Oct/Nov 2020 HOA Community Goals to Move Forward

Accurate and Positive Outcomes

Up to date, bylaws are important to guiding our mission. Our Association of Home Owners demands accurate and positive outcomes that will increase the value of our property and whenever that is not achieved, we members (whether we be homeowners or board of directors), have an obligation to correct it. Larger, expensive neighborhood wide initiatives like power washing/repairing sidewalks and resurfacing streets should be delivered on time and on budget as a rule without exception.

Accountability and Truth

Directors are required by Texas law to act as fiduciaries. Therefore, board members should be committed to two things: accountability and truth. Accountability because we must always strive to make wrongs right and be held responsible for the success of this non-profit corporation. And truth because if the truth is never discovered then the community cannot evolve into a diverse, inclusive community for modern families.

Board members may not knowingly misrepresent facts

The Board is aware of a campaign letter sent to all homeowners by a single Board member. The letter includes an opportunity for you to give your proxy vote to elect 5 Board members to Donald Oroian. The remaining Board members: Brian Kinlaw, Tracey Lammert, Dr. Pratik Parikh and Cynthia Silman, do not support the contents of his letter as it is not factual and requires clarification. In a recent series of Special Board meetings, we provided the following clarifications:

• None of the complaints in the Oroian letter was ever a formal proposal. There was never a vote by the board and the discussion never went any farther than a spitball conversation.

• In particular, the Oroian letter stated that the Board is moving in the wrong direction. The specific example cited was an ethics code AMENDMENT that our HOA lawyer didn’t recommend and never came up for a board vote. Instead, the board majority opted for an ethics code PLEDGE. We recently held a Special Board meeting on August 11th to vote on it that only was only attended by four of the five board members. All four board members present agreed to sign it.

• The Oroian letter also left out the original basis for the entire ethics conversation began three years ago when background checks were first suggested. Background checks are standard for any director with a large fiduciary responsibility. In 2019, the board majority looked at the +800K cash assets balance and finally agreed It was prudent to ensure that board members have no conflicts of interest, and no motivating factors with a background screening.

• The Oroian letter also takes a November 2019 conversation about how to improve security conversation completely out of context. At the time (over 10 months ago), It was noted that $50K for our current 4 hour patrols + the FREE 24/7 ring app would be significantly cheaper than 8 hours of patrol @ $100K annually. 
  NOTE: The completely FREE Ring App is recommended by the Bexar County Sheriff’s organization and does not require the use of a Ring Device. Any home owner can download it to their smartphone (via iOS or Android here: https://download. ring.com/bexar). The app is used to: monitor neighborhood activity; share crime and safety-related videos, photos and text-based posts; and receive real-time safety alerts from your neighbors, local law enforcement and the Ring team.

• The ethics code is a work in progress. The proposed amendment was already dead and a non-issue long before the time the Oroian letter was sent because our lawyer didn’t recommend it. We recently aligned behind an optional pledge while our Ethics committee continues working towards a more permanent solution.

Establishing Director and Committee member qualifications and mandatory requirements

The Ethics Committee was formed a few months ago to establish qualifications and mandatory requirements for HOA BOD directors and committee members. One of our Crosstimber HOA Board of Directors objectives is to inspire home owners with our example and thus guide positive changes to move the community forward. Unfortunately, there is no law that explicitly establishes qualifications for persons wishing to serve on the Crosstimber HOA board of directors or one of its subcommittees. The provisions established in our bylaws merely “encourage” adherence to stated qualifications. Where mandatory requirements are entirely absent from our governing documents, there may be circumstances where any unethical person may be eligible to serve as a director and/or appointed to a subcommittee.