Scott Blackmer and Tod Bean have worked together to create this pie chart which breaks down how our $112 Dues are spent each month.
Comcast 54%
Personnel Costs 21%
Professional Fees 9%
Landscape, Snow, Maint., Vehicle 6%
Utilities 4%
Taxes & Insurance 2%
Social Events 2%
Office Rent/Supply 1%
Contingency Fund 1%
3 comments:
At one point I remember hearing "through the grape vine" that comcast is charging residents SunCrest significantly more than other subscribers. Does anybody have any insight into this or a way to verify it(other than pure speculation)?
Jared-There is some evidence to substantiate that claim.
Apparently, whether it is ethical or not, it is common practice for developers.
Unfortunately, since it is developer-controlled (AND the fact that there is no developer currently), we have no standing to do anything about it.
What we would like to see happen eventually is for the new developer to turn over the ComCast contract to the OA so that residents have access to the books and can see specifically what is happening.
Someday...
I didn't have Comcast before moving up here, so I'm not sure how it compares, but $60.48 for analog basic cable and high-speed internet doesn't sound too far out of the ballpark I'd expect.
I'm more curious about the Professional Fees and Personnel Costs that make up 30% ($33.60 per household per month). If there are 1000 households in the HOA, that's $33,600 per month, which sounds like way too much to me. If the OA is spending an average $10,000 per month on legal, accounting, and other professional services, I'd love to know why we can't do it less expensively than that. Same goes for over $23,000 in OA personnel each month... I'd imagine that is somewhere around half a dozen full time salaries and benefits packages. How are all those people employed by the OA?
I'm not one to nitpick other people's budgets, especially when I don't have great grounds for why my expectation of costs is so much lower than the budget, but this is our money the OA is spending. Just like I'd watch my own budget at home, and how much I'm paying for anything, if there's a reasonable way to cut back costs, that's money back in our pockets. Even if the budget were only cut by 10%, that puts our dues back to $101 a month instead of $112.
If the OA fees are $112 already, and the pie chart doesn't seem to specify anywhere that the costs of running the pool and clubhouse are included, do they expect the costs to go up yet again when those facilities open? A year ago dues were $85/month, and now they've increased by over 30% in a year. At that rate they'll quadruple every 5 years. If we don't watch OA expenses now, I'd hate to see where we'll end up down the road. It's a good thing we have some representation in how the money is spent to make sure it isn't being used inefficiently or unwisely.
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