We discussed the year in review with a focus on the budget. We covered roads and the need to discuss a reserve plan looking forward. We reviewed and approved the dues increase from $840 to $1008. We had a good community discussion on items.
Agenda:
The meeting opened on time at 6:02PM beginning with a brief word from Mark Kritzer.
We discussed the current financial state, the special assessment in three parts (Freeze cleanup, legal expenses, property management). We took questions from the community as they came up around legal expenses and property management.
The Board executed formal votes on a number of items including the Document Production & Copying Policy, Retaining an Attorney Firm, increasing dues for 2024, voting in Lorna Brem as the 3rd Board member (filling a vacancy), and creating the Advisory Committee.
We discussed the community roads and the option to hand them to the County. We decided the next step would be forming a small group to research further.
Full details in the link below.
Called to order by Justin at 6:02PM
Quorum Confirmed, Notice affirmed Jan 7th
Steve, Katrina, Justin confirmed present.
Other attendees included the broader neighborhood. All were invited.
Election Results confirmed, Mark Kritzer is elected, Katrina is thanked for her service.
Reviewed 2022 Budget and expenses and presented 2023 proposed budget.
Motion to approve budget (Justin) received second and the budget for 2023 was unanimously approved.
Reviewed 2023 priorities with examples of what we are looking for.
Meeting adjourned (formal session) at 6:21PM and the informal session began covering topics from Slido in the neighborhood.
Agenda:
1) Call to order
2) Announce the election results
3) Close formal meeting (end of formal board items)
4) Open discussion on survey (Fireworks and Board sentiment)
5) Open discussion from Slido
6) Any open questions offered at meeting
7) End
Additional Notes:
The ballot itself contains one name - Steve Frampton - so it is really simple if you have not already clicked that link [link no longer active]
This form also has a few survey questions for you to continue sharing your feedback with the board. Not surprisingly, the main item is around Fireworks. When should the board mark times as "OK" for Fireworks in Saratoga Hills. Hays county has a relatively wide window where our county allows fireworks. Ours cannot be broader than what is legal in Hays county. With that in mind, the options offered all fall within the Hays Count approve dates and times.
Here is what the survey reveals so far:
On the "What days..." question, when you select ALL that you would support, you see that 4th of July and New Years have pretty clear interest among neighbors who shared their view. Christmas Day is at 58%.
Please do take the time and share your feedback as we have 48 households sharing so far.
As we are looking to close out the year and looking ahead to 2022, one item the board did not "formally" do at the last meeting was make a formal motion to approve the budget we shared with the neighborhood. For reference you can see the summary of the last meeting here in the blog which has the info. Our budget for next year will be $110,600 which includes setting aside the planned additional amount in reserves. Other than that change (made possible by the $100 dues increase), not much is changing as we don't have that complex an operation here. Nonetheless, by Texas Law enacted September 1, we must publish a formal notice that the board will meet to motion and approve the 2022 budget on Wednesday, Dec 15th at 4:30PM. We plan for this to be roughly a 5 minute meeting to meet state requirements of having such a meeting in a pre-noticed fashion (don't you wish you were on the board for fun stuff like this?).
The Zoom link is HERE (again as required). No additional reminders will be sent as again, this is just the formal requirement for an otherwise dull event.
Q: Should you attend? Do you have to attend?
A: Quick answer: No. But you are of course welcome to attend. It will be a very boring and quick ~5 minutes. Discussion for this was intended for the meeting in October which we had, we just failed to make the formal motion for approval so in order to be in compliance with state law we need to do this.
Q: If I don't like the budget for some reason can I attend and vote against?
A: You can attend, but there is no voting. That's not because we don't love you and value your input, rather it's because we shared the budget summary at last meeting and we all had a nice discussion around the focus areas of the HOA. You can ALWAYS email us at saratogahillsaustin@gmail.com with ideas or issues.
Q: When is the next time we will get input on neighborhood activities and such?
A: You can always email but we plan for an all neighborhood meeting early in the 2022 year where one of the 3 board seats will be up for re-election.
Note for new neighbors in the last few months:
First - Welcome! If you have questions about forms or the gate or rules etc etc... check out the website www.saratogahillsaustin.com and look at the top for "SiteInfo" - I have relocated a bunch of quick links there - particularly "Frequent Questions" and "ACC Requests."
Thanks all and Happy Holidays!
A few notes summarizing the meeting:
All four proposed changes received the needed votes to pass as official changes to our CCRs.
Budgeting: For 2022 dues, due in January, please expect an increase of $100 for a total of $700 annual dues. We do not do this lightly but must prepare ahead of time for roads issues. This change will allow us to set aside up to $30K in the coming 4 years while planning for $10-$15K annually in repairs.
Reserves: There was a question on any reserve study. While practical in many situations, spending money on a reserve study in our case would only reveal that we have the Gate, Irrigation, and roads to be concerned with. The Gate has new motors, we have a new irrigation controller, and we need a roads specialist to come look at the roads which we will pursue.
As Fire Pits are now approved, as always, if you are building something please submit to the ACC. Use your best judgement. The ACC will publish a blanket approval standard shortly.
Reminder on the ACC process: Use the website and look under Frequent Questions. Also available under HOA documents. There is a simple form to list your improvement along with any other requirements. Simply send the form completed to the board email and we will route to the ACC.
Trash Days: A lot of interest in getting the community to a single trash day to reduce heavy truck traffic. We have a local resident - the Hee Family - who are with Waste Connections and have offered all residents a great deal on trash service here. You are not required to change and no, I am not paid to promote :) This is in response to the common question on limiting trucks. Switching can be a pain - I get it - new cans and calling to cancel the old etc. We did it after some hesitation (its easier just to ignore) but now pay less monthly than before and have had great service. Trash days are Thursday for them. If you are interested, call (512) 282-3508 and tell them you live in Saratoga Hills.
Common Issues we are seeing and Helpful Info:
Community Clean Up Day is this Saturday at 9AM at the Park. See prior Blog post.
Gate: We have a Knox Box at the gate for EMS and Fire to gain easy access in case of emergency. I am verifying/triple checking that the quality check was performed by the Fire Marshal recently and will follow up shortly.
Lastly, we went over a number of Slido questions and had some good discussion on trash and other topics.
