These minutes were reviewed and approved as they stand at the February 2, 2021 meeting of the RLCA board.
November 3rd 2020 Board Meeting for Reflection Lake Community Association
Present: Rick Smith, Joe Dickinson, Jim Boothby, Charlie Bennett, Bill Pease, Jeff Toffer
Charlie Bennett reviews minutes. Rick Smith one correction needed, Mike Brown is the only one that was elected and withdrew. Jim Boothby motioned to accept, Bill Pease seconded
Jim Boothby presents Treasurers report–Same as last time with unpaid bills presented $2711.46 in unpaid. Big worry is that the DOE bill is due.
Jim is elected agent for Secretary of State records. Former board is responsible for bills until the bank account is released to the elected treasurer.
No old business
CMD report Gary Long and Dan Loos are cochairmen
Meeting on Oct 22nd. Discussed what is needed to be done for the state to get us up to speed for the dams. The state gave a list, but no way of paying for them. Monitor the spring on SE Corner of dam and the dip on the road on the north end. Measuring was done by Charlie and Dan to determine if there is movement by springtime. Walk around on Nov 7th to introduce the new people on the committee and address the items that need to be done on the dams. Gary Long says 6 items identified during the 5 year inspection. Basically, the dams are in good shape even though it came out fair, under their guidelines fair means good—they never state that the dam was in poor shape. A recent email went out saying that we are the poorest dam in the state. Gary telephoned the Department Of Ecology and they said they would never do that and they want to know who said it. Satisfactory, Fair, Poor, and Unsatisfactory as the worst, are their ratings. A few maintenance things that need to be done but the dam is in good shape and has very little likelihood of any problems. The DOE assured us they are happy with the work that the elected board had done. Jeff Toffer says they did want a survey of both outlets. Bid was 4K but a community member can possibly get one for a lot less. Gary is working with the state and they are willing to work with the elected board, but we really need to get the bank account back in order to get started with the work required. Maybe the south dam does not need to be rocked if we add plantings. Sandi suggest the plantings could come from the SCD sale in Jan at $2 a plant. What plants do we need?
Ken asks if we are in any trouble with the DOE, Gary says we could be. The appointed board had no communication with the DOE when the DOE tried to communicate so the DOE started communicating with Gary. They were getting ready to penalize the community, until the elected board had been elected, and now they are willing to work with the board again.
Public Relations
Lucinda says we will be meeting Thursdays after each monthly meeting at 7:00 . The calendar is great and excited about the participation. Jerry has been working really hard and it is ready to go to print. No profit– $10 each. Order forms available at community center. Make checks payable to Garland Printing. Money by Nov 26th, and turn in payments to the Kenworthys. Perhaps make a calendar a tradition, maybe t-shirts, hats, emblems, stickers, pullovers?
Charlie Bennett speaks about Firewise, no plans done this year but neither did anyone else in the country. But working on a report of people that have done any clean up this year. Things that count: cleaning gutters, roofs, burning slash piles, etc. So, if you have done any clean up in 2020 please let Charlie know the number hours that you have spent.
New Business
Legal counsel: Jim Boothby Speaking. Face to face negotiation/communication is not working. Lee has said that he wants to put the lake in receivership by blocking access to lake funds and put in a lake manager, which many people have heard that Rob Lee wants to be the lake manager. That would probably raise your dues at least 7 fold and there would be no volunteers. Prices have always been kept down by volunteerism.
1st goal of legal council—Determine the election was legal
2nd goal of legal council—Get the bank account back
A lawyer has been hired by community members and all the background work has been done already. Going forward a lawyer should be on retainer by the board to keep issues at bay. RLCA has always had a lawyer. A Go Fund Me on Facebook account will be done to help pay the lawyer. All funds donated to the legal fund will assume to be donated and probably not paid back to the members –hypothetically all money should be paid back, but we can’t make that promise. Our lawyers have already found that the letters sent by lawyers by Jim Powers likely have no merit.
Motion by Jim Boothby to hire legal counsel to determine validity of election, get funds released, and have a summary judgement against appointed board. Joe Dickinson seconded. All are in favor to hire lawyer.
Jim Boothby has a second motion to have legal counsel to look at the signing away of water rights without the approval of community. Attorney to look and see if it was a legal move and what it would entail to do reverse the water rights transfer. The water rights away should not have been signed away with no community say. It was set up for the community to have the water rights and land for a reason. The community should have the ability to decide after all options for the water system are presented to them. Grants are available for many things in our community but they should be taken to the membership for approval. The water board and the RLCA board need to work together to determine the goals and let the community have their say. It is a question of propriety. Jeff Toffer seconded and all are in Favor
Open forum; Kenworthy says there is a lot of heart in this community and the community would like a voice and are tired of things happening behind closed doors. How do we get the community interested and involved? Newsletter and Facebook are good tools and it has to come from executive board and committee heads. Newsletter vitally important to get out what is coming up and current issues.
Rick Smith–next meeting is February 2nd Charlie Bennett made a motion and Pease 2nd– all are in favor. We will probably have a meeting ahead of that with 14-day notice.
Motion to adjourn by Charlie Bennett and Bill Pease seconded.