November 10, 2018
Mt. Index Riversites Community Club, Inc.
Board of Directors Meeting
Board members present: Mark Bollman, Carrie Byrne, Brent Corey, Lora Cox, Rebecca Davis, Kathleen EckartLove, CJ Holmes, Gary Johnson, Don Larsen, Dave MacFarlane, Mat Williams, Earl Van Buskirk
Owners and guests:
Dan Harrison, Kristin Kosiewiecz, Thom Boullioun, Duane Cronkrite, Rudolph Mueller, Mike Herman
Committee Reports and Information
Executive Committee
Mark Bollman expressed appreciation to Earl Van Buskirk, Carrie Byrne, and Lora Cox for the time they spent interviewing attorneys to help with collection efforts. The Executive Committee emailed a recommendation and received unanimous support from all board members, then signed the service agreement to retain Inslee Best law firm. Today’s motion will confirm that decision for the record later on the agenda.
Budget & Finance
Earl Van Buskirk shared the October financial statement.
Following are the highlights from the financial review:
Collections
November statements are being mailed today. Inslee Best lawyers have recommended a step-by-step process for our continued collection efforts and are prepared to proceed with liens and foreclosures for past-due accounts.
We developed a collections policy that the Board is going to send to all owners. There will also be a demand letter from Inslee Best going out to some owners whose accounts are significantly in arrears.
Legal/Ethics/Bylaws
Gary Johnson said we realized that we didn’t have a current version of the bylaws reflecting the most recent amendment on the website so we took care of that.
E-Section Roads
Dave MacFarlane said things are going really well. He is happy with recent gravel and grading on Deep Woods Road.
Canyon Falls to Highway 2 Roads
Mark Bollman said that both keypads and other electronic equipment for the green gate were damaged by the lightning storm. We have ordered new keypads and are working with Universal Equipment to determine what other parts will need to be replaced. Volunteers have been filling potholes since the heavy rains but the grader needs to come through again too.
Gary Johnson asked whether any of the gate equipment damaged by the lightning storm is covered by insurance.
Van Buskirk said we can gather the bills and document our expense for repair. We didn’t suffer a direct hit so we are not sure there is an insurance claim.
A-Section and USFS 6020 Roads
Mat Williams reported roads are in good shape. The seasonal potholes will probably be addressed tomorrow
Lightning also affected electronics at the yellow gate and some components will need to be replaced.
There is debris in McCall Creek that needs to be removed because culverts have been plugged.
Brent Corey said he was in contact with Joe Neal at USFS about our road agreement. Neal said the lawyers haven’t finished drafting our road agreement; we’ll wait to see what we hear back from the them.
Corey also mentioned that heavy rain on Friday night caused movement on Paytan Creek. There is a stream coming down Paytan Creek Road and he spent time digging out culverts.
Priority Business
October Meeting Minutes
Carrie Byrne circulated the minutes from the last meeting via email.
Carrie Byrne: “Move to approve the meeting minutes for October.”
Approved: Yes – 8; No – 0; Abstain – 3 (Corey, Davis, Van Buskirk were absent.)
October Expenditures
Earl Van Buskirk: “Move to approve the Check Detail report for October expenditures.”
Approved: Yes – 11; No - 0
Invoices detail
Charges and Invoices to be paid:
A-Section Checks:
E-Section Checks:
New Business
Board Resolution and Collections Policy
Mark Bollman reported that we discussed collections attorneys over email. We received unanimous consent from all board members via email to sign the service agreement with Inslee Best law firm; we are confirming that with a vote for the record today.
Mark Bollman: “Move to retain Inslee Best as the collections law firm to represent MIRCC.”
Approved: Yes – 11; No - 0
The vetting process with attorneys resulted in a step-by-step process for our collections activity. The approach is designed to produce results.
Earl Van Buskirk said that Inslee Best recommends that if we accept this today, that we publish it to the website and also mail it to all property owners. It will be an information to property owners who are paid up; it will serve as nearly a demand letter to those who are in arrears.
Gary Johnson clarified that this is a resolution to adopt the collections policy.
CJ Holmes inquired about the payment plan – that it authorizes the attorney and not the Board to accept a payment plan. Van Buskirk clarified that the Board is authorized to accept a payment plan from owners before it goes to the attorney; then the law firm is authorized by MIRCC to accept a payment plan once the account has been turned over for collections.
Kathleen EckartLove said she isn’t in favor of payment plans. She wants to reduce complexity and liability.
Carrie Byrne said payment plans make us look more favorable in the eyes of a Snohomish County Superior Court judge. EckartLove said it sounds like a lot of work for the Board to need to review payments to see if they’re sticking with the plan. Who is going to manage the amount each owner pays? If you agree to a payment, then miss a payment, what is the consequence? Van Buskirk said this will be addressed more fully by the payment plan.
Johnson asked if the law firm is authorized to settle. Van Buskirk said after the account is turned over to the attorney, the Board has already passed the account over and the law firm is authorized to settle through a payment plan.
Can an owner contact the Board if they have a hardship? The payment plan is the option. Van Buskirk said the plan is a “hand up, not a hand out.”
Johnson noted that with this collections policy, changes can only happen with a Board Resolution, which needs to be approved by the Board and sent to all property owners.
Lora Cox clarified that any changes to the Collections Policy will be mailed out and posted on the website. She suggested highlighting changes to draw people’s attention to the issues.
Don Larsen suggested that the cover letter is used to highlight key items.
There was discussion about the additional 25% charge if new assessments aren’t received by the due date (#5 in the Collections Policy). Language to change the section to include “postmarked by the due date” was discussed as a better choice. Would a flat dollar penalty or different percentage be a better penalty? After much discussion, it was agreed that the 25% penalty would best accomplish the goal of getting owners’ attention. We want people to pay their bill; we don’t want to get more money out of people, just get the money that’s due.
There is also a charge for $5 penalty for every statement that has to be mailed out.
Johnson said if we get tremendous blowback from the community, that would be the only reason to change the policy in the future. Whatever we agree to now would apply to the next fiscal year’s assessment invoices.
Bekka Davis inquired about #7 – 90-Day Delinquency/Financial Hardship Request. Davis suggested we may need proof of a hardship. The idea behind this is to be more objective; the challenge is to retain privacy.
Van Buskirk said it makes the Board look favorably to a judge that we are willing to consider a hardship case.
Bollman and Davis will sign the document at the end of the meeting.
Earl Van Buskirk: “Move to approve Board Resolution and Collections Policy, and mail to all owners, with the following edits to #5: add ‘or postmarked’ after ‘received by the Association’ in first line; and ‘changed by Board resolution and notice to all Property Owners’ in last sentence.”
Approved: Yes –11; No - 0
Inslee Best has also provided the demand letter for the Board to review in draft form. We are working on reviewing and revising it. We have addresses and dollar amounts to send to those owners when we’re ready.
Discussion Topics
Kristin Kosiewiecz asked who sees the transmission reports from the Yellow Gate. She asked whether anyone had downloaded DoorKing software, and who has the ability to turn on and off a clicker. Kosiewiecz believes that her clicker was deliberately turned off and then turned back on.
Brent Corey said he was aware that there were software issues and several people were not able to leave on the day in question; other people’s clickers were also affected.
Kosiewiecz also asked why dirt is being dumped into the culvert at McCall Creek.
Mat Williams said that we are cleaning out the culvert. It’s not going into the creek. Nobody on the Board has dumped anything into McCall Creek.
Rudolph Mueller asked the Board to recognize an agreement he entered into with the Board in 2000 that exempts him from payment of road assessments. To date, Mueller has not been able to produce the agreement after being asked in mail correspondence from the Board and at the meeting today.
Mueller also claimed that he was promised a gate access device and to date had not received one. The A-Section road committee provided Mueller a clicker at the meeting so he is able to access his property on Stub Road.
It should be noted that clickers are for use by owners and their guests only.
Closing Remarks
The next Board meeting will be at 9am on December 8th, 2018.
Respectfully submitted by Carrie Byrne & Rebecca Davis
MIRCC Treasurer & Secretary
Owners and guests:
Dan Harrison, Kristin Kosiewiecz, Thom Boullioun, Duane Cronkrite, Rudolph Mueller, Mike Herman
Committee Reports and Information
Executive Committee
Mark Bollman expressed appreciation to Earl Van Buskirk, Carrie Byrne, and Lora Cox for the time they spent interviewing attorneys to help with collection efforts. The Executive Committee emailed a recommendation and received unanimous support from all board members, then signed the service agreement to retain Inslee Best law firm. Today’s motion will confirm that decision for the record later on the agenda.
Budget & Finance
Earl Van Buskirk shared the October financial statement.
Following are the highlights from the financial review:
- A-Section is at 91% collection rate; E-Section is at 101% collection rate of budget; these percentages include income from recent sale of land by MIRCC and sale of property that has been in arrears.
- Finance charges collected this year so far are $1,439; for E-Section $7,325 has been collected from finance charges on old assessments.
- $1900 was spent for roadwork on Deep Woods Road; it will be assessed to owners next year.
- Account balance for checking, savings, and community development combined is $232k; we are $46k over where we were a year ago.
- The checking account balance for A-Section is $72k and for E-Section is $151k.
- The bridge is paid; we have $8,925 in liability for clickers that we’ve taken money in on for both A-Section and E-Section gates; the money is returned if owners return clickers to get their deposit.
- We have $48k more equity than we had a year ago.
- A-Section collected checks totaling $1,908 for October, plus a couple more that just were handed over; E-Section collected checks totaling $6,854 for October plus a couple more to be deposited.
- Statements that went out two months ago had a red line of text indicating that the Board was moving forward on collections; much of the recent income is likely attributable to this.
- A-Section has $99k in arrears at this point; E-Section had nearly $190k in arrears a month ago and is now down to $178k in arrears.
- Checks for the month include charges from two attorneys that the Board vetted for collections; charges were split 60/40 between E-Section and A-Section.
Collections
November statements are being mailed today. Inslee Best lawyers have recommended a step-by-step process for our continued collection efforts and are prepared to proceed with liens and foreclosures for past-due accounts.
We developed a collections policy that the Board is going to send to all owners. There will also be a demand letter from Inslee Best going out to some owners whose accounts are significantly in arrears.
Legal/Ethics/Bylaws
Gary Johnson said we realized that we didn’t have a current version of the bylaws reflecting the most recent amendment on the website so we took care of that.
E-Section Roads
Dave MacFarlane said things are going really well. He is happy with recent gravel and grading on Deep Woods Road.
Canyon Falls to Highway 2 Roads
Mark Bollman said that both keypads and other electronic equipment for the green gate were damaged by the lightning storm. We have ordered new keypads and are working with Universal Equipment to determine what other parts will need to be replaced. Volunteers have been filling potholes since the heavy rains but the grader needs to come through again too.
Gary Johnson asked whether any of the gate equipment damaged by the lightning storm is covered by insurance.
Van Buskirk said we can gather the bills and document our expense for repair. We didn’t suffer a direct hit so we are not sure there is an insurance claim.
A-Section and USFS 6020 Roads
Mat Williams reported roads are in good shape. The seasonal potholes will probably be addressed tomorrow
Lightning also affected electronics at the yellow gate and some components will need to be replaced.
There is debris in McCall Creek that needs to be removed because culverts have been plugged.
Brent Corey said he was in contact with Joe Neal at USFS about our road agreement. Neal said the lawyers haven’t finished drafting our road agreement; we’ll wait to see what we hear back from the them.
Corey also mentioned that heavy rain on Friday night caused movement on Paytan Creek. There is a stream coming down Paytan Creek Road and he spent time digging out culverts.
Priority Business
October Meeting Minutes
Carrie Byrne circulated the minutes from the last meeting via email.
Carrie Byrne: “Move to approve the meeting minutes for October.”
Approved: Yes – 8; No – 0; Abstain – 3 (Corey, Davis, Van Buskirk were absent.)
October Expenditures
Earl Van Buskirk: “Move to approve the Check Detail report for October expenditures.”
Approved: Yes – 11; No - 0
Invoices detail
Charges and Invoices to be paid:
A-Section Checks:
- $60.90 – Swizznet (office supplies)
- $26.68 – Bank of America (bank/merchant fees)
- $4.00 Secretary of State (licenses)
- $369.94 Anderson Hunter (Roberts foreclosure)
- $33.62 – Verizon Wireless – (office supplies)
- $343.51 – Les Schwab (equipment maintenance)
- $14.58 – PUD (utilities/street lights)
- $36.87 – PUD (utilities/street lights)
- $7.98 – Bank of America (bank/merchant fees)
- $38.98 – Frontier Communications (office supplies)
- $266.85 – Gatehouse (yellow gate)
- $1.20 – Bank of America (bank/merchant fees)
- $600.00 – John Vos – (road work)
- $3,568.09 – Guy Bennett (road work and equipment maintenance)
- $240.00 – Laurel Law Group (legal services)
- $1719.90 – Universal Equipment (road work)
- $500.40 – Dennis Jordan (legal services)
- $120.00 – SLK Accounting (accounting services)
- $29.42 – Carrie Byrne (printing/reproduction)
E-Section Checks:
- $91.34 – Swizznet (office supplies)
- $40.03 – Bank of America (bank/merchant fees)
- $6.00 – Secretary of State (licenses)
- $354.51 – Anderson Hunter (Peterson sale)
- $7.83 – PUD (utilities/street lights)
- $23.33 – Premier Wireless (office supplies)
- $11.97 – Bank of America (bank/merchant fees)
- $1.80 – Bank of America (bank/merchant fees)
- $360.00 – Laurel Law Group (legal services)
- $7,721.20 – Universal Equipment (road work)
- $750.60 – Dennis Jordan (legal services)
- $180.00 – SLK Accounting (accounting)
- $44.14 – Carrie Byrne (printing/reproduction)
- $228.60 – Mark Bollman (filing fees)
New Business
Board Resolution and Collections Policy
Mark Bollman reported that we discussed collections attorneys over email. We received unanimous consent from all board members via email to sign the service agreement with Inslee Best law firm; we are confirming that with a vote for the record today.
Mark Bollman: “Move to retain Inslee Best as the collections law firm to represent MIRCC.”
Approved: Yes – 11; No - 0
The vetting process with attorneys resulted in a step-by-step process for our collections activity. The approach is designed to produce results.
Earl Van Buskirk said that Inslee Best recommends that if we accept this today, that we publish it to the website and also mail it to all property owners. It will be an information to property owners who are paid up; it will serve as nearly a demand letter to those who are in arrears.
Gary Johnson clarified that this is a resolution to adopt the collections policy.
CJ Holmes inquired about the payment plan – that it authorizes the attorney and not the Board to accept a payment plan. Van Buskirk clarified that the Board is authorized to accept a payment plan from owners before it goes to the attorney; then the law firm is authorized by MIRCC to accept a payment plan once the account has been turned over for collections.
Kathleen EckartLove said she isn’t in favor of payment plans. She wants to reduce complexity and liability.
Carrie Byrne said payment plans make us look more favorable in the eyes of a Snohomish County Superior Court judge. EckartLove said it sounds like a lot of work for the Board to need to review payments to see if they’re sticking with the plan. Who is going to manage the amount each owner pays? If you agree to a payment, then miss a payment, what is the consequence? Van Buskirk said this will be addressed more fully by the payment plan.
Johnson asked if the law firm is authorized to settle. Van Buskirk said after the account is turned over to the attorney, the Board has already passed the account over and the law firm is authorized to settle through a payment plan.
Can an owner contact the Board if they have a hardship? The payment plan is the option. Van Buskirk said the plan is a “hand up, not a hand out.”
Johnson noted that with this collections policy, changes can only happen with a Board Resolution, which needs to be approved by the Board and sent to all property owners.
Lora Cox clarified that any changes to the Collections Policy will be mailed out and posted on the website. She suggested highlighting changes to draw people’s attention to the issues.
Don Larsen suggested that the cover letter is used to highlight key items.
There was discussion about the additional 25% charge if new assessments aren’t received by the due date (#5 in the Collections Policy). Language to change the section to include “postmarked by the due date” was discussed as a better choice. Would a flat dollar penalty or different percentage be a better penalty? After much discussion, it was agreed that the 25% penalty would best accomplish the goal of getting owners’ attention. We want people to pay their bill; we don’t want to get more money out of people, just get the money that’s due.
There is also a charge for $5 penalty for every statement that has to be mailed out.
Johnson said if we get tremendous blowback from the community, that would be the only reason to change the policy in the future. Whatever we agree to now would apply to the next fiscal year’s assessment invoices.
Bekka Davis inquired about #7 – 90-Day Delinquency/Financial Hardship Request. Davis suggested we may need proof of a hardship. The idea behind this is to be more objective; the challenge is to retain privacy.
Van Buskirk said it makes the Board look favorably to a judge that we are willing to consider a hardship case.
Bollman and Davis will sign the document at the end of the meeting.
Earl Van Buskirk: “Move to approve Board Resolution and Collections Policy, and mail to all owners, with the following edits to #5: add ‘or postmarked’ after ‘received by the Association’ in first line; and ‘changed by Board resolution and notice to all Property Owners’ in last sentence.”
Approved: Yes –11; No - 0
Inslee Best has also provided the demand letter for the Board to review in draft form. We are working on reviewing and revising it. We have addresses and dollar amounts to send to those owners when we’re ready.
Discussion Topics
Kristin Kosiewiecz asked who sees the transmission reports from the Yellow Gate. She asked whether anyone had downloaded DoorKing software, and who has the ability to turn on and off a clicker. Kosiewiecz believes that her clicker was deliberately turned off and then turned back on.
Brent Corey said he was aware that there were software issues and several people were not able to leave on the day in question; other people’s clickers were also affected.
Kosiewiecz also asked why dirt is being dumped into the culvert at McCall Creek.
Mat Williams said that we are cleaning out the culvert. It’s not going into the creek. Nobody on the Board has dumped anything into McCall Creek.
Rudolph Mueller asked the Board to recognize an agreement he entered into with the Board in 2000 that exempts him from payment of road assessments. To date, Mueller has not been able to produce the agreement after being asked in mail correspondence from the Board and at the meeting today.
Mueller also claimed that he was promised a gate access device and to date had not received one. The A-Section road committee provided Mueller a clicker at the meeting so he is able to access his property on Stub Road.
It should be noted that clickers are for use by owners and their guests only.
Closing Remarks
The next Board meeting will be at 9am on December 8th, 2018.
Respectfully submitted by Carrie Byrne & Rebecca Davis
MIRCC Treasurer & Secretary