August 11, 2006
Sunset Hall, 11 am
Crested Butte South, Gunnison County, Colorado

Board Members Present:  Al Smith, Peter Carey, Erin Dellaporta and Don Montgomery

Staff Present:  Chris Behan, Linda Roberts

Property Owners Present (per sign-in sheet): Carl & Judy Jones, Barbara Bartush, Cindy Grogg, Corintha Goble, Shawn Olson, Berek Novak, Eric White, Gary Huresky, Reggie Masters, Paul Greenberg, Don & Kathy Norgard, Kevin Donovan, Summer Ruckman, Rick Barnard, Brian Dale, Spence Schnaiter, Graham Ullrich, Virginia Roark, Raymond Moore, Juliette Eymere, Bill Kastning, Peggy Moore, Jim Moore, Aleesha Towns-Bain, Dennis Conlin, Carlos Gonzalez-Brito, Michele Gonzales, Clair Haverland, Ilene M. Spector, Deanna Warren, John Warren, Alan Gruber, Angie Dumas, Charles Dumas, Aline & Noah Wight and Jeff Duke.

Call to Order, Welcome, Introductions
Al Smith, current President of the P.O.A. Board of Directors, called the meeting to order at 11:10 am.  Al introduced Chris Behan, Association Manager; Linda Roberts, Staff Assistant; and Board Members Peter Carey, Erin Dellaporta and Don Montgomery.  Chris gave his background and qualifications to the members. 
 
Reading of the Minutes of the 2006 Annual Meeting
Reading of the Minutes of the 2006 Annual Meeting was waived.  Time was allowed for all members to ask questions or comment on the 2006 Annual Meeting Minutes, as copies of the minutes were available at the meeting for all in attendance.  The 2006 Annual Meeting minutes were approved by the Board of Directors in September of 2006.

Year-to-Date Financial Report
The 2007 yearly income will be approximately about $203,000 this year, $152,000 of that comes from property owner’s association dues.  Expenses for 2007 to run the Association have been estimated to be approximately $251,000.  Any overage in the Association’s revenue is applied to the following years operating budget.  The Association carried approximately $49,000 from 2005 and 2006 into the 2007 Budget/funds.  Operating expenses include the costs of running the office, staff salaries, the hockey rink, community capital improvements, maintenance, and operating supplies.  The Association currently holds approximately $173,000 in performance deposits, which are refundable to property owners upon satisfactory completion of their building project(s).  Currently, unpaid dues from delinquent homeowners total about $7,700 or 5% of 2007 annual dues, this is a great improvement over last year at this time.  The Association will begin to put liens on those properties, later in 2007, in order to collect those delinquent dues. A year-to-date balance sheet was available for property owners to examine.  The 2007 P.O.A. Budget is also available on-line at www.cbsouth.net. 

Officers Report

Al Smith explained that the POA is operating on a bare-bones budget.  The Board only has funds to take actions for the health and safety of the POA membership.  If there are special things that members want developed in CB South, those interested will need to do fundraising.  As CB South continues to grow, if the property owners want the Association to do more projects and/or increase the P.O.A.’s level of service provided, the Association would need to increase revenue by asking the property owners to possibly raising fees, annual membership dues, etc.  We could also ask the County for more money.  Currently, the covenants limit increasing dues to 10% per year.   Any change in our covenants has to be voted in by at least 51% of all of the property owners.  Earlier in 2007, the Board sent out a ballot seeking a one-time dues increase. The purpose of the one time dues increase was to allow CB South to address many projects that members have requested.  The measure did not pass.  Due to the low response on the ballot, this was interpreted as a message from the members that it is not interested in funding anything more than minimum needs for the functioning of the P.O.A.

Al, Erin and Don all noted that Chris has been a great steward of the P.O.A. funds and is very forward thinking for the needs of CB South.  He has raised the credibility of CB South as we try to establish Special Area Regulations, and seek more funding from the RTA and the County for transportation to and from Town.

Manager’s Report

A census was sent out to the members with the Annual Letter to collect data on the number of taxpayers, full-time homeowners, Gunnison County registered voters, etc. With the data we hope to seek County help and funding by showing that our population is as big, if not bigger than both Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte, separately.  CB South may make up about 10 percent of the county population and as such should share in the tax revenues that the County collects.

Recently, the POA has begun spraying the Unscented Chamomile (a.k.a. ditch daisies) which are considered noxious weeds by Gunnison County.  The Board has also addressed the severe bear problem which has plagued CB South this summer by passing a regulation imposing stricter requirements on trash containers and trash storage.  A handout was available with the details.

Summary List of P.O.A. Board Accomplishments from August 2006 through July 2007:

Projects that are planned for the upcoming year include continuing the Teocalli path, design of a Master Plan for Red Mountain Park, finalizing the CB South Special Area Regulations and continuing to explore public transportation to and from CB South to Crested Butte.

Currently, CB South P.O.A. is an Association or a “club”, and not its own municipality like the Town of Crested Butte (2007 Town of CB budget is approximately $2.7 million) or the Town of Mt. Crested Butte (2007 budget is approximately $2.3 million).  Our 2007 budget of approximately $200,000 does not allow us to provide much in the way of improvements. Becoming our own municipality, however, is not an easy or cheap process.  A reason to become a municipality would be so that we could control all of the activity within the geographic boundaries of CB South, and do so under our own set of Rules and Regulations, separate from those of Gunnison County.  However, without a successful commercial sales tax base, we currently would not make any more money than we do now, based on the 2005 Gunnison County Property Tax rates.  Incorporating as our own municipality would require us to provide a higher/different (and more expensive) level of service than we do now.  With that in mind, without a commercial tax base, the only way to fund our own municipality would be through the existing property taxes, which would have to be raised, because municipalities can not collect annual dues.  So we are not looking to become our own municipality just yet, even though all indicators show us with an equal or larger full-time population compared to the Town of Crested Butte or Mt. Crested Butte.  We will be meeting with a consultant within the next few months to explore future options in this regard. 

Election of Directors – Two (2) Seats
The majority of votes cast were mailed in prior to the meeting.  Those who had not voted were given the opportunity to vote at the meeting.  A tally of all votes showed that Peter Carey and Dave DiBerardino were re-elected to another 2 year term.  The final count needed to be verified, and results will be announced in the near future in the CB News and on the website.

Property Owners Comments / Questions Time
Question: (Reggie Masters) Who were the Consulting Fees paid to? 
Answer: Julie Woods, West Elk Planning Group.  She is assisting the P.O.A. with the Special Area Regulations (SAR) process.

Question:  (Kathy Norgard) What is the purpose of the truck?
Answer:  The truck is used for hauling things for maintenance, mowing, trash and covenant enforcement.  The P.O.A. had relied upon borrowing vehicles or using Chris’s car.  This created liability and reliability issues. CB South has more residents than either Crested Butte or Mt. Crested Butte. In order to address the needs of our residents purchasing a new truck with a warranty was viewed as the best option.  Former Board Member Spence Schnaiter spoke of his support for the purchase of the truck.

Question:  Trash regulation questions:  Can daisies still be set out in bags? Which bear proof cans are ok? Is there recycling available in CB South?
Answer:  All of these questions were referred to Waste Management.  Reggie Masters requested that if Waste Management is going to require lids on cans, they should make an effort to put the lids back on the cans after they are emptied, otherwise they blow away.  Ellen Kinderlatter volunteered to organize a bulk purchase of bear proof trash cans.

Comments:  Comments on budget and performance deposits:
Jim Moore:  Expressed concern that the P.O.A. budget shows more expenses than income.
Paul Greenberg:  Performance Deposits - The P.O.A. should be trying to give back the performance deposits collected rather than using the unclaimed deposits to fund capital projects.
Answer:  Although the budget shows more expenses than income, it is the goal of the P.O.A. to bring the expenses in under budget.  Additionally, the budget takes a conservative approach to estimating income.  The P.O.A. is a non-profit Colorado Corporation, and as such, and seeks to break even each year.  The P.O.A. goal is to achieve compliance with the  building requirements set forth in our Design Guidelines and to refund as much of the deposits as possible.  The collection of performance deposits is to encourage compliance, not to make money.

Question:  (Deborah Tutnauer) Can a day care/Montessori School operate out of a residence if it has state licensing as a day care? 
Answer: This issue is on the September 2007 Board agenda.  There are degrees of licensing and this could be a very intensive uses of the property.  Eileen Spencer and Kathy & Don Norgard volunteered to be on a committee to explore POA regulations for “Home Occupations”.

Question:  (Kevin Donovan) Why aren’t the ballots for the election of Board members secret?
Answer:  Only Chris and Linda have access to the ballots.  The information requested is necessary so that we can confirm that the vote is by an actual owner, in good standing and that there are no owners voting twice, or more.

Question: (Ellen Kindelatter) Explain the rules about dogs on leashes or under voice command.
Answer:  The County Dog Regulations control this area and supersede our Covenants. 

Question: (Raymond Moore) Why not incorporate CB South? (Eileen Spencer) Describe SAR. (Carlos Gonzalez-Brito) What are we? 
Answer:  We are currently an unincorporated property owner’s association, like a club.  We are exploring our options and meeting with a consultant this fall to look to long term plans.  Our first step is to have the county put in place the Special Area Regulations.  The regulations would allow CB South to have more autonomy. The regulations would allow approval of building projects solely by CB South P.O.A., thereby making the process less cumbersome and hopefully to encourage development of our commercial district. If we incorporate without a commercial sales tax base, the residents of CB South would pay higher property taxes then they do now.  There are a lot of requirements of an incorporated town such as having a town clerk, providing fire protection, water etc.  Member Spence Schneider encouraged the Board to continue to raise the dues at the maximum rate allowed per year by the covenants, so that CB South can continue to grow.

Question:  (Don Norgard)  Who enforces unlicensed motorized vehicles?
Answer:  The Gunnison County Sheriff.  Mount Crested Butte police provides secondary back up.

Thanks and appreciations were expressed to the Board Members and P.O.A. Staff for their work over the past year.   A special thanks was extend to all in attendance as well as to all those who participated in this year’s P.O.A. Board Member Election.

Adjournment

Al Smith adjourned the meeting at 1:00 pm.