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Meeting attendees 02_09_2017: Officer Burton, Darilene Bonnet, Blanco Gonzalez, Michael Kuhnen, Sandy Ericksen, Trenton Kelley, Marilyn Harper, AD Koen, Richard Solis, Lori Perjak

The meeting began promptly at 7:38pm

Security – A handout of previous months’ SEAL incidents was given to all who attended the meeting. A gray pit bull dog has made an attack toward a neighborhood child. The child is ok. The incident happened near the intersection of Spring Forest Dr. and Bolivia Blvd. inside Candlelight Oaks Village. Please take caution.

Finance – The HOA is 30K short of the dues collection that is anticipated for this year. Approximately 130 residents had paid their dues as of the Feb. meeting. Late notices are to be distributed on March 1. A letter is also to be sent to notify residents of the need to raise HOA dues to $400 per year. A cost projection and specific reasons are planned to be included in the letter to residents.

Landscaping – Cost cutting measures are being investigated in regard to mowing costs.

Deed Restrictions – A drive through is planned for February 18 to seek any deed restriction violations in the neighborhood.

Social – An Easter Egg hunt in the community pool area is being planned for April 15 which is the day before Easter Sunday. On Friday April 14, families will supply 2 dozen plastic eggs for each child filled with a child’s treat. Suggested items are coins and candy. Signage at the entrances/exits of the neighborhood is being investigated to notify more residents.

Records – are being stored

The meeting closed at 8:37pm

January 2017 meeting attendees: Officer D Burton, Lori Perjak, AD Koen, Amelie Fredland, Marilyn Harper, Trenton Kelley, Charlie Bowman, Michael Kuhnen, Richard Solis, Lori Bulla, Sandy Ericksen.

SEAL – The meeting opened with a hand out of SEAL incidents from the previous month. All who attended received a copy of the report reviewed by Officer Burton.

President’s opening – Sandy welcomed 3 new board members and explained the meeting agenda process. We welcome Amelie as VP, Michael as Landscape chair and Richard as social chair.

Safety – neighborhood ACORN vehicle identification stickers are available at the meeting or please contact the board for one. AD will help and provide instruction on where to place the sticker on the vehicle. It will also be featured regularly in the ACORN publication. AD volunteered to be editor for the ACORN. Volunteers will be needed to distribute the ACORN once created.

Pool – Lori B is updating the pool membership forms. A $100 pool membership is now the official fee. The board would also like to get the pool gate reader reinstalled and Ray is getting an estimate. An upper hinge on the easement entrance gate to the park also needs repair. The park is roughly open 7am to 10pm. Some discussion by several followed in regard to easement access and safety for the park area.

Deed restrictions – The board is seeking (1) additional Deed Restriction assistant for monthly drive through with review. A monthly driving review takes approximately 1.5 hours. AD has offered to drive and Marilyn will assist, so one more person is needed. It’s recommended to have (3) people to help with deed restrictions. One person will drive. One person will write down the address and violation. One person will snap a photo for the resident of their deed violation. All (3) review the notes and agree on the deed violation with photo to be US postal mailed to the home owner.

Landscape – Michael asked about an existing landscape contract to review. Currently, there is no contract but there are invoices to review. The Pool area is kept separate from the other landscape budget. The Near Northwest Management District takes care of the center median on Tidwell. Landscape mainly focuses on the sidewalks and trash pickup on Tidwell. Insured work is required. Michael is creating a scope of work and minimum insurance liability recommendation for landscape.

Records – records need to be transferred to the secretary for storage.

Social – Richard began gathering information on the social role and there are many suggestions for events including Neighborhood Night Out in October, a Santa for Christmas time photos, a hay ride for events, an Easter egg hunt, neighborhood picnic, potlucks, outdoor game events and more. Memorial Day, Labor Day and Oaks Fest have been traditional neighborhood gathering events for our community. Lori B has been helping with necessary forms for pool side gatherings. Oaks Fest has been important for COCC elections and has never been a fund raiser for the budget.

Finance – HOA dues will be voted to be raised to $400/year for 2018. A venue is needed for a large COCC gathering to vote for the needed increase in HOA dues. The notice of dues increase will be in future ACORN publications too. The current budget is $171,781.09 and about 40% of the recent HOA dues have been paid. HOA dues are overdue on February 1. A lot of discussion followed concerning the timing of gathering the votes. Door to door collection of official votes will probably be needed before a change to the deed restrictions. A neighborhood resource was suggested to help with the process. He is someone who helped with the last HOA dues increase in 2001.

The meeting closed at 8:45pm.

Board members in attendance: Sandy Ericksen, Jeff Morrison, Wendy Gonzalez, Lori Bulla, Trenton Kelly and Charlie Bowman.

SEAL officer Burton attended. In his monthly recap, he noted that none of our residents have been reporting vacation watches. He encourages our residents to contact SEAL when we are on vacation. Residents should also include SEAL as the second contact on your security systems.

The two year term for Wendy and Jeff is coming to an end and both will be transferring records to the next chairperson.

Trenton and Charlie reported that residents are beginning to pay dues for 2017 and that several accounts have paid their past due invoices.

Past due invoices will be mailed to residents on March 1st.

Meeting adjourned at 7:45.

November 2016 meeting attendees: Lori Bulla, Sandy Ericksen, Amelie Fredland, Wendy Gonzales, Marilyn Harper, Trenton Kelley, AD Koen, Mike Kuhnen, Darin Lee, Lori Perjak, SEAL Representative, Richard Solis

The meeting began at 7:37pm with SEAL encouraging residents to report vacation watches and describing their presence to be a quicker response than HPD. A reminder was made to all to keep valuables hidden from view, destroy holiday boxes and always lock all vehicle doors. There is cardboard disposal at Recycle America on 5714 Enid Street (713) 880-8301 and many other locations including several City of Houston sites http://www.recycleinfo.org/recycling-harris-county.html No trespassing signs in yard or door fronts are recommended. A full printed summary of September incidents was provided to all at the meeting. When reporting street lights that are out to Centerpoint Energy, use the 6 digit number on the pole to report to the city for service. Pool and park parking lot lights are being looked at to repair lighting.

The current financial report is $139,460.11. There are 67 delinquent annual HOA dues accounts. These delinquent accounts will be turned over to a collection agency. 2017 HOA dues are being mailed this coming week. HOA dues will be raised to $400/year in 2018. Landscape costs need to be cut and the pool maintenance will reduce in the winter months. The approximate $25,000/year landscape cost does not include the community park cleanup. After Tidwell cleanup is done, it only keeps trash off the esplanades about 3 days. Homeowners are supposed to maintain behind their fences on Tidwell. The city maintains Tidwell every quarter. The COCC is encouraging and actively seeking liability insured mowing bids. Bids are due by the next COCC meeting on December 8 at 7:30pm. Bids are also being researched for tile work in the baby pool of our community pool.

We sincerely welcome our new board members for 2017: Amelie Fredland as VP, Mike Kuhnen for Landscaping and Richard Solis leading the Social role. There was a lot of discussion while new roles are being selected.

Security has Acorn stickers for vehicles. Each board member will maintain a job description to be handed to future board members. The Acorn distribution was discussed, but will remain with the same distribution by hand into mailboxes at this time.

Long range planning includes a uniform appearance for fences along Tidwell. Playground mulch maintenance is another major project.

There are more than 60 deed restriction letters to be sent out within the next week. Many residents are repairing the deed violations. Records are being transferred to the Secretary position.

The Christmas light judging will be done in mid December. A sign of recognition will be made for the winner’s yard.

Meeting adjourned 8:43pm.

September 8, 2016 meeting attendees: Cindi & Charlie Bowman, Lori Bulla, Rodonda Cox, Felipe Dominguez, Sandy Ericksen, Wendy Gonzalez, Marilyn Harper, Trenton Kelley, AD Koen, Lori Perjak

The meeting began at 7:40pm. SEAL executive director Rodonda Cox reported first. She is only allowed to give board members a copy of the SEAL report, but the report is available for those who attend the open board meeting. She recommends that SEAL be added to your alarm system contacts and SEAL will come and visit the property if your alarm goes off. She states that HPD would charge to do this but SEAL does not. She recommends using the SEAL “Vacation Watch Form” which can be found at http://sealsecuritytexas.com/vacation-watch-form.php Rodonda reviewed the highlights of the printed report in detail. She reminded residents not to leave valuables in vehicles and to lock doors. She discourages residents from making a personal contact with suspicious persons but instead to report incidents to SEAL and allow them to handle. Marilyn reported that some SEAL officers have been mistakenly filing Candlelight Oaks SEAL reports on the Candlelight Oaks Village website and vice versa. She says it happened over a 3 week period. Rodonda will look into this. An email notification was provided to Brian H. of SEAL concerning this. Rodonda says the SEAL reports are provided to our neighborhood as soon as SEAL receives them. The reports are sent by their phone and filed as the SEAL officer goes off patrol. Rodonda says that it is absolutely ok to bring discrepancies to SEAL’s attention. She states that some HOA’s notice these mistakes and other HOA’s do not monitor their reporting. The Candlelight Oaks Village report only goes to the President of the HOA whereas our Candlelight Oaks report goes to the entire board which is one email address. Rodonda asked if there were any more questions and exited the meeting. AD offered that there is a link on the HPD website to read the beat reports for our area. The reporting is one or two months behind. Wendy will provide the link on the upcoming Acorn distribution. AD says that Marilyn summarizes the daily SEAL reports on social media. Marilyn offered to write up a description of how to use the HPD beat site to be provided and provide it to be published in the Acorn.

Wendy and the board welcomed new resident Felipe. Meeting minutes for August were approved. Wendy let us know there is no news with the President’s report.

Trenton provided a financial report of a balance of $155,930.48. Trenton will provide a budget draft and distribute to the board by email over the weekend. He questioned whether 2 or 3 people should get together to approve the budget or whether the board will approve via email. Charlie has discussed the HOA reserve balance. Since Candlelight Oaks is self managed, Trenton does not feel the reserve balance must be higher. He says if the board makes the reserve balance higher, then the budget must be cut. Charlie has been reading about the realtor’s view of sustainability of HOA’s. As expenses go up realtors view of the neighborhood is that the reserve should go up. Realtors recommend a reserve budget of 10%, but Charlie believes 5% is fine for Candlelight Oaks. The discussion came up again on the need to raise HOA dues. There is a need to raise the HOA dues to meet the increasing costs of inflation. Residents have asked for more services within the past 2 years than has been requested for over the past 5 years. Trenton has been able to collect more overdue HOA assessments which had helped the budget. If there were 100% HOA dues payment on time, there would not be an immediate need to raise annual dues for everyone. There is a clear financial need to raise the annual dues. The bi-laws state that there is an 80% approval needed from residents to raise HOA dues. It is difficult to get 80% participation from residents. Marilyn brought up her previous HOA fund raising for the neighborhood and that there are 4 different territories for Candlelight Oaks. Her past experience was that a team of people were needed with printed booklets showing everyone’s name and address and each resident’s home was approached in person with the information to receive a signature from residents in regard to raising the HOA dues. It was a several weeks process. Wendy questioned whether this is something we need to think about as board members or if it is actually needed now. Trenton requests a plan to do it and there is not currently a plan to move forward. He will analyze the trend over the past few years. The HOA dues have been $360/year for at least 9 years. The costs of maintaining the pool, mowing Tidwell and security have all continued to increase. These are the three major costs in the budget. The playground and pool maintenance costs have stayed somewhat the same as well as water, electricity and insurance have remained somewhat the same. There is no request from Lori B to raise the budget for pool maintenance costs which have remained about the same for the past 3 years. It is agreed that there is a general cost of living which has continued to increase. Lori B states there is a maintenance expense for the pool coming in 2017 or the next year for painting and resurfacing the bottom of the community pool. This would be an expense that would use up the budget reserve. Marilyn described a similar expensive pool expense that she was aware of. AD asked how much of a HOA increase would be required. Trenton suggested a 10% increase which would be $35. A rounded amount of $400/year is recommended. Then the question came up concerning those who already don’t pay the HOA dues and will they never pay anything toward their past due balances. Also those who are already delinquent in unpaid dues might stop paying toward the current unpaid balances altogether if the HOA dues are raised. There has been some improvement in payment of past due HOA dues and some balance paid due to homeowners selling or refinancing their homes. Letters of past due HOA dues will be sent again in October. Sometimes there are payments when the letters go out. The group of residents who never pay HOA dues continue to never pay HOA dues. Some residents try to pay on overdue HOA dues when the letters go out. There is a group of delinquent payments for more than 2 years. It is a smaller group than was discussed this past April. There is avoidance to turn people over to a collection agency because a lawyer will treat them badly. The list of overdue residents will be pulled again for review. The list will be ready right away. Trenton asked for help when it is time to fill envelopes and mail the past due notices. Sandy offered to help review the budget with Trenton. The board wants the budget to go in the Acorn before elections. Charlie is helping with treasury as well. He is helping with long range and co-chair of treasury. There are no volunteers for treasury at this time, but the board is seeking a volunteer.

No report on deed restrictions. There is discussion of reassigning the position due to Nathan’s being unavailable to volunteer more time. Deed restrictions is drive by’s and sending out letters along with taking pictures. Lori P volunteered to help with a group drive by and sending out deed restriction letters. There is a form letter that will be used. Marilyn has sent digital copies of bi-laws to Wendy. Wendy transcribed some of the old deed restrictions and placed them on the Candlelight Oaks website. Marilyn may have some old deed restriction letters to help as a template toward following the bi-laws.

Landscape – Sandy stated the tree was trimmed in the Bayou Vista cul-de-sac. Lori B states that the trees over the pool probably need to be trimmed in the near future. The palm trees would look nicer if they were trimmed. There is a tree in the pool area that appears diseased. It doesn’t appear that some of the trees can be trimmed without the limbs falling into the pool. The work might be done before Oaks Fest.
Sandy states records are being stored.

Social – Lori B reports the success of the Labor Day party at the pool. With a rainy start to the day, there were approximately 30 residents who enjoyed the party and all of the fried chicken was eaten. The next social event is the Oaks Fest event.

Wendy requests any news information that needs to be reported in the Acorn. There is a due date of Tuesday. Wendy will seek volunteers to help distribute the Acorn on the South side of Tidwell. Sandy has been taking care of distribution on the North side of Tidwell.

Long-range planning – The board has discussed the lighting improvement at the pool/playground area. The playground has 3 missing pickets. It is believed that the pickets are being vandalized. A request for metal pickets was made. For lighting, it has been recommended that a new pole be put up. The restroom electrical location will not provide enough lighting to the back of the pool area. Another consideration before placing a new light pole is how it will affect the nearby homes and their privacy. The strength of the lighting is being considered. Both AD and Lori P have interim terms coming to an end on the board, but each says they would like to continue running for another term. Lori B says a special edition within the Acorn should be made to include the voting ballots being provided at Oaks Fest. Remember you don’t have to be a board member to assist in area of your interest for the neighborhood and you won’t be on your own handling it. Please come forward to assist. Sandy is running for another term. Nathan will not be running again.

The meeting adjourned at 8:32pm.

August 2016 meeting attendees: Patrick Ball, Gerard, Bohorques, Darlene Bonnet, Lori Bulla, Nathan Carlson, Sandy Ericksen, HPD Officer Frank Escobedo, Cheryl & Alvin Fritsche, Wendy Gonzales, Marilyn Harper, Ken Jayne, Pierce Knight, AD Koen, Jeff Morrison, Cathy & James Tiemann, Lori Perjak, Eva Podraza

Wendy opened the meeting at 7:33pm. Board members introduced themselves by name and position. The meeting was an open forum held at Don Jose Restaurant. Officer Escobedo introduced himself and expressed his role in community outreach. He expressed that HPD can contact the owners of the abandoned homes in our neighborhood and point out the importance of securing the house. If the abandoned owners are not cooperative, they will receive a 10 day written warning which points out the city code violations. If there is a continued lack of cooperation, HPD can help assure that citations will be written and fines collected even to the point that the city can put a lien on the house according to city ordinances. Officer Escobedo let us know there are regular community meetings at the HPD command station at 9455 West Montgomery. The next meeting is August 16th at 7pm. The speaker at that meeting will address homeless outreach. Officer Escobedo also brought to attention the various ways to communicate with HPD including email, phone, coming by your location in person as well as visiting the HPD storefront at 1334 West 43rd across the street from the Kroger. He also mentioned an “Action Request” form for recurring problems in the neighborhood such as vagrants in abandoned homes. He gave the web address of houstonpolice.org. This link may be helpful: http://www.houstontx.gov/police/services.htm He offered that a call can be made to HPD to come out and review the concern with your information and you will receive a response as to the outcome. The email provided is hpdnorth.division@houstonpolice.org AD asked if there is a place that we can look up SEAL reported incidents in our neighborhood within HPD. Officer Escobedo recommended looking up the crime statistics within the HPD website. Here are the statistics I was able to find: http://www.houstontx.gov/police/cs/beatpages/cs3b10.htm Darlene mentioned a recent issue with her back gate and garage as well as her appreciation for the recent SEAL and HPD meeting held July 30. Another neighbor mentioned ongoing issues with solicitors. Wendy asked Officer Escobedo what our rights are concerning unwanted solicitors. He responded that there are 2 key elements. 1) Solicitors are required to have a city permit to pedal their goods/services on public property. That permit is only good for public property. 2) Solicitors are prohibited from pedaling goods/services on private property. You may either avoid opening your door to them or if you speak to them ask them to leave your property and you may let them know you will call the police if they don’t leave. If the solicitor becomes aggressive or won’t leave, shut your door and call 911. If the solicitor leaves but continues to knock on other doors, call the non emergency police number (713) 884-3131 or (713) 755-7628. You should also call SEAL at (713) 422-2770 to report the incident for our neighborhood SEAL report. Ken recommended a camera system named Ring https://ring.com/users/sign_in which is a wireless and motion sensor activated door bell which snaps a photo or records a 30+ second tape depending on your personal setting. The ongoing service cost is inexpensive at $30/Year and photos can be viewed from your computer or smart phone and is maintained in The Cloud. Conversation can also be held remotely through Ring if you choose to speak to the person at the door. Officer Escobedo also recommended putting up “No Soliciting” signs at your home. He purchased his from Home Depot. Candlelight Oaks has “No Trespassing” signs posted near neighborhood entrances. Darlene offered to take orders for “Smile, You’re on Camera” signs since she believes she can get 100 signs for approximately 10 cents per sign. Officer Escobedo suggested multiple signs to keep solicitors/trespassers away from your home.

At this time, Wendy moved us along to our usual monthly agenda. The July meeting minutes were approved. A question came up concerning heavy trash pickup. Heavy trash can be placed on your curb on Sunday before the pickup. The city is known to review the trash volume on Monday of the pickup week and it was suggested heavy trash has been picked up on Monday rather than Tuesday. If this should happen and your heavy trash pickup is missed, contact 311 for the trash pickup. Wendy suggested changing our signs to read “Heavy Trash Pickup This Week” to prevent missed trash pickup overlooked on a specific day of the week. Wendy took a moment to thank everyone for coming to the meeting and noted that this meeting was more heavily attended than usual monthly meetings. She encouraged that this is a good time to present something to the board or volunteer your assistance. A neighbor provided the board a copy of “The Guide” which offered city contact information concerning mental health issue reporting including homelessness. He stated that Houston is updating an umbrella organization for mental health services. There is a huge list of charity organizations within The Guide. There are new procedures for getting assistance for the homeless, battered women, mentally ill and more. More details can be found on the pamphlet which Wendy kept. This meeting was less private and little louder than the SEAL and HPD meeting on July 30. For this reason, a different neighbor suggested that future meetings could possibly be held at Our Savior Lutheran Church. He will look into his suggestion further. For the immediate future, the meetings will continue to be held at 5820 Pinemont Drive at the Advent Lutheran Church. Don Jose Restaurant is a temporary location to hold the increased participation at the meetings. Ken reminded everyone that the term Home Owner Association is used for legal reasons.

Finance – no report for this month

President’s Report – Wendy attended a leadership dinner concerning the Houston to Dallas bullet train and confirms that it will get built beginning approximately early 2018. Officially, the bullet train will not run near Candlelight Oaks. The station is to be located at Northwest Mall. The Hempstead tracks are the direction the train is to exit our area. An open house is to be held August 24th to provide more details and Wendy will put more information on the Candlelight Oaks Facebook page. The train track will be set above normal traffic level and scheduled to finish within 5 years. This will be the first high speed train in the USA. It was also mentioned that the current railroad track running near Candlelight Oaks has been quieter due to a new silence law in our area. There should be more upcoming information from Brenda Stardig on the Rebuild Antoine project. It was mentioned that the demolition of the Oak Brooks apartments and other eye sore and high crime properties has not been completed yet. Eventually the area will become a green space.

Security – AD repeated some July summary information from SEAL which was given at the HPD and SEAL meeting on July 30. The SEAL information is a summary of daily reports which is placed online. AD encouraged us to join Facebook to review daily SEAL reports. Wendy places the daily reports into the recent July Acorn issue. Specific street addresses and name details are screened from the public. AD is helping to step up awareness of security issues in Candlelight Oaks. He states that more than 50 residents attended the July 30 meeting with SEAL and HPD. AD also reported that on August 5th several board members met with SEAL security at their headquarters on Blalock Street. Four board members met with Officer Blakely and more leadership from SEAL and received a tour of the SEAL headquarters. They have approximately 200 uniformed officers and approximately 90 guard dogs. AD provided everyone a printed summary of their meeting. He plans to see that bullet points are provided in future Acorn issues. Wendy added that information will also be provided on the Facebook page. SEAL reminds residents to also phone HPD so that a case number is assigned to the complaint. Incidents reported to SEAL will be provided to the neighborhood regularly. The number one complaint in the neighborhood is solicitors. Ken is assisting AD with the HOA security position. To make a report to SEAL, call (713) 422-2770. SEAL believes they can assist quicker with eliminating solicitors than a call to HPD. All SEAL staff are armed, use a K-9 and a taser as defense tools. A SEAL K-9 is not used to track a criminal. SEAL recommends placing “No Trespassing” signs on abandoned homes to help bring criminal charges. All of this action has helped reduce the number of calls concerning the abandoned homes. The board reminds residents that civic matters between neighbors will not be handled by the board. Also, get to know your neighbors and communicate with them directly concerning civic issues. Ken says that if you have a legal document concerning your civic complaint, that document may be brought forward to the board for review as well as SEAL and HPD. It will be handled by SEAL and HPD though and not the HOA.

Pool – Lori B tells us there are 3 new pool memberships bringing the total to 55 this year. There are 2 more private parties booked. In regard to maintenance, there are a couple of pool lights which have gone out and will be replaced. She proposes signs to be placed near the new pool phone with the street address in case of an emergency request needed at the pool. She also asked for signs stating the pool and playground hours so that trespassing arrests can be made. There have been trespassers at 3am very recently. Wendy requests the pool gate code to be changed to reduce sharing the code. It was agreed by several board members. There is currently no camera at the pool. It was also agreed that more lighting at the pool is needed and should be placed near the playground/pool area. It must be reviewed whether the current electric panel can hold the increased lighting volume before more light poles or lighting can be purchased and used. There has been repeated vandalism of the picket fence around the playground and Lori asked about putting a chain link fence up instead. The overall agreement was to start with increased lighting to prevent the vandalism and continue to review what is happening.

Deed restrictions – Nathan asked that any issues be emailed to the board. Letters to home owners concerning out of compliance will be sent soon. He encouraged volunteers to help him or other positions on the board. We have approximately 282 homes in Candlelight Oaks. There were about 54 homes who will receive deed restriction violation notices. If a homeowner disagrees with a violation notice, they can appeal it via email for review. There are 4 sections in the neighborhood and there are minor differences in the restrictions, but the board is working to consolidate the deed restrictions. It is a long process. If anyone would come forward to assist Nathan with this, please do.

Landscape – Ray is maintaining the sidewalks along Tidwell, the neighborhood medians and the pool. The new “Near Northwest” sign is not yet complete with lighting. Maintaining Tidwell has been a tough task and workers have quit due to the speeding traffic and heavy volume of trash. Ray is working hard to keep up with the maintenance. A question came up concerning oak trees at the 4700 block of Bayou Vista. The branches are breaking off from trash pickup traffic. Sandy said there are no maintenance plans at this time, but the board will look into it. A question came up concerning fencing on Tidwell and broken fencing due to an accident. Nathan stated that fencing will be discussed as part of deed restrictions and a letter can be sent to motivate the homeowner to make repairs. Another suggestion was made to find a contractor discount fencing along Tidwell to help the fencing match in appearance. Nathan reminded us that if the fence meets deed restrictions, a resident is not required to match their fence to others. If someone will volunteer to coordinate the fencing reconstruction and approach neighbors to match, please come forward. We do not expect that it will be successful. Nathan would like to update the deed restrictions for future fence building. Various suggestions were made toward updating the fencing deed restrictions. As a security tip, Ken recommended that the slick side of the fence be on the outside whereby a trespasser can’t use the step of the fence to help themself into your yard. Again, assistance with deed restrictions is encouraged and requested. The topic of placing a metal pipe with your fencing was suggested to anchor the fence and prevent vehicle accidents coming through the fence. It is recommended to consult with an attorney in case placing the metal brace along with your fencing.

Records – are being saved

Social – There will be a September 5th Labor Day party with free swim at the pool this year from 2-6pm. All agreed that fried chicken was a successful menu item at the last party and will be done again for this party. The upcoming Oaks Fest is also being planned and a mailer will be issued as well as advertising in the Acorn. Please begin to come forward to volunteer for positions on the board. Elections are coming up, and your time and talent is appreciated.
An email mailing for the Acorn is being considered. A suggestion to place the link on Facebook for the Acorn was made. The board realizes that some want paper mailings and some prefer email. Another suggestion was made to place the Acorn at the pool mail box to be picked up personally. It was recommended to move from using the US mailbox. A block captain suggestion was also made to help with distribution. A lot of discussion followed but nothing was agreed in certainty as to distribution.

There was no long range planning and no unfinished business.

New business – Board Elections are coming up and a nomination committee is needed. Nominations to positions are being taken now. At least as many persons are needed to fill positions as the number of officers leaving the board. Some board members have fulfilled their elected service time. Please come forward and volunteer in any capacity. You will receive assistance on any role. Even a co-chair assistant that is not an official board position is being encouraged.

The meeting ended at 9:05pm.

July Meeting Attendees: Gerard Boharques, Lori Bulla, Officer Burton, Nathan Carlson, Sandy Erickson, Wendy Gonzales, Trenton Kelly, AD Koen, Celia & Marco Montalvo, Lori Perjak

Wendy opened the meeting at 7:35pm. Celia asked about cutting a dead tree on her property and replacing with another tree. All agreed there is no issue to proceed with the work. Nathan commented that July 26 is tree waste pickup day. Sandy will be putting the pickup signs out on July 23. Residents can put out tree waste the Sunday before tree waste pickup. The city sometimes previews what is to be picked up during Monday before the trash pickup.

Officer Burton from SEAL provided a printed summary of neighborhood incidents and stated that extra attention is being given to the 2 abandoned homes in our subdivision. He states there is a lot of activity at the abandoned home in the 4800 block of Caris and SEAL is trying to catch the perpetrators. Also, there were 2 homes on the 4700 block of Oak Shadows Drive (where the street signs are turned) which had trash out for at least 2 weeks. SEAL noticed a random car driving through the neighborhood and pulled it over. This vehicle turned out to be a lost driver after dropping off a friend and SEAL helped the woman find her way back to Tidwell. The SEAL sign at Tidwell and Deepcreek had been removed from the metal post and placed next to someone’s garage. The sign which reads “Candlelight Oaks, Trespassing Prohibited, SEAL Security Solutions, LLC, Violators Prosecuted!” www.SEALSECURITYTEXAS.com” has now been replaced to a street post at the same intersection. It is not known who removed or replaced the sign. Lori P mentioned that the posted sign has been needed to report solicitors to HPD. A comment was made about ongoing, multiple solicitors in the neighborhood and some residents will not open the door. The gas company came unannoounced to a door and the resident would not open the door. There was an emergency next to another neighbor’s yard where digging was needed in regard to the gas issue. Some gas meters were recently replaced and a letter was sent to some. There was a strong odor of sewer gas mentioned at the time. SEAL and HPD had an in depth discussion concerning a window service solicitor. HPD allowed the solicitor to continue trying to make “appointments” for their business. Officer Burton stated that on June 22, the officer noticed a suspicious odor on the 5600 block of Oak Haven at the pool area. The officer also noted a lot of drug paraphernalia there too. There will be more attention paid to the park area. Officer Burton asked what time the pool/park closes and AD stated 10pm. Lori B confirmed there is a pool sign posted with hours. Currently, there is no sign posted with the park hours. Sandy will have a sign made and posted for the park hours. Officer Burton says the signs will allow SEAL to begin taking action against afterhours trespassers at the park. It will allow arrests to be made. The sign will state pool and park hours which will be the same. Two signs will be made. One sign for each entrance to the park area has been recommended. Officer Burton discussed several issues near the 5000 block of Fallen Oaks including a car egging and a robbery at knifepoint. There are more details in the printed incident report provided at the meeting. In addition to Officer Burton providing us details at the meeting there was feedback given to him concerning an unsatisfactory and discourteous response given to a resident from a SEAL dispatcher. The dispatcher gave a lot of resistance to the caller. Details of the conversation were provided to Officer Burton who believes he knows who the dispatcher is. The dispatcher claimed that SEAL was over the amount of hours contracted and could not assist. A second resident stated she received a similar response when calling SEAL …. That they were “over the contracted hours” and SEAL offered to call 911. The resident said no and that she would contact HPD non emergency line for assistance. Wendy pursued the June 11 dispatcher incident stating that the understanding of the contract is that SEAL is available at all times although the contracted hours are limited per week. She questioned the point that the dispatcher claimed there was no one near to come by and that SEAL was over their contracted hours. The actual note provided to the board from the resident was read to Officer Burton. Officer Burton replied that SEAL responds whether they are scheduled to be here or not. 24 hours a day. He will speak directly to the dispatcher responsible and stated that he will handle it. He stated that the dispatcher will not resist providing assistance again. He believes this is a new issue and a rare occasion that this resistance by a dispatcher has occurred. Nathan mentioned that on Monday, June 11 on the 5700 block of Bayou Vista near the bike trail a person came over a resident fence at 3:06am. Power tools, a bicycle and more items were stolen from the shed. The resident did not file a police report but was recommended to do so. The resident had regretted filing a police report previously due to a long wait time for police to arrive and a feeling that it would not be pursued. Residents are encouraged to file all police reports and contact SEAL with incidents also. AD asked again to clarify that if a call is made to SEAL at any hour of the day that SEAL will respond, and Officer Burton said yes, however, it may take some time for SEAL to arrive from another patrol area such as Timbergrove or Garden Oaks. Officer Burton came to a close and exited the meeting.

Security – AD spoke to SEAL July 14 on the phone to arrange a time for them to meet. As security contact on the board, he made a couple of contacts to SEAL for a personal meeting but has not received a response. He believes the arrangement is that a SEAL representative will be present at each board meeting to discuss the monthly incident report. AD is in contact with neighbor Ken Jayne concerning interaction with SEAL on behalf of Candlelight Oaks. The SEAL contract is being reviewed by several board members to optimize the benefit for us and assure that the contract details are being met with the service being provided. Several discussions followed concerning the patrol service shared by Candlelight Oaks and Candlelight Oaks Village in regard to the shared cost and logistics of the patrol and the protection coverage provided to the neighborhoods. The patrol times are random and confidential. The coverage provided by SEAL to Candlelight Oaks and Candlelight Oaks Village is in proportion to the contract and the cost paid by each area.

President – Wendy had several items to report. One is that Facebook has been very busy. Facebook is not the HOA’s official form of communication. Facebook is not a communication method that the HOA will provide much information on. A letter was written on Facebook to the board, but almost no one present at the meeting uses Facebook. Wendy is a Facebook user and read the letter aloud at the meeting. The website https://candlelightoaks.com/ is the formal communication method of the HOA and The Acorn. The Acorn has not had a lot to publicize beyond the monthly meeting minutes. For this reason, there has not been a recent Acorn distribution. The meeting minutes are posted on the website after they are approved by the board. The resident letter on Facebook was complimentary and made a request for more communication via The Acorn newsletters delivered to home mailboxes. The general response and request is for this resident to please come forward to volunteer to assist with the creation and distribution of The Acorn newsletter. All present encouraged that a volunteer to assist with The Acorn creation and distribution would be really helpful and is needed. One meeting participant commented that approximately 15 years ago more than 50 people would be present at each COCC meeting. A new board member was shocked to hear this. A board member commented that officially, as a legal entity, COCC should meet quarterly with written notice/postal mail sent out 10 days in advance to residents. He read the specific documentation of the bi-law to all. Currently there is a monthly meeting held the second Thursday of each month with signs posted in advance at the entrances to the neighborhood stating the day, time and place. The meeting information is also posted on the website. The quarterly meeting issue will be reviewed to determine the exact compliance. The board will review the current practice as to whether the bi-law should be updated or have the COCC come into compliance with the quarterly postal mailing bi-law and reduce the number of COCC meetings to quarterly. The meeting minutes provided on the website is a convenience and not a requirement. If someone needs the meeting minutes prior to them being posted on the website, please contact the board directly at board@candlelightoaks.com Please be aware that the minutes cannot be provided to a resident until they are approved for publication during the next meeting time.
Another Facebook posting was concerning 2 unwanted, homeless dogs roaming the neighborhood. The method to handle unwanted, homeless animals is to contact animal control. The entity is named BARC and can be reached via website at http://www.houstontx.gov/barc/ or telephone 713.837.0311. This topic stimulated a lot of conversation concerning animals in the neighborhood. The comments included the following: 1) a rumor that a cat was recently killed in the neighborhood by a loose dog 2) loose cats killed a rosebush on owner property 3) a dog attacked cats on owner property again when the dog had previously killed a different cat 4) a dog bit a woman on Fallen Oaks 5) a dog attacked another leashed dog on owner’s porch If you know who the resident is who owns an unleashed animal, send an email to the board and a letter will be distributed to them. Dogs must be leashed. All present agreed that the COCC will not assist with animal fines or contacting BARC for a resident.

Wendy also reports that on July 23, Brenda Stardig is doing a “Demolition Celebration” for the Oak Brooks Apartments from 10am to 1pm. These are the abandoned apartments along the White Oak Bayou trail. Wendy asked that anyone who is interested in attending let her know. Also, the abandoned home on Oak Haven has received attention thanks to a resident contacting a news station. The board had taken as much action as it could over a prolonged period of time and the action taken by the resident to contact Channel 2 news began some satisfactory resolution of the issue. All present were thankful to hear of the action that had taken place and appreciate the resident for her initiative. In regard to the abandoned home on Caris, neighbors are taking care of the front lawn as a temporary fix. Trenton has continued to document contact to the bank which oversees the finances of the property. It is critical for the bank to take action with the legal owners of the abandoned home. The city of Houston must also take action. Both aspects are critical to resolving abandoned home issues. The COCC is limited in the action it can take.

A purchase question came up concerning the land property adjacent to the drive easement leading to the pool. A land survey was seen being done on the property. No one has specific information as to what the property may be used for.
Deed Restriction – 3 board members drove the neighborhood seeking deed restriction violations. There were 59 properties found with deed restriction violations and letters are being created for mailed distribution. 30 days are allowed to bring deed restriction violations into compliance.

Pool – The gate reader is being repaired at no cost for labor by Nathan. Lori B says a gate card order is needed. A suggestion to recycle and recode the gate cards was made but not agreed upon. A partial box of cards is currently on hand. The previous price per box was $300. Lost cards will continue to cost $20 to replace.

Treasury – Trenton tells us the current bank balance is $173, 847.57 There are no large, outstanding expenses. Some progress has been made with some long-term outstanding balances for HOA dues. These outstanding balances will be pursued with another letter to follow during the collection process. Wendy said the neighborhood insurance renewal is coming up and she spoke to the contact who states there is no change to the policy.

Minutes – The previous months’ meeting minutes were approved.

Pool – Lori B tells us there are 52 memberships. The city inspector did not approve the Kings III emergency call boxes. The pool was closed for 1 day due to this. The city inspector allowed a regular, household telephone to be plugged in for use. There was a fee to inspect the pool again, but the pool passed inspection. Before next year’s inspection, the tiles on the baby pool must be smoothed out and there is some additional equipment recommended for the pump room. Lori will verify that the pump room equipment recommendation is in line with the age of our COCC pool. The pool has received a current permit. 3 estimates will be gathered for repairs sometime in the fall. A negative review for a particular pool vendor was given by a resident. The Oaks Fest fall festival is planned for October and is still in the budget. It’s not a fund raiser, but several said they enjoy the wine baskets raffle as a means to defray costs for the party.

Landscaping – Tire marks and missing trees were noticed adjacent to the esplanade on Tidwell near Deep Creek. This was the 5th accident near the intersection since October 2015.

Records – One record was added which was the Kings III service cancellation.

RECRUITING for new board members is now taking place for the election to be held during Oaks Fest. Two volunteers have come forward as additional help with the Finance and Security roles. We are actively seeking assistance with The Acorn. Wendy will try to put together an Acorn but can’t commit to this. She will make an effort to create a printed copy for resident mailboxes.

Meeting closed at 8:42pm

COCC Board meeting minutes from the April 9, 2016 meeting, as approved by the board on July 14, 2016.

COCC Meeting Minutes – June 2016

The COCC board was unable to reach a quorum and did not meet. As such, no minutes are available, and the previous minutes will be approved at the June meeting.

COCC Board meeting minutes from the April 19, 2016 meeting, as approved by the board on June 9, 2016.

COCC Meeting Minutes – April 2016