Ventana Lakes

 Property Owners' Association

President's Report

September 21, 2005

6:30pm

As usual I have many items to share with you. Chuck Schumm has graciously agreed to keep our website updated so various reports will be found on the website a few hours after he gets the material.

Assistant manager: To stop rumors, our newly hired assistant manager has given us her 2 weeks notice and is taking a job as a manager with City Property. Obviously we hired a qualified person if they grabbed her so quickly. She also realized that she did not like having to report at a certain time and wanted flexible hours as well as being able to work from home some days.

Two of the four vacant lots adjacent to Ventana Lakes have been sold. The one at the NE corner of Beardsley near the Rec Center has been sold and the owner is planning on single story self-storage units. The buildings on this lot are subject to approval from Architectural Committee. Some of the home owners along the wall on Yukon Dr have already received notices about a meeting with City officials.

The second lot is at the south end of Ventana Lakes at 107th and Palm Tree Lane. We have no voice in how buildings on this lot should look. The owner is planning single family and duplex homes. His plan has not yet had approval from the City of Peoria. We do know however, that it will not be classified an adult community. A dozen or so of the residents in this area, along with Don Holtzee and me, met with the owner and his representative in the library at Sunrise High School two weeks ago. Our residents had several major concerns, which may have fallen on deaf ears. Some of the concerns are about drainage because the lot is higher than the homes to the west and north of the lot; the age of persons who will live in the homes adjacent to our adult community; landscaping issues to the north and west of the lot, placement of street lights as well as other concerns. If the plan is approved for homes for this area, the City of Peoria will widen the small stretch of 107th the runs adjacent to the lot.

Regarding the flooding of Lake 8 during the monsoon season or heavy rains. Two board members and the manager met with a contractor to look over the problem area on Lake 8. He reviewed two methods for controlling the flooding of Lake 8 at the Cimarron entrance to Lake 8. His proposal shows the cost at $6600. The manager will need to obtain two additional bids for Board review

A couple of board members met with H2O Pools to discuss concerns about our pools. There are issues from both sides that are slowly being addressed. One major issue is from H2O pools. When they need to vacuum any of the pools some residents refuse to get out of the pool if they are swimming. A solution was presented that will soon be implemented. A sign will be hung over a pool gate stating pool closed between the hours of ___ am and ___ am for cleaning. The signs would be like those found in airports when restrooms are being cleaned except the signs would hang on the gate and not stand in the area. .

On September 20, the president of another new lakes management company met with two board members and Bill Barton, chair of the Lakes Committee to discuss management of our lakes. The president submitted a proposal based on what was discussed. His cost is too high at the moment so the manager will try to renegotiate the contract. In relation to the lakes, the barley straw will be removed by members of the Lakes Committee when they return in October. The president of this company looked over our lakes and recommended that Lake 1 needed algaecide added which he will do this week.

Garbage cans around Lakes 3,4,5,and 6. Continued requests not to place dog wastes in these refuse cans have fallen on deaf ears of some residents. The cans are emptied by members of the Prides group and the smell is often over whelming when dog poop has been put into these refuse cans. Thus, by mid October, these refuse cans will be removed. Residents will have to take their bags of dog waste home.

Our usual request for volunteers: Lakes Committee; Block Watch; Maintenance and the Office are just a few committees that would like to get people interested in helping.

Verizon contract: Our law firm has had the Verizon contract for over a month. Progress is very slow. When Verizon actually begins construction, some activities at the Rec Center will have to move because parking will become a serious problem. The entrance into the Rec center will also be torn up to allow Verizon to install power lines, and so forth. Verizon project they will need 45 days to install their lines, build their building and install equipment. The Rec Center pool will be closed when Verizon begins to build so it can be acid cleaned and repairs made on the filter and water inlet openings. If the pool will be down more than 3 days, the Board may decide to heat another pool for one to two weeks.

Heat for pools and spas; The heat has been turned on for the Rec Center pool and N Park pool. Heat will stay on at the four spas at least for the time being. N Park pool will be the children’s pool beginning October 1 through September 30, 2006.

Rec Center: Howard installed a new timer last week for these lights. In addition, the swinging doors at the Rec Center have been repaired. The height of the timer for the spa has been raised so residents don’t have to stand on their heads to turn the timer on.

Outside grills: Howard has begun to remove the outside grills. Those at the Rec Center are gone. The ones at N Park will be next. The ones at the Yacht Club will be next after a commercial grill has been purchased so volunteers can again begin to provide hamburgers at some events. We will probably leave one grill at the Coves area for now. The old grills are a potential problem waiting to happen.

Leaves and dead flowers in Rec Center and Yacht Club pool: Brad from Scapes has given our manager the cost to re-locate the irrigation system around the Rec Center pool and the cost to plant shrubs on the outside of the pool. His cost is over $2000. If approved and when the shrubs are high, the shrubs inside the pool will be removed and granite added. It probably will take a year or more before the shrubs are high enough on the outside of the pool. Removal of the shrubs on the inside of the pool should decrease the problems with leaves and flower blossoms in the pool/spa. At the Yacht Club, several Bird of Paradise plants will be removed and replaced by another type of shrub. Hopefully this will decrease leaves and blossoms in the Yacht Club pool.

Rental Agreement for the Yacht Club: Both forms of the Yacht Club rental Agreement have been revised and a mandatory event monitor – a resident – has been added. The renter will pay the cost of the monitor. The addition of a mandatory monitor will control the key problem as well as overseeing the proper use of the facility. Renters will no longer have carte blanche access to the Yacht Club.

A second notice has been sent to about 457 residents who failed to respond to the age verification. Future age verifications required by HUD every two years will be conducted differently. However for now, we are asking resident to complete the process used this year.

A special thank you to Gail H, Gail A, Valerie, Dotty, Gloria, Jean and Cookie who helped me get our fourth quarter assessment notices ready for mailing. Because of the time factor need to send all residents a letter with the assessment notice volunteers helped with the task.

Lastly are a few comments about why the board cancelled the contract with City Property Management that was to be effective September 30. This date was selected so we could close out our 3rd quarter income and expenses financial statements. A few minutes into the August 15 meeting when the announcement was being made to residents, the City Property senior manager who was present, countered with a September 15 deadline. The Board agreed. The next day I asked if City Property would honor its commitment to send out the 4th quarter assessment notices and was told no they would not be sending the notices. In addition, the next morning I received an email stating that City Property was ending their contract on August 30, which was only 15 days notice, and not the 30 days agreed to in their contract. Thus the problem of mailing was placed on Colby Management Company. With the help of several volunteers from Ventana Lakes, Colby was able to mail the 4th quarter assessment notices by September 9, 2005.

Board members had decided before the meeting that we would not share reasons why we cancelled the contract because two employees of City Property would be present and this was the time to demonstrate professional conduct.

Now that some residents believe they have a right to know why the contract was cancelled, the following is merely a few of the reasons.

A major reason for the cancellation was the cost of the management company. We paid $150,000 a year, which is $12,500 per month for two FT on-site competent employees and several hours a week for a bookkeeper at the main office. In addition to the management fee, VLPOA paid the management company the salary of the activities director plus 25% each month of her salary to cover taxes. In addition, City Property charged us a little over $900 each quarter to prepare out the assessment notices using special paper with a bar code. Postage was extra. Based on what we paid City Property, VLPOA can pay a FT manager, an assistant manager, an activities director, hire a PT person to cover the front desk, type and file, plus pay employee taxes, pay Colby, and still have over $25,000 left at the end of this year baring any unexpected costly repairs such as might be needed pools/spas or building structures.

City Property VP stated he could get our financial statements in good shape within a short period of time when they first began. Three months after starting with us, our financial statements had as many entry errors into the right account numbers as we had before. Our Manager was coding them correctly and I initialed each Invoice before it was sent to City Property for payment. The bookkeepers at City Property entered them into the wrong account numbers which caused board members hours of work checking monthly statements. City Property Management also neglected to tell us when they started that they paid bills twice a month. Thus for several month before Chuck and I caught them, we were charged late fees. These fees were subsequently reimbursed. City then agreed that our bills would be paid weekly. For the first six months there were numerous questions raised over accounts on the financial statements. Most of the time corrections were made the following month that again necessitated checking by board members. My comment to the VP of City Property was that I was not a bookkeeper, but if I could find errors, so why couldn’t his bookkeepers.

We were told that City Property could save us money because they had a wide base of contractors. This never happened.

Another reason for canceling the contract was that we were to have a qualified staff. The manager had never had any experience as on-sight manager and thus had a lot to learn while we paid for her to learn and gain experience. During eight months we had three assistants none of whom had experience in working for a HOA. Training to manage the front desk as each assistant began was briefly done by some of our volunteers. Accountability for some work processed at the front desk – keys given to residents who were not listed as home owners; master keys handed to contractors without recording who took them or if the keys were returned; guest passes not checked for return dates and often not recorded as late returns; etc. was lost.

On Monday, September 19, our manager when straightening our safe, found six checks from homeowners for assessment payments. Two of the checks were from June and July. I am sure these homeowners received notices of late fees. Were they angry? You tell me.

City Property is gone and we wish them well in other associations. The board is moving forward. Our new manager is very qualified and has many years experience as a manage.

Lois Owen - VLPOA President