Board Meeting, November 20, 2024

• November 20, 2024

Minutes for the San Antonio Village Homeowners’ Association Board of Directors
Monthly Meeting on November 20, 2024

The Board meeting was called to order by President Dawn Lucian at 6:00pm. Other Board members present were Diane Kirchner (Vice President), Michael Porter (Treasurer), Cindy Capra (Secretary) and Emilie Dressaire (Member at Large). Also present were Daniel Ortiz (Manager) and 11 residents.

1. A motion was made to approve minutes from previous meeting held on October 16, 2024 by Emilie Dressaire. It was seconded by Dawn Lucian and the minutes were approved.

2. Manager’s Update:

a. We have a new gardener named Chuy. He is quiet but capable.
b. Current projects include the trimming of some trees: eucalyptus and liquidambars. The plan is to complete the trimming before February when birds start nesting.
c. Newsletter was sent out last month. There were no questions.
3. Treasurer’s Report:
a. A CD matured; the money was moved from operating to reserve. That is why there is a big overage in reserve ($130,057). Admin expenses are within $49 of budget. GL insurance over, probably due to timing. Taxes over because we underpaid last year. Because we are fiscal year we pay mid year, not April.
b. Grounds/Landscaping under by $13k because we were short a staff person.
c. Maintenance was under by $8500, which will decrease as year goes. Tenting of community building will happen which is a big expense.
d. Utilities – over by $1400, water over by $3,000 YTD. 9% increase in water on July 1st, steady increase over past 3 years. That increase has been factored into the water budget.
e. Some adjustments on CDs due in next two months; Mike is looking into best options.

4. General Discussion RE: Smoking
a. Background – Smoking prohibited in public common areas, but it does/can go into neighbor’s home via windows if someone is smoking on the patio. It also seeps in through neighbor’s walls. Davis-Sterling ruling allows us to create a non-smoking community via a vote.
b. Options: There currently is a nuisance clause; we could define it to include smoking if it bothered homeowners; Board members are okay with that. However, current definition of nuisance is very broad. Another option would be to add a CC&R rule that smoking is banned completely in the complex.
c. A homeowner informed board that the Santa Barbara County housing authority can ban inside if the adjoining unit has a child inside.
d. New homeowners sharing their experience indicated that their living experience is basically “first time home ownership marred with misery.” When their neighbor is smoking, they feel like they are smoking with him. The homeowner feels this is a health and safety issue. Secondhand smoke has tons of data as a health issue. They have tried to approach this diplomatically, but the neighbor is completely resistant – and in fact he feels that if he asks the neighbor to stop smoking the neighbor doubles down. He investigated having a contractor install a fire wall; the estimate is $150-$200K without a guarantee that that would eliminate problem.
e. Another homeowner indicated her mother went to hospital 2 times because of second hand neighbor smoke. She worries about the rights of the person who is having to breathe the second hand smoke.
f. If nuisance is reported, what are the repercussions? Usually, the behavior stops. There can be fines, loss of privileges, but the extreme would be lawsuit. This is a unique situation in our community.
g. The Board agreed that if we are going to take it to the homeowners to vote that we modify the CC&R rules and add no-smoking of tobacco rather than just adding smoking to the nuisance clause.
h. It was agreed that we vote to modify CC&Rs to add a tobacco smoke free community – there was a motion by Cindy Capra and seconded by Mike Porter to start the steps to talk to our attorney to get the right information and verbiage. We will bring it back to the board for final review before we send it out to the community for voting.

Litigation cost would be shared by all homeowners.

Meeting adjourned at 7:08pm