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.