Dialogue

[Jack T.]

This is to let those who would rather shout at the dark rather than light one candle, that it is possible to get some real answers around here by simply punching 7 digits.

In just the last week or so, I’ve talked to Danise Hetland, the Asst Gen Manager over at the RMA office several times. She’s answered most of my questions on the spot, and gotten back to me with some that took a bit of research, plus she’s sent me some documents I requested. I’ve also talked with Mark Parsons at the RMA office about common area leases, and the different types of lots we have here, and Colleen was also contacted to find out the number of lots we have here.

I’ve also spoken with Teresa Ellis, the maintenance secretary about lots and the man hour accounting program maintenance uses. I’ve also spoken with Paul Moss, the Foreman of the Gardening crew of RMA’s maintenance, about the current policy concerning the maintenance of townhouse landscapes. I’ve also spoken with Danny Herrman, the Foreman of the RMA maintenance Operating crew about the number and types of lots here. And I can’t forget speaking with Rod hart, about several things, including the man-hours spent on the different kinds of maintenance, the Rules about putting up Christmas decorations, as well as a few other maintenance questions.

Not to leave them untouched, I managed to get hold of Ed Crouse, the GM over at CSD about the amount of land owned by different entities here in the district. I also contacted Les Tyler, CSD’s Dir of Administration about some possibly outdated documents on the CSD web site. I’ve called the gate guards a few times to get some information, but by far the person who’s heard from me the most over there is Chief Remson. He’s explained several things, including the procedures for manning security and how security stays within the guidelines given it by those who pay for it, among other things, and was kind enough to let me know the date of the most current Document dealing with CSD security.

That’s been just the last couple of weeks folks! And although I didn’t always get exactly what I was after, I was given what information was available, and from what can tell, that information was given gladly! What was true in almost every case, why I was calling was, I was searching for information to either answer someone else’s question or make a point in one of the on-line forums, and in every case when I told the person I’d contacted that, they made it clear that they wished more people would call them!

Not that they necessarily want people to call, but that they all believe it would be so much easier on everyone if people would at least give them the opportunity to answer questions before they starting making all kinds of statements on-line. Not that anyone wanted to stop people from complaining. In fact just the opposite. No one wanted to see people stop questioning what was going on, but they wanted to at least have the chance to answer questions before those people having questions went off.

But if you’ll notice, not one time did I mention anyone who’s on a board of directors. I stick with the poor workin’ slobs who have to try to earn a living carrying out the directives of folks who are at most spending a few dozen hours a month running this place. (That’s figuratively, not literally )

In short, all I did was initiate a dialogue with those folks and for the most part they gave me whatever information I needed. IMHO, that’s what we need more of out here. More dialogue and less guessing should be the order of the day! At least that way when someone had a complaint, they could say, Joe Blow told me ..., rather than I heard ...!

[Matthew]

I agree Jack. I spoke with Danise Hetland a little while ago and she was great. Very nice and informative. I dealt with Mark Parsons when building a poll and again nice and informative. A few weeks ago I email CSD about that wrecked car in the CSD parking lot. I have very quick replies from several people. I appreciate how quick everyone of them got back to me and had the information I needed.

I think it is important to both talk about your opinions and what you heard as well as make phone calls or emails to find out what officials/staff/politicians have to say.

[Jack T.]

Originally Posted by Matthew

I agree Jack. I spoke with Danise Hetland a little while ago and she was great. Very nice and informative. I dealt with Mark Parsons when building a poll and again nice and informative. A few weeks ago I email CSD about that wrecked car in the CSD parking lot. I have very quick replies from several people. I appreciate how quick everyone of them got back to me and had the information I needed.

Originally Posted by Matthew

I think it is important to both talk about your opinions and what you heard as well as make phone calls or emails to find out what officials/staff/politicians have to say.

Lest anyone get the idea I’m a shill for anyone, I’m sure that without a lot of difficulty anyone could hear stories about me raisin’ cane about something around here.

But raising cane isn’t the point. Trying to effect positive changes is what its all about. In order to do that, you have to have an opinion base on something other than pure speculation, which is where a lot of the problems come about. The trick is to try to be at least as informed as is possible for your situation.

[Matthew]

I know but many times we need to start with speculation and then become educated in the truth.

Many people don't feel confident enough in what they are asking to make a phone call. They start by saying "I heard XYZ". Then they have people like yourself that can help educate them on the accuracy of what they heard. Once there are facts presented that conflict with each other then it might be time to make some phone calls.

Since we know many people will not make phone calls it is better to speculate online and get feedback than it is to speculate alone and never get the correct information.

Are you picking up what I am laying down?

[LisaT]

Originally Posted by Matthew

..... Then they have people like yourself that can help educate them on the accuracy of what they heard. .....

I think you have to be careful online too. Just as in a classroom, the ones that appear to know all the answers, often don't, but they are good with a lot of words.

[wakeupcall]

Jack, you make some good points. I have had conversations that were very helpful on several occasions. Unfortunatly when I spoke to board members I was given "political" answers. I will keep trying.

I do have some questions that have not been answered about some of our current situations. The fact that I consider the RMA General Manager to be an incompetent Boob,without experience or training, colors all of my interaction with the the Association. I blame the board of Directors for the lapse of good judgment that resulted in his hiring, not the other staff members.

We have some excellent employees, but lately I asked the following questions and did not get an answer. 1) Teresa has done an excellent job answering phones and doing the clerical work for our cable tv department. However that isn't her job, she is the secretary of the maintenance department. Doesn't she have enough work there to keep her busy? 2) Rod Hart is a good guy who seems to work very hard for us, but how does he find the time to drive around in the street sweeper and do cement finishing? Every time I see him doing some basic job, I have to wonder. He is a certified condominium manager, he has lots of lesser paid guys who maybe should be doing those jobs. (maybe he just likes driving big trucks) 3)Mark Parsons is the architectural manager. It looks to me like his department is getting way too much pay for the amount of work it does. Check out the budget, you will be shocked. It is time to again combine the compliance and architectural departments and assign some employees to other functions. It looks to me as though all those employees need someone to "manage" them. They are good people who's energies are not being well utilized.

So, Jack I will follow your advice and keep trying to talk to our staff members and get answers and give my unsolicited advice.

[Matthew]

Originally Posted by woof

I think you have to be careful online too. Just as in a classroom, the ones that appear to know all the answers, often don't, but they are good with a lot of words.

I agree and that's why I mentioned "Once there are facts presented that conflict with each other then it might be time to make some phone calls." I almost never take an answer at face value, especially if someone pipes up and offers a different answer.

[Jack T.]

Originally Posted by Matthew

I know but many times we need to start with speculation and then become educated in the truth.

Many people don't feel confident enough in what they are asking to make a phone call. They start by saying "I heard XYZ". Then they have people like yourself that can help educate them on the accuracy of what they heard. Once there are facts presented that conflict with each other then it might be time to make some phone calls.

Since we know many people will not make phone calls it is better to speculate online and get feedback than it is to speculate alone and never get the correct information.

Are you picking up what I am laying down?

You bet I get it, but I just don’t know if I can accept that it’s the best, or most efficient way to go about problem solving.

Heck, as anyone can tell, I haven’t got any problem doing my very best to help folks understand things, but I honestly don’t think I’m good at it because I take too much time explaining things. I can’t use 2 sentences when I know in my heart it takes 5 paragraphs to explain something properly, and even then its often not enough.

For years folks like Wil and I have beaten our fingers to the bone typing or gone hoarse trying to explain things, to little or no avail. We pretty much understand each other, but people who haven’t spent thousands of hours fighting through the documents here really don’t have much appreciation for how complicated this stuff is!

And what should make people really worry is, I don’t consider myself more than someone who pretty much understands RMA, has a pretty good handle on MTI, knows just a trickle about CSD, and having been a non-golfing member for a few years now, don’t really know squat about the club! The volume of paperwork is unbelievable!

Heck, at one time I made a little database of all the different board and committees around here, unless people actually thought very hard about it, they wouldn’t believe the complexity of the government around here! Here’s something I’d like to see either you or Murieta.com do. Go to Rancho Murieta clubs and organizations | RanchoMurieta.com -- Rancho Murieta news, homes, golf, forums and people and look at all the different groups.

That’s a great start, but how about adding these, and I’m sure others I have no idea about.

RMA BOD and all of the regular, sub and ad hoc committees, along with their mission statement/charter, and members.

MTI BOD and all of the regular, sub and ad hoc committees, along with their mission statement/charter, and members.

Villas BOD and all of the regular, sub and ad hoc committees, along with their mission statement/charter, and members.

Village BOD and all of the regular, sub and ad hoc committees, along with their mission statement/charter, and members.

RMACSD BOD and all of the regular, sub and ad hoc committees, along with their mission statement/charter, and members.

RMCC BOD and all of the regular, sub and ad hoc committees, along with their mission statement/charter, and members.

You see, the members of those things are where people can get answers from! Heck, I’ve always been glad to have people come to committees I’ve sat on or submit questions to, or just ask me questions during a chance meeting. And if I don’t know the answer, I’ll darn sure ask at the next committee meeting, as I’m sure anyone who’s ever sat on a committee with me knows.

This stuff isn’t secret, and what goes on in these committee’s etc. could stand to be much more highly publicized. The thing is, there is no single repository out here that’s a one-stop-find-out-everything-ya-wanna-know place, and if there were, keeping it updated would be one monumental task.

So yes, I really do catch you’re drift. But people have been using that method out here for so long, its become part of living here. And although I don’t mind passing along information I know, it seems much easier for people to go to the folks who get paid to do that and cut out the middle man

I had a great idea one time when we were having a particularly difficult time getting people to vote on something. I figgered that what we should do is make a rule that said if you didn’t vote, you’re dues would be $500 per month for the next year, and if you did, it would be the $110 or whatever. That way at least we’d ever have to go begging for quorums. Its amazing how $$$$$$$ get people attention, isn’t it?

[Jack T.]

Originally Posted by wakeupcall

I do have some questions that have not been answered about some of our current situations. The fact that I consider the RMA General Manager to be an incompetent Boob,without experience or training, colors all of my interaction with the the Association. I blame the board of Directors for the lapse of good judgment that resulted in his hiring, not the other staff members.

Incompetent boob huh. That’s some purty strong language podnuh.

But be that as it may, it’s the way you feel, and that won’t change until such time as you’re convinced it should. That’s a tough act to fight. To tell the truth, I’ve only met Dave in passing, and have absolutely nothing to base a judgment on, other than I inherently don’t like General Managers of HOAs.

I can honestly say that if any RMA employees have expressed an opinion about their boss, I don’t remember if it was a good or bad opinion, the main reason being that I’ve been completely out of the political loop for almost the entire time he’s been the manager.

Not in his or the BOD’s defense, but in reality, whether or not he’s a boob or the 2nd coming, he’s what we have, and that’s something we have to deal with. Ya know, even a blind pig will find an acorn now and then, so until I know different, I have to guess there’s something redeeming about the fellow.

Originally Posted by wakeupcall

We have some excellent employees, but lately I asked the following questions and did not get an answer. 1) Teresa has done an excellent job answering phones and doing the clerical work for our cable tv department. However that isn't her job, she is the secretary of the maintenance department. Doesn't she have enough work there to keep her busy?

I’ve gotta be careful here and make sure everyone knows that I consider all of the maintenance folks personal friends.

In all honesty, I noticed she was spending more time than I’d like to see her spend on things that simply aren’t part of the reason she was hired. And as anyone who’s hung around me much knows, I’m a big believer in tracking labor costs, and that having an employee doing something s/he wasn’t hired to do, or at least isn’t part of their job description, is just plain wrong.

In fact I mentioned it to her, mentioned it in at least 2 committee meetings, and mentioned it to at least 2 people superior to her in the organizational chart. When I did say something to Rod about it. that li’l devil did what he almost always does. He asked me if I had a say-so in it and that if the Maintenance Dept doing some things for the CATV dept would save the Assn and its members $200,000, would I give it the ok. In turn I asked him if that was the case, and when he said yes and was prepared to explain, I told him don’t bother.

Now you must understand that I know Rod to be more concerned with this place than most residents, so when he tells me something, I trust his judgment. Perhaps that’s wrong, but that’s the way I feel about it because I know him so well. I’m sure that if you or anyone else would like the full explanation, he’d be more than happy to tell you.

I tell ya what. Here’s his e-mail address. rodneyh@rma-hoa.org You send him an e-mail and ask him to explain why the maintenance dept is monkeying around with CATV stuff, and if he doesn’t give you a satisfactory answer, I’ll be glad to see if I can do any better. BTW, you’ll not be able to use wakeupcall as a name.

Originally Posted by wakeupcall

2) Rod Hart is a good guy who seems to work very hard for us, but how does he find the time to drive around in the street sweeper and do cement finishing? Every time I see him doing some basic job, I have to wonder. He is a certified condominium manager, he has lots of lesser paid guys who maybe should be doing those jobs. (maybe he just likes driving big trucks)

Knowing Rod like I do, I can tell you that you’re last guess is very likely your best guess. I’ve tried for years to get him off that darn equipment, but it’s a lost cause. But I’ll say this, whether or not he’s on a blade, tractor, truck, or some other piece of heavy equipment, he has that Nextel phone right with him and doesn’t miss a call.

But since you mentioned the street sweeper, let me give you something to think about. Let’s calculate how much it costs to clean our streets so we can see if we want to doe more often.

Take a guess about how long it takes one employee to clean every street in the place just once. Keep in mind that the truck hopper gets full, so it has to periodically go back to the shop, get dumped and cleaned, then filled with water again. We have to pay for that truck, pay for its maintenance, and pay for fuel,

That employee has to be paid too. While it depends on who’s driving it to compute the cost precisely, the costs are roughly this. I can’t tell you exactly what anyone makes because I don’t know, but I think I can safely say that none of our guys who drive that truck is getting more than $20 per hour nor less than $10. So, for the sake of coming up with a number, use $15.

Now comes something else. The Association’s cost of employing that person. For those of you who own businesses or have to monkey around with payrolls, you know this is huge burden. The last I looked, RMA used over 50%, but for the sake of the exercise, let’s use 50%. So, the cost of the employee, including wages, taxes, insurance, SS and other thins is $22.50 per hour.

We have at least 40 miles of streets here, and there are two sides to every street, so that’ll work out close to 100 miles. I think the truck we use has to be driven at 5MPH to do a decent job, so you have the hours actually cleaning, and the travel back and forth.

Figger it all out then find out from Rod what the schedule for street cleaning is, and see if you want more.

Originally Posted by wakeupcall

3)Mark Parsons is the architectural manager. It looks to me like his department is getting way too much pay for the amount of work it does. Check out the budget, you will be shocked. It is time to again combine the compliance and architectural departments and assign some employees to other functions. It looks to me as though all those employees need someone to "manage" them. They are good people who's energies are not being well utilized.

I went to the pro forma budget for 2007 and saw what may as well be $148,750. Of that, $143,400 is expensed against either salaries and wages or employer costs. Now here’s what you have to figger out. Is Mark the only employee? If so, I’ll agree that that’s a heck of a lot of money, but somehow I get the feeling that there’s something goin’ on that isn’t shown in the budget. In order to find out, you’re going to have to contact Colleen and have her break it down for you.

In all honesty, I’ve been someone who’s screamed and hollered for years for man-hour accounting for all employees, salaried or not, but that hasn’t been something the Finance Committee or the BOD agrees with, and this is exactly the reason I like to see a system in place.

The system Maintenance uses isn’t perfect, but it makes each employee account for his entire working day. It has codes for locations and for different tasks, and by using those codes and the hours associated with each, a complete list of what every task cost, and how much was spent on each location.

If the Architectural employees all used something of that nature, you could ask the for a complete listing of everything they did for a year and get a detailed breakdown. Unfortunately, without something like that, no one can say that Mark spent 50 hours a year in ARC meetings, 200 hours a year on paperwork, 150 hours a year drawing maps, 300 hours a year down at the county looking for or filing paperwork, 80 hours a year on vacation, 40 hours a year on sick leave, etc.. Only then could I really have a good idea as to whether or not too much was being spent on the department.

Combining Compliance and Architectural seems like stretch to me, but I don’t know a lot about either one.

Originally Posted by wakeupcall

So, Jack I will follow your advice and keep trying to talk to our staff members and get answers and give my unsolicited advice.

Please do that! After all, all it costs us as owners is our time. But do remember that every time one of us gets hold of one of those employees, there is a cost involved. If it cost the Assn $22.50 an hour to employ someone and I take up 5 minutes of his/her time asking questions, I just cost RMA $1.88.

[wakeupcall]

Hi Jack
Thanks for the quick response. You are right about the general manager. He's what we got. like it or not. My issue is really with the Board of Directors for doing such a poor job of recruiting, evaluating and hiring. It will be up to them to decide, but he has already made them look bad on a couple of occasions.

All of my other criticisms come back to our lack of management at the top. Teresa did a heck of a job helping bail out the cable mess, but as I point out it was a job dumped on her and her work load. Rod has always been an asset to the community and I guess it is fun to drive big tractors. I did talk to Rod about the cable tv work his staff was doing. He had a good explanation for the ditches and cable savings, but couldn't explain why his work never showed up as a cable tv cost. He just shrugged when asked about the extra work that Teresa was asked to do.

Once again, the problem with our architectural review department is allocation of resources. Facts is facts...there just is not enough work for two employees and quite likely there never again will be. The income from projects tells the story. Too few projects, not enough income, not enough to do. Heck, Mark tried to double all the fees (without telling the board) and still didn't have enough. Even new development won't impact that because they will have there own associations and departments. Simple solution (but that takes a management decision), reunite (they once were together) the compliance and architectural departments and reassign some of the staff to other projects. It can be done.

Where has the time gone...see you later