1. Randy Croote, Association President, called the meeting to order at 10:00 am. A sign-in sheet was passed around.
2. Helen White, Treasurer, gave treasurers report.
3. Thank you to Steve Schuman for new signs
4. Randy discussed new attorney Kevin Tollisen. Discussion about refining and consolidating by-laws. Hopefully a draft version will be ready by the lawyer for the Labor Day meeting.
5. Discussion about off road vehicles & responsibility of same.
6. Mike O'Connor started a discussion about the speed limit on private and county roads. End result was that Randy would address the lawyer with a philosophy of enforcing a penalty by the association on the private roads.
7. Family Day Picnic, July 26th hosted by Viola and Schuman families with association allocating monies, approximately $*****
8. Discussion about speed bumps on the private roads. George Knight and Jerry White to keep maintained.
9. Announcement made about presentation being made at Panza Restaurant on July 24th with regards to the lake water source. Possibly will have someone at September meeting to discuss the issues.
10. Discussion about bridge on south end of property.
11. Dave Fedorchik brought up the issue of the depth of the lake, who is in charge of it and makes the decision of lake water levels.
12. Paul Martin started a discussion on public water being brought in. He will investigate and report findings at September meeting.
13. Discussion on election of officers.
14. Election of officers.
15. Motion to adjourn made by Virginia Clark
1. Randy Croote, Association President, called the meeting to order at 10:15 am. A sign-in sheet was passed around.
2. Barbara Knight, Secretary, read minutes from the July 6, 2002 meeting.
3. Helen White, Treasurer, gave treasures report.
4. Randy passed out papers to the association members clarifying and responding to materials circulated to a portion of the Lakeside Acres membership by Ms. Renee Farley and also a letter written to Randy from Peter Scalici and Kevin Moran regarding same (copy attached to minutes report). Randy felt this was important because it was relative to the issue at hand - distributed letters from Ms. Farley relative to the association and Randy personally. Randy read materials dated August 30, 2002 (In an effort to clarity and respond??.copy attached to minutes report) and then would open the floor to discussion.
5. Randy opened the discussion with the position that the association had received a written threat of a law suit and that some association members became concerned and did some of there own research concerning the situation. Situation being proper ownership of property in Lakeside Acres and dock space. This is where the letter from Peter Scalici and Kevin Moran is introduced by their admission. After Randy initially received this letter he called a meeting of the board of directors. The board unanimously decided on a course of action to take relative to property ownership. Randy also stated that he wanted to make it perfectly clear that the association, as a group, as an association has no interest in any financial matter of any individual in this organization. The sole issue at hand here is proper ownership. It?s a private organization and as a private organization we have membership requirements very simply pay your dues if you own property in the association. This is where the conflict comes in and Randy was not going to second hand discuss the information Peter Scalici researched. Randy stated if Pete wanted to discuss it he could.
6. The next thing Randy had to discuss was the attorney situation. The association attorney Jim Hughes has resigned as our attorney. Randy has a written letter from him that anyone can look at. Resignation reasons are, as, Mr. Hughes stated in the being that he was not a litigation attorney and felt with our growth, because of rules and regulations now in place we could be open for litigation. He also stated a large part of his business is in real estate and it could be a conflict of interest if he were to become involved with a law suit. Letter also stated he would work with a new attorney and bring him up to speed at no charge. Also, he will refund in full any part of the retainer that is left. He also has recommendations for a new attorney as have other associate members. As in the past association members voted to have Randy select a lawyer and at the board meeting, the members voted for Randy to select the new attorney. He will do so in the same manner as he did finding Mr. Hughes.
7. Randy now opened the floor to anyone else with discussion.
8. Pete Scalisi opened a discussion as to why he wrote the letter to Randy regarding the law suit. He stated he had not personally received all materials handed out by Renee Farley but had seen them. He felt this to be odd and decided to do some research into the allegations so he could make a reasonable decision. He said he had no personal interest by doing research. He used tools that were available to him i.e. public records, West Law (at his own expense) and found a number of discrepancies in claims made vs. legally duly recorded legal deeds. Also stated he found discrepancies in letter he found on his mailbox the night before from Renee Farley dated August 28, 2002 (copy attached to minutes report). He said he would not get into specifics but if someone wanted to hear them he would. John Viola stated he wanted to hear specifics. Renee stood and made a statement about trying to give everyone the materials she passed out but not everyone had a mailbox and whatever. Also a discussion on why documents had missing pages. Renee stated she was just trying to condense paperwork. Pete found that to be a problem because when someone condenses paperwork they are trying to bolster their position. Renee went on to say what page 2 was and Pete wanted to see it.
At this point a gentleman stood to ask a question when an association member raised a question as to if he were an association member. Randy asked that he state his name and if he were a member. He stated his name was Eric? and had a contract on the 10 acres and was not a member. A discussion pursued by several members and Renee (he being her nephew) that he was not a member and should not be here. He did not know etc., etc. Renee asked that we get on with the meeting. He remained at the meeting.
Next a discussion was started by Peter Scalisi pursuant to a discrepancy in an email to Randy with a date of either August 23 or August 27 (attachment #5 in letter to association members from Renee Farley dated August 28, 2002, attached to meeting minutes). Randy was asked by Pete
9. Keith Rupert asked that instead of having a long drawn out discussion with innuendo that we hire our attorney and have him take care of it. Renee defended her position as to her dock right and then Pete Scalisi stated she brought this on by herself because he had been at the meetings for the last two years and he had never heard anyone state that Renee should have her dock space taken away. All of a sudden an issue that should have been between the new owners of her old home became an association issue. Renee continued to defend her position about having a recorded deed and gave it to a board member. Randy stated that Barb Knight did tell him about it that morning (at that time Barb gave the recorded deed to Randy). Randy also stated during this discussion that Renee had responded to the registered letter the board had voted on to send her requesting certain information, in a timely fashion. He then went on to say that the point is that she did supply the deed, that there was conflicting information and that he was not a lawyer and his intention was to follow through with the direction of the board, take what information Renee presented, select a lawyer, hand him the materials and let the lawyer sort out the issue because Randy is not an expert nor does he claim to be. And also says "Randy Croote" does not have any personal stake in the outcome of Renee Farley's dock and although Renee's letter implies that he does, he has no personal stake in it.
10. Rick Girfford wanted to know if this was an issue for a lawyer. He felt there was a deed for this property and that the issue should be between the old owner and the new owner and wanted an explanation as to why a lawyer was need. Pete Scalisi told Rick that this was not accurate as the property was taken over and sold by the bank. Paul Martin wanted to know if the dock was actually sold to anyone. He was told by someone Pete Scalisi that was part of the issue. Rick Gifford reiterated that he though this should be between the Renee and the new owner - that's all. Pete Scalisi then said Rick was missing the point, the point here is that we had a person threaten us with a law suit for harassment and a little bit of research showed this person may not even be a property owner, filed a law suit - that is the issue here. According to all public records Pete searched, there is no property listed in Lakeside Acres with Renee Farley and he ran it with different spellings and initials of Renee Farley, 4 different ways and did find filings for Renee under the 4 different ways. The one thing you can't get around is social security numbers and they all cross referenced with the same social security number. Pete felt he did a complete thorough investigation using different public data bases. Renee and Pete pursued a discussion about the legalities of recorded and unrecorded deeds and mention of deed title insurance and for Renee to produce that. Paul Martin interjected a similar personal situation he had regarding an unrecorded deed as did his wife, Jean. Jean also stated here-say information of negative comments about Renee and that she heard Renee was going to lose her dock space. John Viola wanted to know if she approached the association about this, her reply was no and John stated the association never took a stand on this, there has never been anything recorded or any discussion at any official association meeting about taking her dock space away from her. Jean is responding to gossip and Renee's letters. John Viola went on to tell the story about his experience with the town board when he went for a variance and how he felt about Renee and what she wanted to gain.
11. The discussion then went on about a letter that Randy read written to him from Mr. Messercola about sharing a dock because of something said to his wife. The letter stated that Randy never discouraged Mr. Messercola from sharing a dock nor had his wife. They recommended sharing. Mr. Messercola stated that he has lived at 25 Dunning Rd. for about 8 months and not once has Randy had anything negative to say about sharing docks or trying to plot or plan anything to make me think differently about anyone. Randy then stated to forget the third party crap, this is from the conversation that occurred between myself and Mr. Messecola, and this is Mr. Messer- cola stating that I never was disparaging to Renee Farley and that I recommended that he share a space. Renee then stated her conversation was with Mrs. Messercola and asked if her deeds were ok could this whole matter be dropped.
12. Sally Viola then stood and asked Renee why she didn't sign any of her letters. Sally then asked her to sign the letter/letters and Renee complied.
13. Mr. Messecola stood and stated he was the guy who bought the house. Stated he bought it from Charter One bank and Renee Farley was her real estate agent. He said he was following the meetings here, he wasn't a member yet, but went on (meaning the assumption) that the dock space was tagged to the property. He said his father helped him buy the house and his father had a question about liability. Mr. Messercola stated he wanted Renee to sign a document they would not sue each other while sharing a dock. Mr. Messercola stated she replied stating she didn't want to play these games. Mr. Messercola feels he lost out on a dock space. He stated he just wanted Renee to sign a document stating they would not sue each other. The conversation went on with several different association members as to what property Renee has, when she bought it, if she was a continuing member and what the outcome would be. Renee asked for a vote that if the new lawyer felt she had a valid deed and had no break in property ownership and was a continued member that she would continue to keep her dock space. No vote was taken. Randy spoke up and said, like he had stated before that when we select the new attorney he would give the new attorney the materials Renee had supplied in accordance with the board letter and let the new attorney handle it.
14. Another issue that came up was a rescinded vote at a previous meeting regarding dock space going with the property when sold. Again the issue turned to the Renee Farley/dock issue with a lot of people yelling and speaking over each other. Also mentioned at this time was other issues regarding dock space ownership when the association initially bought the property, how may spaces you could retain according to how many land parcels you own, what the precedence is when you sell your property, a lot of issues that have not be resolved because they never had to be and etc. and etc. and etc. Again Randy spoke up about the board meeting and its intent on what to do. Did anyone want to over turn the decision of the board of the meeting two weeks ago relative to the process the board wished to pursue? No one answered. Discussion over.
15. Someone asked is there something we should to do if this issue should come up again. Randy stated his opinion was we need to continue as an organization and look at the 8 issues the legal/dock committee spend a lot of time on relative as to how the organization should proceed in the future. The whole complex issue of docks in this association is clearly still an open item. But that is not going to happen unless the membership agrees that, that should happen. Regarding giving the 8 issues to our new attorney for an opinion. Paul Martin asked what they were. Randy said he would provide them to anyone who wanted to see them.
16. Mr. Whitecki stated he was building a home and needed an easement on association property to bury telephone and power lines. Scott White stood up and apologized that he did that already without asking.
17. Paul Martin asked about dock wait list. George Knight and Mike O'Connor explained the situation and how it worked as a first come first serve calendar list. Talked about dock space going with property, value of personal property with or without the dock space, one dock per owner, deeds do not include dock space this is an organizational rule. Paul Martin made a motion to submit this wait list to the lawyer for his opinion. This was already done. Randy read what was already presented to the lawyer. Mr. Bablin spoke up about buying his house from Mr. Moore. Mr. Moore forfeited his membership by not paying dues putting Mr. Bablin on the waiting list and sharing with the Nolan's. Mr. Martin's motion was never voted on.
18. Mrs. Clarke brought up the situation of vandalism problems. Randy stated through only conversational knowledge that some members have formed a neighborhood watch. He asked that they speak about it. George Knight reiterated what he knew and because of paroling the area things have slowed up. Other members brought up what they knew of underage drinking and drug use. Mr. Viola said the police have been notified and the people involved are being watched. Randy stated if you have a problem call police and do diligence by us members, keep an eye on it.
19. Mr. Tim Knight wanted to know if he was going deaf here because he can't hear what is being said. Could we get a microphone or speaker system to use at these meetings? Other members stated they had a problem hearing too.
20. Mrs. Barnes brought up the issue of when selling there place could the dock space go with it. This discussion went know where.
21. Renee Farley made a motion that all minutes from previous meetings be sent with April meeting. Barbara Knight stated that Randy was going to put all meeting minutes together and consolidate everything so that we could establish a whole new set of amended by laws. Randy stated that what was discussed that Randy would sit down and combine all the information from the different meeting minutes that the association voted on, consolidate those and present those in the bill mailing in April for discussion at the July meeting. Motion not voted on. Paul Martin offered to keep a copy in his office at his home for anyone to get a copy.
22. George Knight asked that docks be removed from beachfront by July 10. Randy will send a notification letter if he is made aware.
23. Helen White stated dues are due April 1.
24. Motion to adjourn the meeting by Mike O'connor
Post meeting information:
