March Meeting Minutes....
TREE, BRUSH, VEGETATION AND NOXIOUS WEEDS COMMITTEE March 5, 2021
Call to Order: Meeting called to order at 1:00 pm via conference call.
Present: Peggy Olds (Chair), Valerie Harrison, Pam Harris, Betsey Nelson, Diane Mangels; Tracy Lofstrom (Surfside Manager), Marriann Schweitzer (Trustee)
Introduction and Welcome: Peggy welcomed all members and staff. Old Business: --February, 2021 Minutes: The final February 2021 minutes were submitted and approved by the Board at their February 2021 meeting.
--Fire control work with Surfside EMC: Betsey and Peggy met with EMC last month. EMC developed a list of actions to address fire control activities for Surfside. Betsey and Peggy will continue with the EMC on follow-up activities. See EMC minutes for detail.
New Business: --Tree Report/Discussion: Georgia Olson resigned as Surfside Compliance Investigator. Tracy will work on replacement staff. An abbreviated compliance report was prepared: 39 new member submitted complaints were filed; long-standing cases 5195, 5583 and 5414 were closed; several escrow checks were completed. Tracy reported follow-up on Cases 5195 and 5599. Peggy will work with Tracy to provide an updated report and tree committee volunteer support until new compliance staff is available.
--Compliance Automation: Tracy is reviewing options for monthly subscription to compliance automation software to save money, reduce staff time, better manage processing and reduce paperwork. The committee provided several recommendations including field testing any software; seeking recommendations from actual field workers; understanding limits of data availability and speed in field and in office; technical support. Committee would like to demo product before actual purchase.
--Earth Day Activities: Several ideas were presented for our annual Earth Day celebration. Due to COVID, we will provide online resources and documents for various Surfside publications. The committee will partner with the CRC to host a fall planting and plant exchange event. Tracy is researching plant discounts and pre-order/sales with local nurseries. Peggy has the lead on coordination with the CRC.
--Member Contacts: Betsey had 3 member contacts related to these issues. 1) member concerned about chipper availability year-round (not likely due to cost and staff/volunteer availability); 2) Members told they could leave debris onsite until chipper site opened (not true in all cases); 3) members understanding of covenant tree height limits (which are derived from the building height limits). The committee recommended the solution of adding a sentence to the compliance letter stating the tree height limit is measured from the center of a member’s property on the street side, crown of road -- the same as building height limits.
Peggy reported a member concern that office staff said there was a moratorium on filing complaints. There is no moratorium on member submitted complaints. Members can file complaints any time but they must be in writing, on the Surfside complaint form and delivered to the office.
Meeting adjourned at 2:12 PM Next Meeting: Friday, April 2, 2021 at 1:00PM
3 comments:
Sounds like chaos to me.
Compliance officer resigns, 39 new complaints! It's out of control.
Subscriptions to compliance automation software? What does it do to save money, reduce staff time, etc? Perhaps it dials up a Jewish space laser and ends the problem once and for all. Think of that final report where they can finally say all cases have been...resolved.
Someone should file a PDR(PUBLIC DISCLOSURE REPORT) to see which members are filing all these reports.
Perhaps Surfside should look into getting a drone that can automatically fly over the development at 16' and cutoff anything higher. That way they won't have to buy any compliance software. Hopefully they will spare the power poles.
Post a Comment