Annual Meeting Minutes - 2020

Please find in this blog the annual meeting minutes from 2020

Colony Brook Homeowners’ Annual Meeting

Minutes August 16, 2020

Call to Order - President Monika Scotti called the meeting to order at 12:06 at Colony Brook Commons Area.

Attendance - All homeowners had been invited to the meeting through a variety of communications—signage, email, and notices in minutes.

Homeowners in Attendance per sign-in sheet –

The President introduce the Board of Directors and announced that we had 3 new homeowners in our neighborhood. 7629 Matthew & Yelena Birmingham, 7633 Christopher Burning & Grace Nieland, 7628 Dean Phillips & Nina McGuffie. Informed those that were present that 7601 will be closing on the 26th of August with new homeowners as well.

Colony Brook consists of 37 households; 14 households were represented by attendance and 5 household proxies

7604 Paul & Penny Frank – (Penny Frank)

7609 Hyun Koo Kim -Proxy

7616 David & Susan Coulter- Proxy

7617 Joy Forsberg

7620 William Cairns - Proxy

7625 Jack & Monika Scotti- (Jack Scotti)

7629 Matthew & Yelena Birmingham- (Matthew Birmingham)

7632 Scott Turchin

7633 Christopher Burning & Grace Nieland (Grace Nieland)

7636 Gene & Joyce Sterner- (Gene Sterner)

7637 Perry Stevens

7649 Mourine Anduiza

7652 Patrick & Becky Marley- (Becky Marley)

7653 Carla Peterson

7656 James & Niecy Bromley –Proxy

7661 Jamie Velez

7668 Janet & Kiyoshi (Mike)Fujiwara- (Kiyoshi (Mike) Fujiwara)

7669 Douglas & Celedonia Stauner- (Douglas Stauner)

7672 Josephine Nicholas- Proxy

Approval of Minutes – Minutes of the Annual meeting held on August 18, 2019, were approved as presented. The motion was made by Perry Stevens and seconded by Joy Forsberg. Motion passed.

Treasurer’s Report – Monika Scotti announced as of July 31st in our Savings Account we have $2270.42 and in our Operating Account we have $8978.90, giving us a total of $11,249.32.

Action Items:

a. Secretary of State- informed the homeowners that we need to change our name from a PUD to and HOA because PUD no longer existence it, PUD means PUBLIC UTIITY DEPARTMENT.

b. Sprinkler System- the timer has been replaced, the valve has been replaced however we are still having a leak, we will have to dig up the area by the Rhododendron in order to find the leak and replace the pipe.

c. Covenants Update- so in the beginning of the year we had found an Attorney who would be willing to work with us to go over our Covenants & Bylaws, he had also stated that he would let us know how much it would cost. Well then Covid happened, the Attorney never returned my calls, emails he finally returned all our paperwork and stated to us” that at this time he could not work with us”. So, while everything was closed because of Covid we put the Covenant Lawyer search on hold. So, we did find a new Attorney who works out of Gig Harbor John Burleigh he specializes in Covenants & Bylaws. He has reviewed our current documents and he has recommended to the Board of Directors several amendment’s and that there is a lot of conflicted wording in the current documents. He states that we could either do Amendments which would cost us between $4000.00 to $5000.00 or we can do an entire rewrite of both the Covenants & Bylaws at an hourly rate which could cost us $8000.00 but put a cap at $11,000.00. However, we would still need 100% of everyone to agree to change the Covenants & Bylaws. Becky Marley motioned that we do a full rewrite of both the Covenants & Bylaws, Scott Turchin seconded it. Motion passed.

It was explained to the homeowners that we would have enough money in our Savings Account since the Board had already transferred funds from the Operating Account to cover the costs some of the legal costs already.

d. Budget for 2021 – the budget for 2021 was presented in the packet which was sent to all the homeowners. The Board of Directors approved the 2021 budget with the dues being lowered to $25.00. Since there were no objections to the 2021 Budget, the 2021 Budget is approved.

e. Terms of Service- each Board position is for one year and runs according to our Covenants for a calendar year, January to December.

f. Annual Elections of Officers- according to our Attorney we cannot have 4 elected positions. It states in our Covenants 3 Board of Directors, that cannot be change.

Monika Scotti presented Carla Peterson (7653) proxy form, which nominated Monika as Board President for 2021.

Monika Scotti presented Hyun Ko Kim (7609) proxy form, which nominated Monika as Board President for 2021.

Monika Scotti presented Paul Frank (7604) proxy form which nominated Jack Scotti as Board Secretary/Treasurer for 2021.

Monika Scotti presented Jack Scotti (7625) proxy form which nominated Penny Frank as Board Vice President for 2021

There was no other nomination from the floor, however Matthew Birmingham stated that he would be interested in the 2022 term. Perry Stevens motioned that all Board Positions to be retained to keep all officers in place. It was seconded by Becky Marley Motion Passed

New Business:

a. Entrance area- all done and looks great with the solar lights on our sign, will touch up some of the tire spots on the yellow curbs.

b. Mailboxes & Gazebo- new gazebo done, discussion on the mailbox cover and paint, it was suggested that we not paint the entire mailbox black because it would be extremely hot when the sun is on it. The color gray would work, thank you Will Cairns for taking on this task. A picture was passed around for homeowners to see the cover that would go over the mailboxes. Grace Nieland said that she would investigate this further. The mailboxes will have solar lights on them.

c. RV Area- thank you to Becky & Pat Marley, and Doug Stauner for cutting the grass in the RV area, Nick Davis will maintain cutting the grass as well as the blackberry bushes. Since so many people have come and gone in the RV area the President Monika Scotti said it was a good time to for us to change the lock. Once the lock has been changed all owners who have a item in the area will receive a new key.

d. Playground- looking into the cost of replacing the playground equipment as well as replacing the pea gravel with rubber mulch. Becky Marley stated that her and Doug Stauner had looked at the playground and said that it is still very sturdy. Becky Marley said we should investigate getting a playground company come out to inspect the playground. It was stated that there are 3 youngsters in the neighborhood climbing on the playground, on the shed and making a mess around the playground. It was also stated that a couple of youngsters have be doing some damage to the fence line by the playground.

Open Discussion:

· Becky Marley raised the question regarding the audit of the Colony Brook HOA’s Treasurer books. It was stated that it would be an in-house audit Matthew Birmingham, Jamie Velez, and Gene Sterner volunteered to be on the audit committee.

· Jamie Velez was wondering on if there had been any weed and feed put onto our commons area grass, and what about the weeds around the commons area parking. The President said that weed and feed had been put down, the weeds around the common area parking had not been done. As far as homeowners and their weeds, that is up to them, the Board of Directors have put out emails reminding homeowners that the upkeep of their front yard must be kept up. Vinegar is a good source to remove weeds however you must spray it directly into the weed stop otherwise the grass will die as well.

· Mourine Anduiza suggested that we have our Annual meeting in 2021 at the Firehouse on Old Military Road, there is no cost to rent the board room we just need to reserve the room 1 month prior to our meeting. Having it here at the Commons area because of the heat, the 6 feet apart, it was hard for some people hear what others were saying, it was too hot. The President stated that the only reason why we went back to having it at the Commons area is because we would have had a potluck BBQ after the meeting.

· Jamie Velez was wondering if the gray that was painted by the gazebo is one for all those who have the red cobblestones? She stated that there are still some red stones not painted at the end of the Commons area. The President said” it is up each homeowner if they would like to paint the cobblestones that gray, that there are a few who will change to gray because they are tired of the red”. The President had also mentioned that your house color, you can lighter or darker without approval from the Board but it you change the color completely it must get approved by the Board of Directors first. The cobblestone gray was said “it could be a little darker, it looks likes primer”.

· It was mentioned that we could have the Architectural Committee come back to help with ideas on improvement in our neighborhood. Jamie Velez, Scott Turchin, and Grace Nieland volunteered to be on the committee.

· Matthew Birmingham raised some questions-

1. How about having a Facebook page for Colony Brook HOA homeowners only. Everyone liked the idea and Scott Turchin volunteered to take that one.

2. What is the process of the repair to the sidewalks? The President stated that the county owns the sidewalks and roads, the Vice President said “ that if you take a picture of the sidewalk that is damaged, and they find it’s damaged due to the tree roots of that homeowner they will not fix it” We can inform the homeowner that their tree is ruining the sidewalk and that County would fix it if they remove their tree, if they choose not to remove it we can’t do anything with the sidewalk.

3. That they had a picnic table that they are willing to donate to the Association.

4. What about getting barbecue station or decorative lights around the gazebo.

Next Board of Directors meeting will be to be announced.

Meeting adjourned at 1:05 PM

Submitted by, Jack Scotti, Secretary

Approved on August 15th 2021