Announcements

MEMORANDUM

DT:       July 16, 2017

TO:      Kingston Owners

FM:      Harold Nevin - Director

Kingston Village Meeting Agenda and Minutes                -           June 17, 2017

My thanks to Ana Maria Nevin for taking notes at our June village meeting.  These minutes are in summary form, and are formatted with the meeting Agenda presented that day. Questions, Answers, and updates are at the end.  Please let me know if you have questions or comments, or see that I’ve missed something.

·        Welcome and Introduction of New Owners, who introduced themselves

o  John and Jill Tortosa, #83 Kingston

o  Laurie McCormick, #84 Kingston

 

·        Welcome and Recognition: Helen Kupka, CCHOA Board President

 

·        Introduction  and Presentation, Michael Bennett CCHOA General Manager

o  50 homes were damaged during storms in November and December, with a lot of water coming into homes, mostly due to deferred maintenance.

o  In 1994 HOA fee was around $200 per month. This year it is more like $600.

o  Because of deferred maintenance, Montego and Antigua villages are now undergoing major renovations.

o  Kingston, though not seriously under maintained, is now in need of maintenance

o  Enhancing our property values is very important; total Cays property values exceed $4 billion.

o  Our landscaping department needs additional staff

o  We have received bids from several companies for Kingston landscape maintenance on an “outsourced” basis.

o  Our landscape manager, Frank, has not had a full staff; now only 16 employees, 6 less than needed.

§ Wages in California will go up to $15/hour by 2022. We will need to hire more landscape people. Turnover is high.

o  Kingston, Antigua and Bahama villages may “outsource” with an outside contractor for landscape maintenance. Frank would then not need to hire more employees.

o  The HOA hired a new Reserve Specialist to do a new Reserve Study for all CCHOA assets

o  Helen Kupka said that in the future some Board meetings will be held on Saturday or after hours so more people could attend.

o  Michael Bennett said it was important for owners to attend village meetings so that they might be well-informed.

 

·         Air Conditioning New Policy

o  The new Kingston draft AC policy was mailed out to owners.

o  The policy will be voted on in the June Board meeting

§ New, smaller, quieter compressors will allow all Kingston owners to have air conditioning

§ These more efficient systems will provide heat as well as cooling.

 

·        Dock Repairs

o  It has taken more than 1 ½ years to get government agency approvals for new docks

o  Up to 5 government agencies must approve new docks

o  In future, HOA will try to get permits 3 years in advance

o  The docks expected last year will be installed starting in two weeks

o  The SE Guest Dock was badly damaged by the storm. It has been repaired for usage, but is now limited to 10 persons, for safety sake. So, no village party there this year. It is scheduled for replacement during FY 2017/2018.

 

·         CAYS CURBSIDE

o  Free July 4^th bus shuttle from fire station to The Village

o  New shuttle service to and from The Village from Loews through the summer

§ Notices sent out: call Loews at 619-865-2301. They will send a golf cart shuttle to your front door, take you to Loews where every 30 minutes a shuttle bus will take you to The Village, and back again.

 

·         Safety Concerns          CCHOA Safety: 619-575-8100

o  Fishing off docks

§ If you see someone fishing off our docks who may not be a Kingston owner or guest, you may call CCHOA Safety; they will check it out.

o  Suspicious Persons

§ If you see people walking around, and you have reasons to be suspicious, please call CCHOA Safety or the police at 911. They will check them out.

§ Helen Kupka suggested that if we see suspicious persons that we take their photo.

o  We have a new safety officer in charge of CCHOA Safety: Paul Ingun. He is a retired police officer

o  Gates

§ There had been three or four owners suggesting that we put up gates at both sides of our water-side sidewalks because of people outside Kingston riding bicycles around our perimeter. This matter was put up for discussion, with many speaking up with pro and con opinions.

§ Michael Bennett said that each gate would cost about $10,000.

§ We did a straw poll on those in favor of installing gates, and it was about evenly split:

·        9 said, “yes”

·        10 said, “no”

§ It was concluded that for now we would put up signs telling everyone that no bicycles, skateboards or rollerblades are allowed on Kingston sidewalks (Note: this is already in our Member Handbook).

§ Several people spoke up about dog poop on lawns

·        It was decided that we would put up more, “clean up after our pet” signs.

·        We will also post two or three, “$300 FINE” signs with the clean up signs (this is also in our Member Handbook).

 

·         Building Master Plan

o  Survey of all wood damage

§ We will contract with a construction company to do a complete survey of all Kingston buildings to determine, item by item, all of the repair work that needs to be done.

§ Montego had $380,000 worth of dry rot only

o  Stairways

§ Stairways need serious attention. They will be part of the construction survey. We are considering replacing the stairs with concrete ones.

 

·         Landscape

o   Landscape Renovation Project

§ We currently have $100,000 in our budget for next fiscal year (starting 7/1/17) for complete landscape renovation around our seven buildings and in between buildings. A decision will be made on which contractor will be used, with a Board vote next week.

o  Landscape Maintenance

§ The Board will vote next week whether to allow Kingston, Antigua and Bahama villages to go outside our current landscape staff to work with an outside contractor to landscape maintenance (aka “outsourcing”).

 

·         Termite Inspections and treatment

o  Hi-Tech Termite has inspected all of Kingston upper units

§ They found 24 places that will have termite treatments done under warranty. Warranty work on all will start next week.

§ There were 136 places that need work done by a building contractor

 

·         Kingston Reserve and Operating Budget (see attached Reserve Budget Analysis)

o  The big thing that drove the 18% increase in Kingston dues was the new way in which we value our assets.

§ In 2015 Kingston assets were valued at $3.8 million. Then in 2016 that value was increased to $4.3 million.

§ In April 2017, our CCHOA hired a new firm, Advanced Reserve Solutions, to do a new reserve study of all HOA assets. They, in turn, put a new value on Kingston assets of $4.8 million.

§ In a matter of just two years, the total replacement value of Kingston assets increased by over $1,000,000. This increase in values had to be supported by dues increases.

§ At the same time, Kingston Operating Expenses have shot up drastically over the last two years:

·        Maintenance costs went up 49%

·        Landscaping costs went up 41%

·        Other Member Services went up 17%

§ Thus, our HOA dues had to increase by 18%.

o  On July 1, our dues will increase to around $700 per month. Michael Bennett reminded us that we each have a boat slip, which if we were renting one outside, we would be paying $500 to $700 a month just for that.

 

·         New Director

o  Michelle Junet, 44 Kingston, volunteered to run for Kingston Director for the next term, which starts September 1^st.

 

·        Other Items (Open Session for questions/comments):

o  Dave Krebes asked how much we would save if we “outsourced” our landscaping in Kingston

§ Michael Bennett: more than $20,000 per year

o  Michelle Junet had questions about the budget

§ Michael and Helen explained about our “Reserves” being increased as the result of the new Reserve (Asset) Study.

o  Dave Krebes said that we talk about dry rot every year, but nothing is ever done.

o  Bob Junet said it didn’t make sense to do landscaping before building repairs; concerns that scaffolding would damage landscaping.

§ Response: scaffolding will not be required for building maintenance, as in Montego and Antigua

o  Lou and Elinor Mone thought that landscaping should be done after dry rot repairs.

o  Olivia Weinstock suggested that we replace wood panels on water-side with stucco.

§ Response: this would affect the architectural design of Kingston

o  Al Sorensen: Necessary building repair work would most likely be phased in over several years.

o  H Nevin: patio fencing will be done first.

§ A work order has been out on it for more than a year.

o  Lou Mone mentioned about rusted vents on buildings and garages.

§ A work order has been out on it for more than a year.

 

·         H Nevin Up-Date as of 7/16/17:

o  New Kingston AC policy has been approved by the Board. Now everyone can have AC. Signed CCHOA policy will be emailed to owner in next week or so.

o  No bike riding, skateboarding, roller-blading signs are now in place at entrance of each water-side sidewalk.

o  7 dock fingers, 7 dock head walks, and 3 gangways have been replaced.

o  Next year we will spend over $120,000 in dock replacement

o  Our Kingston landscape renovation project started on 7/13. It should be completed by the first week of September, if not before. It is being done by Park West Landscape Management. Our contract for this work is for $58,000 (our budget was $100,000, so we’re saving). There will be some costs over that, including new path lighting which has not been decided yet, but the total should come in quite a bit under budget.

o  The Board approved Kingston contracting outside for landscape maintenance. Park West will also be providing this service. They are scheduled to start on August 21^st. We will be saving a minimum of $20,000 per year from what we have been paying for our in-house landscape maintenance.