BARSTOW HEIGHTS
COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT
REGULAR MEETING
Tuesday, March
25th, 2014
President Jacobs called the meeting to order at 6:00 PM and
Director Schendel led the group in the flag salute. Directors Jacobs, Schendel, Stapp, Wilkey,
and Hayhurst were all present. There
were no additional guests in attendance.
President Jacobs requested a motion on the Consent Items. Director Stapp motioned to accept the Minutes
of the February 24th, 2014 Meeting, along with the Financial Reports for February
of 2014 as presented. Director Wilkey
seconded the motion. Motion carried
unanimously.
The Correspondence file was offered for review. Director Hayhurst inquired about the copy of the
Annual Tax Allocation Summary received from the Auditor-Controller/Treasurer/Tax
Collector that was reviewed during the last meeting, but was included in the
Agenda packets for this meeting. The
Secretary reported that she included a copy of the Summary along with a list of
all of the Tax Allocations dating from FY1996-97 through FY 2013-14 to help
answer the question Director Hayhurst had asked at the last meeting; how much
the annual allocations had increased/decreased over the past few years. Director Hayhurst also had further questions
about the RDA Pass-Through amount noted on this year’s summary, since she had
been aware that the RDA had recently been dissolved by the State of California. She asked if the Director’s would mind if she
called the County to ask them about it and they agreed that would be a good
idea. President Jacobs noted that the
last column of the list (Tax Roll Value) was left blank and let the Secretary
know that we used to receive a letter that would inform us what the Tax Roll
Value is each year. The Secretary
confirmed that she hasn’t received anything like that and that she wasn’t sure
how to find out what our tax toll values were to be able complete the Tax
Allocations list. Director Hayhurst
stated that she would ask about that too since she will be contacting them
anyway and would let the Secretary know where to find that information once she
finds out.
H Street Park was addressed.
The Safety Check List from the City was reviewed. President Jacobs reported that the damage to
the fence noted at last month’s meeting (rusted and separated couplings along
the top edge of the fence railing on the West side of the park) had already been
dealt with and repaired. The Board was
very pleased with how quickly the City took action on it, and happy to see that
the Safety Inspection report included more details about the variety of tasks
the City has completed recently including fertilizing and spraying weed killer
at both Parks. There was no new progress
to be reported on the Ground Squirrel situation. Their population seems to be growing again,
so Director Stapp agreed that he would need to get more of the smoke cartridges
to President Jacobs to use to work on exterminating them again.
The new Covered Picnic Areas (Bid 13-03) were addressed as the
Board reviewed an information sheet e-mailed to them that included specifics about
one of the pre-fabricated canopy options and the additional costs involved. The canopy model presented was selected by
Wade Harris who researched a variety of websites to find the one that he
believes will suit our needs best. When President
Jacobs asked Mr. Harris about the price increase prior to the meeting, Mr.
Harris confirmed that it is due to an increase of about $5000 to have the large/heavy
materials shipped (fuel and trucking costs).
Director Hayhurst expressed her desire to go forward with ordering the
pre-manufactured canopies that Mr. Harris recommends because the added cost of
shipping would still be less than the additional engineering and labor costs
that would be required if we opted to have one of the County’s approved
contractors build them. Director Stapp
had questions about whether the Board would still be interested in adding the decorative
brick-work around each of the supporting posts as per the original design
(based on the canopies at Venner Park).
After some discussion, they all agreed that the additions to the
supporting posts really wouldn’t be necessary, as it would only add to the cost
and create a larger surface that would provide more potential for vandalism. Director Hayhurst motioned to approve the
ordering of the two pre-fabricated structures recommended by Harris Construction,
as well as give Harris Construction an advance of up to $15,000 towards the
purchase of the structures as soon as it is needed to proceed with the project.
Director Schendel seconded the motion. Motion carried unanimously. Director Jacobs added his opinion that Harris
Construction may not yet be able to proceed fully with the ordering of the
canopies until all of the plans are approved by the County, but agreed with the
Board that this decision, even made early, will ensure that Mr. Harris won’t be
stuck waiting any additional time for Board approval. The Secretary was directed to call Mr. Harris
right away the next morning to let him know.
The next item up for discussion was the dedicatory Plaque to
express appreciation to former resident Dorothy Davis for her generous
donations ($140,000 total) that are being used to fund the new canopies at H
Street Park. President Jacobs encouraged
the Board to think about and begin writing up some wording or a list of ideas
pertaining to what the Plaque should say.
Venner Park was addressed.
The Safety Check List from the City was reviewed. The Board was very pleased that the cracked
sidewalk that was reported to the City after the last Board Meeting had been
fixed so quickly. Director Wilkey
reported that on the day that the concrete was poured, he discovered that two
vandals had already drawn their initials into the wet cement. He was able to scrub/remove them with a
little bit of water and a brush while those he suspected to be the vandals were
still there at the park. President
Jacobs remembered also that he wanted to tell Director Wilkey that he talked
with one of the grounds-keepers there one day and mentioned to them that the
bubblers keep popping off of the sprinkler heads. The grounds-keeper said they would take care
of it, and Director Wilkey confirmed that he noticed that the problem seems to
have been resolved. Going back to the
concrete repair, the Secretary had already received a copy of the invoice from
Mark Gerardi that shows our portion of the costs for the repairs will be
$1714.00. The Secretary was asked to
call Mark again to find out if we will still be billed by the City of Barstow,
since the invoice lists Barstow Heights CSD as the customer, when the bill
should actually be addressed to the City of Barstow. Director Wilkey asked for clarification on
that; as to why the Board didn’t put that job out for bid, but let the City
hire for it. Director Schendel answered
that it is because the job was considered a repair/maintenance, which is the
City’s responsibility to take care of however they need to, whether that means
hiring a separate contractor or doing the work themselves. Director Wilkey asked if he could see the
contract we have with City of Barstow, and the Secretary agreed that she would
make a copy for his reference. President
Jacobs read a portion of the contract to help clarify exactly what
responsibilities pertain to each party.
The Auditor’s Contract was addressed. President Jacobs turned the meeting over to
Director Hayhurst to explain what she learned during her search for a new
Auditor. Director Hayhurst was told that
because our District is small and the Audit is not very substantial compared to
other agencies, that it would likely be hard for us to get a variety of
competing bids for such a small contract.
After talking with a few friends at the City of Barstow and at the
Mojave Water Agency, she was referred to Paul Kaymark, CPA at Charles Z. Fedak
& Company. After contacting them she
was given a Proposal that is $1250 less per year than we had been paying our
previous Auditor. The new Auditor would
require that we use Quickbooks for our accounting and would definitely come on
site to present the Audit Report to the Board and answer any questions we
have. She felt that it would be a wise
move to get more service from them, including assistance to modernize our
accounting procedures with Quickbooks, for less money. Furthermore, she learned that because this is
a “professional services agreement” we do not have to have it go out for
Bid. Director Stapp asked why the
Contract presented asks for a commitment of three years if signed and if that
is really to our benefit. Director
Hayhurst explained that because the initial setting up of an Annual Audit does
require more work to get going, it is beneficial for the Secretary and for the
CPA to have that consistency for a few years rather than having to re-start the
more-lengthy set-up process with a new Auditor each year. She added that the $5000 of unclaimed refunds in
our Checking Account that was left-over from the Road Improvements should have
been ours years ago (after three years of being held) and that the new Auditor
can assure we stay current on and not over-look those kinds of things. President Jacobs motioned to hire Charles Z.
Fedak & Company to be the Auditor for Barstow Heights CSD for the next
three years, as is specified in the Proposal Letter/Contract. Director Stapp seconded the motion. Motion carried unanimously.
The Policy and Procedures Manual was addressed. The Code of Ethics was reviewed first. Director Wilkey thought it would be nice to
add in language that would require each Board Member to have Ethics Training
AB1234 every two years, as is required by the law. The Secretary was directed to add that to our
Code of Ethics Policy. Director Hayhurst
asked if we could delete all of the wording that seems condescending in
tone. She felt that it should reflect
more positive attributes, and assume that Directors know how to act
professionally, rather than be focused on the negative behaviors Board Members
should avoid. Director Schendel shared
his opinion that the only things we might want to add on would be any specific
things above what the Ethics Training standards set forth. Director Hayhurst wrote down the additional
wording suggested by the Board and gave the Secretary her amended copy of the
Code of Ethics with the paragraphs marked that should be removed. The General Manager Guidelines and
Secretarial Duties were addressed next.
President Jacobs clarified that the Secretarial Duties and Office Procedures
should be a separate reference for the Secretary to use, rather than be a part
of the Policy Manual that the public can read.
The document presented provides too much detail, and thus, more general
guidelines and a much shorter statement of responsibilities is needed to
include in the Policy and Procedures Manual.
The Secretary will continue to work on revising the documents. The Board suggested that the Secretary seek
out copies of Manuals from other Districts to refer to for ideas about what could/should
be included. The General Manager
Guidelines also need to include a sentence that declares that the General
Manager will also assume all of the Secretarial and Board Clerk duties.
The General Manager reported she has worked eleven additional
hours since the last Board Meeting. She
also reported that she included a “vacation request” letter in the
correspondence file for the Board to review.
President Jacobs read the letter that requests the week of Tuesday, June
24th through Thursday, June 26th as her one week of paid
vacation this year. The request also
asks that the Board Meeting in June be moved forward to the third week of the
month, which would be Monday, June 16th, 2014. Director Schendel motioned to accept the
General Managers’ vacation request.
Director Wilkey seconded the motion.
Motion carried unanimously.
The General Manager reported that she continues to keep the Blog
updated with the most recent Meeting Agendas and Minutes. She has also posted and shared the Photo of all
the Director’s that was taken at the previous Meeting on 2/24/14.
President Jacobs requested the Directors’ reports. Director Stapp reported that he had learned
that a resident has had trouble with tagging (vandalism) on a retaining wall on
their property. He wondered if any
Directors knew of anyone else who may have had that problem and if there are
any suggestions about what could be done.
Director Schendel suggested notifying the Sheriff to request additional
surveillance. The resident could also
contact the Secretary with more details if she would like to have it reported
on the blog or share more about the issue on Facebook (to ask if anyone else
has information/suggestions they can share and to request that neighbors help
to keep a closer eye out for one another).
President Jacobs asked the Secretary if there were any
additional bills to be paid. She indicated
there were none. Director Schendel motioned
to pay the bills as presented. Director
Wilkey seconded the motion. Motion
carried unanimously.
There was no New Business to address and no Executive Session was
requested. The next Regular Meeting was
scheduled for Monday, April 28th, 2014 at 6:00 PM. The meeting adjourned at 7:22 PM.
Submitted by:
Jen Rubio
Secretary/General
Manager