NASH RANCH ROAD ASSOCIATION
Minutes of Board Meeting – Saturday June 27, 2015.
At residence of Francois Christen, Big Meadow Road. Minutes by Bruce Wicinas from an audio recording.
Commenced at 10:11 AM. Francois Christen, Don Harris, Tom Spinardi, Bruce Wicinas,
Tom: First thing is to get out the mailer for the annual meeting. Last year we had to really press.
Bruce: That’s just because last year we were defining the fund reallocation proposal. This year we have nothing like that.
Mila Handley
Don: The proposed agreement is, we excuse this year’s billing. Going forward, we bill her lower and upper base fees for one person.
Francois: Sounds reasonable.
Bruce: She agrees?
Francois: Do we have a letter of understanding?
Don: Randy and I are supposed to get together. He’s got some ideas. Randy wants to be a friend of the board.
Francois: Good job.
Tom: So, no mileage, just a base fee?
Don: Whatever the pro-forma that Joy prepared.
All: We agree.
Funding for Tree Trimming
Tom: We might get a grant – for the lower road, for the escape route; maybe a grant for up near Buonanno. I’d like to explore that.
Don: According to my last conversation with Andreas: This year he’s doing Holmes Ranch, through the Fire Safe Council. “You guys are at the top of my queue for next year,” he said. He needs to come out and survey, with us. He’s looking at the viability of getting his trucks up here. That’s great for us. He’s looking all the up to Buonnano, as well as where it drops down toward Indian Creek - the MRC route, all the way up to that gate.
Francois: I talked to him about the Ridge Road. They’re trying to get a grant for that, but not this year. Tom and I rode the ridge road. It’s not too bad. But they put these water bars in. I called Andres about the water bars.
Don: What’s a “water bar”?
Francois: It’s like a big cut to make water go off the road.
Tom: After they log they do a reverse water bar, to make the road gradually go back to nature.
Don: It sounds like nothing’s happening for a year.
Tom: The guys with the masticator – they don’t do that in summer, right?
Don: Right, that’s all fall work.
Dust-off
Tom: I sent the thing out on the dust-off.
Bruce: The segment from the dip to the two redwood trees got done this year, though it doesn’t benefit anyone.
Tom: We added it back on. It’s not that big of a deal – a small spot.
Bruce: What I’d like to get added is the segment from the BMR intersection to the Lee’s driveway.
My share, $188 with discount thanks to the grant, is a big improvement easily worth that much.
Tom: They did only one coat in your vicinity. On Nash Mill Road we do two coats.
Bruce: We added on one person this year, right?
Tom: Sicular – but only ½ ton.
Francois: My driveway could use it.
Financials
Don: There’s $12,000 in accounts receivable.
Tom: Let’s talk financials “interpretation.” There’s 12,000 in “checking”; 4,000 in ”savings”. Is “savings” the reserve fund?
Bruce: It’s the right amount.
Don: There’s $24,000 in the lower road reserve.
Tom: Our people are slow to pay. This year it’s worse than usual. Joy sent out the second notice. More may be coming in. The way it looks now, we have about $12,000 for fall grading.
Tom: I never even discuss “lower road;” they’re flush.
Bruce: Yeah, we tried to make a correction last year on the discrepancy between upper and lower road.
Bruce: A lot of people still owe. Does Joy say this is typical?
Don: We need to make some phone calls.
Francois: She sent out a reminder.
Bruce: Maybe some people will pay before the meeting, so they’re not embarrassed to show their debtor face.
Tom: At the St. Francis Yacht Club – a high dollar place - right to the left of the main door is posted “past due accounts.”
Bruce: I think that’s a good way – the humiliation approach.
Tom: Regarding the additional parcel fee: we reject Sicular’s proposal. We can reject on various grounds. One way: “unenforceable.”
Bruce: I prefer we don’t get into a discussion. People voted for it in 2004 and only Gimblett complained. We don’t need to give a reason.
My reason is, I looked at who it would affect. It would mainly hit the old people. We want to change the people who have the money and use the road.
Francois: The “Robin Hood” principle.
Bruce: No, use. There’s a resident who pays almost the same as me but about 25% of all vehicles that go past my place go to and from his. That shows the need for correction of our logic.
Fall Budget
Tom: To bring you up to date Francois, every year we’ve had about 19,000 to spend. We usually spend about $17,000. This year we have about $12,000.
Francois: We have about $16,000 outstanding. I looked at the names. Most of them are going to pay.
Tom: Say we have $20,000. We need culverts at Little Mill Creek (~$2200) and at Flower Patch (~$3200). We need the slide repair ($3500). We can take some of those culverts out to bring the numbers down.
We allocated about $3000 for the vicinity of those guys in the back - Buonnano, Rudovsky, Collier, Lang, Lasciak at the end.
Bruce: Fix up the road, grade it – is that what you mean by “those people back there?”
Tom: The part that really needs fixing is from Buonanno to Lasciak. But we’re not going to do Lasciak.
Bruce: The map that’s part of the bylaws is the official map. It’s on the web. It’s sketchy, but you can compare it to a detailed map.
Tom: That pond is past Rudovsky. It’s on Collier’s property. I think it goes to the gate, and that’s past the pond. That’s Lasciak.
Tom: I thought Collier wanted his road done. I met him out there and asked him. He said, “hell no, what’s wrong with my road? My road’s fine.”
Bruce: We like that kind of guy.
Francois: Do we need to consult an engineer about the slide? That’s John Wild’s property. He thinks we should move the road in.
Tom: I don’t think we need an engineer.
Don: Is there any armoring?
Tom: We’ll need it – rip rap or something.
Bruce: (Looking at the map.) Lasciak’s parcel is not on the original parcel picture.
Tom: Lasciak’s parcel is actually back here, past Lang. He’s not even on the list. He pays us, though. (Crackling sounds as everyone examines the “bylaws map.”)
Francois: It doesn’t necessarily show the road association stuff.
Bruce: So this is badly drawn then?
Francois: The road goes to here and stops; it dies in Lang’s property. We maintain only this road. That’s what the bylaws say. But they still have to pay dues, because they use the roads. Any roads that go off that, are their responsibility.
Francois: So you want to do Buonanno.
Tom: Hollibaugh says “I want my road done!”
The work is right in here (points.) I think all that work is about $3000.
Francois: Well if you’re willing to spend $3000 on the upper part of my road I’m happy to do that.
Tom: Francois, three years ago I told those residents this is how we allocate…
Francois: But Tom, you’re not the association.
Tom: But at that time…
Francois: But we didn’t all agree
Tom: We do Scott Homestead; after that, Moore Homestead, after that, Chimese Ridge…
Bruce: Nobody dissented to that plan. Zach wanted to put it to a vote but support appeared unanimous. You have to triage the resources. You rotate the focus, in a cycle of several years.
Francois: You spend $1500, on them, and spend $1500 on my upper road, I’ll be happy.
Tom: Let’s look at the budget.
Bruce: We have to serve the whole association.
Francois: Yeah, and nobody’s spent any ___ money on the upper part of my road. I spent $8000 on that road out of my pocket, and it’s time for the association - so if you’re going to spend on some ____ road that serves pot growers, I’m going to get bent out of shape. I mean, there are three full-time residents up there. There’s Keith, there’s the pot growers behind me, and there’s me. And not one dollar has ever been spent on that road.
Bruce: Is that true? Not one dollar.
Francois: Yeah. I mean a little bit of grading, and that spill.
Tom: We spent …
Francois: I’ve been here since 2002; I’m sorry, I’ve got heartburn about spending a ____pile of money on that road.
Bruce: How about we do $3000 on your road next year? We promised the work [Tom’s describing] three years ago.
Francois: It needs it now; it doesn’t need it next year.
Bruce: Most of the road system needs it now.
Tom: When Steve Williams was around, me and Bob put in two culverts on our property at our expense. And we said, “exchange.” All we want in exchange is two loads of rock. And what we got was zero.
Bruce: This is a bad [ conversational] road to go down.
Francois: ---- So Tom, take it now.
Bruce: That’s not what service on the board is for.
Tom: Let’s look at the budget. I e-mailed you the budget, and said this is my first shot at it. We can look at it together.
Bruce: Let’s put your road on the budget for next year.
Francois: We spend a little on them, and we spend a little on me.
Bruce: We’ve been telling them to chill for three years.
Francois: You’ve been telling me to chill for three years. I’ve been easy about this but now I’m getting heartburn about it.
Tom: One thing you’re your defense Francois is, you put your own money on the road.
Tom: So on the back there it was six loads of rock and some labor.
Francois: That’s a lot.
Tom: But it’s bad back there.
Tom: Let’s say we put three loads here, and four hours work. So $1500.
Francois: I want to take a look at what you want to do there.
Tom: Can we look today?
Francois: Yeah.
Francois: If you’re going to spend money there I want you to spend money here.
Bruce: We can spend more than that if you wait until next year.
Francois: I don’t want to wait till next year, I want it now. It should have been done two years ago. It gets a lot of traffic. Nick and Alysia have these trimmers that come up in the fall.
Tom: Are they willing to contribute? Maybe $500?
Tom: In all honesty, grading this road has been in the budget for the last two years.
Francois: It’s been in the budget forever. The last time it got graded was when Dean Titus was still working for us. This road is just neglected, and it gets a lot of traffic.
Don: Let’s table this until you guys do your survey.
Tom: I could be off. I usually go high on my estimates. Steve usually undercharges us. Francois and I will argue about this later.
Pertaining to the Annual Meeting
Tom: Annual meeting mail-out – what do we need?
Bruce: Are there any special things we have to put into it? It’s usually minutes, the financials. We need to tell Joy exactly what financials to put in. The agenda, the invite. I can do the letter. We can whip out the agenda really quick. It’s mostly boiler-plate.
Don: Let’s do it now.
Bruce: Let’s get through the rest of our items. At the end we’ll do the agenda.
Tom: Pacific Watershed - is getting $3500 for the study. They propose to get $735 for road advice, $915 for culvert permit application, $897 for travel.
Bruce: All this is in addition to the $3500. We have to explain to the membership we elected to contract them to do the study.
Francois: Colin is coming to the annual meeting.
Bruce: We’re paying him to come to the meeting to give a pitch for their services?
I read your PowerPoint, Francois. It does not contain any information we did not know last year.
Tom: The majority of people wanted something done about it. Now it’s done.
Bruce: The big decision is up ahead. We don’t know what it will cost. The biggest news so far is that Miriam Martinez is opposed.
Francois: Zach said, just promise her whatever she wants.
Tom: We did. She has some cisterns buried there, where that creek goes.
Francois: We offered to put a pipe in.
Tom: She said no.
Francois: When the membership puts pressure on her…
Bruce: Getting the membership behind it is not a given. The decision is a matter of cost versus benefit. What’s the cost gonna be? It’s gonna be high.
Francois: I don’t know what would convince you. The benefit is, people have to go to work every day.
Bruce: 100 years from now, you might not be able to get to work.
Francois: But it could be next year. It’s been 40 years since that thing was built.
Tom: Let’s not go off on this tangent. We’ll be talking about this. Don’t forget the Clow Ridge people. They have a stake.
Bruce: Colin is coming? So how much time do we allow for his presentation? He won’t have the report yet, right?
Francois: I’m going to pressure him to finish it.
Bruce: So people will not have seen it before? We won’t have had time to process it. So we’ll spend all the time at the meeting just absorbing the report.
Don: We’ll tell them not to read it now.
Francois: Time-out. I’m going to pressure Colin to finish the report by then. Then he and the board will have a conversation by phone to get the details. Then we incorporate the details in this document, which is a summary. Colin presents that to the membership. I won’t be there.
Francois: Jim Klein, that winemaker on Clow Ridge, wants to make sure this road is open 24-7. There’s real risk here.
You can’t go just by what the owners at this meeting decide.
Bruce: I dissent. This is something that could happen 100 years from now.
Don: But it could happen this winter.
Bruce: Right. It’s a matter of probability. There are methodologies of dealing with that.
Francois: Why would you object if we can get a grant to pay for it.
Bruce: If the government will pay, great.
Francois: That’s the whole deal.
Tom: We’re not going to pay for it.
Francois: Maybe we’ll have to pay a fraction. And it will take years.
Bruce: If we don’t have to pay it’s a non-issue.
By the way – the road will have to be closed for several days to do the work, won’t it?
Tom: Not necessarily. I’ve thought about that. We can keep the road open. There are ways.
Francois: We could bring the road right past her house.
Bruce: We had that problem with the green bridge crossing. Titus wanted to cut a temp road right through the middle of my creek crossing. It would have taken 30 years for the scar to heal.
Tom: Let’s move on.
Bruce: We need a time limit on the Colin discussion.
Francois: We have to make people feel like they’re being heard.
Tom: I think 45 minutes. 20 minute presentation; 20 minutes discussion.
Bruce: If we’re not making a decision, we can cut off discussion.
Tom: Continuing with Colin’s proposals - he’s asking $1000 for road advice.
Bruce: That’s pretty steep. Maybe next year.
Francois: We need permits for those culverts.
Bruce: No, forget that.
Francois: I propose I get the guy from Fish and Wildlife to come out and look at these. If you guys want to join me you’re welcome. We’ll look at your culvert, Bruce, and the others.
Bruce: I don’t expect the Road Association to pay for the computation on my driveway culvert. I’m just a homeowner, I can’t afford a high fee, so I’m going to try to do it myself.
Francois: I want to get Colin to do them all.
Bruce: I propose we ice the BMR culvert. Just let that go indefinitely. No one insists it must be done.
Tom: We have only $12000. We do not have money for culverts.
Bruce: I’m doing mine myself.
Don: We’re going to have more then $12,000.
Bruce: But Francois’s road work just got added on, so we don’t have money [attempted humor.]
Bruce: Will Flower Patch be O.K. until next year?
Tom: It’s been like that for 20 years.
Bruce: If you can get F&W to look at it, fine.
Tom: The Nature conservancy is planning to come.
Bruce: I got the e-mail.
Francois: How about 20 minutes for them?
Bruce: Anything else to discuss before we make the agenda?
Francois: The fees.
Tom: We can talk about that for a long time.
Francois: I think we have to show leadership. Why don’t we just increase the base fee? The residents use the road a lot more than the part-timers. I looked at the fees. It’s not in my interest, but the full-time people should pay more.
Don: Yeah, it’s fair.
Francois: I think we have to do this before next year. But I think we should say we did an analysis, and we’re going to do something about fees.
Francois: I want to do some trials with the spreadsheet.
Don: I think Zach’s done that.
Bruce: Why hasn’t he shown us?
Tom: He was on the committee with Bruce.
Bruce: He never showed up. He talked about it, and I was looking forward to seeing it.
Francois: We’ll meet after the board meeting and we’ll go over the numbers.
Don: Are we going to tell people at the meeting about a potential raise of fees?
Bruce: No.
Francois: I’d give people a head’s up. We don’t have enough money to make ends meet.
We increase $100 per owner, more for the residents.
Bruce: That’s a lot more than 15%.
Bruce: “We have to raise fees” has been a preamble for the last three years – my “basis of dues” committee, our re-allocation proposal last year.
Don: $150 per year increase is fair, for as much as I use the road.
Francois: It’s going to be hard on some people.
Tom: Now it’s up to us.
Bruce: Yeah, what I was looking for was a more equitable way to do it.
Francois: It’s not going to work.
Bruce: If people had brainstormed we’d have more ideas to consider.
Don: It’s not possible.
Tom: Do you know when we last raised rates?
Bruce: A couple years ago when I attended the Clow Ridge meeting they raised the rates 40% after a three minute discussion.
Pertaining to the Annual Meeting, continued
[Board discussed and sketched the agenda for the annual meeting. Proposed allocation of time: Old business, intros, minutes. 30 min; Colin incl/discussion: 45 m; Andreas: 20 min; Nature Conservancy: 20 min]
Tom: I’m O.K. with a long meeting. Time goes faster when there are speakers. Let’s just go for it. Francois, will you call Colin and alert him?
Tom: Bruce, instead of rushing to get mail the agenda – we have peoples’ e-mails.
Bruce: We have only a fraction of peoples’ e-mail addresses.
Francois: Technically, Clow Ridge people are not allowed to vote on stuff.
Bruce: They have their own association.
Francois: I would change the by-laws to make the chair of Clow Ridge a voting member of the Nash Ranch Road Association.
Bruce: We should not forever shy away from changing the by-laws. If there are some things we want to change we should queue them up and do it.
Tom: We don’t have financials on the website, do we?
Bruce: Yes. But not any recent ones. Eleven years of summary financials are on the website. Has anybody ever looked at the website?
Tom: It’s hard to navigate sometimes.
Don: Why did you do that? We agreed as a board not to do that.
Bruce: We didn’t really agree.
Francois: That’s right, I specifically remember that was agreed.
Don: I specifically remember that. Take them off.
Bruce: All right. Why?
Don: That’s public. It’s world wide. It’s not for public consumption.
Tom: If people want them we can mail it to them.
Bruce: O.K. We won’t take time. But – what is the bad scenario which is a consequence?
Francois: Somebody could sue the road association – and all kinds of things. It’s information that’s not necessarily…
Tom: I just don’t like doing it.
Bruce: You realize – that’s the main information - almost the only information - the other road associations put up?
Tom: You don’t post receivables, do you?
Bruce: No. As I recall, I just have only old financials and my 12 year summary - though a number of people have asked that current financials appear on the website.
Don: I’m sorry, I thought you were posting current financials on there.
Tom: Bruce, are you going to type our agenda?
Bruce: Yes, but I’ll circulate it to you first. It’s supposed to go out 30 days before. Joy needs a few days to get it out after she receives it all.
Francois: Are you sending out that news write-up?
Bruce: No, I just do that in the winter.
Tom: When they cleaned up the books they threw everything in one item.
Don: It’s not clear, so I’ve set up a meeting with Joy next week.
Bruce: Last year we allocated hours for her
and Paul to re-do the balance sheet format and headings. It’s not better?
[Discussion about overhead items.]
Don: I’m glad we have Joy.
Bruce: It’s made us look a lot better, and made us able to perform this job a lot better.
Adjourned at 11:35