A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENTHello neighbors, I wanted to thank everyone who voted to select one of the two 2020 budget options. 161 community households voted. It was the highest participation the BHCA has ever has in an election. Maybe some of that was driven by the discussion of possibly raising dues, but to me it important for two reasons. First, more homeowners then ever are sharing their opinions and driving the decision making process for the community and the board. Utilizing the new website and tools that it provides we are going to continue sending out polls to focus on your priorities. Second, I think one of the biggest challenges Bay Hills faces is to update our ancient Covenants and Bylaws. They leave very little leverage to go after back dues and do not have language to manage this community in the 21st century. There have been several instances over the past two years were neighbors are blatantly abusing the simplistic terms and the board is powerless to take any action. We can update the Covenants and Bylaws, but in order to approve the changes we need 75% of our homeowners the back them. This means 453 of the 604 members have to vote AND approve. We had 26.6% participate this year. We need 3 times that to get this done. Being able to vote online has certainly helped - but we still have a ways to go. Finally, the results of the budget vote was 69 to keep the dues ($120) at the current rate. And 92 votes for the increased dues ($150). So effective January 1, 2020 the annual dues will $150 for all community households. We will also be announcing a new management company to administer dues collection and we will have more on that before the end of the year. Enjoy the fall weather and don't blink. The holidays will be here before we know it! Dave Eckels
|
