Phil Chapman

Before moving to Las Vegas, I spent 23 years in the U.S. Navy, enlisting in 1979 as a Seaman Recruit and retiring in 2002 as a Lieutenant Commander. After retiring, I went to law school and practiced law in Virginia, where I was an associate at a firm that specialized in the representation of homeowners associations. I have written association governing documents, policies, rules, and regulations, and I have litigated association disputes at both the trial court and appellate levels.

I became active in the Providence Master Homeowners Association in late 2019, when I learned that the Board was raising assessments for 2020 by 20%, from $150 per quarter to $180 per quarter. After studying the budget that the Board had adopted for 2020 to decide whether the increase was warranted, I realized that our money was being seriously mismanaged. That realization prompted me to help organize an unsuccessful effort to recall four of the five sitting Board members and to run for the Board in the 2020 election. Katie Hedlind and I were elected to the two vacant Board seats in that election, and, in the 2021 election, three more like-minded directors were elected. 

Here are some of the changes to the yearly budget that we achieved during my first two years on the Board (2020 budget compared to 2023 budget; figures are approximate):

• Reduced office rent and expenses from $300,000 to $0
• Reduced vehicle maintenance and insurance from $14,000 to $0
• Reduced events and decorations from $280,000 to $0
• Reduced courtesy patrol from $850,000 to $0
• Reduced meeting expenses from $22,000 to $1,500
• Reduced “community outreach” (i.e. donations to outside entities) from $20,000 to $0.
• Reduced website expenses from $21,000 to $645
• Reduced staff salaries and benefits from $739,000 to $503,000
• Reduced assessments from $180 per quarter back to $150 per quarter (effective January 1, 2023)

When I joined the Board, the Association had an outstanding debt of $507,558, which the Board had borrowed to partially pay for the expansion of Huckleberry Park. They had planned to pay off the loan over ten years with interest at the rate of 4.15%. The new Board paid the loan off completely, saving over $100,000 in interest payments.

When I joined the Board, the reserve fund had been allowed to drop to less than 45% of full funding. At the end of 2024, barring any unforeseen emergency, the reserves will be funded at over 90%.

When I joined the Board, urgent, necessary repairs to the irrigation system had been programmed to be conducted in five phases over five years, which would have led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in excess water usage. The 2019 Board blamed the delay in making the needed repairs (and the assessment increase) on a lack of money, while continuing to budget large amounts of money for unnecessary expenses. The new Board accelerated the timeline for the irrigation repairs, and all five phases were completed ahead of schedule. 

When I joined the Board, there was no money in the reserve budget for repairs to the perimeter walls, for which the Master Association is responsible. Since then, we have had an engineering firm survey all of the perimeter walls, and adequate funds are now programmed in the reserves to meet the Association’s responsibilities.

From 2022 until now, the Board has maintained strict fiscal responsibility while fulfilling all of the core functions required by our Governing Documents and the law. However, since the 2023 Board election, Joe Van Dyke and I have been outnumbered by the other three Board members, who do not share our firm commitment to fiscal responsibility. 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. 

If you have questions or want more information, please feel free to call or text me at 757.291.2005, or email me at elmonobobo@gmail.com. 

My position is that the Providence Master Association Board of Directors should limit its activities to what is explicitly authorized and required by the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (the “CC&Rs”). The CC&Rs is the document that is recorded in the land records of Clark County that, along with Nevada law, grants the Board all of the authority that it has. Here is the function of the Association as set forth in Section 6.1 of the CC&Rs: “The Association shall be the entity responsible, through its Board of Directors, for management, maintenance, operation and control of the Area of Common Responsibility. The Association also shall be the primary entity responsible for enforcement of the Governing Documents. The Association shall perform its functions in accordance with the Governing Documents and applicable laws.” 

That’s it: Maintenance and operation of our infrastructure, and enforcement of our Governing Documents. The purpose of the Association is not to serve as a substitute for local, municipal government, nor to alleviate all of the annoyances of life experienced by the Association’s residents, nor to provide them with entertainment at the expense of their neighbors.      

I have been a member of the Board for four years. I was first elected in 2020 along with Katie Hedlind after a substantial group of Providence homeowners became concerned about a serious lack of fiscal responsibility by the previous Board, who had just raised Association assessments from $150 to $180 per quarter, while allowing the Association’s reserve funds to decline precipitously. Katie and I, along with Joe Van Dyke, Christia Clayton, and Anthony Fox, who were all elected to the Board in 2021, worked to restore the fiscal health of the Association. By cutting unauthorized, unrequired, and unnecessary spending, we managed to fulfill all of the core obligations of the Association, including replenishing the Association’s reserves to a healthy level, while at the same time lowering  assessments back to $150 per quarter.  

However, Joe and I are now outnumbered on the Board by members who do not share our firm commitment to fiscal responsibility. At least two of them have indicated support for lowering our 2025 contributions to the Association’s reserves and diverting that money to spend on social events. The other Board members have also expressed interest in bringing back the full security patrol we had prior to its termination in 2022. In addition to being demonstrably ineffective, that would be enormously expensive, necessitating a significant increase in assessments.

If you share my view of the Association’s function, please consider voting to re-elect me and to elect Kristin Huth to the Board this election. If you have questions or want more information, please feel free to call or text me at 757.291.2005, or email me at elmonobobo@gmail.com. You can also find more information at the website pov.vegas.