Poll

It is time to be heard. Please click below to register your choice, then leave your name, address, and email in the comments. We will present this to the board at the next meeting.

Searchable documents

Our website includes access to pagescans of important documents such as our "Articles of Incorporation", "Bylaws", and "Codes" and "Constitution". However, they are encoded merely as images and entirely unsearchable. The on-site manager refused to provide electronic distillations of these documents, or the original word-processor files. 

Therefore I am making these searchable versions (processed with Adobe Acrobat X's OCR tool) available to everyone on emersonunderground:

Constitution

Articles

Codes

Bylaws

Associa

From the FY10 Audit report:

I find it suspicious that Associa not only makes money off management fees, but also owns the bank that holds our money and sells us insurance. In the past, it has even made money off of "waste removal consulting".

Here is most of the contract with CMC:

Poolhouse

The FY14 budget shows an expected income of only $1300 from clubhouse room rental fees. This structure, consisting of a kitchen, bathroom, meeting space, and a small office for the on-site manager and assistant, is therefore hardly used except for board meetings. Why then does it cost us so much to maintain?

Electricity, gas, water/sewer, cleaning, cleaning supplies, pest control, alarm system, "maintenance", "access" (don't know what that means), HVAC maintenance, "surveillance maintenance" totals nearly $49,000. I admit that much of the electric and gas may go to pool-related activities such as electric pumps, heating the shower water, etc. But still, why spend $6,000/year to clean the clubhouse if it's never used? And what's inside it that needs to be protected by a $4,000/year security system (in addition to $1800 "surveillance maintenance", whatever that means)? Note that we also pay $3,000/year for telephone service to the clubhouse!

The next time you go to the pool, look at how many chairs are there. I counted 50. Even if these were $100 each (which I doubt, given their quality) and we replaced every one of them after a single summer, it wouldn't cost $8,000.

Landscaping

Our $152,784 landscaping contract was sole-sourced to the present company without a request for bids in Sept. 2011. 

Security

Look at the financial reports. (Only up to 11/2012 are available. Edit: up to May 2013 now posted in response to requests) Every week there is a check for 3 hrs=$105 weekly to a "James Capone Jr." with the remark: "admin duties site security".

The manager's assistant told me this is paid simply for arranging the employment of off-duty police officers for security detail. Smells like payola...

When I asked the on-site manager about this, her response was:

"The weekly admin duties include the arrangement of schedules for the Officers that patrol the community, reviewing the Officers notes and patrol hours and compiling the reports to be sent to staff and the Safety Committee on a weekly basis."

Loan

Our Association services debt with payments of over $18k/month (>20% of the total budget). The lender is "Emerson Land, LLC", (now a subsidiary of the Howard Hughes corporation) which is a company set up by the developer. In the early days of Emerson, the developer occupied all the seats on the Board and therefore easily got it to agree to a $4M loan, now shouldered by us. It sounds incredibly shady, but apparently all legal, and nominally covers the costs of building the pool/poolhouse/totlots/ponds etc -- all amenities that developers typically pay for to sell their houses in normal markets (unlike the housing bubble in 2005).

I asked for the original loan documents to determine what APR we are paying, but all the on-site manager gave me are the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th allonge documents (like a rider modifying an existing loan). This is from her email to me:

"I provided the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Allonge to the revolving loan demand. The original loan paperwork was not in the records when CMC began managing Emerson. [The portfolio manager] is currently looking into the possibility of having this loan refinanced at a lower interest rate."

and then:

"It is my understanding that we have attempted to obtain this information in the past with no positive results. I have sent a request to Emerson Land, LLC to provide that paperwork. I will keep you posted as to when it is available for your review."

Finally, on Aug. 6 I received this message:

"I have obtained a copy of the Revolving Loan Demand Note from 2002 and the First Allonge from 2006. I will have this ready for your review along with the other information you have requested when you schedule a time to come to the office."

How they could operate all this time, sending $20k/month without the original terms of the loan is beyond me.

Note the new tactic: all documents are to be examined in person during regular business hours. When I pointed out that 

"This information should be shared transparently with all Emerson residents in good standing. Your request that I appear in person to review the documents after a substantial delay places an undue burden, especially since we have a mechanism for sharing these documents on the website", here was the on-site manager's response: 

"I have responded to you in accordance with the Maryland Homeowners Association Act, Sub section 11B-112(a)(1)(ii) which states that that books and records kept by or on behalf of the homeowners association shall be made available for examination or copying, or both, by a lot owner, a lot owners mortagee, or their respective duly authorized agents or attorneys, during normal business hours and after reasonable notice."

Buried in the FY10 audit report (the most up-to-date available; the audit reports for FY11 and FY12 (which ended on 6/30/11 and 6/30/12 STILL have not been approved by the board!!) is this explanation:

These days, 7% is practically sub-prime rate. Why hasn't this loan been refinanced??

UPDATE

8/24/13: Here are ALL the loan documents. Look at the signatures on the 2nd Allonge!

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