Since the fall of 2020, when Katie Hedlind and Phil Chapman were elected to the Board of Directors, and especially after the election of Christia Clayton, Joe Van Dyke, and Anthony Fox in 2021, the Providence Master Homeowners Association made great progress in reducing unnecessary expenses and restoring the Association to a sound financial position. The 2023 budget reduced expenses by over $1.7 million dollars compared to the 2020 budget, which allowed the Board to lower assessments from $180 per quarter to $150 per quarter. The 2024 budget maintained those savings, covering all necessary expenses without raising assessments.
During that period, the Board also accelerated the completion of the irrigation replacement, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in wasted water from leaks. In addition, the Board, for the first time, addressed its responsibility to repair and maintain the perimeter walls by hiring an engineering firm to conduct a survey of the walls and budgeting sufficient money for needed repairs.
The Association’s finances are now in good shape. Our revenues are enough (without raising assessments) to fulfill all of our core responsibilities for maintenance, repair of infrastructure, and enforcement of the Governing Documents. Barring any unforeseen emergency, our reserve account will be funded at over 90% at the end of 2024.
However, in the 2023 election, member complacency resulted in the election of three out of five Board members who are not as committed to fiscal responsibility as Joe Van Dyke and Phil Chapman. There is now increasing pressure to resume some of the wasteful, profligate spending on non-essential activities that got the Association into financial peril prior to 2020 — spending on things like social events and entertainment, which are not authorized, let alone required by the Governing Documents, and full security or “courtesy” patrol. The Board recently approved a limited security patrol, consisting of only one patrolman and limiting the area patrolled to the parks and Promenade. That limited patrol will cost around $260,000 per year. Bringing back the same patrol coverage we used to have would cost well over $1,300,000. That would necessitate raising assessments to at least $200 per quarter, and probably more.
Two of the five Board seats are up for election this November: Phil Chapman’s and Shauna Turner’s. Please read each Board candidate’s information statement carefully to ensure that you vote to elect candidates whose views represent your own. Ballots and candidate information statements should be mailed out around the middle of October. The annual meeting of members at which the votes will be counted is scheduled for November 20 at 5:00 PM.
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