Members of the Seven Lakes Landowners Association [SLLA] elected three new directors and returned one incumbent to the Board in balloting that concluded at the Annual Meeting on Sunday, March 22.
Bob Racine was elected to a third two-year term. New members include Joy Smith, Mark Gyure, and Greg Lishawa. David Hill, who was appointed in September to fill a vacant seat, did not secure enough votes to remain on the Board, and petition candidate Lawton Baker failed in his bid to secure a seat.
Smith led the vote count, with 292, followed by Gyure, at 290. Racine collected 276 votes; and Lishawa, 269. Baker garnered 193; Hill, 171.
The membership turned down a $25 dues increase recommended by the Board, with 234 voting against the increase and 201 in favor. Board members then approved the proposed FY2016 budget, without the additional revenue the dues increase would have provided.
Assuming that every landowner who cast a ballot voted yes or no on the dues increase, turnout for the election was less than thirty percent of those eligible to vote.
Leach elected President
Chuck Leach was elected SLLA President in a brief organizational meeting held immediately following the Annual Meeting. Leach received the votes of five directors; former President Bob Racine collected two votes.
The election of each of the other officers was uncontested. Lishawa will serve as Vice President. Mark Gyure, who has been a member of the Finance Committee, will serve as Treasurer. And Mary Farley will continue as Secretary.
Committee responsibilities will be as follows:
• Gyure - Finance
• Lishawa - Security
• Sandy Sackmann - Architectural Review
• Racine - Community Standards and Judicial
• Leach - Facilites & Maintenance
• Smith - Lakes & Dams
• Farley - Recreation
Changes to meeting time, format
In an informal discussion of Open Meeting agendas, Board members expressed a preference for restricting public comment to the beginning and end of each meeting, rather than allowing comment on each agenda item, as was the case during Racine's term as President.
Leach said he would encourage interested members to attend Board Work Sessions and meetings of relevant committees in order to provide input earlier in the decision-making process.
Community Manager Ray Sohl expressed concerns about sending the membership a relatively complete version of the Open Meeting packet that is provided to Board Members, and the Directors appeared to authorize Sohl to provide the membership with an annotated agenda rather than a full meeting packet.
Finally, the Board decided to move the Open Meeting, which has been held on the last Wednesday of the month since the inception of the Association, to the last Thursday in each month.
The Work Session, which has been held on a Monday morning, will move to a Thursday morning two weeks prior to the Open Meeting. Sohl is developing a meeting schedule for Board approval.
The next scheduled meeting of the SLLA Board of Directors is an April 16 Work Session; the next Open Meeting will be held on April 30.
More to come
During the Annual Meeting, SLLA Directors provided an overview of the year's accomplishments in their areas of responsibility. The Times will provide an overview of those presentations in our April 3 print edition.
