2024 Sunland Division 17 Annual Membership Meeting
September 11, 2024
Sunland Golf Course Ballroom, 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. (times are estimated)
Registration
Homeowner Forum
Time divided among those signed up to speak.
One unit owner asked that in the future the previous year’s budgetary data be included in the election packet. Betty Gwaltney, treasurer, noted that request and also stated that all previous budgetary data is on the Sunland North website for unit owner review.
Call to Order
President Gerry Hatler called the meeting to order at 2:47 p.m. after announcing the 3:00 p.m. deadline for casting ballots.
Verification of Quorum
Board Members present were President Gerry Hatler, Vice President Mark Anderson, Treasurer Betty Gwaltney, Secretary Lawerence Charters, and Member-at-Large Warren Husman. Gerry announced that 107 ballots had been turned in so the annual meeting quorum was met.
Purpose of the Meeting
Gerry announced that the purpose of the meeting was to 1) approve the 2025 budget, 2) elect new board members, and 3) address any other issues that may come forward.
Approval of the agenda
Gerry asked for the approval of the August 14, 2024 meeting minutes; Betty Gwaltney moved to approve, seconded by Mark Anderson, all approved.
Old Business
Reserve Study Results
Betty stated that the full reserve report is available on the Sunland North website. Key takeaways: the association is funded at 32.7% (up from 30% at the end of Dec. 2023) which puts the HOA at medium risk for special assessments. Projected reserve balance Dec. 31,2024 is $1,245,000; a fully funded Reserve balance would be $3,146,572.
Financial Review Results
The conclusion of the outside firm is as follows: “Based on our review, we are not aware of any material modifications that should be made to the accompanying final statements in order for them to be in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the USA.” The full financial review is available on the website.
Amendment to Bylaws to Change the Date of the Annual Meeting
Lawrence stated that the Board decided to move the annual meeting to the fourth quarter of the calendar year rather than the current third quarter. Over the last several years, the outside financial review firm has gotten the final report in just before the annual meeting. Moving the date to the fourth quarter gives the Board more time to review it before the annual meeting. Gerry requested a motion from the Board to amend the bylaws to move the annual meeting to the fourth quarter; Betty moved to approve, seconded by Lawrence, all approved.
New Business
Introduction of Board Members
Gerry introduced the 2023 – 2024 Board of Directors: Lawrence Charters, Warren Husman, Mark Anderson, Betty Gwaltney and Gerry Hatler. He then introduced the candidates for the 2024 – 2026 Board, Beverly (Sunny) Stern, Susan Hamman, and Betty Gwaltney (running for a third term).
Officer, Committee, and Coordinator 2023 – 2024 Summaries
President’s Report – Gerry Hatler
Gerry extended thanks to fellow board members and committee members for all the work that they’ve done over the past year. He stated that it involved commitment beyond the once-a-month meeting. Warren is leaving the board after 2 years.
Lawrence is also leaving the board after 6 years. Besides being secretary and vice president on the Board, Lawrence is a “Renaissance man,” including being webmaster, finding a new service provider, being detail-oriented, and creating ‘fill in” forms on the website to make it easier to report external maintenance and landscaping problems, as well as filing ACC requests.
A major task this past year was the revision of the CC&Rs. The Board worked with a Seattle HOA law firm, which produced a new draft. Barbara Brooner, Lawrence Charters, Betty Gwaltney, and Susan Hamman worked on the draft. The draft was simplified, all developer references were removed, and it was made current to comply with new Washington State HOA laws.
Betty’s job as treasurer was recognized as one of the most time-intensive jobs on the Board.
Thanks also to the Committee Chairs: Exterior Maintenance, Architectural Control Committee, Landscape, Insurance, and Natural Habitat. Gerry thanked Mike Johnson for his many years of service as outgoing chair of External Maintenance and Eric Mahnerd as outgoing ACC chair. Barbara Ross was introduced as the new ACC chair
HOA Accomplishments this past year:
- Six buildings were painted by Lopez Painting, on time and under budget.
- The every third-year mulch refresh was completed.
- The revised CC&R’s were completed and presented to the HOA members.
- All the Committee chairs were filled
- Continued higher yield investment plan for reserve funds, which will earn about $75,000 over the terms of the CDs.
- Reserve funds continue to grow and the reserve analysis improved over the previous year.
Challenges
- Inflation has lessened but still impacts the Reserves adequacy.
- Decreasing interest rate environment.
- Availability of qualified contractors to complete projects.
- Completing backflow preventers compliance. Washington State requires annual testing. There are about 60 devices in the HOA. Three were repaired this year and one was replaced.
Vice President’s Report – Mark Anderson
Mark stepped in as External Maintenance Chair, working alongside Mike Johnson, who will remain on the committee. Mark emphasized being proactive in getting maintenance done versus deferring projects. External Maintenance inspected ten buildings this year; reviewing roofs, sidings, etc. to help determine future expenses and/or eliminate current problems.
Secretary – Lawrence Charters
Lawrence, who also maintains the Sunland North website, stated that the website had over one million attacks in the last four weeks; he said it happens every election cycle.
He reported that a major initiative he agreed to take on this year was a comprehensive review and clarification of the Division 17 CC&Rs. The original CC&Rs were a “cut and paste job” by the developer. They were revised when the owners took over the HOA from the developer, but he was convinced they could be more clear and readable. In addition, WA State law had changed, which required further changes. Lawrence thanked several Unit Owners who stepped up to provide major assistance, including Susan Hamman for taking board minutes and assisting in the CC&Rs revision; Barbara Brooner for assisting in taking meeting minutes and being an epic CC&Rs proofreader and researcher; and Betty, who took over the maintenance of the unit owner directory, in addition to her Treasurer duties. Betty also did an extensive review of CC&Rs, in particular the finance sections. Mike Johnson did a great job as the Exterior Maintenance chair. He has increased focus on activities that reduce future maintenance, for example, paint choices to make the paint last longer, in addition to steadily addressing the many other tasks that are part of External Maintenance. Tom Steffen did a herculean job of maintaining the landscape, working with contractors, and unit owners, plus he has put in a lot of sweat equity. Jere Wilson, unit owner, wrote in to comment on CC&Rs (one of only two unit owners who did so) and made several corrections and observations which helped finalize the CC&Rs.
Treasurer – Betty Gwaltney
1) Monthly Expense Report:
- Operating expenses for August total $14,795, year-to-date operating expenses $89,585. This is $1,281 OVER Budget year to date for Operational expenses due to maintenance expenses.
- Interest income YTD: $21,795
2) Total Funds on hand:
Operating Accounts $ 83,290
Reserve Accounts $ 913,687
TOTAL $ 996,977
3) Financial Review:
Final report received – conclusion: “Based on our review, we are not aware of any material modifications that should be made to the accompanying final statements in order for them to be in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the USA.”
4) Reserve Study – Key takeaways:
- % funded at 32.7 % (up from 30% at end of Dec. 2023) – medium risk for special assessment
- Projected Reserve balance Dec 31, 2024 $1,245,000; a fully funded Reserve balance $3,146,572
5) CD’s
Kitsap CD 0003 (5.4%) matures 09/19/24 current balance of $77,829.59. Recommend moving $$ to WAFed and opening 19-month CD @ 4.10%
Betty asked for a motion to move the Kitsap CD to WAFed; Lawrence moved to approve, seconded by Warren, and all were in favor.
Board Member at Large – Warren Husman
No additional comments except to compliment Tom Steffen’s work on landscaping and to encourage unit owner volunteerism.
Architectural Control Committee – Barbara Ross
Barbara reports two ACC inquiries are in process.
Insurance Committee – Susan Hamman
The HOA insurance policy with Community Association Underwriters (CAU) was renewed for the year 2024 – 2025 in the amount of $105,500. This is a 7% increase over the previous year’s policy of $98,000. With changes in the insurance industry and disasters around the globe that continue to multiply, the premium is expected to rise between 15 – 20% for the 2025 – 2026 policy.
The CAU insurance deductible was raised to $10,000 during this renewal cycle. If a claim originates in a unit owner’s home, that owner is responsible for the $10,000 deductible. Please check with your own personal insurance agent to make sure that your HO-6 policy is adequate to address that deductible.
In August, divisions 7, 11, 15, 16, and 17 had CAU’s Dianna Kaspar give a insurance presentation. For those of you who were not able to make it to that presentation, Dianna left handouts for you, available on the table in the back of the room. In addition, there is a handout with a detailed summary of the presentation. It will also be sent out to unit owners via e-mail.
Sunland North had no insurance claims during this past year.
Developed Landscape Coordinator – Tom Steffen
I have completed my third year as Landscape Coordinator and continue to enjoy working with others to care for our plants, lawns, trees, and irrigation systems.
I have enjoyed working closely with Paul West (and his crew) who is the owner/operator of Cutting Edge Landscaping, our landscape contractor.
I’ll report on the following categories:
1. Tree and Plant removal
Town and Country Tree Experts made three trips to Divison 17 in 2024, trimming several trees and removing three trees that were diseased or a risk to property or irrigation or electrical lines.
We are still removing dead, diseased or unwanted plants; to date, we have removed approximately 250 of the 400 that need to be removed.
2. Irrigation
I estimate that we have 2,010 sprinkler heads for our lawns and 1,700 for our plant beds (around our 67 buildings). Several sprinkler heads were repaired and replaced this year by the volunteer labor of owners and by our contractor’s crew.
I estimate that as many as 550 sprinkler heads require repair, replacement or adjustment.
An irrigation plumber was required five times this year to address issues. In addition to this year’s required inspections of our backflow preventers, we will be replacing three preventers and repairing one of those flagged last year.
Irrigation control boxes were activated in April and will be deactivated between now and the end of September. Seasonal adjustments were made in spring, summer and fall for the purpose of reducing irrigation water usage.
Sunland Water District continues to be a good partner and resource for alerting us to irregular water consumption when it shows up on their instruments.
3. Escallonia Hedges
Our escallonia hedges, mostly around electrical and water boxes, were damaged again this past winter; a few owners have worked to reenergize new growth and several are flourishing. A wait and watch plan is in effect for our approximately 25 escallonia hedges.
4. Pruning
Summer pruning will soon be moving into fall pruning; our contracted crew stays busy almost year around.
5. Moles/voles
Last year’s landscaping nuisance (and danger) seemed to be bees; this year we were reminded of our dislike of moles and voles. I’m hoping that both will leave us alone in 2025. Owners have tried a variety of methods to remove them.
Please continue to use the Landscaping Link/Portal on our website to report, request assistance and ask questions about landscaping issues. I appreciate the support of the Board of Directors and fellow owners as I attempt to serve as a volunteer.
Exterior Maintenance Coordinator – Mike Johnson, Acting
No report submitted.
Natural Habitat – Sarah Miller
Fall is definitely in the air, marking the beginning of what I think of as a seasonal cycle.
The marine layer persists in our fields in the mornings, and the salmon are returning to the rivers.
September wraps up the watering season for small trees we’ve planted in our natural habitat. This year was the first time we transplanted trees from the detention pond behind Cascadia Loop. Four of the seven we transplanted survived, so this is a good strategy that we will repeat, as the source material is free! Many thanks to Rindy Hainstock and Susan Hamman who were our primary tree waterers this year.
The tree line near the roundabout looks great, as those tiny plants have really begun to stretch toward the sky. This was the first summer that we did not water those trees regularly. We lost one tree out of the line of 22, but it is being replaced by another – a Fraser fir – in memory of Mike Bresnahan. Mike, as everyone knows, was the ‘go-to’ guy for just about any volunteer effort around Sunland North (and beyond). Thanks to Bill Bombardier for getting and planting Mike’s tree, along with tending those trees any time the grass grew up around them.
In April, we received a letter from the Clallam County Noxious Weed inspector notifying us of a Poison Hemlock infestation along Woodcock Road. Through huge and on-going efforts from many volunteers, we were able to knock out that patch, as well as control the plant throughout the natural habitat area during the growing season. Much appreciation to Tom Hamman, Alan Morris, Diana Burns, Gerry Busch, and Greg King.
Our thrice-yearly field mowing has just been completed, so we have some more open views of the deer ‘teenagers’ that are wandering around. The fields always look so neat when they have been freshly mown.
Sunland North is fortunate to have committed volunteers that help the development look great throughout the year. One of these is Barry Burns, who regularly walks along the frontage roads and picks up trash. Each month, I get an interesting update of the habits of the litterers that pass by our little corner, with an occasional bonus on what fender-benders have left auto debris behind. Many thanks to Barry for his ongoing work and his tongue-in-cheek reports!
It’s difficult to predict what extreme weather conditions might come our way over the winter, but we can usually count on at least one large windstorm to knock branches down. Look for requests for volunteers this winter so we can clean up the deadfall. We are especially in need of a pickup truck and driver if anyone has one to help with this effort. If you’d like to help, reach out to me.
Communications and Outreach – Lawrence Charters
Lawrence had nothing further to add beyond his Secretary’s report.
Voting Results
Attendance: 108 out of 139 – met the requirements.
- 97 approved budget; 7 rejected.
- 95 approved a financial review; 11 voted for full audit.
- Amendment to CC&RS: 103 in favor, sufficient to approve.
- Candidates: 103 voted for Betty Gwaltney, 101 for Beverly Stern, 103 for Susan Hamman; all three vacant Board positions are filled.
- Sue Purdy and Barbara Ross were the Election Inspectors
Board Actions
- Adoption of 2025 Budget – Betty moved to approve, seconded by Mark, all approved.
- Adoption of Financial Review or Audit – Betty moved to approve the financial audit, seconded by Lawrence, all approved.
- Adoption of Amendment 4 of Sunland Division 17 Owners Association Covenant, Conditions, and Restrictions – Lawrence moved to approve, seconded by Warren, all approved.
All Board members signed the official election form.
Adjournment
Valerie Fratus moved to adjourn the annual meeting, seconded by Tom Steffen, all approved.
Homeowner Forum
No further questions from the audience.
New Board Organizational Meeting
September 11, 2024, following the annual meeting.
Gerry called the organizational meeting to order to determine who is going to perform which roles next year. Gerry will remain as president, Mark as Vice President. Lawrence will maintain webmaster status and will work with the Secretary, Susan Hamman. Beverly (Sunny) will be member-at-large, Betty will stay on as treasurer.
Betty moved for the acceptance of the new Board, seconded by Mark, all were in favor.
Gerry adjourned the meeting.