CALL TO ORDER: Homestead Board Treasurer, Kelly McCormick, called the meeting to order at 7:04pm. Boy Scout Troop 373 performed the opening flag ceremony with recitation of the “Pledge of Allegiance.” The honor guard included Noah and Harrison Kleman, Viktor Heitz and Brayden Kakel who led the Color Guard. The Board thanked the Boy Scouts for their service to the community.
BOARD MEMBER INTRODUCTIONS: Ms. McCormick welcomed the homeowners present and explained that Board President James Keating was absent due to illness. She introduced outgoing Board Member, Chris Evans and current Board Members, Michael Garnsey, Ginny Karlsberg and Steve Bell who had been appointed to replace her as Treasurer on the Board in February.
MANAGER INTRODUCTIONS: Ms. McCormick introduced the Managers: Business Manager, Katie Kidwell, Landscape Manager, Nancy Bauer; Pool Manager, Jaylene Jones; Tennis Manager, Jill Ellsworth; and ACC Manager, Emily Maxfield.
PROSPECTIVE BOARD MEMBERS: The Association had three candidates running for the open Board position and Ms. McCormick asked each candidate to introduce themselves and summarize their background. Candidate Samia Nash introduced herself as a resident since 1998. She and her husband raised two children who attended Homestead Elementary and participated in the Homestead Hurricanes Swim Team. Professionally Ms. Nash has worked for CPA firms as a Director of Operations and has also been a Human Resources Director for a Medical Recruiting firm before retiring in 2023. Candidate Erik Nash introduced himself as Samia’s husband, also running for the open position. He has a BA from the University of Colorado, Boulder and has spent his career in Telecommunications as an engineer. He is currently a consultant. Candidate Rob Origer introduced himself stating that he and his wife Rachel have two children and this is their second time living in Homestead. After being transferred a few years ago he was offered an opportunity to return to the Denver area and agreed to do so if they could find a house in Homestead! Professionally Mr. Origer has worked for Dish Network where he leads manufacturing, distribution and in-home service teams. He also has prior Board experience in industry. Ms. McCormick asked that all homeowners to complete their ballots and pass them to the center aisle where they were collected by the managers to be tabulated.
APPRECIATION OF OUTGOING BOARD MEMBER: Vice President, Chris Evans thanked Kelly McCormick for her service noting her contributions as Treasurer and her work on the Perimeter Fence replacement. Kelly had organized the volunteer fence committee who evaluated prospective fence materials and obtained the proposals for the Trex Fence. Both Kelly and James Keating carried the fence replacement project over the finish line. She was responsible for securing the Line of Credit that allows homeowners to make payments on the Special Assessment and was also instrumental in finding a new auditor and new bookkeeping services when the Association existing vendors retired. Using her CFO skills Kelly has fine tuned the HOA budget ensuring it is based on actual spending and developed the spreadsheet and has implemented new billing and payment systems to update the HOA bill pay and check writing. Member at Large, Michael Garnsey thanked outgoing Board Member Chris Evans for his service to the community. Chris volunteered on the Architectural Control Committee when he first moved to Homestead six years ago. From there he moved on to serve on the Board of Directors where he established an appeals process moving them out of the regular Board Meetings so that the Board could focus on the business and goals of the community. He worked with former BOD President Donald Luther to update the Covenant Enforcement Policy and has reviewed countless contracts for the community. When the community expressed an interest in snow removal Mr. Evans found the snow removal company currently used and he has also represented the HOA in mediation and small claims court to save the HOA legal fees.
COMMENTS FROM THE PRESIDENT: Ms. McCormick summarized the 2024 goals the Board has for the community. She thanked President James Keating for his work on the Perimeter Fence Project noting that James met weekly with Split Rail Fence, handled much of the inquiries or correspondence from homeowners and spent countless hours explaining the rationale and funding to homeowners. Without his work the fence project would not have gone forward. Ms. McCormick went on to explain that Mr. Keating planned to implement a training program for Board volunteers which began with the training of new member Steve Bell as Treasurer. The Board also hopes to find a workable process for online ACC submissions although the various documents and samples needed to evaluate an application continue to make online submissions problematic. Ms. McCormick noted that the retirement of the HOA auditor and bookkeeper drove the change to a new accounting group and transition to Quickbooks Online. These changes will allow the HOA Treasurer to see the state of the HOA financials in real time instead of waiting for end of the month financials.
COMMITTEE INTRODUCTIONS: Member at Large, Michael Garnsey explained that three committees operated under the Board of Directors: The Swim Team, the Architectural Control Committee (ACC) and the Social Committee. He explained that the ACC was the biggest volunteer commitment in the HOA noting that since 2020 they had experienced a 50% increase in applications and now processed over 300 annually. Mr. Garnsey reminded the membership that the HOA Governing Documents required the appointment of the ACC by the Board of Directors. He then explained that the annual Covenant Review Taskforce was also an industry best practice. Every property is reviewed once annually at the same time. Homestead does this through volunteers rather than paying for covenant enforcement. The committee needs as many volunteers as possible and he encouraged homeowners to add their names to the sign up sheet in the back of the room. The volunteers walk in pairs in a section of the neighborhood they do not live in so that citations are as fair as possible. If homeowners want to dispute a citation they have the right to appeal to the Board.
Mr. Garnsey introduced Swim Team Parent Representative Kristen Kraus, introduced herself and her fellow parent reps, Michelle McCleary, Jenny Blackburn, and Erin O’Flaherty. Kristen informed the community that the coaches for the 2024 season had been hired and explained that the swim team was very mindful that the swimmers represent the neighborhood. The Rocky Mountain Swim League is developing guidelines for a code of conduct to ensure teams represent themselves positively in the community and the Hurricanes fully support that although Kristen noted Homestead has a great group of swimmers who always make Homestead look good. The Hurricane Info night will be held in early April and anyone with a new swimmers should plan to attend. Homestead will host four home meets this summer and practices will start in mid-May. The Hurricanes are always looking for new parent reps so please volunteer!
Mr. Garnsey introduced Social Committee co-chair Olivia Phillips. Oliva introduced herself and explained the Social Committee was responsible for community activities such as the Food Truck nights, the July 4 festivities and more recently the very popular Holiday Carriage Rides which served 350 people last December. She reminded the membership the next event would be the Egg Hunt on March 23. Oliva concluded by thanking the Board of Directors for their help and support.
PERIMETER FENCE: Ms. McCormick summarized the Perimeter Fence project. The Board had hired Split Rail Fence Company to install the new fence. Ms. McCormick went through the financials of the project: The base amount of the contract for the fence was $2.1 million with a “not to exceed” amount of $275,000 for unexpected expenses such as hydro-digging around utility lines and traffic control expenses. The Association has not had to use very much of the $275,000. The projected interest expense is $250,000 but again because of so many owners paying in full early and careful cash management, Ms. McCormick does not expect the interest expense to reach $250,000. She also doesn’t expect the full $100,000 budgeted for landscape repairs to be spent either. There is a small section of fencing along Homestead Parkway that has not been completed because that property has a retaining wall that does not permit the posts to be installed in the usual way. A workaround is in development and the last section of fence will be installed when that is ready. Ms. McCormick is optimistic that the Board will be able to cancel the final fence payment and refund the same amount to owners who paid in full but the HOA will need to wait until 2026 to confirm.
Questions:
- Is the retaining wall on HOA property? Yes
- There are areas where homeowner fencing meets the HOA fence that don’t match. Also sections along Costilla Avenue that don’t have perimeter fence. Is there a provision to make these area match so the fence looks more uniform? No, the HOA installed the new Trex fence everywhere the existing perimeter fence was installed. Ms. McCormick explained the Board’s understanding was that when the HOA took over the installation and maintenance of the Perimeter Fence they did so only in areas where the fence could be moved onto HOA property. The areas mentioned are on private property and the Board cannot compel a homeowner to change the fencing he paid for to match the HOA fencing.
FINANCIAL REPORT: Ms. McCormick then reviewed the HOA Financials noting that the budget is available for homeowners in the Business Office. She explained that the Board chose not to increase the dues in 2024 because of the fence assessment, however the Board did include the $100 fence maintenance assessment that had stopped being collected for several years. The Board believes that if this maintenance assessment continues each year then in 30 years owners won’t have to be assessed as they were for this fence. Ms. McCormick presented the 2024 budget explaining the 2023 budget produced a $474,478 surplus. This was due in part to lower water expenses thanks to the rain last summer. Ms. McCormick reminded the membership that the Board has obtained a Reserve Study in 2018 that identified the remaining useful life and estimated replacement cost of the HOA buildings, pools and other amenities. The expected contribution to the reserve fund for 2024 is $349,000.
Questions:
Does the Board have a policy requiring them to obtain multiple bids? The Board has no formal policy but usually gathers multiple bids where possible. The HOA does use preferred vendors but does occasional market checks as well.
Why doesn’t the Board look at the budget quarterly? The HOA doesn’t have a system that allows the Board to do that although with the implementation of Quickbooks Online the Treasurer will be able to see the balances immediately. The Board does not want to generate big surpluses but it’s also hard to project an accurate budget in October before the year’s spending is complete.
Does the Board have a balance of the reserve fund surplus? The reserve fund for fence maintenance totals $301,000 and the general reserve fund surplus is about $170,000. The general reserve fund balance is approximately $350,000 which is not excessive for a community of our size with aging capital infrastructure.
I don’t see a line item for interest income? The HOA is earning 7.5% in the reserve fund.
HOMEOWNER COMMENTS/QUESTIONS:
- What is the status of Application fees for ACC applications? The ACC is still working on that. The ACC will likely implement a fee on applications for large remodels because of the time it takes to review such projects. There may be fees on smaller projects as well but nothing is definite yet.
- What prompted charging fees for ACC applications? Prior to the hiring of the ACC manager the HOA had enjoyed the volunteer services of a resident who provided her time as a gift to the community. When she resigned the Board realized a paid manager was needed as no other volunteer was willing to take on the work. More and more owners are choosing to remain in Homestead and add significant additions to their homes. These projects take a lot of time to review. The Board and ACC surveyed other communities who routinely charge for applications.
- If you are cited by the Covenant Review Taskforce for a violation that requires an ACC application will you still have to pay an application fee? Yes. The point of the Taskforce is to note properties in disrepair. If you need to submit an application the fee will be charged just as it would if you were making the change without having received a violation notice. Not all citations require an ACC application.
- When the taskforce walks, matters. Last year I was cited for violations that had occurred due to a recent hailstorm. The HOA does the best it can. Yes, often the evaluation is done while a shrub is still dormant or just after a hail storm but the volunteers are given a short window in which to complete the process in order to allow homeowners the summer to repair their issues. If an owner was cited for chipped paint, the HOA wants to give them plenty of time to make their repair before weather prevents them from doing so.
- A homeowner commented that she liked reading the unofficial minutes of the ACC meetings in the Homestead Herald.
- A homeowner commented that the Taskforce should say “thank you” when a homeowner notifies them that they have repaired a violation. Noted.
- In late 2022 a branch from a dead tree on the HOA greenbelt fell on my tree and damaged my tree. Now I think another tree branch could do the same thing. Please send your address to the Business Office and the Landscape Manager will take a look.
- Several trees have been removed along Quebec and Dry Creek. Landscape Manager Nancy Bauer replied that area is on her list for replacement trees this year.
- A homeowner commented that overgrown trees will become a bigger hazard as the years go on.
- I am an interior perimeter fence owner and when we bought the house our lot was more expensive because of it’s access to and view of the greenbelt. Both of these things have been taken away from us because of the new interior fence height of 6 feet. Also I had to pay $1000 for a gate to maintain that access. The purpose of the Perimeter Fence should not be to take this amenity away from interior property owners. Most owners welcomed the increase in fence height and its understandable that if you didn’t want that it would be disappointing.
RAFFLE RESULTS: Homeowner Kurt Besch won the drawing for a 50% rebate on his 2024 HOA dues.
ELECTION RESULTS: 94 Homeowners were in attendance. Rob Origer was elected with a combination of 96 ballots and proxies providing enough votes to satisfy the quorum requirement of 90.
CLOSING REMARKS: Mr. Evans thanked everyone for attending and adjourned the meeting at 8:26pm.