Bella Vista POA board adjusts policies, bylaws

BELLA VISTA — At the September meeting of the Property Owners Association Board of Directors, several policies and bylaws were adjusted. The meeting took place Sept. 24.

During the regular open forum, three members asked the board to consider opening the disc golf course to nonmembers. C.J. Barrett pointed out almost all disc golf courses are open to the public because disc golf is designed to accessible to the masses. It’s an inexpensive sport, he explained. He started to play with a disc he found when a friend encouraged him to play for the first time. Many volunteers, including nonmembers, volunteer to work on the course.

John Schrader said private disc golf courses take away from the competitiveness of the course. He said many nonmembers helped build the course. If regular golf courses are open to the public, disc golf should be too, he said.

Hank Ottde-Vries wanted to talk about the lakes. He said over 700 people signed petitions to keep the lakes private. He pointed out that there are more signatures on the lakes petition than there are pickleball players who were asked about a pickleball court on the west side.

Later in the meeting, General Manager Tom Judson reported that the Lake Rangers have removed almost 4,000 people from association lakes this year, an increase of 167% over last year.

Steve McKee, who was removed from the association board last spring, wanted to talk about a proposed bylaws change that would prohibit a person who was removed from the board from running for a seat for three years. The board terms are three years.

McKee said the policy change would conflict with other association governing documents and even the United States Constitution.

“No subservient law may contradict or oppose a superior law,” he said. He listed the governing documents that he believes will be contradicted by the new policy. The Articles of Incorporation that formed Bella Vista lists only one requirement for members of the board — that they are members in good standing.

He also pointed out governing documents state that bylaws concerning proposed changes should be “widely announced” before a vote is taken. He said this proposed change wasn’t widely publicized.

“Let the members decide who they want to represent them,” he said.

Later, Judson pointed out that every change to the governing documents requires two readings at two separate board meetings. In addition, changes are discussed at the work sessions before the board meetings and at the meeting of the Rules and Regulations meeting which usually recommends any change. All those meetings are open to the public, he said.

Member Tommy Freytag said a “volunteer poll” recently showed that 76% of members were against the proposed change.

He didn’t give any details about how the poll was conducted but promised the full results would be released at the end of October.

In spite of the objections, the board passed a second reading of Article III after attorney Doug McCash said he would look at the other governing documents to make sure they don’t conflict. If there is a conflict, changes can be made at future meetings, he said.

The bylaws are always more specific than the Articles of Incorporation, Judson said.

The vote was split with Sandy Fosdick, Jerry Hover and Teah Bidwell voting against.

The board also passed the first reading of a guest policy that specifically closes the paved trail at Branchwood to nonmembers. The disc golf courses use the paved trail, although Chairman David Brandenburg said the board can consider the disc golf course separately.

A series of policy changes to remove the word “guidelines” and replace it with more specific wording were passed on second reading.