Sierra los Pinos
Property Owners Association
950 Forest Rd. 10, Jemez Springs, NM 87025
Date: May 13, 2020
To: All SLPPOA Members
Re: “Don’t get left behind. Time to get online.”
NOTICE OF A SPECIAL MEETING, CONDUCTED ON JUNE 13, 2020, FROM 2 TO 4 PM
Dear Member:
As you may surmise from the catch phrase in the subject line of this letter, the Board of Directors for the Sierra Los Pinos Property Owners’ Association will be moving forward with plans to more actively communicate with all members electronically. Therefore, the Board strongly suggests that if you do not currently possess an email address that you then acquire one as soon as possible.
Upon having a valid email address, please let us know what it is. Board Secretary Cindy Hines will update the SLP listserv with that information. Please send that information to her email address of secretary1@slppoa.org. If you would like to include a primary and/or secondary phone number at which you may also be contacted, then that would be very helpful. However, if you do not feel comfortable doing that, it is not a problem. Having your email address will be sufficient.
Some of you may not want to acquire or share an email address with the SLPPOA Board. That is alright, too. If Ms. Hines does not receive an email from you by Friday, June 5, 2020, which either specifies or updates the requested electronic contact information, then you will continue to receive correspondence via the US Postal Service at the address that is on file. That certainly won’t be the best or most efficient way for the SLP Board to communicate with you, but that choice is yours.
Going to an electronic platform was greatly influenced by the social distancing and stay-at-home orders of the current pandemic. To date, there have been three meetings conducted via Zoom. Two were regular board meetings. The other was a general membership meeting, conducted Saturday, April 18, with eighteen members in attendance. Eight proposed amendments to the bylaws were discussed at that meeting. Four remained with no revisions being recommended by membership.
Of the four which required revision, the most important of these and the one generating the most input was ballot item #2, entitled “Bylaw Changes Related to Excessive Water Usage.” As a result of discussion with membership, the reference to monthly assessments in Article X, new Section 7, will be omitted as will the word “unpaid” in new Section 5, Paragraph c. In conjunction with this proposed amendment, a water shut-off policy is currently being developed to address proper steps to be taken and under what circumstances water delivery may be terminated to an SLP property in support of the bylaw governing excessive use. Since water is the most important resource we have, input will be constructively sought from members prior to any water shut-off policy being enacted.
Other amendments, which membership wanted revised from their original versions, are as follows:
• Simplify language in ballot item #4, specifying the official due date for payment of annual assessments as the first day of January, by revising the language to read: "Any assessment not paid within thirty (30) days after the due date of January 1st shall bear interest..."
• Change the wording in ballot item #6 from “La Cueva Volunteer Fire Department” to instead read “Sandoval County Fire Rescue, La Cueva Volunteer Fire District.” And, include specific language to indicate that even though the number of the lot may change in the bylaws, there will be no change to any relevant water surcharge or annual assessment;
• Ensure that proposed Article XIV is in compliance with the Home Owners’ Association (HOA) Act, as most recently revised, and is numbered with the correct Roman numeral.
ISSUANCE OF BALLOTS: If your original ballot is one of the valid forty which were completed and mailed back to the Association, those ballots remain unopened. The hope was to hold those ballots until this special meeting occurred, when they could then be counted. The thought was that the votes already cast for those four amendments that were not contested could stand as submitted, with an abbreviated ballot subsequently issued to cover just those four proposed amendments to be revised as specified above. This wasn’t a viable fix. Ultimately, two distinct classes of ballots would have been created, which could have made the entire process illegitimate. Therefore, each member will again be sent one ballot with all eight initiatives on it. You may then cast your ballot either via the traditional method of mail service from a USPO or through an online electronic and confidential voting system, for which a random number will be assigned to you to in order to access the ballot.
QUORUM: The vote will only proceed if a required quorum is met. The most conservative bylaw interpretation of the percentage of general membership necessary to achieve a quorum requires two-thirds of the members who are eligible to vote. In order to be eligible to vote, a member must be current with their dues. At this point, about thirty members would be ineligible to vote. Any ballot they submit via US Mail will not count. They will also be blocked from the online voting platform. Thus, given that those numbers will remain constant, a minimum of 83 members in good standing will be needed to meet the required quorum. Please be prepared to VOTE! Take time to participate in this simplest of egalitarian processes or this endeavor may just have been an exercise in futility.
VOTING: The vote will occur at the conclusion of the special meeting called for that purpose. That meeting is scheduled to occur on Saturday, June 13, 2020, from 2 to 4 PM. If stay-at-home orders and social distancing requirements are lifted by then, the meeting will be held at the fire station in SLP, as has traditionally been done. If those restrictions are still in place, then the meeting will take place online via Zoom. If you have neither the capacity nor the willingness to attend virtually, then you may submit your ballot via US Mail with any relevant written comments you may care to make, which will be read into the record upon opening. All ballots will be mailed to members in accord with Article II, Section 4, of the bylaws, i.e. by the last week of May, in this instance. The 40 ballots already received will be discarded. Only eligible ballots received by the end of the meeting will be counted. If you desire a more dynamic presence, then “Don’t get left behind. Time to get online.”
Sincerely,
Paul S. Lisko, President
SLPPOA Board of Directors