2024-25 Annual Meeting Report

The increase in assessments for 2025 is 3.79%.

The board reported that the community’s financial condition has greatly improved over the last five years. Despite some staggering financial challenges, the community has held the annual average assessment increase to 4.4% over this five year period, which is slightly below the North Texas inflation rate.

By slashing wasteful spending and restructuring the finances over the last 5 years, the community has:

• reduced the debt from $1,000,000 to $179,000;
• increased reserves from $0 to $836,000; 
• absorbed skyrocketing insurance costs that went from $99,000/year to $234,000/year;
• and completed multiple capital improvements without a loan or special assessment, including:
  
  • resolving drainage/flooding issues,
  • repairing the brick joint grouting 60,000 sq ft of brick wall/fence,
  • CellGate gate controlling system,
  • landscaping, including the addition 41 oak trees,
  • tree lighting system,
  • installing foundation piers building F,
  • pool resurfacing, 
  • dog park,
  • remodeling the pool house and bath,
  • installing a grilling station.

Effective January 1, monthly assessments will be as follows.

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Every dollar collected will be spent as follows. Notably, the Association is now spending more on proactive maintenance than reactive and deferred maintenance. Insurance at 31% of the budget is the single largest expense and a most burdensome overhead. Now that LoBT has been thrust into the high-risk pool, a dedicated committee is being formed to explore improving coverage and costs.

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The reserves at the end of 2023 and 2024 are as follows. The Association plans to repair the lake retaining wall in 2025 and paint the buildings in 2026, and do this without a loan or special assessment. $225,000 of the reserve has been set aside in a restricted fund to eliminate the need for insurance financing, this saving $14,000 yearly in interest.

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The capital budget is as follows. It should be noted that only 9 of the twenty-two categories are fully funded YTD as the capital reserve plan is being phased in.

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The operating budget is as follows:

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The operating budget change, 2024 vs 2025 is as follows:

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Sixty percent(60%) of eligible owners signed up and are particpating in the group purchase master electric contract.

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INFORMAL POLL AT MEETING

During the meeting, an owner expressed concerns that the board election was not transparent. They wanted to eliminate "secret" balloting and have owners to be present and participate in the count of the vote. A discussion of Texas Property Code section §209.005 ensued and focused on the legal requirement for secret ballots for HOAs with more than 10 units. Many in the room expressed confidence in the integrity of the board and management company to continue LoBT's practice (and the industry's practice) of having the property manager count votes without monitors.

A board member proposed a compromise to hire an independent third party (e.g., a law firm, CPA, etc.) to count the vote in addition to the management company. A show-of-hands poll was a strong "not necessary."

The discussion then shifted to a description of how online voting would facilitate a much broader owner participation. It was noted that prior year elections typically had fewer than 35 actual voters, with 15+ votes coming from proxies tendered to the board president and secretary. With electronic voting all ballots will be tendered from actual voting owners representing their own interests, including owners who could not attend the meeting. Additionally, having "machine counting" along with manual counting will ensure greater accuracy as LoBT votes are fractional and based on unit square footage. As required by the LoBT Deed Restrictions, the largest homes, for example, have a 1.503 vote, while the smallest homes have a 0.977 vote. Lastly, LoBT will now meet the custodial requirements set forth by the state. All ballots and tally sheets will be stored in a sealed and signed envelope available for recount by a Justice of the Peace judge should any election result ever be contested.

Note: Four owners ran to fill four vacant seats this year and last year two owners ran for two vacant seats. In the last seven years, only one person running for the board was not elected.

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BLOG UPDATE

For convenience, the links to the financial reports and governing documents have been moved to the blog header at the top of each page. A new website is under devlopment and will be published later this year.