Public Service Committee Meeting 4/16/20

By Cheryl Dowden, April 19, 2020

The Public Service Committee held a video conference meeting on 4/16/20. What follows is a close “transcription” of the meeting. Headings and bracketed material are not quotes. Also, I am not familiar with Public Service vernacular. Please keep in mind when people speak naturally, they often do not speak in full sentences, etc.

Murray Claassen: “Welcome to our two new members- Jason and Tormey. And I will let Tormey explain what I mean by that. It’s part of the Board approvals. Okay, over to you, Tormey.”

Campagna gives committee update from 4/15/20 Board meeting

Tormey Campagna: “Thanks. How many people…raise your hand if you actually viewed the video or watched the live-stream from yesterday’s meeting? One. Okay.”

Maxine Klein: “I tried.”

Campagana: “Yeah. There was some problems with the voice fading in and out, we heard about. So, I’m gonna just skip right to here to the meat of this thing. Lesley produced gave us her Annual Report and it was extremely well done. She talked about a variety of things, both positive and negative. Talked about somewhat of an impact that was taking place because of the virus issue on our revenue and [indecipherable word] in it discussed what things were being done to offset that by applying for the CARE’s Program, which could get us up to three million dollars in incremental money that could- is qualified as a loan or a grant, depending on exactly how the money is used.”

Campagna: “Talked to the fact that 66 people in the organization have taken voluntary unpaid PTO to help offset some of the expenses and probably for other reasons they just didn’t want to be in this environment. So I would suggest that report is worth visiting because it was well, really well done.”

Campagna: “Nikki presented the CMP Advisory Committee report. That one’s another one you gotta view. She did, she and her team did a fantastic job and the entire team, including even the CCI representative, Jody Latham, support the report and what was in it.”

Campagna: “And it talks about a variety of things that have been accomplished. And it talks about things that are put on, I would just basically say, indefinite delay.”

Campagna: “And like many of the people in the Association, the Property Owners, have had angst over this town center thing. That thing has been shifted to where it’s almost nonexistent. It’s still in it, but it’s way on the back burner.”

Campagna: “Other people have commented that you can’t look at a 20 or 30-year horizon for a strategic plan and if you did it would probably be unrealistic given…They didn’t use this example, but if Kodak had a 20 or 30-year strategic plan, they forgot to put in it that Fujitsu came along and I-phones.”

Campagna: “But, it’s focus is on a 3 to 5-year plan, which is reasonable. Okay?”

Campagna: “And…but, because we change…This is my editorial. Because we change Board Members so rapidly, like you know, 2 to 3 every year, it’s critical that the Board gets some plan together that’s got some life to it that multiple people going forward can, in the Board, can support. Because you can’t change your 3 to 5 or your 1 to 2-year plans every year. You’d never get anything accomplished. You’d just always be just floating around. So anyway, I’d say read that report.”

Campagna: “Um, we track, we did the actual transfer that’s done after the Audit Committee report…after the Audit Report comes out. So we moved the reserves that were basically sitting there in cash into the capital rollover account. So that would fund the issues that were fell short last year like some of the stuff that Jason could probably talk about like culverts and roads and so forth, where money was not spent, which has been rolled over.”

Campagna: “There was a big change to Protective Covenants. But it was more of a cleanup. Um, Mike Medica presented those additions. And they were approved. No unanimously, but they were approved.”

Campagna: “We, ah, made a Bylaw change in Article 9. In Article 9 there was a line in it that listed, or a section in it that listed the duties of the Board and then one final line on that read, “all other duties belong to the CEO.” Well, that line was taken out. Okay?”

Campagna: “And, the reality is whether that line’s in there or not, Lesley is responsibilities don’t change and they are spelled out very specifically in two documents- her contract and her job description. And both of those rule, regardless of what the Bylaws say, unless you want to breach her contract, which I think would be a pretty poor idea.”

Campagna: “We approved the Open Meeting Policy which basically said what we’ve talked, I think I talked about at one of the meetings here. And the primary goal is that there will only be one official recording of any meeting. And that’s the one that the POA employee or POA hired individual, like in this case, Larry [Wilson], does.”

Campagna: “People are still welcome to come in and tape, if they so choose, like Cheryl and her husband do sometime, or people can record it on their phone. But the only thing that’s official is ours. And that’s the one that goes up on the website. I’m not suggesting that anybody’s ever modified those recordings or reports, but they surely aren’t official. So that was approved.”

Campagna: “We approved unanimously the Republic Services contract. Thank you, Jason, for saving us a hundred grand, I think roughly over 3 years or more. Everybody was pleased about that.”

Campagna: “Two items that were in New Business were moved to Current Business. The first was Policy, Chapter 7, Article 2, Standing Committees. If you looked at that, it was written in such a way that all the Committee Members from the Board, were liaisons. And if you remember right, last month, we approved changing the committee members like myself to participating members. But the language in Article 7 didn’t support that.”

Campagna: “And we also approved, again, not unanimously, the revisions to Chapter 7, Article 3, which is…basically talked to what the chairperson’s responsibilities are. And for Gale’s edification, the thing that he was concerned about and I was also and we were making these changes was, what influence does the Board Member that’s on a committee now, as an acting member, have over committee decisions.”

Campagna: “So, I’ll read you exactly what’s in, there’s other things but this is the critical one, in Article 7, Chapter 3 and by the way, I’d suggest all of you read Bylaw 12 and Articles, Policy Chapter 7, both Article 2 and 3, at a minimum. But, and you for sure, Murray, because it talks about your responsibilities in this. And we’ve cleaned it up and taken a lot of stuff out of there. But what we added was this: ‘To ensure that all committee members understand that the authority of Board Member Directors serving on committees as full members, in no way, it is no way different than any other committee member. Their opinions surrounding any particular subject are their’s alone and do not represent the Board’s opinion as a whole. If a committee is making recommendations to staff or to the Board, it would be expected that the committee serving Board Director would indicate their support or lack of support for the recommendation. But in no circumstances should the Board Director’s opinion alone result in the recommendation not moving forward. Whether recommendations move forward, should solely be determined by the majority vote of the committee. The aforementioned should be reinforced with the entire committee on a regular basis.'”

Campagna: “So Gale, I think that you and I, you brought that up at the last meeting and that’s the language, it may be the same language I referenced at the meeting. I wrote [indecipherable due to video quality]. Well, that’s in there.”

Claassen: “Gale has a question.”

Campagana: “Yeah, go ahead.”

Gale: “I just wanted to say thank you very much and that represents it accurately.”

Campagna: “Good and there were a variety of Board Member comments. I made a long speech that didn’t get a lot of positive reaction on the internet. If I’ve still got it.”

Campagna: “Oh, we had the Audit Report. By the way, it’s the fourth year we’ve had a clean audit. Which I don’t believe, I may be wrong, that we ever had a clean audit [indecipherable].”

Campagna: “You give me two more, three more minutes, I’ll read what I gave as a comment and then I’ll be done.”

Campagna: “I said, I’d like to personally thank Cindi, Mike and Buddy for their service to the Village as Board Members. While we didn’t always agree on the way to approach issues, we learned to work together for what we believed was in the best interests of the Village. I very much respect all 3 of them. It was a difficult 12 month period in the Village’s history and the leadership all 3 provided, even more obvious in the future months and years. Again, I thank all 3 for their services and their commitment to the Village. That went over fine.”

Campagna: “This didn’t go over very fine. It’s hard to imagine what happened- what the Village has become. The way members treat there members is unbelievable. Do we believe that we will attract new residents after reading what is written on social media?”

Campagna: “The Village has created an environment where many staff [indecipherable] fear for their job. Does anyone think that this feeling among the staff will make the Village a better place to live? I would surely hope not.”

Campagna: “It has never worked that way in any organization or company where I’ve been employed. We should try to catch individuals doing the right thing- not individuals doing the wrong thing.”

Campagna: “We have members call other members ‘traitors’ and ‘turncoats,’ others threatening the lives of Board Members, past candidates standing in front of the Board at Board meetings, basically calling the Board thieves.”

Campagna: “We need to ask ourselves what we’ve become. Outside of the POA staff most other others are providing their time for no charge. The most vocal individuals seem to, seldom if ever, volunteer for anything. No one volunteers because they are interested in power. They do it to serve the community. We may not agree, but why is it so difficult to act with a little civility?”

Campagna: “This could be a wonderful place to live and is a wonderful place to live, but it won’t continue if something doesn’t change. We need to stop looking at the glass that’s half empty, rather than half full, or the glass will be empty.”

Campagna: “I am hopeful that the quality of work and relationship can develop quickly between these 3 remaining Board Members, between the three remaining Board Members, and the 4 new Board Members.”

Campagna: “And then I read this quote from Charles Swindoll.”

“’The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. [or for that matter a POA] The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.‘” – Charles Swindoll

Campagna: “That was my comments.”

Campagna: “The Chairman’s award went to someone who couldn’t be more deserving for all the hard work she did and that was Ella [Scotty]. I mean she supported all the Board Members and so many Property Owners, guiding them through where to go on certain issues. I thought it was unbelievable.”

Campagna: “And then, Lesley…I am sorry, Lesley gave a Resolution of Appreciation to both Mike [Medica] and Cindi [Erickson].”

Campagna: “Let me ask, we had a separate meeting after that where, as most of you probably know by now, if you’ve read Frank Leeming’s latest word, that the new Board Chair is Diana [Podawiltz]. The Vice-chair is Lloyd [Sherman].”

Campagna: “Lesley [CEO Nalley] is no longer [corporate] Secretary. They put Marcy, Marcy Mermel in that position and Liz [CFO Mathis] is no longer Treasurer and they put Dan Aylward in that position. So, we’ll see how that works.”

Campagna: “I have no idea, by the way, guys, whether I’ll be a representative to this committee, come probably the first or second week of March because all the committee assignments will get voted on, as Article 12 states. And so, who knows?”

Campagna: “I can tell you this, though, that Tucker [Omohundro] has a big interest in being representative to this committee.”

[Someone asked, “who does?”]

Campagna: “Tucker.”

Campagna: “So that’s where I, that’s my speech.”

Claassen: “Gale, do you have a comment?”

Gale Smith: “Yeah. Thank you, Tormey, very much. The short period of time that I have been on this committee, you’ve exhibited to me, the qualities that we need in a Director and I hope that you are reappointed to this particular committee. And if there is anything that we can do to help that happen, please let us know.”

Tormey: “Well, I would hope I was, also, because not only have I learned a ton, but I so much enjoyed working with all of you and seeing your expertise. It’s been really a pleasure. I am not sure what any of you could do, because the new Board is gonna, basically they got control of everything. They got 5 votes. The 4 that got elected and Diana [Podawiltz] and they’ll make whatever decisions they want to make.”

[Someone talking in background]

Campagna: “Was someone else saying something?”

[Talk in the background regarding Don’s cell phone]

[Maxine [Klein] has a comment]

Klein: “Does-+ the committee, itself, have a say in who’s allowed to be on the committee?”

Campagna: “Well, they have a say in the nonmembers, the members that aren’t the Director and/or who is appointed, who is a staff person. The answer would be, they have a complete say in that. They do the interviewing, along with Jason and the Director. But ultimately the committee makes that decision. But as it relates to the Director, that’s a Board Decision by vote. And is it relates to whether Jason is on the committee or not is a decision that Lesley [Nalley] makes.”

Phil Malone: “As far as the new Board liaison, we’d hate to lose you Tormey because we think we work pretty well together, but on the flip side of that, it wouldn’t be bad to have one of these new Board Members come in and try and educate them as to the inner workings of our committee and all the infrastructure projects that we are working on and try and dissuade them from a negative view of what’s going on.”

Tormey: “First off, I would totally agree with you, that there would be value to that. And if it was Tucker, I think that he could add some value because he has some, a reasonable level of experience, from being a builder. And I don’t think any of them, though, by the way, have any negative feeling regarding Jason’s [Temple] organization or this committee. I believe they all view both very positively- which is a good sign.”

Claassen: “Okay, thank you, Tormey. Tormey, just a quick question. Will you still be our Board Member at this meeting next month? Or will the new person be assigned by then, because next month we will hold elections for new officers.”

Campagna: “Well, there’s a meeting coming up Monday. When I look at the Agenda, it’s not clear whether or not any changes will get made next month or not. But to my knowledge, there’s intent to have another meeting in early May that may in fact result…if it doesn’t get addressed Monday, which I’m not saying I have any idea…it may not. It will probably get addressed in the first week or two of May.”

Claassen: “Well, I guess I should ask this question first. Is it still the Board Member’s responsibility to run the election for officers?”

Campagna: “That hasn’t changed.”

Claassen: “Okay. Alright. So whoever shows up either you or whoever is in your place next month, we’ll expect to run that election.”

Campagna: “That election is actually in July, isn’t it? I mean, sorry, June.”

Claassen: “Ah, is it June?”

Campagna: “I think so. I have to look at, read, Article 12, myself. But I thought it was June.”

Claassen: “Even though our meeting, our monthly meeting falls after the Board Meeting?”

Campagna: “Let someone, let me, I’ll look and see, while we’re talking. Go ahead and continue without that answer.”

David Childs: “Tormey, just one very brief followup about what you said about attitude. A man named Peter Drucker of Management and Leadership Studies, he’s the Einstein of leadership. And at the end of his life and career, he was asked one time to sum up what he had learned about the difference between successful organizations and failed organizations. And his response was, ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast.’ And culture is attitude.”

Drew: “Tormey can you hear me?”

Campagna: “Yes.”

Drew: “This is Drew. I’m here as a guest because they didn’t have the vote yesterday for putting me on the committee.”

Campagna: “I thought we did that vote last month and it was approved.”

Drew: “No.”

Temple: “I thought we had it in the mix, too. But when I went back and checked, it hasn’t done. So it is locked in for May. But you’re on Board, Drew. Speak freely.”

Drew: “Tormey, are you free to comment on the letter that was written to the employees of the POA?”

Campagna: “Has that letter gone out? Jason, have you seen that letter?”

Temple: “When did it go out? Did we get it last week?”

Campagna: “If it went out, it would have gone out after the Board Meeting yesterday [4.15.20].”

Temple: “No, I have not gotten a letter.”

Campagna: “So, Drew, how did you know about the letter because it was mentioned at the Board meeting?”

Drew: “The second meeting. That was the first thing, one of the first things when Diana [Podawiltz] was made chairman, that she stated that they had a letter for the employees. That it would be reviewed by her and the Secretary, who is now Marcy [Mermel] and once it was reviewed and approved, it was going to go out to the employees.”

Campagna: “So, you are asking me. I don’t believe it’s gone out yet, because Jason would have seen it.”

Temple: “Unless it is an email. I haven’t checked emails yet.”

Campagna: “To answer your question, though, you say am I free to comment on it?”

Drew: “Not comment. I don’t’ want your comment. I want, what is in the letter. What does it say?”

Campagna: “It talks to reassuring the employees of the POA to realize that the Board has a high degree of confidence in them and appreciates the hard work that they do. And they are a critical success factor to all of the environment here within the Village and the wonderful life we enjoy. And that’s pretty much it.”

Drew: “Okay.”

Campagna: “It’s longer than that. But that is a summary.”

Claasen: “Okay, Jason [Temple], we are ready for the staff report.”

Temple: “Well, I want to ask Tormey a question.”

Claassen: “Okay.”

Temple: “And this is curiosity and you don’t have to respond and it may not be appropriate. But, we’re set up that we don’t really work directly, as a staff, I don’t really work directly with the Board unless I am assigned to by the CEO. So for example, this letter that’s coming from the Board, will that go through the CEO and then to the staff. Do you foresee the Board not going through the CEO to the company?”

Campagna: “In regards to this letter, is that wat you are asking?”

Temple: “Yes.”

Campagna: “Okay. I think it is the intent for that letter to go directly from the Board to the entire staff and the letter has all the Board’s signatures, in effect on the bottom. You know, not signature but it is electronically, obviously. Right? And I’ll make this edification, I think the letter is very well written.”

Staff report by COO Jason Temple

Temple: “Well, sounds good. Just for everyone’s knowledge, these Zoom meetings are being recorded. Audio and video. And so Bob can use this audio for writing up…we still have to write up the minutes of this meeting and submit them to the Board- just like normal. But also have video and what I am seeing is, these Zoom meetings are getting uploaded to YouTube, so the public will be able to…maybe you’ve seen the links or the trails. They’ve already had Zoom meetings and they are uploaded to YouTube for everyone to see. So, just want to give you a heads up on that as we proceed forward here in a little bit.”

Bob Cunningham: “Can you hear me, Jason?”

Temple: “Yes, sir.”

Cunningham: “You’re going to send me the recordings, right?”

Temple: “Yes, sir.”

Cunningham: “Okay.”

Temple: “Yeah, we’ll give that a shot. But this thing should get uploaded to YouTube as well as a feedback of information.”

Temple: “So, what I have on my agenda here is an overview of the COO report. Did everyone download the COO report from the Board meeting? I am just going to give a quick overview of it for everyone…for record here.”

Enterprise goal: culvert repairs

Temple: “The first part of our report is talking about our progress with our Enterprise Goals and I’ve got three that we’re kind of working on here as a Public Services Group is achieving 5% of our culvert repairs, identified in a 10-year culvert replacement plan. So we are just now starting to receive bids on a pretty good culvert rehab project. And we’ll finish receiving those bids probably sometime next week. And then we’ll evaluate those bids and then make a recommendation to the Board in May for that project. It will be a large capital project. We’ve got $500,000 budgeted for this year and what we need…And that 5% is if you calculate it out, we’ve got an estimated $8 million, what we think is what we need to spend to rehab all the culverts that are on our radar. So 5% of $8 million is $400,000. So we think, if we’re spending $500,000, that’s greater than $400,000. So we are meeting that Enterprise Goal with that execution of that project.”

Temple: [Talks about Claasen monitoring the feedback and muting anyone if necessary to cut out the feedback noise. Classen mutes the participants.]

Temple: “Okay, can everybody here me? Okay. We’re cooking then. You should have good quality audio here.”

Enterprise goal: timber management

Temple: “By May, we’re supposed to present a timber management strategy that improves Property Owner values, views (excuse me) The views achieve community-wide fire safety and supports overall forest health.”

Temple: “We hired a forestry manager a month or two ago, Mr. Todd Knowles. He was already on staff…has a lot of experience working, clearing trees and working with the public…has really good personality skills.”

“And we’ve already met with the Arkansas Forestry Commission. We’ve met with one forestry consultant. And we are getting feedback from the fire department, police department, our agronomist, Gary Meyers, who’s with golf. And we’re getting feedback. And we’ve got about a 70% complete draft of what we’re calling a “Forestry Strategic Plan.” And think of it as conceptual plan. This is the first thing that kind of identifies all our needs and also identifies where we need to go get more expertise in our plan. So we’ll do as much detail as we can, staff-wise, identifying our goals, identifying the needs, identifying the places that we need to go and then we’ll start this process and add to it a level of detail if we can get budgeted first on consulting fees for next year. And we’ll get budgeted for capital- buying equipment that will allow us to accomplish those three goals.

• Improving the views- you know, some of these homes have trees grown up now and they’ve lost their view. They’ve lost their value.
• Improving fire-wise- improving the safety. There are some things we can do around our common properties to protect people’s homes in case of a forest fire or just fires- trail breaks, fire breaks- things like that. And the health and safety of our forest. So if we do go in there and we do plan thinnings, if we do analyses of the trees’ health, we can also manage diseases and things like so we can try to have some revenue. But mainly just keeping the asset that we have healthy and responsible in that area. In the area of safety, you notice in the past year, we have started cutting back our vegetation out away from our right of ways at the intersections, at the golf cart crossings and we’re trying to improve that safety aspect that’s totally related to removing vegetation. You know, improving those side views where people can see the cars coming better. So this is a pretty wide-scope of approach here, pertaining to vegetation and trees and forestry here in the Village. And as I get that draft planned a little more and finalized, at some point in time I will submit it to you for a final review and things like that as well. But we fully expect for this strategic plan to evolve into a master plan- where I’ve got professional consultants that have gone out there and inventoried our forests. We may staff-wide provide all that data, but I’m going to hire an expert to tell us where he thinks we need to start thinning first, the value of what we have and things we need to do on a very strategic professional level as far as managing our forests, in addition to those other goals.

Enterprise goal: facility condition and needs strategy

The other one that we have going in Enterprise Goals is by June we are supposed to present a “Facility Condition and Needs Strategy” to the Board for 2020/2021 budgeting. So this is Mike Sykora in the Building Maintenance Division has already led his staff and some volunteers. We were going to involve you all but because of this COVID-19 thing, we are practicing social distancing for just absolutely necessary staff members. And they are just about done with inventorying most of the buildings here in the Village. And we’ve also tried to include golf halfway houses, our pump buildings, water and sewer facilities. There’s an old water treatment plant out on the hill, off of Vesaro that I still think there is some usage available still in that building. Of course it needs a roof for it just to be a storage building. Those are some things that we are bringing into the mix and evaluating. And that stage of that project. The data is getting collected and I’m fixing to go in with Liz and Stephanie and they are going to populate a database that we’ll be able to analyze and manipulate and use for strategic planning.”

[Temple said he would take questions at the end.]

Project updates

Wasterwater treatment plants

Temple: “The contractor is at Mill Creek today and they are digging up and doing phase 2 and phase 3 improvements. If you recall, both wastewater treatment plants are going to have some improvements at Mill Creek.”

Temple: “We’ve got a new UV disinfection system and we’ve got a new filter going in there.”

Temple: “At Cedar Creek, we’ve got a new clarifyer drive going in. And that was mainly the big thing there is a new clarifier drive over at the Cedar Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. So that is going.”

Temple: “I was pleased to see that the money is rolled over from last year to this year because this project started last year and it won’t be finished until this year. So the financial report that the CFO put out shows that rollover money is going to be there to cover all that.”

Water meter study

Temple: “We’re still experimenting with all our water meters. Our staff are actually using the driveby meters that we have installed and now reading them. They drive by. They collect the data. They sit down at a computer and they plug in that data into their handhelds and it’s saving them a lot of time. We’ve already seen that in the aspects of it. We’re still…we’re going to try to make a decision on how to approach that project a little bit further and do a business plan with that. I don’t think it is the right time yet, maybe this year, to do this, but we’re very close hopefully to make a decision on how we will expand that…fast or slow over many phases.”

Lake dam maintenance

Temple: “We’re still doing launch repairs on the Granada and Estrella spillway. Maybe you’ve seen some of that already.”

Temple: “We just got one more letter back from the NRC, covering a few items over at Lake Pineda. That spillway has some concrete holes in it’s spillway structure that are being patched just as soon as the water stops flowing over the spillway there. And that spillway will be squared away. We’ve got a contractor on standby. Just as soon as the water stops flowing, he is going to go in there and he is going to concrete patch those holes and that will keep the water inside the spillway and not draining down the side of the dam, which is causing a little bit of erosion. Nothing major. But that’s ongoing.”

Street maintenance

Temple: “Staff is continuing to…well they are finishing up their crack sealing as we speak. And they are transitioning to mowing. Maybe you’ve seen that they have already started mowing on DeSoto Boulevard. And we still have a contractor, who’s out there crack sealing quite a bit. He’s still ongoing in that area.”

Building maintenance

Temple: “They have really made a lot of headway on their replacing the R22 air-conditioned units here in the Village. They did one last month in March. And to date, there is only 23 R22 refrigerant air-conditioning units left here in the Village to replace. So we’re kind of on track for that.”

COVID-19

Temple: “None of our staff have caught COVID-19 virus. We’ve had a few go get tested, but after 3 days they all came back to work. It was usually sinus-related to causing the flu or infection or something like that. So we’ve been pretty healthy. And maybe you noticed we wear masks now when we’re doubled up in a vehicle. Anytime we get within 6 feet of each other, we try to don our masks out of courtesy to our fellow workers and protect them from us and they are protecting themselves from us as well. We’ve kicked that up. And that’s going to be ongoing until this scales down in the future.”

Budgeted actions

Temple: “Murray, the Rebara Lane (spelling ?) water replacement is officially complete. You are drinking water out of that new waterline. You can answer and let me know if the flavor has improved or not on there. But that was an interesting project that we put a casing all the way down that road and then slipped the waterline in it. So if there is ever a leak, we won’t be digging up the road in the future. Especially, I think that road is being scheduled to have some improvements in the near future. When those improvements are done, we won’t have to tear up the road to fix a water line there. We’ll just yank it all out and put a new one in. It is real simple.”

Claassen: “The neighbors are very happy, Jason. That was a well-done job.”

Temple: “Okay. I know it was a little bit inconvenient but we’re glad everyone is pleased with that. After we get that road improvement, it should last and it shouldn’t be pot-holed up anymore due to water leaks.”

Temple: “Staff is still doing small culvert replacements. We’re still working with a contractor doing some small milling and asphalt patching that is still ongoing. We have a bid out again for another set of overlay and milling. What you’re going to see this year is just a lot of asphalt large patch overlay, excuse me, they’re going to mill out a big section and they will bring in a paving machine here and lay that big patch in. You’re going to see a lot of that, more than probably anything else, along with crack sealing. We’re at the point now where we are opting not to do any micro surfacing and just doing a whole lot more asphalt milling and patching. We’ve still got that bump on Fresno Road. We’ve still got a lot of culvert settlement areas that we are wanting to patch and smooth out and remove bumps as much as possible. That’s kind of staff-driven and a small contractor. That is the approach we are having a lot this year until we kind of find out how if any of the rollovers monies are going to become available to be spent this year. If you read the financial report, there was a rollover report that was approved by the budget yesterday. The reserve and capital rollover. You ought to read that report that was put out to the Board yesterday. There is a big list of capital rollover items on the last page that list a lot of the projects I just talked about like wastewater treatment plant, the VFD structure out there at Lake Lago. It’s all done and running great. The water emergency connection at the Balboa Gate, that one we have all the materials warehoused here in the Village. And we got state approval. We’re just kind of waiting to pull the trigger. As you might recall, there’s a lot of Cooper properties for sale and we had approached Cooper several times to see if they would allow us to put the water line on the backside of their property instead of along Ponce de Leon at the Balboa Gate entrance. You know, it’s going to be right next to the road. People are going to see it. It’s going to be a lot of trees that are going to be removed. I’ve been trying to see if we could get it moved to the back of the property where we just put right along the power lines. Well that property, I saw, had a sold sign on it yesterday. Maybe you’ve seen that too. Well, I’m going to call that Property Owner and see maybe there is a new attitude. Maybe I can work, maybe we can work with those folks and move that waterline interconnection to the backside of the property. If we can’t, we’re going to move forward this year to installing that 12-inch line and have that emergency connection done by the end of this year.”

Temple: “That’s basically it. As far a regulatory items go, we’re still working with the ARC getting all our dams in pretty good shape. If you have walked them lately. All the burning and the bush hogging that we did last year and some of the wild seed planting that we have done, you might see a little more greener grass, a little more wildflowers than what we saw in the past. Hopefully, we’ll see less trees and sumac and briars. Over time that will get removed as we finish those slopes better. But that’s my report for today. That’s kind of where we are at. I am hoping to answer questions, if you want to unmute everybody, Murray.”

Claassen: “Okay, very good. Thank you, Jason. Tormey?”

Campagna: “I want to answer your question that you asked before that I said I would look up. If you look at Article 12, Section 5, which is titled, “Role of Board and Staff Committee Members,” and then look under Section 5a, “Responsibility of Board Committee Members,” and go down to the fourth item, that reads, ‘To conduct the election of committee leadership in June of each year.’ So, whoever the Board Member is, they should be handling the election for the next chair and vice-chair.”

Claassen: “Okay, we will wait for June then. Thank you, Tormey. Any other comments or questions for Jason on the staff report?”

Malone: “On the rollover, did we get all of the $400,000 that we carried over from last year or just a part?”

Temple: “It may be a little hard to explain. On the non-utility capital rollover, the list that pertains…let me go down that list here: crack seal project was in progress and a $154,000 is rolled over and that’s ongoing. Milling and overlay project is in progress and there’s $81,000 there that is rolled over and it’s almost used up. We are fixing to start a new milling and overlay. That was it and it kind of related to the streets. There is another $917, 110 that was listed to a wait recommendation during 2021 budget process for additional identified projects that can be addressed with the remaining $917,110. I am going to talk with the CFO about that because we had talked about that last year we bumped the $450,000 for micro surfacing into the 2020 budget and that became part of the funding for it and we’ve just decided not to do the micro-surfacing at this point and just do more asphalt milling and overlay patching with the laydown machine. We think that will be a a little better bang for the buck this year. Then there is another $500,000 that was for culverts last year that could have gotten rolled over into this year and that part right there, I am trying to find out. Did that actually…is that going to be additional extra money that we can go after and blend with culvert project? Or is it actually the funding for this year’s culvert project? It’s a little, I am sorry to say, I don’t want to say either way because I need to talk with the CFO and get clarification on how that funding is intended to be rolled over into this year.”

Drew: “Jason, this is Drew. I don’t know if you are aware, but at the second meeting yesterday, Diana [Podawiltz] asked and requested that a new budget be prepared from June until the end of the year- a revised budget based on the situations that are happening right now. A lot of these things could possibly be changed before you know it.”

Temple: “Everyone needs to kind of have that mindset. Drew, you are so right. I don’t know how much they said during the Board meeting yesterday, but there is a huge amount of lost revenue that I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t buy any more capital and we hold off on some of these major projects until we have that budget revised and we know what we are going to do.”

Campagna: “Believe the number that we think was lost, will be lost revenue, is in the $1.9 million area.”

Temple: “At the meeting yesterday, $1.9 million has to come from somewhere and so I am already talking on how we can trim.”

Campagna: “If the Board, this is my understanding, if the Board revises the budget, they really don’t revise it by department. That’s Lesley’s responsibility. If they say ‘hey, the budget’s got $1.9 million too much money in it,’ it’s her job to figure out where it needs to come from. And there is a variety of places. Is it shared? Does it all come out of one place? You know. But, it’s her job to manage to that budget.”

Temple: “I have already submitted several recommended options on things that we could hold off on to help with that. We have a [indecipherable] budget here in Public Services and so we have to be…you know, we’ve always stepped up to help out in budget situations and we always figure out how to squeeze blood out of a turnip and get as much as we can done and try to stay ahead of any catastrophic issues.”

Current Business

Claassen: “Okay, are we ready to move onto Current Business?”

Traffic report

Cunningham: “Due to not being basically allowed in the Police Department for non-essential business, I did not do a report this month. I may not do a report for April, depending on whether we are asked to stay out. At any rate, when I finally get around to doing the reports, I will do the individual monthly reports and then the consensus of those months on my annual report. So you’ll get those as soon as I get them.”

New Business

[There was not any new business.]

Committee member comments

Smith: “Just a question. On the 50-year anniversary plans that we had for this year, has anything been discussed on the Board or anywhere else about delaying those to the last half of the year or even planning next year for our 50-year anniversary on the 51st year? Does anybody know?”

Campagna: “I’m not aware of any Board discussion that has taken place to date, regarding that issue. And I haven’t even heard someone float the idea. That doesn’t say that it won’t happen.”

Cunningham: “I was invited to the 50-years anniversary celebration luncheon. That’s been, as far as I know, as far as I can remember, that has been done away with. I was also volunteering for the 50-year Celebration Committee to assist at some of the other events and they’ve all been canceled. As of this date, there has been no information on moving those to next year.”

Campagna: “Maybe I misspoke. Clearly Bob’s correct. A lot of those events admittedly have been delayed. But I don’t think that there’s been a decision…there hasn’t been a decision on when to restart those events or for that matter there hasn’t been a discussion with the Board on that subject. But I think Lesley has sent out more than one communication on the issue of the current delays. Maybe we’ll have a 51st anniversary.”

Don Draper: “Okay, the only thing I have is I noticed I think Jason needs to reiterate to his supervisor of roads. I keep noticing upgrades all over the place. A couple of curves I noticed is now marked all the way around with signs. I keep seeing fixes on roads that have been there for quite a while. All of a sudden they are fixed. he needs to be congratulated because things are starting to show again and again. I hear things happening, but now I can see them. I think the public is reacting the same way. You’re getting a real good image in that area. That’s about all I got, okay.”

Temple: “Thanks, Don. That’s really good feedback.”

Drew: “I just want to apologize, my computer isn’t Zoom-capable. I don’t have a camera on it. And I don’t have a smart phone. So I am talking over my regular phone and I look forward to working with the committee again after a few years of absence.”

Claassen: “We look forward to having you and please consider yourself a member. We’ll consider you a member before the Board votes. We have the ability to include anybody as an ad hoc member so, welcome aboard.”

Temple: “I just want to say that if you have a computer that has internet, you can still log in and see the video. You can see us and you call in using your phone for the audio.”

Drew: “Yeah, I did that at the last meeting. I could see you but I had to use my telephone for communication.”

Temple: “Yeah, you can do that.”

Campagna: “You can buy a camera for about $35 to $40 that will plug into a USB port on your computer and give you both picture and the audio. For what it’s worth, I just bought one for the computer I have downstairs although they all come from China so the delivery is God knows when.”

Malone: “Jason, there is a number of things that we’ve talked about over the years and I’ll just kind of run through them real quick and you can comment when I get through this list. First of all, welcome back, Drew. Glad to have you back.”

Malone: “Number one, we talked about the intersection of Maderas and DeSoto and we still need to get information so we can check the site distance and figure out how to cut that down.”

Malone: “Number two, I’ve had requests from my Nextdoor Balboa to do whatever we can at the intersection of DeSoto with Arkansas Route 5 and so sometime maybe in May we’ll try and get committee members to go out and help count traffic, unless you think we are wasting our time. But I’d rather have counts to send to justify the requests to send to the DOT to actually have them go out and count it as well.”

Malone: “We talked a year or two ago about widening the road into Waypoint. I don’t know if that’s just kind of on hold to never be done or if we’re going to be looking at that.”

Malone: [undecipherable] end of the meeting a couple of months ago and I went out and looked at Artura, nearby Artura Place. The shoulder drop off is probably 5 to 6 inches in probably a 200-foot stretch there and we really need to get some aggregated shoulder in there to minimize the impact of somebody that drives off the edge of the road.”

Malone: “Hopefully, we’ve got Agavista 9spelling ?) Lane on the list to be inspected by staff because that roadway is really falling apart.”

Malone: “We’ve talked about the intersection of Cortez, Delavega (spelling ?) and Minorca and maybe a mini roundabout. We’ve really not done anything on that.”

Malone: “And then the last thing would be the culvert on DeSoto and the Diamante [indecipherable] in it. Can you tell me are we taking two different bids, one with Total Removal and Replacement and one with just slip lining that repairing the roadway. I think that is is.”

Temple: On the Diamante and DeSoto one, staff has a plan to go in there if we have to and replace it ourselves. And we think we can do that for around $125,000. Renting the equipment, take it all out, put it in pretty quick. I think staff could do that in a week. We’re pretty good at it now. But we’re about to get bids in and I kind of want to see what the bids are from the contractors and the materials they are going to use. We are talking about two options: complete dig it up and replace it and the other one is slipping it and then replacing the top on it. Those are all in the bids. We just want to see how that thing turns out. We also have some large 8-foot by 20-foot, inch and a quarter or inch and a half steel plates reserved on standby in case we see that movement get to the point where we are starting to bottom out there. We’re about ready to put steel plates over that hump area to protect that until we get construction. Until we get into the construction phase- if we need to. So those are the contingencies we have on board.”

Malone: “If we remove and replace that, what is the option for detour route?”

Temple: “Not a good one. It’s almost a- there’s a very long one detour. We could try to do it where you always keep one side open and that’s possibly what we would try to do first. You can go guardrail to guardrail and create a space for cars to pass by and replace over half of the [indecipherable] in one phase and then flip it and then you deal with a smaller length on the second phase of the pipe replacement. We could do that. Or if we can just shut it down and blow and go, I think it would be the least inconvenience and now with the traffic and everyone kind of slowed down a little bit, it’s probably a good time to do this. So we got all that on the sheet that we’re looking at right now.”

Malone: “I guess your only options would either be going from Balboa Gate and coming in or maybe even Goosepond Road, but nobody’s got cards-entrance cards for that.”

Temple: “Yeah, you almost got to go all the way over to Baleric and then come around the lake. That’s basically it. And you go down Ponce to Baleric and come back around, you know. It is just a big detour for a lot of folks.”

Cunningham: “We need to touch on this thing from Nextdoor and Highway 5- what that request is.”

Temple: “That’s Phil’s response to the…a possible signalization there or something?”

Cunningham: “They are asking for signals there. I doubt that its going to happen because there are no signals between here and basically Benton until you actually get into, almost I 30.”

Cunningham: “There are other roadways that carry a lot of traffic. Fox Pass Road has a lot of traffic on it and there’s no signals down there. And there’s certainly nothing at the intersection of 5 and 7, although that’s going to become a roundabout. I don’t think that the DOT is going to really view that as viable for signals, but if we do everything we can, then we’ve done our due diligence. And I would like to know what the traffic numbers are before I would request DOT to spend their time and go out and look at it.”

[Someone asked what intersection this is and it was stated it is the East Gate.]

Childs: “Jason, briefly back on the Diamante Bridge and you were talking about detours and you just mentioned what the detour would be, sort of around the south side. Would there also be a detour on the north side?”

Temple: “There is nothing. Diamante- they are separated. Between the first Diamante entrance and Maderas, there are no roads that connect that.”

Temple: ” I wanted to also mention, if everybody takes a look at the Friday Digest. Last Friday, we had put in, we’ve got the new Public Services button for information and our kind of first communication thing that we’ll be putting in and doing monthly updates. That was your idea. That was the committee’s idea and so if there are topics you all want to address- topics that you see that FL is bringing up or the Nextdoor stuff that will build a good/great question and answer. I think David was talking about building a nice question and answer part of that or a link to the website so we don’t get too much busy there. Start writing that stuff down and sending/reminding us to start working on those items. I still got all the email suggestions. I’ve assigned Vicky to process that and start this communication to the public. I think this is a great idea. We’ve got a great platform here to do it by. And ready for you all’s smart and wise and mature responses.”

Claassen: “How about 2 out of 3, Jason?”

Temple: [laughs] “Okay.”

Childs: “One last follow up about the bridge. So people that live east of the Diamante Bridge and they need to go west from there, then they would just have to go out the East Gate down to Balboa and then back in and around Balearic. Is that correct?”

Temple: “You can take Ponce de Leon. Take it all the way out. Take a right at Ponce de Leon and go down to the Bal…you know, then take a right on Balaeric and go around.”

Childs: “Well the bridge is before you get to Ponce. So you would not be able to get to Ponce.”

Temple: “Oh, okay. If you’re on the westside…”

Childs: “If you are east of [indecipherable due to connection].

Temple: “If you’re east of it, you’ve go to go back to Ponce and say you’re wanting to go west, you got to go all the way back to Ponce, I believe and find a way to get back over to Balaeric to get around. That’s…however you want to do it. Unless you know some other shortcuts to get to Balaeric.”

Campagna: “Jason, I think you are missing the point. I live on Granada Golf Course. Or if I lived in Maderas Gardens and I wanted to go to the west end. I couldn’t get there by getting to Ponce. I have to do just what David [Childs] says. I’d have to go out the East Gate and go around.”

Temple: “Wouldn’t it be shorter to take Ponce over to Balaeric and come and take Balaeric…”

Campagna: “I can’t get there. There’s no way I can get to Ponce.”

Temple: “If you’re already east of Diamante, you’re closer to Highway 5?”

Campagna: “Yeah.”

Temple: “Oh, I know what you are saying. Ponce is west of there. You’re right. You’re right. You’re absolutely right.”

Claassen: “Maybe it was more than 2 out of 3, David. Good job.”

[laughter]

Temple: “I still get lost here in the Village.”

Claassen: “I get east and west confused all the time for some reason.”

Temple: “You are absolutely right. I know what you are saying now. The secret is getting over to Balaeric or going completely around.”

Campagna: “David, don’t worry about it. I just ordered a helicopter. We can go anywhere we want.”

Claassen: “Board Member privilege. Okay. Maxine, any comments from the public perspective?”

Klein: “Yes. Yes. Three things. With this virus and people reducing their hours, what impact is it going to have on the projects that are ongoing where you have anticipated completion dates but not all the people available to do the work?”

Temple: “For example, the pool project…we have not missed a beat there. As a matter of fact, it was some of the employees that, like food and beverage employees and other places that have shut down- we have reassigned some of those employees to come over there and help out with other projects such as the pool. We’re fixing to get some of the painters from the pool to go help paint at the water treatment plant, the handrailing and things like that. So we are definitely repurposing and it is kind of a blessing to get this opportunity to get a couple of projects where our own staff don’t have time to take care of these little things. Now we’re getting a chance to kind of address some of the little things that we need to get to.”

Klein: “Can the pool completion date be pushed out in response to what’s going on with the virus?”

Temple: “Well, there’s only so much left to do there. There’s really just landscaping. The pool is operational now. It’s really just landscaping around the outside of it that we are finishing up in the parking lot.”

Klein: “Okay, different question. Is there anything going on with creating a signage policy?”

Temple: “I know I am wanting to pick this back up again some of the traffic control signs and church signs and subdivision signs and informational signs. That is fixing to come back up. I’m working with Permitting and Inspections Group on that. I’m not in any hurry to stir that pot, yet. But that is on my radar to address.”

Klein: “And the third thing, if somebody else represents the Board at this committee, is it appropriate for Tormey to be an observer, just like me?”

Temple: “At that point, we’re are just all committee members on the same level. I am a committee member. The Board Liasion is a committee member and the public is, at any of these open meetings are welcome to join in and observe.”

Cunningham: “I think it would be appropriate for…whoever the Board Member is assigned to our committee to do the Board reports because they will have to be at the Board meetings.”

Campagna: “I don’t think that’s what necessarily, Bob, what Maxine was saying. I think she was saying, ‘Could I come as a guest to these meetings?” And I believe any Board Member can come in as a guest to any committee meeting if they so chose.”

Cunningham: “Oh yeah. I didn’t understand that part of the question. Sorry.”

Claassen: “I think Board Members are actually encouraged to attend as many committee meetings as they can. Yeah.”

Campagna: “That’s true.”

Cunningham: “That didn’t happen though.”

Claassen: Okay, very good. I think that concludes our meeting. Is there a motion to adjourn?

[Claassen thanks everyone and apologizes for his clumsy use of the mute button.]

Drew: “Tormey, is Monday’s meeting going to be televised on YouTube?”

Campagna: “I believe so.”

[There is a Special Board Meeting on Monday, April 20, 2020 at 2:00 p.m.]

Campagna: “The agenda says,

• ‘To discuss committee and related matters,
• To review the possibility to revise job descriptions of officers,
• To discuss the necessity of a retreat as we now are meeting with two discussion sessions each month plus our regular Board Meeting, and
• To direct the Treasurer to prepare with the help of the Finance Committee a restated budget covering the period from July 1 through December 31st.'”

Campagna: “That’s the agenda. Unless it comes out modified, the way Special Meetings work, that’s all that can be on the Agenda.”

Claassen: “Okay. The meeting is adjourned again.”

HSVPOA Public Service Committee Meeting 04-16-20

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFWJWze8xWo[/embedyt]

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By Cheryl Dowden, April 19, 2020

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COO Report

2COO-Report-April-2020