LLA board members in attendance were: Alan Dinkelacker, Grant Sheehan, Todd Young, Andrew Twillman, Bill DiLoreta, Brian Kopec, Lisa Rogers.

Staff in attendance: GM Stephen Hembree, AGM Clay Edwards, community resource manager Joy Gurley.

Minutes were approved with the following amendment: Under Unfinished Business, East County High School, the word petition should be stricken from the minutes and replaced with the word email.

GM Hembree said the primary point of the meeting discussion is a disclosure that a board member has been given the contract. Director Young said that under the amendment, the developer is the one who will award the contract. Resident Charlotte Dusold asked the amount that had been budgeted by the LLA for the WW landscaping contract. Director Dinkelacker said that $47,000 was in the budget and that in addition to the LLA, the tennis and golf clubs, as well as the developer, contribute to that amount.

Resident Karen Frazier asked why the developer had a say in the determination of the contractor because she believed that only the WW HOA could make a recommendation on the selection of the contractor. Director Dinkelacker said that was not accurate and that the developer indicated that he was interested in putting additional monies into the fund for landscaping because he expects to complete build-out of the village within the next three years and wants the landscaping to be done in a specific way as he finishes the project. Ms. Frazier said the fact that a board member received the contract was a conflict of interest for the board and the association. Director Twillman said he agreed but the way the developer positioned himself in the discussion made it difficult for the LLA board to do anything else.

Director Dinkelacker took issue with the impression that the board had been strong-armed into taking this action by the developer. Ms. Frazier asked if director Kopec would have voted on the matter; he indicated that he had the right to do so but did not know if he would. Director Dinkelacker said he would have asked director Kopec to recuse himself from the vote. Director Sheehan said that according to the state code on homeowners associations, even if a director has a financial interest in a matter that director could vote on a matter, though disclosure of the financial interest must be made prior to the vote.

Director Rogers said she thought the state code was in conflict with information that is distributed by the Community Association Institute, of which the LLA is a member, on that issue. She said she wanted the association to work on clarifying the conflict of interest issue for better understanding and implementation in the future. Resident Charlotte Dusold asked whether the LLA would be stuck with a higher cost associated with the Westwinds landscaping contract in future years. Resident Frank Ellis, the former Eaglehead declarant, said that when his company had staff people serving on the board the custom was to allow the individuals to participate in discussion in order to share information but that his staff people on the board would recuse themselves from the vote. He said it was a good practice and one that should continue.

Operating Budget and Needed Staff— GM Hembree said the expenses projected in the FY04 budget were still on target and that the amount estimated as remaining funds from last year’s budget were also still on target, all of which would allow him to hire new staff. Director Rogers asked LLA treasurer/director Young if the budget figures for the coming year bear out that the LLA could afford to hire two new staff people. Director Young said it all depends on the build out of the community and noted that road repair costs were a concern for the LLA as it waited for the CDA to begin. GM Hembree said the matter was a double-edged sword because the workload for the association will increase and if there is not enough staff onboard to do the work, the further behind things would get. Director Young suggested the GM look at hiring one more person, saying that the burden of one additional staff person was probably workable. Director Rogers said her greatest concern at the moment was the condition of the community’s roads after the winter weather and subsequent repairs now needed on many community roads. Director Kopec said it would be a great benefit to the association to have a covenant compliance administrator onboard now. Director Twillman said that the $40,000 used to hire a new staff person would not likely do much to fix road problems. GM Hembree said that having more managers in the field with the maintenance crew would be more helpful because the LLA does not have the equipment necessary to do much of the roadwork required and that management will most likely have to bring in more contractors to do the jobs as a result.

Clay Edwards, the new assistant general manager, said that he had discussed the matter of new laborers with maintenance chief Frank Stone, who explained that his staff will always be in reactive mode unless there is management staff to do more of the planning aspects. Mr. Edwards said that as a resident since 1996, he had seen a lot in the community and felt the time was right to hire a covenant compliance administrator.

MOTION; Director Sheehan made a motion to hire a covenant compliance administrator at a salary level to be determined by the GM. Director Twillman seconded the motion, stating that the association had been discussing adding this position for a long time and needed to take the next step. Director Dinkelacker said that everyone had been hounding the LLA for a covenant compliance administrator.

VOTE: The board voted 7-0 in favor of the motion.

Dog Issue— Community resource manager Joy Gurley explained that information provided in an article in the February issue of LakeTalk about two separate dog attacks in the community was done with the intention of providing some shock value to residents in the hope that it would encourage residents to keep their dogs on leashes or better secured in backyards. She explained that two different women approached the office about two separate incidents but declined to provide the name of the owners whose dogs had attacked their pets. Without names and addresses there was nothing the LLA could do but she decided to use the information to stress the importance of people keeping their dogs secured and on leashes while in the community. Residents at the earlier March board meeting were upset and wanted the names of the dog owners published in LakeTalk.

Several residents expressed concern about dogs they encounter on the trails, many of which are with their owners but not on leashes. Board members noted that the new covenant compliance administrator could tackle this issue. In the meantime, the board directed staff to come up with a plan to address the issue of dogs-at-large.

Based on his presentation, the question was asked about tree clearing along Eaglehead Drive as a part of this preparation process. He said a large section of Eaglehead Drive would have trees removed in order to meet the required regulations. He said that Land Stewards had set aside $15,000 to replace trees along Eaglehead Drive. He also noted that Land Stewards has front of lot slope easements to do the work on Eaglehead Drive.

The question was asked whether Land Stewards had violated covenants in the tree clearing work it did in Woodridge and whether that work was done according to LLA requirements. Director DiLoreta said Land Stewards had received a stop work order from the LLA regarding Woodridge. He said Land Stewards thought it had done everything it was suppose to according to LLA requirements, although he noted that the Aspen covenants were a different matter.

Several residents of the community expressed their disappointment that Land Stewards was removing so many trees to build new homes in Aspen and expressed the opinion that they felt the developer’s approach to the land was in conflict with what people wanted and the reason they moved to Eaglehead. They said they understood development was to take place within the community but they did not believe it was suppose to happen in the manner that Land Stewards had been doing the work.

LLCS president Charlotte Dusold said that low-impact development could be done in Eaglehead but that Land Stewards had chosen not to do this. She said the type of product that Land Stewards was building was the determining factor in the clearing and grading permitting requirements from the county.

Another resident asked for a third party opinion on the subject before the board voted on the matter. He said that the board should not vote on the tree and grading plan for Aspen at this time because they needed more time and more information to be able to vote intelligently on the matter.

Aspen resident Michelle Marzullo said that Aspen residents were asking the board for more time to develop a response to this issue. Anthony Marzullo said people pay a lot of money to live in the environment that exists and that the board should not base its decision on Land Stewards’ economics. Aspen resident Dewey Cubit said that Aspen residents were having a meeting on March 23 and wanted to be able to make a recommendation to the board following that meeting.

Director Sheehan asked whether Land Stewards was willing to put more trees on the lots as replacements for the trees it would be removing. Kathy Brown said the Land Stewards reforestation plan for Eaglehead Drive was not enough.

Director Sheehan said the board could benefit from a village recommendation before it made a decision. The board set Monday, March 29 to meet again in an open special session on the Aspen clearing decision.

Board Meeting Dates— In recent years LLA directors had eliminated from the board meeting calendar the regular board meeting following the annual membership meeting. In addition because of the time of year, GM Hembree suggested to the board that it eliminate other meeting dates at this time from the calendar. The board agreed to eliminate the following dates from the meeting calendar: May 17, July 5, August 2 and December 20.

Candidate Forum— GM Hembree announced that the annual candidate meeting would be held as a part of the regular board meeting on April 19.

Towing Policy— Gm Hembree said he was recommending to the board that the LLA eliminate the towing policy. He said following a recent incident in which many emails were generated by the board of directors to him, he believed the only way to ensure that LLA members were not caught by the tow trucks was to eliminate the program.

The board directed staff to research other towing companies or other methods and present the information in a future meeting.

Library Referendum— Director Twillman presented the wording for the referendum question to be posed to the membership regarding the donation of the land for the library. LLA attorney Shelah Lynn had written the proposed referendum.

MOTION: Director Sheehan made a motion to accept the referendum question as it was written by LLA attorney Lynn. Director DiLoreta seconded the motion.

VOTE: The board voted 7-0 to approve the motion.

Former Eaglehead developer Frank Ellis said that he still has the site plan for the original E. Fay Jones community center building, which was to have a library on the site. He said he would give the LLA the site plan because it could benefit the upcoming work with the county on the library facility design.

Director Kopec said that background information on the referendum should be sent in the mailing.

Resident Steve Kopec told the board they should consider the impact of the facility on the community.