President’s Report – IPCCA Executive Board Meeting – April 23, 2020
The Board held an Executive Meeting via Zoom Video Conferencing on Thursday, April 23, 2020, to deal with various matters such as contracts, legal items, and personnel issues that are usually handled in a closed meeting prior to the regular session. A summary of the executive decisions is then given to homeowners at the open meeting. This report summarizes the decisions at the Executive Meeting.
We plan to have a regular Board meeting at 5:00 pm on Tuesday, May 19, 2020, via Zoom that will be open to homeowners to “attend” electronically. Please watch the website (ipcca-hoa.com) for information on this. A link will be posted for you to access the meeting via laptop, tablet, cell phone, or simply by calling and listening in.
The decisions reached included:
- We are continuing with the Lifestyle Center (LSC) pool restroom project. We are now to the point where we can obtain bids for the project.
- We will be continuing our contract with Southwest Aquatics for water feature maintenance.
- We will continue a rental agreement with HOA 1 for use of some of their parking space for the LSC.
- Vintage will plant additional bougie plants along the outside of the Jackson exterior wall. This will bring the landscaping there up to the standard of our other exterior areas. When this is complete, we hope to finalize our plans for exterior landscaping maintenance with IPCA.
- We are going forward with the rebuild and repair of the Fields 3 lake and hope to have construction begin this summer. Our “town hall” meeting with homeowners about this project had to be cancelled because of the virus. Please email Shelly if you have questions about this. There will be various technical improvements affecting water conservation, utility expense, maintenance costs, etc., but the overall look of the area will be much the same as it is now when the work is completed. The landscaping changes are designed to improve views and legally required access to the lake – things are presently very overgrown and visibility is poor from many vantage points.
- We renewed our retainer contract with Fiore Racobs & Powers, our legal firm.
- We are going forward on our communication initiative and will be working with DigitalWest Media, Inc. to develop a mobile phone app for IPCCA. The Board feels the need for
effective electronic communication is greater than ever now.
- We are now allowed to reopen the courts at the LSC for member-only use (NO GUESTS),beginning Friday, April 24, 2020, with appropriate restrictions as determined by the health authorities. I need to emphasize use of the courts is AT YOUR OWN RISK. Each person must take responsibility for their own safety and for following health authority restrictions for conduct at the courts – there is no way the HOA or LSC management can ensure proper practices at the courts on a continual basis nor can we ensure disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizers are always available and used at these
venues. While at the courts, people need to provide their own hand sanitizers and disinfectants, use them regularly and properly, and keep their faces covered at all times. A summary of court use restrictions is posted on both the LSC and HOA websites (ipcca- hoa.com and ipcca-lsc.com) and by the courts.
- Riverside County has just allowed public and HOA pools to reopen, but there are stringent conditions such as the need to ensure there is no more than one person at a time using the pool area, removing and storing all pool furniture so it can’t be a gathering point, disinfecting all railings, door handles, restrooms, etc. approximately every half hour, and so on. HOAs that do not comply are subject to possible fines.
These restrictions would require hiring security guards for the LSC and satellite pools and having continual cleaning staff on site during hours of operation. The expense would be far in excess of what the LSC and HOA can afford to support the limited number of people who could use the pools with the one-at-a-time restriction. For this reason, we will have to wait to reopen the pools until the use restrictions are relaxed somewhat. We will continue to monitor pool opening requirements and promptly revisit the issue as soon as we can. In the meantime, the Board and PPM will be developing a plan to handle anticipated future restrictions on things like pool furniture, sanitizing, signs, and the equitable sharing of the pools to maintain social distancing. We want to reopen the pools for the use of our homeowners and members as soon as we safely can. We know it is hot!! Keep an eye on the websites for more updates on the pool situation. - The Board is considering the various financial impacts of the coronavirus emergency on the HOA and the LSC. We are not a “for profit” organization – all assets are in essence “owned” by our homeowners. There is not a third-party “them” who are making a big profit because the LSC is closed. Most expenses continue at the LSC whether we are open or not (insurance, landscape, utilities, cleaning and maintenance, parking lease, security, reserves, property management expense, director salary, pest control, accounting, to name a few). We charge only the HOA dues we must to pay bills and fund needed reserves and these expenses continue in good and bad economic times. If we “forgive” dues for 10% of our owners, the other 90% have to pay 11% more to cover the difference. All this said, the Board knows it is a difficult time for many and we are committed to being as accommodating as possible and being fair to all homeowners. We will continue to see what happens and how long the emergency lasts, and keep you informed as we get more information.Remember, we plan to have a regular Board meeting at 5:00 pm on Tuesday, May 19, 2020, via Zoom that will be open to homeowners to “attend” electronically. Please watch the website for information on this.