Annual Meeting Minutes 2010

Minutes of the 27th Annual Meeting of the EBPOA
April 30, 2011
David Cannon welcomed everyone to the 27th annual meeting of the Edisto Beach Property Owners Association.

Financial Report: Larry Tilby, Treasurer. Submitted 3/10/11
Year Ending 12/31/2010
BALANCE SHEET

Assets                        12/31/09                            12/31/10
Checking                  $ 4,754                              $ 1,423
CD’s                           $ 29,444                               $30,497
Total                         $34,198                              $31,920
Income and Expenses
Income                     $17,731                             $16,825
Expense                     13,721                                20,157
Cash Flow                    4,010                                 (3,332)
Expenses
Annual Meeting       $ 5,480                               $ 4,111
Website                      $    658                                 $    709
Postage                   $  1,500                                $ 2,795
Admin.                      $   884                                 $    747
Legal/audit               $1,404                               $  7,100
D&O Ins.                      $1,911                                $ 2,009
Donation                  $ 400                                    -0-
Printing & Copies     $1,484                               $   2,686
Note: Year End 2009 increased $100 for lost check re-issued in 2010.

The Lobbyist Fund is being accounted for separately. The fund had a beginning balance of $1,877.24. We took in $740.00 in donations; we had $1,500.00 in expenses leaving a balance of $1,117.24. Basically, we have spent the money as follows: $300 on mileage to Columbia for NoHomeTax meetings, and $1,200.00 on the legislative research service, Capitol Information Associates, of which NoHomeTax paid $600.00.

                   John Morgan, Vice Pres.
Patsy Cannon, Sec.
Larry Tilby, Treas.
Mickey Blancett
Charlie Boozer
Charlie Boozer
Bob Sandifer
Emily Craig
Greg Smith
Archie Johnston
Linda Tilby
Lois Morgan
Mickey Van Metre
Sjannah Sanders
Roger Whaley

Special thanks for organizing the annual meeting was given to John and Lois Morgan who made the arrangements for the bar, barbeque and tent. Lois is carrying on the annual meeting leadership position that Rosa Bresnahan filled for so many years. Rosa and Joe are moving to Tennessee to be closer to their children. They have made big contributions to this organization and to this town. Beth and Archie Johnston were thanked for the nametags, mailing out the membership cards and computerizing the list of members.

Membership Committee - Archie Johnston reported that we have 460 memberships at present for 2011 with more coming in still. We ended with 424 memberships last year. We have 43 new members this year.

The Mailing Committee has been a big help this year as always, especially on the two mass mailings of 2,400 letters for the reassessment notification and the membership solicitation.

Election of Trustees – The Nominating Committee, consisting of the three past Presidents of the Association, recommended candidates for the Board of Trustees. The firm of Andy Cook, CPA, was retained to receive and count the ballots. We have received 343 ballots. The results are as follows: Elected to a three year terms are: Bob Sandifer, Archie Johnston, Beth Johnston, David Cannon, and Sjannah Sanders. The Nominating Committee’s recommended nominees were elected by a minimum of 311 votes each.

As homeowners and residents of Edisto, we have talked for years about improving the quality of our water, so much so that in the last election for council for the Town of Edisto Beach, several of the candidates ran on a platform of providing better quality water. As a result, the current council has stated in the official Town Council Goals and Action Plans Document, the town will investigate three approaches to providing better quality water. The three approaches they have identified are:

Supply water from a source such as Charleston Water by way of a large pipe down highway 174 or by a pipe from Johns Island under the North Edisto River.
Dig deeper wells seeking a better quality water
Install a municipality-wide reverse osmosis system

Your EBPOA board has informally investigated these approaches and decided to share information on one of these approaches – reverse osmosis, at the annual meeting. In our research, we discovered many of our neighboring coastal communities have already successfully installed RO systems. For example: Isle of Palms, Seabrook, Hilton Head, and Mount Pleasant. The state of Florida has 134 RO plants in operation.

In 2008, the town had evaluated the engineering feasibility and costs of installing an RO system in town. Because the board believes RO offers us a feasible solution we decided to present the concept and advantages and disadvantages of such a system at this annual meeting.

The board is not recommending any of these three approaches. We are merely trying to educate our association’s members on these three approaches. Therefore, the board invited Mr. Jim Ouellet, The Manager of the Water Department from the Mount Pleasant Waterworks to present and discuss municipal wide RO System. Mr. Ouellet has a civil engineering degree and a MBA and has been in the water business for 23 years. He has been manager at Mount Pleasant for the last 5 years. Mount Pleasant Waterworks has had a city-wide RO system for many years and also buys water from the City of Charleston; therefore, he was well qualified to present to our association and able to discuss the options we face at Edisto Beach.

Mr. Ouellet presented the concept of a municipal wide RO system, the economics and pros and cons of such a system. There was a great deal of interest and Mr. Ouellet answered many questions from the audience.

After Mr. Ouellet’s presentation, President Cannon stated the water study committee, of which Bob Sandifer is the Chairman, has produced a fact sheet handout on municipal reverse osmosis systems tailored to the Edisto Beach situation. It appears that the water bill of a Town-wide RO system would be 1.5 to 2 times what we are paying now. A handout was provided.

Also, at the annual meeting was a petition to the Town Council requesting the Town to present any new water system proposal to a referendum to be held in a general election. That way our citizens will get an opportunity to express their views in what will be a major development for our Town.

Property Taxes
The tax notices based on a 2006 re-assessment came as a shock this year and prompted us to send letters to 2,400 property owners on Edisto urging them to appeal their assessment and furnishing 2009 sales of properties to aid in the appeal. The assessor’s office is currently working its way though the stack of appeals still, but we have heard of substantial tax bill reductions as much as $1,000 to $2,000.

Actually, we are fortunate that the 2006 assessment was not implemented on schedule in 2007 as we would have had to appeal while property values were still inflated and would have had to pay taxes on the inflated values for four years. On the other hand, if the 2006 reassessment had been delayed for a year, as we requested, the 15% cap, enacted in 2006, would have held assessment increases to 15% over the 2001 assessment. We need to insist that the 2011 reassessment and implementation be conducted on time to lock in the present property values for five years. You will have the opportunity to appeal the 2011 assessment and we’ll get you the 2010-2011 sales figures so you can evaluate your assessment and appeal if necessary.

Trash Pick-up on Highway 174
The good news is that the Town has contracted with Larry Main to have the trash picked up and the work is in progress. The Town Council declined to fund the whole contract but agreed to furnish up to $7,500 on a matching basis. The matching money was quickly raised from beach businesses and Island and Beach residents. EBPOA made a contribution of $280.00 through EIPA to help the match. The Town Council maintains that trash pickup is not a permitted use of ATAX (accommodations tax) or Hospitality Tax funds. ATAX brings in $281,000 per year and Hospitality Tax brings in $195,000 annually for a total of $476,000. The permitted uses of both funds are practically identical and, we think, include maintenance of a clean highway into a resort area such as Edisto Beach.

Annexation into Charleston County - A committee of the EBPOA has carried this idea about as far as we can. We have broached the idea with a Charleston County Councilman. The response from the County is that further discussions must be with elected Town officials. If you want to pursue annexation, make your wishes known to members of Town Council.

Point of Sale Bills
Now that property values are coming down to earth the Point of Sale provision poses less of a threat in the event you want to deed your beach property to a relative. But to lock in the lower value you need to make sure the assessed value is in line with recent sales and appeal if necessary. There have been some real horror stories of taxes going to $25,000 because of Point of Sale and inflated assessments. Those inflated values could come again so we need to be on top of this. There are House and Senate bills eliminating Point of Sale and both have progressed through the committee stage and are up for second reading. We are watching these closely and feel good about prospects in the House. The Senate is another matter and I encourage all of you to write to your Senator and push bill S.647.

Act 388, which reduced our property tax by putting on a 1-cent sales tax, appears safe for another year despite all the negative editorials. This bill has kept a lid on property taxes and kept us in our homes. The sales tax receipts have held up better than the individual or corporate income taxes in the recession.