The Kontiki owners’ meeting was held on Saturday. The meeting lasted 4 ½ hours, so this may be long and still not cover all the topics discussed.

There were 46 owners represented. There were 12 single unit owners present with, as far as I know, 2 proxies. The Crowleys own 20, so they must have had 12 proxies. With 46 units represented, 24 votes would carry any issue, but no issues were even close. Having a majority of votes at a meeting provides great power, but brings great responsibility. I thought Karra chaired the meeting very deftly and Chris listened to owners opinions. Karra tried to guide the final decision on issues to produce the agreement that was most acceptable to all.

Karra made a financial presentation to show that even though we borrowed $150,000 we had gone into the hole for only just over $100,000. Some owners wanted to assess for $2,500 and pay off the loan to avoid the 6% interest, but that went nowhere. She had the October financial statement, but no extra copies. She showed it to owners who asked. I saw that we had been charged $17,847 for pier repair in October. When I asked, she said it must be a mistake. I’m sure she will have it corrected. A question was posed about Justin’s salary. He was hired as property manager on September 22, but paid for two months in the September statements. She explained that it was less expensive to backdate his hiring for $800 per month than to pay him for individual items he had done in September. A budget was presented although it was decided to postpone adoption until later in the meeting. Board treasurer, David Schultz, again explained that once the budget was adopted, the board was not allowed by the declaration to spend more than $1,000 on off budget items, except for repairs and emergency. When I looked at the budget later I saw that nothing has been budgeted for channel easement, normally over $1,000, and for the fine that the GLO is imposing on us which is also over $1,000. So technically those items cannot be paid until another owners’ meeting is called!

It was decided to seek legal counsel to determine how to continue with breakwater problems not yet addressed by Moose.

Another utility provider will be contracted with. We are paying 12.74 cents per kilowatt-hour now and Karra found one that will charge us only 10.10 cents. There was no discussion of the security lights that either we are being double billed for or we are paying for Phase II lights. The board on September 22 asked Justin to find out what the problem was and he reported at the meeting on Friday that he had made no progress and that CPL was not being overly cooperative.

Although I still don’t think that a new roof is necessary, the consensus was that the current one has to go. The bid for a new composition roof was about $227,000. It was decided that $300,000 would be reasonable for contingency cost that would be necessary to complete the project.

A concrete entrance road would be about $3.00 per square foot. That should come to just less than $200,000. (I don’t think this includes the cost to put new asphalt on the parking area) I pointed out that we own very little of the entrance road and only have an easement from Richy. It was noted that a long-term agreement with Richy would be worked out before the work begins. Concrete should be more permanent, but I’m not sure. Our base under the existing asphalt is just sand and given the rigidity of concrete, it may crack. Many many years ago the road between here and Tivoli was concrete and the base material would not support the traffic and it had to be replaced with the more flexible asphalt. During my army service as an officer in the Corp of Engineers in Vietnam we often dealt with the construction of airfields. As everyone knows, sand is about all you have to work with there. Even the airbase at Saigon was made of pierced steel instead of concrete. I hope this issue is studied and a warranty is given.

The mailboxes will be consolidated to one location. The old ones are in need of repair, seldom used, and pretty unsightly.

The finger piers in the marina will be replaced. Justin estimated $1,500 per pier and there are 17 in total.

Security cameras will be installed. The buildings will be painted. These should total just less than $65,000. Deb Canuteson (210) will chair a committee to select colors for painting.

Some recent pier repair has been done, but the major part of this year’s storm damage still needs to be done. There was no discussion of expanding the existing L head or improved lighting as the board has discussed earlier. Chris wants one, better pier, shared by Phase I and Phase II. The breakwater, I feel, has really hurt the night fishing on our pier. Perhaps a better-lighted pier away from the breakwater would be better.

The tennis court surface repair will be $7,700. There was no estimate for the 10’ fence that is in back of the tennis court that is in need of repair. The suggestion was to allow $12,000 for both. When it all totaled up we were looking at $582,700 or about $9,400 per door. Chris suggested assessing $10,500 to allow an extra $68,000 for cost overruns. The motion passed unanimously. Karra will send a letter explaining the details for those not in attendance. The question was asked about what happens for those who cannot pay. Chris said a lien would be placed and possible foreclosure could result. He wanted to add a penalty of 1.5 percent per month for an annual rate of 18%. Karra had her declaration and the rate there was noted to be limited to 10% simple interest for late payment.

It was noted that the seller would be responsible for payment of any assessment if a sale occurs.

A budget of $250 monthly and one for $265 monthly were then considered. The one for $250 monthly was adopted.

Chris then explained that the one-bedroom units are subsidizing the larger units and Karra explained the cost of monthly dues if we switched to paying by square footage. The one-bedroom units would pay about $147 and the three bedrooms units about $298 per month. I mentioned that we had been through this before and any change of this type requires a change in the declaration. Chris asked what that would take and Vic Baltov, an original owner, said it would take 85% of the owners to agree. In addition, I’m aware that the last time we amended the declaration, we found that it requires 100% of the mortgage companies to agree.

We then discussed an audit. I read the applicable item from chapter 82 of the Texas Property Code. Which reads,” The association shall, as a common expense, annually obtain an independent audit of the records. Copies of the audit must be made available to the unit owners.” Karra said we have not had an audit in 10 years and the cost would be close to $2,000. Chris said that Gary Cate told him that when I talked to Gary that Gary told me that most associations do not do an audit. I thought that given the size of this assessment the board would welcome an audit. The vote was taken and only three voted for an audit, myself, my proxy and David Williams(603). I would be concerned that the owners just voted to ignore a state statute.

The two open board positions were voted on. Chris Crowley and Rob Mabe defeated incumbents Pack Killingsworth and Scott Schomburg. I was surprised that owners were asked to sign their name on their ballots, although I did not. The Crowley family now comprises a majority of the board. Chris and Karra have sold three of their 400 building units recently. At least two are to family members. They have a huge investment here and I’m sure that they will see that this place is taken good care of and will look as good as possible. I told Karra the day before the meeting that we were on the way to becoming nothing more that a fish camp before they arrived. Pack and Scott had contributed so much it was too bad to see them leave the board, but I expect much progress from this board.

It was decided to see if we could drop HBO and use that money to provide wireless internet. The attraction for guests for wireless will be much greater than for HBO. In fact Charter Cable does not even offer digital service at this point. The board will look at options for possible satellite service. By February of 2009 all broadcasts will have to be digital. Older televisions will have to have a set top converter. For some fifteen years of our operation we had set top boxes unless the televisions were cable ready. Now they must be digital and able to receive HD. The first several years we operated here with satellite and it is referred to in our declaration.

Just before adjournment, Chris brought up the topic of boat parking again. I had not heard Chris express an opinion on this before so I have to think it was on behalf of one of his proxies. He felt that owners should not leave their boats here. This is the only home that my boat has known for its twenty years. I explained that as far as I know there are at most three boats here. Mine, Scott’s, and sometimes Joe Mitchell (709) although Joe does not have his here now. Otis Stech (604) parks his trailer here because he has a boatlift behind his house in Harbor Oaks. I felt this was probably personal, but such is the life of a journalist. I volunteered to move my boat and not have to have a policy. Karra suggested the boats could stay except between and Memorial Day and Labor Day and would only have to be moved off the property if the owner is gone more than two weeks. Chris wanted to put in a $10 per day penalty, but that would mean that boat owners would have to check in and out to keep track of the days. This was actually the case some time back that a logbook was kept in the rental office. Karra’s plan was approved with only my vote dissenting, although given the conditions this was about as good as I could expect.

After the meeting was adjourned Chris invited everyone to Panjo’s for pizza. Five owners, Chris , Karra, Justin, Rachel and their kids ate all the pizza we could handle.

Even though all these improvements will eventually increase our property values, I have heard of owners who may sell and Nancy Jacobs was here today and that usually means a new listing.