This Is our Village

Sunday, May 8, 2011

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR, YOU JUST MAY GET IT

Hi all,
There was a motion raised from the floor at the Delegate Assembly, the essence of the motion was that "all contracts" had to be approved by the Delegate Assembly prior to signing. The motion was tabled due to lack of quorum.

I am advised that a person was actually in the lobby, or perhaps in front of the door, soliciting signatures on a petition to the effect of the motion.
In this regard, there has been pot stirring for weeks over the work underway by UCO to effect long neglected rehabilitation of the Roadways. Therein lies a tale:
As for the Roadway money, the Roadway Reserve has been approved by the Delegate Assembly for many years, every year in our Budget Build process, the Delegates have approved the contribution of about $5.00 per unit per month; reserved for Roadway repair.

Currently there is some $3,000.000.00 in this fund, and due to the flooding, the potholes, the cracked walkways, leading to slip and falls, the LCAM, the Bid Committee, and the Officers decided that it was time to start roadway repair; that is the responsibility that you The People placed on your Officers when you voted. It is interesting to note that the very people complaining about this process did absolutely nothing to correct the problems when they were in office.
We engaged an engineering firm, which was selected based on Bid process, to study the entire problem, the engineers noted that the Swales and Drainage had to be corrected prior to actual repair of the Roadway, in order to prevent damage due to flooding.
So, we have commenced the project, based on years of approval by the Delegates of the funding of the reserve line.

So, what exactly have we done that is wrong? In light of a legal opinion by the UCO Attorney that states that the yearly approval on the Reserve funding line, done as part of the standard Budget Build, gives us authority to spend the money on the designated repair, without asking for yet a second authorization, absolutely nothing has been done wrong!.

It is important, that thinking unit owners separate reason and law from the pot stirring of a few malcontents!

If this sort of constraint is observed to an extreme, many expenditures, required for emergency repairs or day to day operations would be slowed to the tempo of our monthly meeting cycle; for example, when a 36 inch drain collapsed at Oxford 100, and a large sinkhole opened up; it had to be fixed, now!

Another interesting outcome of this motion if it passes, would be the problem of escalating gas prices, which are now running ahead of our budgeted level of $3.50 per gallon. This requires diversion of certain funds not budgeted; should we stop the operation of the Buses, the Rover and the COP vehicles so we can ask for permission to spend the funds which exceed the Budget allocation??

You, the unit owners and your Delegates voted us in to execute the daily tasks of operation of the Village; the proper fruit of our intimate knowledge of the situation is action!

So, again I entreat you all, don't let a minority of malcontents drive you to unreasonable conclusions.
Of course, if you disagree, the elections are not that far away; the choice will be yours.


Dave Israel
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4 comments:

  1. Dave: You and UCO have done the correct thing. I just hope you can outlast the crazies and complete some of these long neglected projects.

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  2. As a delegate I would not want to be voting on road-related expenditures in the Village unless for some reason it required going way beyond budgeted amounts. I vote on the budget, and I vote for most of those in office, whom I trust to make informed, wise decisions. The committee and board personnel study these issues and are far more expert on them than I.

    What can the assembled two hundred delegates at a typical delegates meeting really learn about the pros and cons and various considerations one needs to know about the roadways in order to make a wise decision at one of our delegates meetings? Having been to many delegates meetings, it is almost laughable to me. The answer is very little, and as we all should know by now, "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." We need cool heads on the part of a handful of knowledgeable people to decide these things.

    Roads, swales and drainage are all CONNECTED. It would be foolish to have authority to repair the roads but be able to do nothing about the drainage. The horse escapes from the barn because of a bad lock. We are allowed to spend the money to round him up and get him back, but we are not allowed to spend the money on a better lock for the barn door?

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  3. Well said both Plcruise and Lanny, The budgeting process, studied, questioned and then approved by the delegate assembly allows UCO to function on a daily basis. It is very important to understand and support our officers. If one has any questions about things that are being done, they should go to UCO and ask questions. Please do not listen to the group that only has negative things to say, they just want attention and disruption of business.

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  4. If the UCO attorney says you have the right to spend the money that was budgeted and approved by the delegates why are we going to have this sham of a vote by the toxic few and those that want to be in office again but did not win. I am so tired of having to listen to those malcontents who just want to cause a disruption at the meetings, listen to their own verbal diarrhea and have nothing constructive to add to anything. Oh, and for the record, Myron, Olga and Goerge with the stupid law suit when George got into office cost unit owner almost $700.000.00. It was something to watch how they whipped up the delegates to a frenzy to vote and pay up for lawyers and lost law suits.
    This president and slate of officers is the most transparent we have had at UCO. Walk into UCO and be greeted by polite smiling people. It is about time the malcontents take a good hard look at themselves and see how they are disrupting the every day workings of the village. They care nothing about the village and for the life of me I can't see why they want to live here.

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