May 26 Meeting Notes

May 26, 2010, 7pm, Grand Firs Annual Board Meeting, roughly 50 in attendance.

Mark Jones, Grand Firs Homeowner: Welcome; purpose of meeting to build good relationship with banks/builders; dispel rumors; vote to eliminate Mastro; will vote on HOA board and officers.

Introductions: Ken Paauw from WA Trust, Scott Griffin from Freestone, Tyler Sang from WA Federal, Kim Carter, Jerry Mahan.

Mr. Ken Pauuw, WA Trust (Phase 3): bank forced to collect, wants to make the best of the situation; wants to take part in making a functioning HOA; WA Trust is WA state headquartered bank based in Spokane, obtained 202 lots in March thru foreclosure; Ken and superiors at bank motivated to sell homes; introduced Scott from Freestone.

Mr. Scott Griffin, Freestone (Phase 3): currently constructing 10 homes in Phase 3; building for 25 years in Puget Sound; building 1500-3100 sq ft homes, need wide range for people to afford; same style as Phase 1 and 2 homes but no requirement on rock siding, all have 3 car garages; helped with landscaping as an effort to contribute; acknowledged they are willing to help with power and water in order to be a good neighbor; knows rumors are going around but thinks we will be happy with homes he builds; neighbors thanked Scott for landscaping; Scott invited neighbors to contact him with any questions or concerns; said he’s asked construction vehicles go thru south gate; realtor will be on site soon (Lena), invited people to come visit her; neighbors let Scott know about vandals and crooks, he will look into ecology blocks back by retention pond where most of the problems take place.

Ms. Tyler Sang, WA Federal (Phase 2): owns 84 lots in Phase 2; planning on doing nothing at this time, in “hold mode”, trying to see where market trend is going; aware of problems and are doing what they can to help; Tyler familiar with dealing with HOAs (specialty); invited neighbors to contact her with questions/concerns; question from neighbor: are you trying to make our roads public? Ken: public streets are impossible because lot lines go to middle of street, Tyler countered that roads can go public if entire neighborhood agrees; bank has received several offers from builders to buy all 84 lots, bank didn’t think the builders reflected the way this community is going, don’t want to destroy values; Ken said they get lowball offers all the time that are rejected.

Mr. Jerry Mahan & Mr. Kim Carter: four Renaissance homes sold; 2000-3000 sq ft range, average 2400 sq ft; plan to be sold out by end of the year; question from neighbor: are you going to buy the rest of the Phase 2 lots from WA Federal? Jerry: hope to; question from neighbor: can construction trucks use south entrance? Jerry: will talk to workers about that; invited neighbors to view his website (www.jerrymahan.com); neighbors thanked Jerry for installing planting strips and trees; Ken: Phase 3 can’t get occupancy permits from Pierce County until planting strips are complete; Scott: board will identify everything that needs to be taken care of in the neighborhood and will help with what they can.

Mark: Need to vote Mastro off the board; however we have unsigned bylaws, bylaws not in public records, so we are going from 80 percent rule from our unsigned copy; Jim Ehnborn: WA law allows us to vote Mastro out; formal motion was made by a neighbor under WA state HOA laws to vote to remove current officers/board members (Mastro, possibly Mastro’s wife, Selden), no opposed, all in favor (unanimous vote by those in attendance at 7:42pm). UPDATE – Total votes: WA Trust (202), WA Federal (84), Mahan (23), Grand Firs homeowners (48) = 367 of 402 (91%).

Mark Jones: Must nominate individual board positions; the following were nominated: Tyler Sang (WA Federal), Ken Paauw (WA Trust), Melinda Rowan (Winterwood Green), Scott Griffin (Freestone), Mark Jones/Rob Ihrig/Mandy Johnson (Grand Firs homeowners); question from neighbor: if we have 3 homeowners on board how would voting work? Tyler said homeowners would represent 93 votes total; a rep from the board must be on the ACC; motion made by a neighbor to nominate all, motion seconded at 7:59pm, votes later cast by paper ballot turned in after meeting (UPDATE: all members approved); question from neighbor: how will officers picked, appointed or elected? according to Tyler we don’t even need to have nominations and vote on officers; neighbor recommended we adopt the board and operate the HOA from the board, and elect officers for purpose of filing with secretary of state; another neighbor worried about the board being stacked against homeowners (if we don’t have officers), everyone assured in best interests of all parties that we work together.

Nomination/election of HOA officers tabled.

Ken Paauw: asked neighbors to vote on gates being open 9-6 (added modification that south gate will be designated as a construction entrance), would require simple majority (UPDATE: this was passed); asked neighbors to vote on flag placement, discussion about flags and who will get to put what where, neighbors asked that flags be kept in good shape, would require simple majority (UPDATE: this was passed); side discussion about a speed limit sign to be placed on 231st to deal with increased traffic on that street; asked neighbors to vote on builder’s request for removing front yard sprinklers from CC&Rs, would require 75%, however Jim says we can’t change CC&Rs at this meeting, so for now the vote is simply considered an opinion poll (UPDATE: 8 homeowners approved, WA Trust approved, WA Federal approved, 294/402 = 73%).

Mark Jones: introduced Pierce County Deputy (also a Grand Firs homeowner) to explain what the police can and can’t enforce within Grand Firs (private property).

Deputy: since we are private property we won’t always get a response, depending on why we’re calling; Grand Firs is covered by the mountain detachment which has jurisdiction from 224th to Alder lake (3 deputies); South Hill precinct (7 deputies) will respond to priority calls; Grand Firs must have a private property signs and signed agreement with pierce County in order to remove trespassers; okay to call for crimes such as trespassing, vandalism, etc; accidents are considered a civil matter; if we call to report crime, it creates a statistic so that deputies know when/where crimes are occurring, so keep calling.

Mark Jones: invited open discussion; neighbor brought up that HOA doesn’t have insurance and said individuals can get an umbrella policy from our individual insurance companies in the event we are sued, once HOA is established we can get insurance; neighbors reminded to leave completed ballots by the door.

Meeting adjourned at 8:34pm.

Tacoma Power- Close Call

Mark knocked on my door today with bad news and good news. Bad news: Tacoma Power issued our neighborhood a 48-hour notice letting us know our power was about to be shut off. Good news: Mark spoke with Tacoma Power as well as the banks, and Washington Federal is covering the outstanding balance for us, which is roughly $3100. They will eventually be reimbursed (likely through a credit when HOA dues are paid) but for now, they are taking care of it.

Huge thanks to Mark and Washington Federal for keeping the lights on in Grand Firs!

Big HOA Meeting - May 26

Just a quick reminder that there is a big HOA meeting tomorrow night at the Graham Fire Station (7pm). Mark is finalizing the agenda and has a lot of information to present. I understand that a representative from the Phase 2 bank will be attending as well.

Mark received word this morning that we will be allowed elect officers and board members tomorrow night (he had been waiting to confirm that). So please, try to have a member from your household present so we can collect as many votes as possible. We are finally taking a big step forward and it's exciting.

Water Main Break

Rainier View is currently working to fix a water main break. Grand Firs may experience low water pressure or sporadic outages until it is fixed. There is no estimate on when the main will b repaired.

Gate Timer Changed

As of today, the gate will be open during the following hours:

Monday-Friday: 9am-6pm (construction hours)
Saturday-Sunday: 11am-5pm (realtor hours)

Also, I've taken over the gate programming from Chris. If you have any programming questions or needs please email me (Mandy) at grandfirs@hotmail.com

Letter To Neighbors

The following is a letter written by Grand Firs resident Lisa Collier. She's asked me to publish it on the blog...

Dear Grand Firs Neighbors;

I am sending out an update to you regarding our gate situation. As most of you know by the polls that were sent out last week we are having some issues with this. Many rumors are flying and my hope is to share with you some of the things I have recently found out so we can all be on the same page and move forward.

I would not have become involved with this, at all, if I did not feel it was important. I will be the first to admit that I am coming in midstream. I did not attend the April meeting that Jim Ehnborn, Mark Jones and Michelle Spencer were present at, either by phone or in person, but have been made aware of some of the issues discussed and felt you need to know this as well. It is my understanding that this meeting did not go very well. We did not have attorney representation as we hoped to. The representative for the bank that owns the majority of the lots in here is not willing to talk to us any longer until he has spoken to their attorney. The reason I think it is important to tell you this is because it is an indicator that the bank is willing to take legal action against us and force us to keep the gate open. I don’t think any of us would care for the stress of being named in a law suit and because we are non-compliant they have the right to do this. We have been uncooperative in allowing the gates to be open during the day so workers, inspectors and potential buyers can have access to our development. The argument has been made that they can get an access code if they want it. This is an unrealistic approach in my opinion.

I also found out that the bank owning lots in phase two has hired an engineer to survey the streets in the development so they can get them converted to public streets. What this means is that we will not be able to have a gated community. No gates on public roads! Many of us bought in here liking the idea of a gated community. The upside of this happening is that we will not have to maintain the roads (less expense to us); we cannot be sued if someone gets hurt on the road and it will allow the Sheriff’s Dept. to come in here and take care of any unwanted vehicles or persons without having to get our permission.

Whether you agree or disagree with keeping the gates open, I am sad to say, is irrelevant. Before I get gobs of hate mail and you burn a cross on my lawn I will explain. Between the three lot owners in here (banks, builder and us) we have the least amount of voting power. Banks have the most. The banks and builder want the gates open during the day and if we do not show we are willing to work with them we may be really hurting ourselves in the long run. They have the legal right to request and have access to their lots. We do not have the legal right to deny them this. We have the least amount of say (voting power) in this development. I feel we need to comply now, before legal action is possibly brought against us. I don’t know if this will change their minds about converting the streets to public ones, but it does not hurt us to be more cooperative. I think the days of gates closed 24x7 worked when we were going through this rough patch, but things are changing and we are seeing some great things starting to happen. I hope we can come together as neighbors, stop the backlash that has been given to those who have tried to do what they felt was in our best interest. Again, no matter what your opinion is regarding the gates we do not have the right to keep them closed!

We finally are seeing some progression in this neighborhood and that is wonderful. With these changes I feel the time for fear and shortsightedness are over. The original idea behind the gate closure was to prevent vandalism, theft, etc., but I truly believe that will be taken care of if we fill this place up. The new builder starting in phase three is going to be putting in smaller first time homes. I will guarantee you that if one of those homes is vandalized we will see on-site security.

I know the idea of first time homes that are of a poorer quality than ours is upsetting to people, but remember the value of our homes is not going to be measured against these. We seem to have a great builder in phases one and two and by having a good working relationship with them my personal hope are that they can complete these phases with homes that are comparable to ours. Good news is that they have already raised their home prices twice and the plan is to put some beautiful “retirement” ramblers and homes with masters downstairs in here. These will be of a real benefit to this development.

Lastly, I just wanted to thank so many of you for the efforts you are making towards improving your homes by putting in fences, planting, weeding and keeping your lawns full and green. It looks so nice! I have been trying to negotiate some help with the development landscaping. The old saying is true…”You attract more flies with honey than vinegar”. Oops! Did I say flies?! Sorry, I think we all hope the days of flies are over!

I hope this has helped to keep you informed and helped you understand why we must keep the gates open during the day.

Thanks,
Lisa Collier