There's a great deal of dis-harmony throughout the resort right now. To some degree, this is to be expected at this stage in the community's development. Almost all of the lots have been sold and built on, and demographically, our population is much more diverse than it was in its early years. As a result, there is a wider array of values and beliefs to contend with, especially pertaining to the relationship between the resort LLC and the community.
Perhaps it's time for us to stop thinking about the community and resort as an integrated, codependent whole, because this thinking is at the heart of our internal struggles. Many members of the community believe that their leadership favors the LLC, so some distrust has spread.
It's time for us to start thinking about each entity as independent businesses--because that's what they are--businesses. Every transaction between them must be documented, and available for residents to review. Note that each of them have a duty to behave in a way that's best for their respective constituents, and there's a direct conflict in the "best interests" between these constituent groups (i.e. investors vs. non-investors)
A lot of people are riled up over the possibility of another dues increase, but the sad fact of life is that no one, and it bears repeating--no one--actually knows the market price for services we demand and receive. I think that while the LLC can be our sole service provider, it doesn't have to be. We must reject the notion that if we don't use the LLC for our services, life as we know it will come to an end.
Each business will act in its own self-interest, and continuing to support skiing and golf at Kahler Glen is advantageous for both businesses. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the LLC plays hardball with our Board, so if that's true it's time for us to grab a bat, get in the game, and play just as hard as they do (like a business would).
As a community we must be able to stand on our own. If the LLC becomes insolvent, we must have an executable contingency plan for every service. In the development of this plan, we will learn the market value for each of our dependent services. Regardless of whether or not the LLC is our service provider, we should all have comfort in knowing that we are paying no more than fair market value for those services.
Additionally, like any maturing business. we have ample opportunities to improve our business practices. Many of these improvements are easy to do, like making documents available, so these should be done immediately. Here's a short list of opportunities that can go a long way toward healing the distrust within our community:
Voting power must be resolved so the majority vote is the act of the community. The Board has the authority to fix this problem on Dec 11th, and we should expect them to do it. Let's fix this problem and move on--if the LLC wants to challenge it, that's their prerogative, but we need to get on with managing our affairs, and the LLCs God Card is a black cloud that makes us dysfunctional.
We must improve our practices related to openness and transparency
- All documents related to the association must be easily accessible
- Legal opinions must be accessible in accordance with statutory requirements
- Contracts, request for proposals, and vendor bids must be easily accessible
- Documents, presentations, and other materials used by the Board to make decisions must be posted for review 14 days prior to any meeting in which members will cast a vote
- The Board should adopt a fully open communication policy, enabling all owners to easily have all pertinent information from other owners. We all need to encourage the Board to abandon its practice of acting as gatekeeper of communications(e.g. don't send your questions to the Board, post them on a community forum so everyone can see the non-personal, questions and answers).
- etc...
We need clear definitions of responsibility and ownership. The Board is evaluating this and a number of issues. As a starting point, the homeowners should not pay for replacement or maintenance of LLCs equipment unless specifically contracted to do so.
Summary:
There are some readers who will think I'm picking on the LLC. I'm not. There's no reason that the two businesses can't work together, but they have to be equal partners with clear delineations of ownership, rights, and responsibilities. It's our duty to position the homeowners association so it can negotiate from a position of strength. In order to do that, we must have the option to walk away. That's how business works.
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