HSV board meeting not ‘vanilla,’ as anticipated
HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE — Hot Springs Village Property Owners’ Association board member Jeff Atkins expressed concerns about board operations and announced he will not seek re-election in 2016 during the panel’s November meeting on Wednesday.
His dissent was made clear early, when Atkins made a motion to add an executive session to the meeting’s end to discuss spending by the POA. His motion was opposed, 3-2. Atkins followed that opposition by giving the singular “no” vote to approving the order of business.
As part of the board members’ comments, Atkins said the board is not intended to be “cheerleaders” for the POA. He expressed concern about members agreeing with each other too easily, and made clear he feels there could be potential policy violations going on with board actions.
He said residents can get frustrated, but “If we are attentive and focus on what needs to be done, people see that,” and those frustrations are lessened.
Atkins said that, after his term, he looks forward to working on improving Hot Springs Village from the outside, instead of as a board member.
Following the meeting, Atkins talked more about his concerns with The Sentinel-Record. “We have no honest debate, in my opinion. … We pretty much always have a 5-1 or 4-2 vote,” he said, adding, “We have a lot of board members who don’t do a lot of critical thought.”
Atkins has served on the board seven of the last nine years, first becoming a member in 2007.
COO and General Manager David Twiggs addressed Atkins’ POA concerns, even without an executive session. He made points about decreased golf numbers adding to fiscal stress, but said, “We’re going into a year where, functionally, nothing has changed.”
Twiggs said his priorities for 2016 include getting a better handle on existing usage of buildings and perceptions on that usage, mentioning the possibility of renting the Balboa Club for events. He also said the sales program has got to get “up and moving.” He believes anything that can be done on a small level will help with the overall financial picture.
The GM more directly commented on Atkins’ concerns by saying, “We’re not trying to skirt around any kind of spending limits,” and said if there are board members who think there are issues, “it’s open for discussion.”
Chief Financial Officer Lesley Nalley offered good news to the audience seated in the Ponce de Leon Center, saying that there is work being done to provide HSV members with additional benefits. That work includes a tennis pass system, an edit reservation system that should be in place by the end of the year, and a utility billing module.
Next, Stephanie Heffer, the director of Lifestyle and Community Development, presented a DeSoto Club update. A rendering of plans created by Director of Placemaking Yang Luo-Branch was shown for the project. Heffer discussed final changes to the plan that will take it from its current $2.26 million cost, to under the $2.2 million budget. She said a meeting with architects and contractors will take place Friday.
Heffer reported that 37 percent of that budget will go toward mechanical systems in the decades-old structure, and Twiggs said he’s learned from DeSoto and that system cost that, “We’ve got to know where we stand on each of these buildings,” like it, in addition to the Balboa and Diamante clubs.
A Sanitation Sewer Evaluation Study update was then provided by Jason Temple. He said, “Our system is bigger than we thought,” explaining that during the course of the study, it was discovered that there are twice the number of manholes in HSV as originally thought.
To combat that issue in the future, each manhole is receiving a GPS location as part of the study work. He said the hope is that all issues of leakages and other problems will be addressed by 2017, with manhole repairs to be contracted out during 2016.
Director of Golf Ray Metz discussed the annual Early Order Purchase program of agronomic chemicals and fertilizer needs for the eight HSV golf courses. The cumulative bid of $286,519.93 was unanimously approved.
Two other proposals unanimously approved were that of the 2016 Board Meeting Calendar, and 2016 Board Election Calendar.
Nalley then brought forth a motion she thought would be a positive issue, the complimentary vehicle decal program, but met dissension from Atkins. Discussion among members lasted for some 20 minutes regarding verbiage on the article.
Atkins made a motion to remove the document’s last sentence, which read, “For purposes of enforcing this policy, the Hot Springs Village Police Department is authorized to remove any decal found to be on a different vehicle from the one on which it was registered.” His motion did not receive a second, and discussion continued. With his second motion for removal, the motion was passed.
Atkins told The Sentinel-Record he is concerned by other members not seeing the importance of how things are worded, feeling there could be future legal repercussions.