Hawaiian Shores Community -- Finance Committee Meeting Reminder

WATCHDOG © 2011

Aloha Folks,

Please make every effort to attend the Finance Committee Meeting this evening. The meeting commences at 6P and is held at the Honu Street facility. It was stated at the last Board meeting, and it is that time of year, the Budget will begin its process of emerging for the next fiscal year.

For those of us who may find all of this a tad boring, please understand, it affects YOU! This is the time when the numbers start to fall onto the page for the operational, infrastructure and reserve business of the association which eventuates into what the individual Member annual assessment will be. 

The Board of 2010 was able to accomplish something never before done ... a 7% decrease over the previous year's assessment! Members of the current Board campaigned on lowering costs to the Membership and tonight is the first opportunity we will see that plan put into motion. 

How is it playing out lowering costs so far...

• Right out of the gate they hired someone to take Minutes. Time will tell how much that winds up being but as we all did the math in our heads it will wind up being close to at least $2500 to do what was being done for free. Frankly looking at the Minutes -- when you strip away the aggressive agenda which results in many motions each meeting -- you will find Minutes that are not much different than what had been provided for years at no charge. Surely, a professional would have to justify the cost by beefing up the context because after all the money made is in the transcription afterwords; despite the fact that the computer is recording and translating to text in real time!
• Pending costs to have an HR firm handle some of the stuff already handled in the office which by admission of the Board will be a cost with NO NET GAIN! Instead, they anticipate doing away with a position [or SOMEONE'S JOB] to support a company's payroll elsewhere with NO NET GAIN!
• Advertizement costs for newspaper print ads [Please see July Agenda listing publication in two papers on 7/18 & 7/25]  to promote the RFP process. A cost that is not necessary to have incurred when letters [additional cost] are scheduled to go out to 'all' engineering firms in the state. Who might those Newspaper Ads be reaching if not all the engineering firms...unless they may be looking to score a 'mainland' company to do the job? That might raise some local eye brows. Just conjecture on the Watchdog's part, but food for thought nonetheless. 
• Motion to approve the process going forward to spend up to Eighty Five Thousand dollars [$85,000.00] for the pool filtration power upgrade
• Over Forty Thousand dollars [>$40,000.00] for roof repairs and termite treatment on an abandoned building

These are costs incurred so far in the first 6 months as a Board of Directors. 

To be fair, the investment in the pool filtration power system is a worthy investment. One that needs to be made. The investigation to determine wasted energy costs pointed up that someone wired the power to the office incorrectly, a statement made in an open meeting, which puts the Board on notice that any electrical damages done from now until it is addressed will constitute a bit of liability...but the pump and filtration system being upgraded is wise and in a sense providential. Why? Because the overriding negative input from some each time the refurbishing of the pool has been brought up along with the up to $90,000.00 price tag led to manifest dithering. In 2009 and 2010 each time movement was made to try and accomplish the pool upgrade it was met with 'how much is the pool used' or 'can we really justify the costs when we have a water system that needs repairs'...well, this Board just did it! They approved the process going forward to invest the $85,000.00 to be used to change over the system to an energy savings solar powered system and once completed they will have no excuse to deny the complete costs to refurbish the pool. But with those who do not want to spend the monies sitting in position of power who will forestall such advancement by debating the 'color' the pool should be painted we may have a nifty knew pump system with nothing to pump as the pool falls into deeper and deeper disrepair due to age. 

The monies spent to retard the damages to the abandoned building [the Stables aka Community Center] is admirable. It would have been more admirable if through the decades it was in use the General Manager and the Field foreman [both 20 yr employees] -- and the many boards that sat until they declared it unfit to use back in 2005 -- had insisted on routine termite prevention. Absent such oversight, doing it now seems feasible if they only knew what they were going to to with it someday. It is and has been an eyesore as it has decayed right before the eyes of everyone driving into the community; the 2008-2010 Boards were working through the option to demolish it because it is such a liability with kids giving into their natural curiosity sometimes traipsing into the building. 

Combined, these necessary expenditures [some approved; some moving along to approval] equals in 6 months costs incurred in 3 years for litigation that seems to just fry everyone. Everyone asks 'what did we get from the costs of litigation?' Great question...access to over a HUNDRED THOUSAND Dollars sitting in two banks FROZEN because individuals who had no authority created sufficient concerns in the minds of banking authorities that the accounts were under dispute as to ownership! Of course, when you remove the costs of unfreezing the accounts from the amount that had been sadly frozen what was left was not much. That was a major plunder of Membership treasures caused completely because 2 individuals who did not have the authority to do so went in and created circumstances that triggered a series of events that led to the accounts being frozen. The litigation back story and commentary will be the fodder of a post here in the near future. But, had the individuals who 'had the authority' to go in and cause concern acted responsibly for the Membership the very monies we had to spend to access those frozen treasures could have been spent on upgrading any one of our many aged assets. So, yes, the 2008-2010 Boards were limited in what was 'done' with tangible results and frankly wound up having to deal with a situation that was generated from the previous board. Unlike the current Board who is now in a place to begin to build on the previous 3 Boards efforts and start to invest in the Community's assets [Water System, Pool, Stables],  the former Boards had 'clean up' and planning to do to lay the ground work for this Board and what is now taking place.

About the Finance Committee Meeting tonight; please be there. It proves to be exciting times now that the bad stuff is all behind us and we begin to see things coming to life again in the way of improved assets. Be there tonight to chime in and give feed back on things you feel important in the Budget process. Be the community you want to live in by being active where it counts at Committee and Board meetings. The notes from the meeting will be posted in the next couple of days for those who cannot attend this evening.