Salmon Beach Owners Association Directors Vote to Seek Legal Advice on a number of issues facing the SBOA.
Background;
The Salmon Beach Owners Association was created a number of years ago as a means for the owners at Salmon Beach to pool funds to provide the various services wanted at the beach. Those services included; security, road grading, water supply, garbage collection and later on pump and haul of sewage. Originally owners chose to contribute funds to provide those services. The SBOA was registered as an Association whose members were those individuals who contributed funds to provide the services to Salmon Beach. The SBOA’s Constitution and By-laws centred on providing the services. At a point in time it was realized that the developer and some of the owners were benefitting from these services but were not contributing. To resolve the situation a referendum was held and approved which made Salmon Beach a Service District. Under this arrangement the SBOA would prepare an annual budget to provide the services and determine the funds necessary. The total amount of the budget was then divided equally for each lot at Salmon Beach and that amount was paid as a Parcel tax by each lot owner. The regional District would allocate those funds to the SBOA who would manage the Beach and ensure those services were provided. Salmon Beach was managed in this fashion until 2004 when the Executive of the SBOA of the day chose to resign and requested the Alberni Clayoquot Regional District take over the function of providing the services to Salmon Beach.
A group of owners approached the ACRD and requested input into the providing of services by the owners. In response the ACRD passed a by-law that created the Salmon Beach Committee (SBC). The SBC is appointed by the ACRD Board of Directors and consists of 5 Salmon Beach owners and the ACRD Director for District C. The SBC under the guidance and approval of the ACRD Board and with the assistance of ACRD staff manages the provision of the services. That is how the services to Salmon Beach are provided today.
The SBOA Today.
Since 2004 the SBOA has continued to function and hold an annual meeting at Salmon Beach following the regularly scheduled meeting between the owners and the SBC on the May long weekend.
. In 2007 a motion was passed at the SBOA Annual meeting that stated that all lot owners at Salmon Beach were members of the SBOA. That motion was never registered with the Society’s Branch of the BC government and upon investigation is not legal as people must choose to join an association.
In reviewing the status of the SBOA some of the current Directors realized that the SBOA could not function as it is because;
- It no longer follows its Constitution and By-laws by providing the services to Salmon Beach,
- There is no definition of who the members are.
In addition there are a couple of issues regarding the SBOA that need resolution. They are;
- The SBOA holds in excess of $8,000 that was collected to provide the services to Salmon Beach but the SBOA is not involved in providing to those services
- The SBOA holds the title to the land the playground and Administration building sits on at Salmon Beach but does not fund liability insurance for this property.
- It is unclear who has the right to vote on any resolution for the above.
Given all of the above a motion was put to the current Directors of the SBOA seeking approval to seek legal advice on all of these matters so the Directors would have more knowledge to bring to the SBOA Annual meeting in May 2012.
The motion received the following vote:
Dave Ingram ( Chair) – In favour
Jill Maibach ( 1st Vice Chair) – In favour
Kel Roberts ( 2nd Vice Chair) – In favour
Gina Skippen ( Treasurer)- In favour
Terry Graff (Secretary) – In favour
Mike Harrison ( Member at large) Abstain
Price Carson ( Member at Large) Abstain
As a result the motion passed and the Directors are moving to secure a legal opinion on all matters related to the SBOA. Once we have that opinion we will post it on the SBC web page to keep all the owners up to speed.
Your SBOA Directors.
OUTCOME:
After meeting with the lawyer we followed his advice and are paying all SBOA outstanding dept and donating the remaining funds to the ACRD to help offset the cost of repairs and upgrades to the Salmon Beach septic system. At a meeting of the 5 member, Directors of the SBOA it was unanimously agreed that once these final financial arrangements were performed we would close the SBOA bank account and dissolve the Society by involuntary dissolution in accordance with the Society Act.
Letter from the lawyer is attached to this page as a PDF - See below