Recap of the HOA Meeting

Frustration. That was the primary sentiment I was feeling while attending the annual Brunswick Meadows Homeowners Association meeting last night. I think others were feeling it, too. Well, that and anger.

I urge everyone to read the comments on the posting below this one that announced the HOA annual meeting and please add your comments to this posting. I agree with Jerome that WE must take control of our community since clearly the men from ACMI (the management company that was hired by the developer) and Friendswood Development Company (the current company developing Brunswick Meadows) don't seem to be interested in solutions to our community's problems.

Ashley White has attached the handouts from the meeting (agenda, financial overview, and budget) in a .pdf file to the Yahoo Group members via e-mail. Please consider joining this group by clicking here.

Javier Martinez, of Friendswood Development Company, introduced the HOA Board members Carrie Williams and Felicia Love (homeowners in Brunswick Meadows who were appointed to the HOA Board) and an aide to County Commissioner Pct. 1, Mr. Beaudion (spelling on that is approximate) who was a guest at the meeting. The aide provided his phone number 713-741-1096 but suggested that homeowners pick up a copy of the "Know Your County" booklet and try to resolve problems with the appropriate County Agency first. If after making the appropriate contacts any concerns were not adequately addressed, then he suggested calling him to follow up directly with those public servants who had been contacted.

There were over 100 people in attendance, but most did not stay the entire 2 hours. By the end of the meeting, fewer than 20 remained and most were having private conversations rather than any formal communication from the podium. When it seemed that those running the meeting were less interested in proposing solutions than assigning/deflecting blame, many chose to leave.

Javier and Bert Williams of ACMI seemed to want to keep the focus of the meeting on financial issues and the problems for the HOA caused by homeowners not paying their annual assessments and the special assessment resulting from the damage caused by Hurricane Ike.
So why is there such concern regarding the financial situation? Currently there are approximately 700 homeowners in Brunswick Meadows (of those, between 260-270 are in the duplexes called Twin Villas) and not all of them have paid their assessments. The original developer of the neighborhood platted the property for 1367 lots at completion and only about 850 lots have been developed for sale. What all this means is that our community is only about 50% complete, and while the majority of the homeowners are paying their fair share, the lack of future growth, coupled with the hurricane damage and the delinquent homeowners, has left a financial burden on the developer. Clearly, as a business, their concern is to recoup their loss and make a profit; however, that is seemingly not the crucial concern of the homeowners of Brunswick Meadows.

Some homeowners said that their calls were being ignored by ACMI and there was miscommunication or no communication regarding such things as fence repair following Ike. Communication - or rather the lack thereof - was a recurrent theme. When anyone tried to bring up issues like security, recent flooding, maintenance of the detention ponds, etc., Bert insisted on "getting through the numbers" before discussing these other concerns. This added to the frustration levels in the room and more people leaving the building.

Here's the "good news" that was brought out at the meeting:

1. Property liens have been attached to those homeowners' lots who have delinquent accounts. Hopefully it will encourage them to pay their assessments so that other pressing issues can be addressed.
2. The flooding that occurred last month was due to the pumps in the detention pond failing to be activated. Javier of Friendswood Development Company said that it was the responsibility of the Water District #89 to pay for the pumps and their maintenance, but WDIC#89 thought it should be that of the developer or perhaps Harris County Flood Control District. In any case, it was said that the pumps would be activated by June.
3. Javier said that he was mistaken when he had told us at the last HOA meeting that it was against county rules to build a sidewalk along the detention ponds so that the children would have a safe way to get to their bus stops in the morning. He said that once the delinquent homeowners pay their assessments, a sidewalk on each side of Brunswick Meadows connecting the neighborhood on both sides of the detention ponds would be built.
4. Hmmm...well, I can't find anything else in my notes that would be considered good news. If anyone else remembers anything positive from the meeting, please put it in a comment.

There was quite a bit of talk about deed restrictions at the meeting and what they mean. I will post on that tomorrow...