Important Notices

Hello Kachess Community Members,

It has been my pleasure to serve on the Kachess Board of Directors as President. As a member of the community for the past 16 years, I am happy to admit that joining this community of ours has been one of the best decisions that we have made in terms of financial investment and even more important; family investment. I hope all of you can say the same.

Over the years, we have witnessed tremendous change and growth in our community. This past year has been no exception. Seven new cabins are under construction. We have very few lots that remain vacant. We have been told owners of three of the vacant lots are about to build. Amazing!

Two of our goals this past year were to be very accessible and to communicate our plans directions and concerns. We hope you agree that we are easy to reach and we have responded promptly to any issues that you brought to our attention. We also hope you know how much of a priority we have placed on our water system.

Your board has spent a significant amount of time gathering information about our water system and has discussed ways to bring it up to current standards. Some have asked why this is important to look at now. After all, the system works and it continues to deliver clean water at a wonderfully low cost to the community. We have three key reasons for taking this on.

Each year we have many leaks in the system. This wastes electricity and chlorine as well as it can cause a temporary loss of use or very low pressure.
Many of the leaks cause costly road damage. All of the roads within our community are owned by the community except for Via Kachess.
We need to repair many of the roads (damaged by water leaks, and a combination of poor original construction and heavy truck use) but do not think it is prudent to spend the significant dollars required only to have it destroyed by future leaks.

During the past year, we asked you to vote on a ballot to assess ourselves nearly $6000 per lot to pay for the water and road improvement. It failed by one vote. A number of members later stated that they were in favor of the project but voted no because they felt we needed more engineering work and believed that ultimately the cost would be much more than the assessed amount. After additional study, the board came to agree with this position.

In looking for various ways to finance such a project and while making sure we understood what the CC&R's and related documents had to say about such projects, we found and retained a new attorney for our association. Her name is Marion Morgenstern. She is known in our state as an authority on CC&R's, HOA's, state law and case history concerning these very issues.

We have learned that we must change our voting procedure to comply with state law. This is why we are not including a ballot in this mailing but instead a proxy form so that you may assign your right to vote to someone who will be at the meeting. It's a detail that doesn't appear to be too important to most of us. It becomes quite important, however, if the board embarks on a project or other such action that is disputed by one of our members.The merit of the dispute won't even be a factor in court if we didn't follow the correct procedure.

Why didn't we know this earlier? Allow me to speculate. The board has always been a group of volunteers just as we are now. We have been doing things the way we always have been doing things. Matters such as state corporate law and other statutes and laws that supersede our covenants are not things that volunteer board members should be expected to know. That's why we have the ability to seek legal counsel. But seeking advice presupposes that we know when we need legal advice, and this is not always the case. In other words, how do we know what we don't know? Our previous attorneys had fine legal backgrounds but it appears they didn't focus their practice in the area of community association law and may not have been fully up on state law concerning CC&R's and HOA's.

Here's an example: In order for your vote to be counted, you must either personally attend a properly announced meeting or assign your vote to someone who will attend the meeting via a proxy. That person will then attend the meeting on your behalf and has the right to vote for you by filling out your ballot. Since this procedure is unwieldy in this day and age, we are looking at what it will take to change the bylaws so that we can conduct a vote by mail, rather than only at a meeting.

We have also learned that we can plan to undertake a major project like repair/replace our water system by adding the cost into our annual budget, or a supplemental budget. This is another area where state law differs from our CC&R's, and one where state law trumps our covenants. Under state statute, a budget is passed unless a majority of all property owners veto it. This is significantly different than the procedure we've used, where special assessments are approved by a majority or super majority of the ballots collected.

As you might imagine, we were surprised to learn these things. We started out seeking an opinion on the votes and processes needed to address the water system issue, and ended up receiving counsel we didn't expect. We don't take this new found information lightly and anticipate you will have a lot of questions on these issues. To give everyone an opportunity to hear what we've learned and ask our attorney questions about these and other matters, we've asked Marion to be with us at our general meeting on May 17th. She will talk about state laws and how they impact us and will answer any questions you might have.

I hope you can make the meeting. As you can see from the enclosed flyer, we will have a potluck lunch following. Come, learn and enjoy.

Sincerely,
Tom Carmody
President and Board Member

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President's Message April 30, 2008 Hello Kachess Community Members, It has been my pleasure to serve on the Kachess Board of Directors as President. As a member of the community for the past 16 years, I am happy to admit that joining this community of ours has been one of the best decisions that we have made in terms of financial investment and even more important; family investment. I hope all of you can say the same. Over the years, we have witnessed tremendous change and growth in our community. This past year has been no exception. Seven new cabins are under construction. We have very few lots that remain vacant. We have been told owners of three of the vacant lots are about to build. Amazing! Two of our goals this past year were to be very accessible and to communicate our plans directions and concerns. We hope you agree that we are easy to reach and we have responded promptly to any issues that you brought to our attention. We also hope you know how much of a priority we have placed on our water system. Your board has spent a significant amount of time gathering information about our water system and has discussed ways to bring it up to current standards. Some have asked why this is important to look at now. After all, the system works and it continues to deliver clean water at a wonderfully low cost to the community. We have three key reasons for taking this on. Each year we have many leaks in the system. This wastes electricity and chlorine as well as it can cause a temporary loss of use or very low pressure. Many of the leaks cause costly road damage. All of the roads within our community are owned by the community except for Via Kachess. We need to repair many of the roads (damaged by water leaks, and a combination of poor original construction and heavy truck use) but do not think it is prudent to spend the significant dollars required only to have it destroyed by future leaks. During the past year, we asked you to vote on a ballot to assess ourselves nearly $6000 per lot to pay for the water and road improvement. It failed by one vote. A number of members later stated that they were in favor of the project but voted no because they felt we needed more engineering work and believed that ultimately the cost would be much more than the assessed amount. After additional study, the board came to agree with this position. In looking for various ways to finance such a project and while making sure we understood what the CC&R's and related documents had to say about such projects, we found and retained a new attorney for our association. Her name is Marion Morgenstern. She is known in our state as an authority on CC&R's, HOA's, state law and case history concerning these very issues. We have learned that we must change our voting procedure to comply with state law. This is why we are not including a ballot in this mailing but instead a proxy form so that you may assign your right to vote to someone who will be at the meeting. It's a detail that doesn't appear to be too important to most of us. It becomes quite important, however, if the board embarks on a project or other such action that is disputed by one of our members.The merit of the dispute won't even be a factor in court if we didn't follow the correct procedure. Why didn't we know this earlier? Allow me to speculate. The board has always been a group of volunteers just as we are now. We have been doing things the way we always have been doing things. Matters such as state corporate law and other statutes and laws that supersede our covenants are not things that volunteer board members should be expected to know. That's why we have the ability to seek legal counsel. But seeking advice presupposes that we know when we need legal advice, and this is not always the case. In other words, how do we know what we don't know? Our previous attorneys had fine legal backgrounds but it appears they didn't focus their practice in the area of community association law and may not have been fully up on state law concerning CC&R's and HOA's. Here's an example: In order for your vote to be counted, you must either personally attend a properly announced meeting or assign your vote to someone who will attend the meeting via a proxy. That person will then attend the meeting on your behalf and has the right to vote for you by filling out your ballot. Since this procedure is unwieldy in this day and age, we are looking at what it will take to change the bylaws so that we can conduct a vote by mail, rather than only at a meeting. We have also learned that we can plan to undertake a major project like repair/replace our water system by adding the cost into our annual budget, or a supplemental budget. This is another area where state law differs from our CC&R's, and one where state law trumps our covenants. Under state statute, a budget is passed unless a majority of all property owners veto it. This is significantly different than the procedure we've used, where special assessments are approved by a majority or super majority of the ballots collected. As you might imagine, we were surprised to learn these things. We started out seeking an opinion on the votes and processes needed to address the water system issue, and ended up receiving counsel we didn't expect. We don't take this new found information lightly and anticipate you will have a lot of questions on these issues. To give everyone an opportunity to hear what we've learned and ask our attorney questions about these and other matters, we've asked Marion to be with us at our general meeting on May 17th. She will talk about state laws and how they impact us and will answer any questions you might have. I hope you can make the meeting. As you can see from the enclosed flyer, we will have a potluck lunch following. Come, learn and enjoy. Sincerely, Tom Carmody President and Board Member