General Meeting
Ranchos de Placitas Property Owners Association
27 April 2024 at the Placitas Community Library
Present
Approximately 50 property owners including board members Craig Kendall (President), Graham Allen (VP & Architectural Chair), and Camille Gabrielle (Secretary).
Welcome & Call to Order
- Craig Kendall, POA President, welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order at 10am.
Craig Kendal President’s Report
- Reviewed the meeting agenda emphasizing the importance of meeting decorum.
- Related reasons he elected not to hold a meeting in December was due to conflict created in by-laws between the practice of having an end-of-year meeting (within 12 months of last meeting) before the Association’s financial year was complete.
- Noted the next meeting is already scheduled for August 17th 2:00-3:30pm.
- Reported that meetings will also be pre-scheduled for next January and July (details will be posted on-line).
- Explained he has been meeting once a quarter with other leaders of Placitas owners associations for the last year.
Architectural Committee Report – Graham Allen
- 2 projects going on right now, as listed in the Architectural Committee Report
- Several people said they are interested in joining the Architectural Committee.
Treasurer’s Report – Craig Kendall (Acting Treasurer)
- Kristine Harriger, the former treasurer resigned at the beginning of 2023. Craig has been “acting treasurer” since.
- Books moved to online accounting service Wave Accounting to facilitate simpler transitions. Hugh Woodruff, water board treasurer, assisted with the transition of the books process.
- Financial report for 2023 – Reviewed the balance sheet as well as income & expense reports.
- Questions:
- What percentage of property owners typically pay dues? Only about 30%. Discussion about when dues are paid and better communicating when they are due. We took in more than we paid out.
- Which bank are we using? USEagle – A member suggested to check Nusenda and other banks and credit unions to possibly reduce monthly fees.
- MOTION to accept the Financial Report was made, seconded and carried.
Approval of the Minutes of the 2022 Meeting
- Resident Winne Maggiore noted the minutes do not include information shared from resident Vicki Gottlieb about development on the property next to hers.
- Craig noted he may still have an audio recording of the 2022 meeting and that he will review the audio to see if that is included and if so make note of it in the 2022 minutes.
- Motion to approve the minutes with contingency of above addition made by Bill Fitzpatrick, 2nd by John Rutherford. Motion carried. (Craig researched his available files and only found a 8 Nov 2021 meeting recording.)
Craig requested residents please provide the Association with email addresses for better communications.
Old Business – none
New Business –
- SPEEDING IN THE AREA. David Hamlin expressed frustration with the danger to residents and pets due to speeding in our community. He commented that most speeding seemed to not be members in this community, but contractors and vendors working in the area. He suggested that perhaps there aren’t enough speed limit signs. Discussion continued.
- ACTION: An ad hoc committee will be formed to research, formulate, and report back to the Association ideas for how to slow speeders down in our communities.
Tim McIntire requested a point of order – Requesting persons please identify themselves when speaking.
- ONLINE DUES PAYMENT: A resident had questioned if payment of dues online had been considered. Craig noted there is a cost for paying dues online. Percentages and minimum fees. Different ideas about ways to pay dues online were discussed but no vote was taken as general consensus was to keep things the way they are.
- LOT 114 B-1A (89 Juniper Rd)
- Craig provided a summary of activities related to the property and noted that Lot 114 is clearly listed as “Excepted” at the top of the Unit 4 Covenants. He noted that the North Ranchos de Placitas Water and Sanitation District had previously granted an available water service right [WSR] to the property upon request by the property owner, but that the WSR was withdrawn when it was discovered the lot was non-standard.
- Various discussions occurred.
- Craig noted that to date no evidence had turned up documenting that there was ever a change in the original Unit 4 Covenant status for Lot 114 B-1A (89 Juniper).
- QUESTION: What county, state, etc. lot restrictions, height restrictions, etc. would other “excepted” lots in RdPPOA fall under.
- ACTION: David Hamlin will form an ad hoc committee to research and report back to the Association what additional “excepted” lots remain in Units 4, 5, 6, and 7 and what possible development could be undertaken on those lots. 2nd Tim McIntire. Motion carried.
- COMMUNICATION: Tim McIntire suggested that a lack of communication among the Association could contribute to confusion about by-laws and work of the Association.
- MOTION: Tim made a motion that the Association enable the membership of our Association to communicate among ourselves (by making available the email addresses) to facilitate the mission of the property owners association. Craig noted that such distribution was not possible due to privacy concerns but that he was interested in improved communication noting that if anyone was willing to step up to assist with generating content for “the brief,” he was more than willing to work with them, however, official communication would never degrade to the level of promoting gossip or tattle-taling.
- Craig requested if Tim would take motion off the floor and Tim agreed.
- MOTION on Enforcement of Horse Feeding Ordinance – Janet Byrd rose to present a motion related to the Sandoval County’s ordinance on feeding of wild horses: ”I move that Ranchos de Placitas Property Owners Association communicate in writing to the Sandoval county Sheriff the need for expanded patrols on Ranchos de Placitas roadways where horses are standing and for the need to issue warnings/citations where evidence of violation of Sandoval County Ordinance # 5-24-23.10 is found.” Motion 2nd by Stanley Boyd
- Discussion; Janet noted that “Sheriffs” are “never around” and need to cite people who are feeding them. People are still feeding them.
- Craig suggested an actionable item where he communicates with the Sheriff’s department to determine their enforcement plan and communicate it back to the Association, asking if Janet would withdraw her motion in favor of this action.
- MOTION TO TABLE made by Bill Fitzpatrick, 2nd Lee Harrelson. Motion passed with 2 no votes.
- MOTION from Tim McIntire To create an ad hoc committee to refresh the RdPPOA history and assure Members have access to it and can benefit from it, seconded by John Rutherford.
- QUESTION – Is it to address the covenants? (Not necessarily)
- Motion carried without opposition.
- MOTION TO ADJOURN, 2nd and passed at 11:47am.
Links to Meeting Reports