The Ocean Sands Property Owners Association is a North Carolina Non-Profit Corporation that is also a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. One of the requirements for Non-Profits is to hold an annual meeting which is announced to all members more than 30 days prior to the meeting. In 2015, the meeting was held at the Whalehead fire station on April 25 from 9-11:30 AM. Approximately 165 people were in attendance representing about 100 owners.
The Board of Directors of the Ocean Sands POA is determined by Article III section 5 and Article IV of the By-Laws. The board is comprised of 5 people. Three of the individuals are employees of Coastland Corp. the developer since 1972. In their employment roles they report to Braxton Hill, Coastland’s VP and attorney of record. Owner representatives hold the other two director positions. They are Al Marzetti resident of Section F and Rick Kinner resident of Section Q.
Two weeks after the annual meeting, on May 10, one of the Owner Representatives, Rick Kinner took the time and effort to recap and document the annual meeting. Owner Representative Summarizes 2015 Annual Meeting of the Ocean Sands Property Owners Association (OSPOA) Meeting
The recap was distributed to the 230 owner emails that he had collected over three years. The primary reasons for the recap were a number of key discussions and decisions that occurred at the meeting. Foremost were the engineering report concerning storm water, the effort to reconstitute the Architectural Committee, the bike path and, most significantly, the establishment of the Governance committee.
The official minutes of each annual meeting are produced by the board secretary, a Coastland employee. Historically (at least the last 6 years) those minutes were distributed about two weeks prior to the next annual meeting — in other words, 11 months later.
Brief timeline
- This July, the owner representatives began requesting the publishing of the Minutes.
- Requests were made at least 8 different times with no response from Coastland.
- In October, we received email from Coastland Corp. stating that first draft of Minutes was complete being reviewed by Mr. James Johnson and Braxton Hill. Neither individual is a board member!
- We had a board meeting on 8/19. No mention of progress or comments on review of Minutes.
- On 9/2, Coastland informs owner representatives of the additional cost of another management company via email. Didn’t give us the courtesy of telling us in person, or allowing for a board discussion.
- Coastland sends an email on 11/24 simply stating “Attached”. Coastland Official Meeting Minutes of 2015 OSPOA Annual Meeting
The Minutes are 8 pages long, read like a snippet from a sound recording.
Names of speakers are incorrect and misspelled
A seven month’s delay in publishing the Minutes of the annual meeting
Lack of serious content, no cohesion or flow, no identification of topics or results.
Non-compliant with standard parliamentary procedure
There is a very real question concerning the quality of governance the owners receive from Coastland! How the Minutes were addressed is just a very recent and clear example of this. Coastland does not meet standards for business conduct and gives short shrift to maintenance of necessary corporate formalities. Coastland has little regard for questions, opinions or needs of owners. There is a real lack of responsiveness. Any actions of consequence are determined solely by James Johnson and Braxton Hill, who do not consult with the owners. The “Coastland” directors do as their employer instructs, and since they are always in the majority, the Ocean Sands POA is controlled by James Johnson, who is the ultimate arbiter on virtually every POA issue.
Links to both the Owner Recap document of 5/10/15 and the official Minutes of 11/24 are provided in this post for you to make your own determination as to whether you are getting the information you need from Coastland.