Assessment increase overwhelmingly rejected by members 579-386
Most members Voted NO on 2007 $25 per lot per member per year assessment Increase issue
On April 14, 2007 at a special member meeting the Association's members sent a message to their Board of Directors. That message was:
No New Assessments!
This was the 5th time in as many years that the Board of Directors have tried to get the membership to increase assessments.
In November 2002 the Board tried to get passed a combination of one-time capital improvement increases and annual increases. There was a total of 6 increases requested. The membership voted against all of the increases.
In January 2004 a one-time $42 capital improvement increase was requested. The Association claimed that the increase was approved and sent a statement to every member. It collected over $80,000. But this money was returned to the membership after a lawsuit was filed in Linn County District Court by four members and a settlement agreement was reached.
In January 2005 the Association tried for another increase. This time, the Proxy form sent to members was missing an important element. There was no place for a member to vote against the increase. Thanks to the efforts of a few members, local newspapers published editorials and articles alterting the membership to the problem. Irate members attended the meeting in person (in record numbers) and defeated the issue.
In January 2006, the Board again requested an annual increase of $20 per lot per member. At the conclusion of the meeting the Board announced that it was lacking the necessary quorum for the issue to be decided. An independent count of the votes by this webmaster reveals that although there was indeed not a quorum, but if there had been one, the issue would have been defeated.
This year the Board asked for an annual $25 per lot per member increase. The first notice of this issue was mailed during January 2007 by BULK MAIL. It was mailed too late to get on the agenda for the annual member meeting. Many members never received the notice as the U.S. Postal Service does not forward (nor guarantee timely delivery on Bulk Mail). The Board decided to simply count the votes on February 24th that were cast at the annual meeting and the proxies mailed in by members. This count happened nearly one month after the annual member meeting. The proxies stated that the issue would be decided on February 8. After the ballots and proxies were counted in late February, the Board announced that there were an insufficient number of votes for the issue to be decided. The board mailed out a notice to members that a second meeting would be held on April 14, 2007. The proxy and notice indicated that the quorum requirements would be cut in half for this meeting. The quorum would be further reduced by the 373 private lots owned by the Association and 1,291 lots with past due assessments. This is 39 percent of the available votes that are already not used to establish a quorum. The members responded in record numbers by mailing in their proxies or casting a ballot at the special member meeting held on the day designated in the notice. The NO vote was overwhelming and the issue was defeated.
At the meeting one member asked the Board if they were again going to request another increase noting that these attempts have always failed. The Board responded that they will not attempt another increase this year!