Deer Crest Master Association, Inc.
Annual Meeting of Members
6:00 PM December 30, 2009
Trails End Lodge, Park City, Utah
In Attendance
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Bob Sammons, President, Board of Trustees Tom Hodgson, Board of Trustees Vice President Greg Perry, Board of Trustees Secretary/Treasurer Diane Banks, Attorney for the HOA Michael Zaccaro, Trustee Lynda Fetter, Board of Trustees Don Taylor, General Manager Doug MacIsaac, Association Manager Mark Allen, Operations Manager Ron Lindley, Assistant Manager Joe Furlong, lot 3U Jim and Zibby Tozer, lot 6 Rick and Paula Prentiss, lot 146 Susan Hodgson, lot 22 Chris and Liz O'Brian, lot 155 Don Behrens, lot 143 Lisa Wilson, lot 25 |
Hecktor Gonzales, lot 14 Jim Inskeep, lot 118 Ginnie and Richard Mithoff, lot 16 Diane Pape, for lot 50 Shutzer Sabrina Rainey, lot 51 Martin Pichinson, lot 121 and Townhome Association Barry Porter, lots 73,76,77,78 Ken Abdalla, lot 108 Phil Lippencott, lot 35 Rob Blau, lot 90 Dr. Manthei, lot 105 Jerri Rice, lot 120 Neill and Linda Brownstien, lot 21 Bill Macey, lot 47 Martin Werner, lot 107 |
President Sammons welcomed the attendees and called the meeting to order. A Quorum was established and announced.
Introductions
Lynda Fetter, Board of Trustees
Tom Hodgson, Board of Trustees Vice President
Greg Perry, Board of Trustees Secretary/Treasurer
Bob Sammons, Board of Trustees President
Michael Zaccaro, Trustee
Diane Banks, Attorney for the HOA
Utah Symphony Presentation
Carrie Cusimano, Vice President of Development for the Deer Valley Music Festival, gave a short presentation about the performances by the Utah Symphony locally this coming summer. The Summer Festival is a five week festival from mid-July to mid-August. There are also other various events that are organized with the symphony, including several "salon" fundraiser events and performances at other local venues such as St, Mary's church. Carrie encouraged anyone that had an interest in these activities to contact her for more information.
Deer Valley Resort Presentation
Bob Wheaton, President and General Manager of the Deer Valley Resort, spoke to the attendees. Mr. Wheaton thanked all the Deer Crest owners for their ongoing support of the Resort and its operations. He discussed the efforts that were being taken as part of opening up the mountain for the season. The snowmaking systems are cranking out up to 7,000 gallons of water per minute, twenty-four hours a day, as it is cold with perfect temperatures for it. Mr. Wheaton also described the process of making the snow, plowing it flat, letting it "cure" and then grooming it to open up an area for skiing. Snowmaking is moving along well, and with the help of Mother Nature, the Resort is opening up additional terrain daily. The Resort is getting very busy, and it is predicted to sell out on lift tickets for the next few days.
Mr. Wheaton also noted, to a round of applause from the attendees, that Deer Valley Resort was again rated as the # 1 ski resort in North America by Ski Magazine for the third time.
Don Taylor, General Manager of Deer Crest, echoed Mr. Wheaton's remarks in describing our snowmaking operation on the Private Deer Crest Trails. It has been a near-record cold spell, and the Operations crew has completed making all the snow necessary on the private trails, well in advance of our opening day. It was noted however, that snowmaking is always weather dependant, and a year that has warm conditions in December would delay the ability to open the ski trails accordingly.
Mr. Wheaton was asked if Deer Valley had any near-term plans for new ski lifts. The general answer is yes, but timing is a main consideration. Deer Valley has always been prudent concerning its capitol expenditures, and new lifts are dependant on business success on a year-to-year basis. Mr. Wheaton described that the immediate focus of their efforts is on the Deer Crest chairlift and a potential new ski trail from the Deer Crest chairlift to the Jordanelle Gondola. The Deer Crest chair can have more chairs added to the line when needed, and the price to rebuild it from a fixed grip chair to a detachable would be about four million dollars.
St. Regis Hotel Presentation
Michael Hatzfeld, General Manager of the St. Regis Deer Crest, gave a presentation about the Hotel. The St. Regis Deer Crest opened its doors in late November, 2009, right before the Thanksgiving holiday. Operations have been very successful to date, and the inventory of rooms is almost complete. The Spa opened on December 17th. Restaurants are generally full each day for lunch and dinner. The Food and Beverage program is very successful, and several banquets have already been held. The Hotel will be approaching 100% occupancy over the next few days.
Several attendees asked questions about skiing to the Hotel to go to the restaurants or for après-ski. Mr. Hatzfeld described that the restaurants are open to the public, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Skiers are invited to ski by for a meal, or for après-ski at the St. Regis bar, as they have music and a wonderful atmosphere for that activity. Patrons who stay after the ski runs close may return to the Deer Valley Resort base via the Funicular.
An attendee expressed the feeling that he was thrilled that the Hotel was finally open, but he noticed various things along the main access road that the homeowners use that were of concern to him. This included things such as construction traffic congestion, construction vehicle parking that was impeding snowplowing efforts, the garage door on the delivery dock remaining open un-necessarily, Hotel staff waiting around outside for the shuttle to pick them up, to name a few. He expressed concern that the situation was less than elegant, and asked what the measures might be to address these situations. Mr. Hatzfelt agreed with the observations, and said he is aware of these issues and is working hard, hand in hand with the HOA and Don Taylor, to manage the situation. Currently, the difficulty lies with a combination of managing the contractors' construction as they are finishing out work on the units, the Hotel just being opened and working out the kinks, as well as the fact that the Hotel is booked for the holiday season and many homeowners are in town. As the build-out is complete and the holidays are past, it will quiet down considerably and the issues should be being resolved for the long term.
Attendees also commented that they observed Hotel guests walking on the roadways and that it might be hazardous, and also observed some construction workers speeding in their vehicles. Mr. Hatzfeld will look into the issue of guests walking on the roads. Don Taylor informed the attendees that we do confront individuals who are speeding and we tow vehicles that are illegally parked. We are recruiting help from any owners who observe these activities, to be our eyes and ears so to speak, and to let us know so that we may find and deal with the violators.
Approval of the 2009 Annual Meeting Minutes
The 2009 minutes had been previously mailed to all Deer Crest owners and copies were available at the meeting.
A motion was made to approve the 2009 Annual Meeting Minutes as distributed. The motion was seconded. All were in favor. None were opposed. The motion carried unanimously.
Review of the 2010 Budget
Copies of the 2010 budget were distributed to those attendees that needed them. Informational pie charts that displayed revenue and expense breakdowns were also distributed. Mr. Sammons reviewed each pie chart to explain the different sources of revenue and the areas of expenditures. An attendee asked about the number of lots that are still owned by the developer. The developer still retains 30 lots and pays a full dues assessment on each lot. There are 132 lots owned by others than the developer.
An attendee asked what portion of the budget is earmarked for reserves. Mr. Sammons explained that normally the annual budget sets aside approximately $150,000 for contribution to the reserves. This year, the 2010 contribution is slightly less, at $106,000 to lessen the impact of the loss of revenue last year due to some assessments that remained unpaid. This year's expense budget is actually lower than last year, but we had to raise the assessment slightly to recover about $115,000 in unpaid accounts receivable.
An attendee asked about what actions the Board is taking to collect the unpaid assessments. It was explained that a lien has been filed upon each lot that is in arrears, and, in fact, legal actions have been started on two lots that have major delinquencies. In addition, owners that have past-due assessments may access their properties, but may not use the common areas, ski trails, and will have no access to the design review committee and no voting rights.
It was explained that the Board has a 30 year reserve study plan, and that the reserves are currently funded at a rate that should cover the cost of the planned major expenses.
Mr. Sammons also explained that Deer Valley Lodging, who previously held the management contract for the Deer Crest Master Association, went out of business in May of last year. The Master Association now has become a self-managing association, in that we now do our own administration, accounting, payroll, and other functions.
Election of two Board Member Positions
Mr. Sammons announced that Trustees Tom Hodgson and Lynda Fetter have been nominated to fill the Board Positions again for a three-year term. Ballots were handed out to the attendees for those that had not previously returned a proxy. Mr. Sammons opened the floor for additional nominations. It was noted that there were places on the ballot to vote for two Trustee positions. There were no additional nominations offered from the floor, and the attendees were asked to fill out and return the ballots. Mr. Sammons asked if there were any questions concerning the ballot, and there were none. The ballots were collected and tallied and in addition to the proxies that had been received, both Tom Hodgson and Lynda Fetter were elected to additional three year terms on the Board of Trustees.
An attendee then asked if there was an official way for owners to apply to get nominated to serve on the Board or to run for a position on the Board; she was informed that the floor had just been opened for nominations to the Board as the ballots were being handed out, and that at this time that was the procedure for additional nominations. Her comment that she would like to see a more formal, written procedure would be taken into consideration by the Board.
Litigation Report
Diane Banks, Attorney for the HOA, spoke about the current litigation involving the HOA. She relayed that she was aware that the members had previously been advised that there was a lawsuit, but, to review, Ms. Rice, Owner of lot 120, filed against the HOA and all five members of the Board of Trustees. In addition Ms. Rice has filed a motion for summary judgment. Ms. Bank's law firm has, on behalf of the Association and four of the Trustees, filed a motion to dismiss the complaint. The Hotel (DC Janna) engaged a law firm that is also representing Mr. Zaccaro and they also have filed a motion to dismiss. All the motions are fully briefed and there will be a hearing in January. Ms. Rice then asked if Ms. Banks wanted to discuss the lawsuit filed against her by the Hotel and Mr. Zaccaro. Ms. Banks responded that the aforementioned lawsuit has been consolidated with the Federal Court litigation so it is all being handled now as one lawsuit.
Hideout Ranch
Mr. Sammons briefed the attendees about the activities of the Town of Hideout, situated on the North East shore of the Jordanelle Reservoir. Hideout has incorporated itself into a "town" and is in the process of creating an annexation plan that draws and defines its desired potential annexation boundaries. Hideout has expressed a desire to include Deer Crest and the Hotel within their proposed annexation boundary. What we have done to date is written a letter to the Planning Commission of Hideout stating that we do not want to be part of their community, and we have filed that and gone on record with their Planning Commission. Next week they are meeting with their City Council to what areas they want to be included in their plan. There is not much more we can do but to let our position be known. Mr. Sammons desired to bring this information before the meeting to let everyone know what is going on. We will continue to oppose this, as we have all the services we need that they could ever possibly provide.
An attendee asked what the implications of this are. Mr. Sammons answered that if they draw us in their proposed boundary, then eventually they could try to annex us and there would be a vote of the people who lived in those areas. We are opposing this now to try to avoid the costs and time and wasted assets fighting this in the future. Their obvious issue is our tax base.
An attendee commented that she believed that the whole issue revolved around the Mayor of Hideout and his brother-in-law, who is one of the biggest developers there.
Operations Report
Don Taylor gave an operations report. He reiterated that the snowmaking efforts this year went well due to the extended period of cold temperatures and that we got the trails done and open 10 days to two weeks ahead of our normal timing. He reminded the attendees, however, that a warmer than normal December could definitely threaten having all of the trails open for the Christmas Holidays, and that there are no guarantees for an opening date due to the fact that snowmaking is always weather dependant.
The improvements to the property this summer included installing heated and stamped concrete around the lower Queen Esther Gates. It was noted that we have had many positive comments on this. The operations crew did much of the contracting and a share of the construction, and came in under budget on the project. In addition, landscaping was improved along the road from the lower gates up along Queen Esther Drive. We are planning on continuing an annual process of improving our landscaping around both of the gate houses and other common areas.
The operations crew was faced with many challenges this summer with the bankruptcy of Deer Valley Lodging, who held the management contract with the Home Owners Association. The operations crew was very appreciative of the Board's support in having it take over all the management in-house. We now are actually saving quite a bit of money on management and accounting fees, and running quite a lean operation. The crew really feels it is working for a board that has great leadership and involvement.
An electronic newsletter has been created and has been e-mailed to all those whose e-mails we have, and a new HOA website has been put on line at deercrest.com. As always, input on both the website and material for the newsletter is desired; please make sure to provide your e-mail address to us if you would like to receive the newsletter electronically.
Thanks was given to all who contributed to the employee holiday fund; several thousand dollars were collected and were distributed to the non-salaried, hourly employees.
The floor was opened up to questions from the attendees.
An attendee commented that she had noticed that padding had not been installed this year in several of the private ski tunnels. Don explained that Deer Valley Resort has been removing padding on the inside walls of their ski tunnels, and that we manage our trails with the same liability management program so as to be consistent with the local industry standard procedures.
An attendee commented that they noticed ice forming around the intersection of Summit View Drive and Deer Crest Estates Drive after snowstorms and during melt freeze cycles. The plow contractor is aware of these areas and pays particular attention to them when they make their rounds. When they are not on site, the operations crew can address these areas with some manual application of salt or sand. It was asked of the attendees that if they notice any road issues in their travels, to notify the Gate House, and the gate attendants, in turn, can let the operations crew know. It was also suggested to look into making that same intersection a complete three-way stop.
Another comment from an attendee was that he had noticed at times in the morning--prior to and throughout the holiday period--lines forming at the Jordanelle entrance gate. It was explained to the attendees that when numerous houses under construction are nearing completion, especially prior to the holidays, there is a flood of sub-contractors. The Hotel was also trying to finish up for the holidays and there was increased traffic with construction personnel. On top of that, numerous owners and guests are in town, with deliveries for the holidays, and the like. We manage this as best we can during this period, but now, with a fewer number of houses under construction, the holidays past, and the Hotel finished, there should not be much of a problem again.
Mr. Sammons then explained that the Board was fortunate to get Don Taylor back in the position of General Manager, and introduced the rest of the management crew, Doug MacIsaac, Mark Allen, and Ron Lindley, to a thunderous round of applause from the attendees.
Rental Program
Mr. Sammons relayed to the attendees that the Rental Program is now in place, the pertinent documents are on the website at deercresthoa.com, and that the annual rental fee is due on the first of January for properties that are renting their homes.
The Design Review Committee also has initiated the policy of requiring a deposit of $50,000 in addition to the normal Design Review and Construction Coordination fees for homes beginning construction. A question was asked to explain how the deposit would be handled. It was explained that it is a deposit only, and is refundable when the home is complete. The deposit is required so that the Board may have funds to put a property into presentable condition if an owner walks away from a building project. A question was asked about problems that we have had with construction stopping. Mr. Sammons explained that, to date, we have had three homes that have stopped construction and we have had complaints about the state of those properties. This refundable deposit would help us partially restore sites like these in the future without spending other homeowners' funds. Design Review Committee chair Phil Lippencott also explained that of the $50,000 deposit, $35,000 is refunded after a house is completely closed in, and the remaining $15,000 is refunded when the home is totally complete, including landscaping. An attendee asked if this $50,000 deposit was new, how was the decision made, and was there any vote? Mr. Sammons responded that the process went through the Design Review Committee, they promulgated it, and the Board voted on it.
An attendee brought up the fact that some other private communities require a letter of credit for purchase of a lot or construction of a home and if that requirement might be something that would help Deer Crest address the issues of those that fail to pay assessments. Mr. Sammons said yes, that could be a possibility, but hopefully we will have some success in our current collection efforts.
An attendee asked about the status of cable connectivity in the development. The last time the Board talked to Comcast about it, Comcast wanted the Board to put up two or three hundred thousand dollars. We could go back and investigate this again, but currently most homeowners are using satellite and wireless connections. There has been Comcast cable brought into the Hotel, running along side the funicular lift. The Board will investigate the possibility of a cable connection for the community again.
Sales Report
Ann McQuoid and Suzanne Harris of Prudential Utah Real Estate were introduced and discussed the status of sales at the St. Regis Hotel, and then had a question and answer period concerning their opinions of the state of the Deer Crest and local real estate markets.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m.