LEEWOOD HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION ANNUAL MEETING

March 12, 2019 8:00 pm

The annual Leewood Home Owners Association meeting was held at the Philips School, 7010 Braddock Rd, at 8 pm with a full quorum, as announced by Sentry Management. Sentry was represented by Becky Surprise and Angela Weed. The Association officers present were:

Leona Taylor, President

Gideon Abebe, Secretary

Justine Edwards, Treasurer

Khaleaph Luis, At Large Member

The meeting started with board officers’ report.

Leona’s Report

Leona informed the members that this is the end of her term and she thanked Pat Willingham, Dayna Roy, Nathan Parsons Schwartz and Janet Rourke for their work on ARC. She also thanked Stephen Greene for editing the newsletter and Catherine Perkins for welcoming new residents/owners. She also thanked David Taylor, her husband, who has been the webmaster and also volunteered to work on number plaques for the community. She also thanked others who had volunteered or for those who have been observing and reporting issues relevant to Leewood.

Leona discussed the transition to Sentry. All major functions were reviewed, and policies and procedures developed to determine the role of Sentry versus the role of the Board or other volunteers. It was not an easy transaction, as evidenced by assignment of a new manager less than one year onto the contract.

ARC

The ARC standard manual has been updated and posted on line. All of the houses were inspected by Sentry and the re-inspected by Leona. The reinspection was done in order to review Sentry’s performance, to see what the issues were for updating the standards, and to ensure consistency across the inspections. As a result of that, we discovered there were things such as the downspout and sump pumps that need to be addressed. Again, we didn’t cite anybody for these violations, but we were able to identify issues that would need additional attention.

The inspection process with Sentry did not go smoothly. Initial inspections were done in July. The other inspections were not done until October. By the time re-inspections were completed, it was November. So the letters were going out right before the cold weather where a lot of repairs couldn’t be done. Even though we sent the letters in November, it gave people the chance to know what they needed to work on so they could plan accordingly. We also told Sentry to go ahead and grant extensions if requested.

The other issue encountered with the inspections is that the inspections were done to our standards. After the ARC letters were sent, a number of responses came back saying the violation has been like that for a while. What we need to remind people is that because it has been that way or because a neighbor has done it does not mean it is right. We also asked people in one of the newsletters to give us suggestions on what they wanted to change in the standard manual, and we also asked in another newsletter for volunteers to help with revising the manual. People had the opportunity to change the standards and not be cited.

ARC is still working on the review cycle. The next round will be after we get through all the extensions and people correct the reported violations. We plan to do re-inspection and the second notices and then move onto hearing notices, if needed, to complete the annual process.

Trees

The other thing we are working on is trees. In 2018, we did a round of tree removal and trimming. We actually inspected the whole neighborhood, looking for dead trees and those that will hit/affect people’s houses and create damage. Based on that inspection, we did a round of removals in 2018. We also replaced 3 trees in 2018. We have more tree work to do in 2019. The process in 2019 will be to inspect which trees are affecting drainage and roots that are affecting people’s property.

Mailbox Landscaping

The other thing that is in the budget for 2019 is landscaping around the mailboxes. The landscaping around the mailboxes is decades old and it was also designed for the old mailboxes we used to have, so we would like to update the landscaping.

Drainage

We had an engineer walk through and looked at various drainage issues we were having, particularly in areas where the houses are located with areas sloping away from the backyards. That is where we are having erosion issues. The engineer looked at those areas and gave us recommendations. We are also working with Fairfax County to get information from them regarding the drainage issues.

Residents have let their sump pumps spew out in the common area which have created safety hazards. We added a separate section to our standards about sump pumps. Downspout extensions also has always been a violation of our Standards, but we have not been citing the violations. Since it is the same issue as the sump pumps, we have kept this in the Standards.

Attorney

We are working with the attorney on some questions regarding architectural reviews, and what we can do about these outstanding violations, and trying to figure out solutions. We also discussed some of violation that we have and how to address them. We are also getting information from the attorney what the laws are about the drainage. Stay tuned until we hear from the attorney.

Fence

The fences behind Leestone Street got knocked down when a tree fell, so we were going through the process of fixing that part of the fence, as well as other fence areas that need to be fixed. We received some proposals and chose a fence contractor to start the work soon.

Transition

My term is up March 2019. But I will be sticking around to help out with the transition and want to finish up what I have started. We need to finish the ARC cycle, get the mailbox landscaping completed and work on the long term solution for the drainage issue in the areas. There will be another round of tree maintenance for 2019. I will work with the engineer on finishing up the street, curb and sidewalk repairs as planned.

Justin’s Report

Justin reported on trash issues within the community. Jason stated that some of the trash issues have been related to our trash contractor, American Disposal. Others have been related to how our residents are managing their trash. We, as residents, can do more to improve the trash disposal issues in the neighborhood. Common problems that we see are:

· Setting out trash and recycling too early

· Not removing containers after pick up in a timely manner. Bins are being left for a couple of days after the recycle has been collected.

· Not breaking down boxes. Boxes should be cut down less than 3 ft square.

· Setting out trash and recycling too late and missing the pick-up.

· Not using recycling bins

· Using plastic bags for recycling that might be missed by the recycling crew

· Not using trash bin or heavy trash bags -using thin trash bags, paper bags, grocery bags that are susceptible to breakage.

· Sticking trash on top of recycling bins causing the trash to be skipped by the trash crew and then the recycle by the next crew.

· Not retrieving the trash that is missed. If your trash is missed, it is the resident’s responsibility to retrieve the trash from the curb.

· Confusion or delays on holidays, inclement weather etc. As a reminder, the American trash disposal schedule is linked to the Leewood website, so if you have any questions related to the holidays, please go to the website and look for holiday schedule.

· Be sure that you are enrolled in the Sentry Community Pro system so we will be able to send out email notification if there are trash pickup schedule changes.

Khaleaph’s Report

Khaleaph’s report focused on the solutions available to the Association for dealing with some of the problems that the Board encounters. Since the board has limited enforcement mechanisms, we need to amend the HOA Covenants to provide for additional enforcement mechanisms. The board acknowledges that there are problems, and we have been dealing with these problems for nearly 9 months. Therefore, we need to come up with a solution. The Board is just as frustrated as many of you; but without stronger authority, there isn’t anything we can do to enforce the rules that we already have. The Board is in the process of preparing additional solutions or making changes to the covenant in order to have a stronger enforcement.

· The board does encourage that if you see a violation you can remind the violator what the rules are. As always, report the issue to Sentry and the LWHOA. Once the report is received, a notice will be sent the owner.

· The different issues that often arise as problems but the board does not have additional enforcement mechanism are: trash, parking, assessment delinquencies, ARC violations, etc.

· The board cannot fine anyone because the bylaws and the covenants do not give it that authority. And amending the Covenants is not easy.

· There are many things that the board wants to propose and we want to hear from the community their thoughts to make these needed changes.

· In order for the board to make the changes necessary to have additional enforcement mechanisms, we need to amend the Covenants. The Board consulted with the attorney, and he recommended some guidelines and advised us what is required to make these changes. We would have to get 75% of the owners to sign a notarized letter/document saying that they are in favor of the changes.

· The good thing is that it is not time sensitive. That is, if we get started next week and five people sign notarized documents, the documents will remain valid as long as the homeowners don’t sell their homes. If they decide to sell , the new owners will have to sign a document again.

· One way we can collect signatures is by having volunteers go door to door collecting signatures. For this we need at least five volunteers. But before we start the whole process we need to write up the document and have it reviewed the attorney to approve the language.

Financial Reports

Leona presented the financial report. She said as of 2018 we had approximately $575,000 in reserve investments. Per our reserve study, we are supposed to be at $450,000. This reserve is for repairs to the streets and curbs, major drainage work etc. For operations, we ended the year at budget, even with nine months of unbudgeted management fees.

Open Forum

Pat Willingham and Julie King volunteered to go door to door to collect signatures and to serve on the ARC committee, respectively.

There were discussions held with residents regarding the amendment of the covenant. It was asked how it will make our lives easier. The board replied that having everyone observe the rules and regulations and penalizing those who violate will make our community more attractive and enables the board to deal with various issues that arise time to time.

Election & Voting

There are two vacancies on the board. Mr. Shiraz Ahmad had previously volunteered to run for election but was not present at the meeting. Mr. Bill Rubenstein and Mr. King Chu were nominated from the floor. The vote was held, and Mr. Bill Rubenstein and Mr. King Chu were elected as board members.

There was also a ballot on the tax resolution. There were 25 votes for the tax resolution and 1 against.

The meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m.