they didn’t ask people not to run but they wanted to make sure they knew what they were getting into.
“They (the candidates) were brought in and we said, ‘Are you sure? This is what it involves.’
There was not any talking out of it, just ‘Do you know what you’re signing up for and if you’re cool with that then we’ll move forward,’” Yukich said.
Adams also said she did not get notified if she was or was not on the board to fill a vacant seat so she showed up at the September 18 executive session thinking she may be on the board.
But Yukich said AMG emailed her and tried to call her to notify her. Mercado shared the email that was sent to Adams.
SRMA reached back out this week to offer Adams the open board position but she is not interested any more.
“They (SRMA) offered me to be appointed now that they have bylaw changes in place, and I won’t because I don’t think bylaw change is valid,” Adams shared.
“I’m not a disgruntled person because I didn’t get on the board. I’m very leery now to get on this board. I will absolutely not be a part of that,” Adams said.
At the board meeting, several homeowners including Adams, asked if the board could make this change without a vote from the entire community. Comments were made that it seemed like the board was rushing this decision without transparency.
Adams asked if the bylaw amendment is legitimate because Mercado’s wife was the notary. Yukich shared that it is legitimate and if it needs to be resubmitted by another notary, SRMA will do that.
The bylaw amendments to change to a five member board were filed and recorded by Travis County on September 23.
Additionally, the amendment states the SRMA board can appoint a board member when a director leaves his or her position before the end of their term. Also a director can be removed by a 2/3rds majority of the remaining directors for violating the code of conduct, with or without cause, and/or if a director misses more than three board meetings within 12 months. In these cases, the vacancy will be elected by the board.
SRMA shared a letter to residents on September 26 to help clear up communications. Here is a portion of that email:
We would like to fully explain the events leading up to the recent change in the Board composition and the most recent Call for Candidates:
• We had two (2) Board vacancies after the resignation of Jeremy Jungbauer and Joe Ianello both of which resigned for personal reasons.
• The Call for Candidates resulted in three (3) residents submitting applications for the two (2) board seats.
• After the three (3) candidates were briefed on the roles and responsibilities of the board members, one of the volunteers then rescinded his application via email correspondence to AMG.
• SRMA was then left with two (2) uncontested applicants.
• The Board of Directors learned that one of the candidates accessed our system without authorization. This caused disruptions in our operations and led to the viewing of community information normally reserved for management and the Board of Directors. Once the issue was identified, we promptly revoked access, and we have taken all appropriate steps to secure our technology.
• Rachel McGilvray submitted her resignation from the Board of Directors with no stated reason.
• SRMA Board of Directors was now left with three (3) open board positions.
• It was at this moment that the Board discussed and decided to remove the Districts and reduce the number of Board positions (discussion points and reasoning below).
• After the Bylaws were updated, the open position was offered to the remaining candidate. • The remaining candidate declined the position.
• The Call for Candidates was issued back out to the entire community this week and we hope to find another neighbor willing to help us shape Steiner back to what it should be.
On September 25, an email went out encouraging the community to attend an in-person town hall at Towne Square on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 6 p.m. for residents to engage directly with the SRMA board. “We encourage you to join us for open and civil discussions about the topics that matter most to you and our community. Your voice is important, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback.”