Dear Harper’s Choice Residents,
Welcome to spring…at least I hope it will really be spring by the time you read this! I hope the long, snowy winter was not too much of a burden on you and yours.
Question: What about Splashdown and Indoor Pool Lanes?
The CA Board is deeply involved in hard decisions about the future of our aquatics facilities.
In the recent past, after much outreach to the community and discussions within our Aquatics Advisory Committee, there has been general agreement that we needed to increase the number of indoor lap lanes through either building a new facility or enclosing an existing outdoor pool.
As an organization, we are also in need of being more proactive about maintaining and eventually replacing, our aging facilities, such as the Swim Center in Wilde Lake and its Splashdown flumes.
All of this costs money, which leads to the need to make budget tradeoffs. As a swimmer myself, I tend to lean toward supporting these facilities. I don’t want to make a decision, however, just on the basis of my own interests.
What do you think? Is Splashdown important to you and/or to the community? Has it outlived its usefulness? Please let me know your thoughts at alankleinca@gmail.com.
The News
Projects
The Hobbits Glen clubhouse/restaurant building is on track for a spring opening. The CA Board toured the facility recently and I am pleased that the new building seems to blend with its environment and will be a nice addition to our community.
CA Charter and Bylaws Changes
This past Thursday, the Members of CA voted to approve a set of mostly minor changes to the Charter and Bylaws of the organization.
If you are wondering why you…as a member of CA…did not get to vote, remember that only the ten CA village representatives to the Columbia Council are the actual members of the corporation. You get to be a member of our athletic facilities, but you are not a member of your own Homeowners Association!
A second look at more major changes is coming soon, including, I hope, creating a way to make all residents of Columbia actual members of the Association. Other large homeowners associations do it…why can’t we?
If you agree, please let me know and talk up the idea with your friends in other villages, encouraging them to let their own CA Representative know that all residents deserve the right to be members of their own homeowners association!
Ethics Accusations:
I want to thank the Harper’s Choice residents (and others) who spoke or wrote letters to the CA Board in favor of transparency and openness. Unfortunately, the Board voted 6-4 to close the discussion of the ethics accusations against me, even though every citizen who spoke wanted the meeting to remain open and even though no one gave a reason to close the meeting. (To be fair, they cited a legal justification to do so –that Board Members are CA personnel – that only gives us permission to close, not a reason to use that permission.)
As the minutes have not been released, I can’t say anything about what happened. Suffice it to say that my sense is that the process has run its course, and I am still your representative. I will release more information as soon as I am allowed.
Village Elections
Current two-year terms of office for five Harper’s Choice Village Board seats expire on April 30, 2015. Three nomination petitions were received from Stephen Cook, Robert Fontaine, and Benjamin Rubin. Per the Harper’s Choice Community Association bylaws, if the number of nominations is less than or equal to the number of vacant director positions, the qualified nominees shall be deemed to be elected by the members and the Board of Directors will appoint the nominees to the director positions. The terms of office for the three nominees will be May 1, 2015 through April 30, 2017.
As always, it is my pleasure to represent you on the Columbia Association Board of Directors as your Columbia Council Representative.
1st, I again want to thank you for sending out these reports and an easy way to respond.
However, I am not in favor of everyone voting on issues. I do not consider this a Homeowner’s group but rather a governing body, through representation. Also, as a member of a governing board – of a much smaller organization – I appreciate the value of open meetings but also the need for close meeting when dealing with personnel matters.
Looking forward to more reports from you, as our rep,
I agree with the previous reply – I am not in favor of everyone voting on issues. I also consider the Homeowner’s Association as a governing body through representation.
I also agree with the two above – I think this is a superficially attractive, but ultimately flawed idea. Requiring an affirmative vote from amoajority of the 35,000 households in Columbia (source: http://www.columbiaassociation.com/home/showdocument?id=5850) is a recipe for ensuring that nothing ever gets done by Columbia Association. Further, it is unclear how and to what extent commercial properties would be incorporated into such a voting scheme. Ultimately, I believe in a representative form of governing, which is what we currently enjoy.