Summary of Finance Committee Meeting of 27 November 2007
Present:
Finance Committee: Dottie Fields, John Frisch, Nancy Garner, Sanya Ham, Don Horan, Jean Strub
Board of Directors (BoD): Bill Nosal, Toni Brown
Activity Director Ann Jones
Don Horan announced that Phyllis Benaman had resigned from the Finance Committee for personal reasons. Phyllis contributed in many areas, but especially in monitoring the Activity Director’s account. Her work for the Finance Committee is greatly appreciated.
Activity Director’s Travel and Social Activities Account: The concept set forth at the Finance Committee meeting of 23 October for handling this account after 1 January 2008 was again discussed. This concept is:
1. The present B B & T checking account for this travel and social activities account will continue to be used. This checking account will be maintained at $10,000.00 to provide easily and quickly accessible working funds for the Activity Director (AD). The AD will be routinely reimbursed for expenditures from this account to keep the balance at $10,000. Shortly after 1 January 2008, the AD will write a check to FRCA for any funds in this account in excess of $10,000 and send this check to Armstrong Management Services (AMS).
2. Detailed records for individual events will be maintained by the AD in the AD’s computer, as is presently done. AMS will only maintain an overall record of account activity.
3. Income: All income will be sent to AMS for deposit into the FRCA’s operating fund. Deposits will be credited to the “Center Travel & Social Activities Income” account. Individual checks will be sent to AMS for deposit. Income received as cash will be deposited by the AD into the B B & T account and a check written by the AD for the deposited cash amount will be sent to AMS.
4. Expenses: The AD will make payments for all travel and social activity expenses by checks drawn from the AD’s B B & T account. Periodically, the AD will send to AMS a record of checks written against the B B & T account. AMS will then reimburse the AD for these expenses by a check written against the FRCA’s Firstrust Bank account. Records of these reimbursements will be debited against the “Center Travel & Social Activities Expenses” account.
5. The $12,000 for “Social” in the 2008 operating budget is completely separate from this Center Travel and Social Activities budget.
AD Ann Jones said that the concept looked acceptable to her but noted that unexpected difficulties may arise when it is put into practice. She was assured that the Finance Committee would work with her to find solutions to any difficulties encountered.
Jean Strub volunteered to prepare an information sheet and flow chart of the new procedures for Ann. Also, Jean and John Frisch will work with Ann to implement the new procedures.
FRCA Account: AMS has revised the January through September 2007 monthly financial reports based on the final 2006 audit. The Finance Committee has reviewed the revised reports and finds them generally acceptable but needing a small number of corrections. The total amount of the revision agrees closely with calculations made earlier by the Finance Committee. The required corrections will be called to AMS’ attention for correction.
The October 2007 monthly financial report was also reviewed by the Finance Committee. It, too, is generally acceptable but needing a few corrections. AMS will be informed of the needed corrections.
Nancy Garner, Treasurer of the Villas BoD, said she expected that there would be a joint meeting of either the Finance Committees or BoDs of the Villas and FRCA to compare the recent audits and review information on the debts between the FRCA and the Villas due to erroneous payments for each other’s landscaping, insurance, etc.
Contracting: Three proposals were discussed>
Armstrong Management Services proposal: AMS sent a new proposal to replace the present contract on 1 January 2008. This proposal is written as if FRCA will not have an on-site AMS manager. Since FRCA wants an on-site AMS manager, this proposal is unacceptable. There are other items in the proposal that are also not acceptable, but are not worth discussing until the proposal is rewritten to include on-site management. Therefore, the Finance Committee strongly recommends that the BoD not accept this proposal.
Proposal for two handicap access ramps: Although the Finance Committee does not object to adding handicap ramps, there are concerns about this proposal. A copy of the Statement of Work on which the proposal is based was not included. Therefore, the locations of the ramps are not described, nor is the rationale for their locations. The proposal notes that FRCA is responsible for any permits required. Are permits required? The proposal does not state that the vendor will have liability insurance for damage to FRCA property. Were proposals obtained from other vendors to provide competition? Therefore, the Finance Committee recommends that the BoD not accept this proposal until the locations, and reasons for selecting the locations, of the ramps are described and other deficiencies of the proposal are fixed.
Proposal for new TVs for the exercise room: The Finance Committee was biased against this proposal because the desire and cost information for new TVs was not made known when requested last summer during the budget preparation process. Also, there is no information on competing proposals. Finally, the need for new TVs in the exercise room is questioned. The Finance Committee recommends that the BoD not accept this proposal.
There was also a brief discussion of the potential effects the installation in Falls Run of Verizon fiber optics will have on the Cox Communications contract. The present Cox Communications contract requires that FRCA pay for basic cable TV service, at a discounted rate, for every dwelling in the community whether or not Cox cable service is used by every dwelling. If a sufficient number of residents do not use Cox cable TV service, this arrangement will not be cost effective. Also, as part of this contract, Cox provides channel 20 service. In addition, FRCA receives a small percentage of Cox’s revenue for upgraded TV service, internet provider service, and telephone service in Falls Run. This income, presently around $12,000 per year, will decrease as residents switch from Cox to other providers. Discussion will continue at later meetings as the situation develops.
Next meeting: The next Finance Committee meeting will be on Tuesday, 18 December, at 3 PM.