Each year the Association’s volunteer Board of Directors performs a very careful review of the past year’s expenses and income to best project the amount to collect from each member in the upcoming fiscal year. When reviewing the budget, the Board considers several factors such as: recurring contract costs, inflation, utility usage and rates, insurance, and appropriate reserve contributions each month to pay for repair, restoration and/or replacement of common area components as needed.
There were several factors that impacted the Association’s budget for this upcoming fiscal year. The cost of labor and materials is on the rise, and those increases are financially impacting the Association through contract increases from service providers and increased costs of maintenance and repair projects. The cost of utilities goes up every year, and this particular year, a 20% increase in the cost of electricity and water is reflective in the 2022-2023 budget.
This past year, a change in landscape maintenance vendor was made which impacted the budget for landscape by nearly 50%. The new company discovered that the irrigation on the slopes behind the homes at Santa Gustavo and the slopes adjacent to the homes along Santa Sofia was not functioning at optimum capacity. After conducting an extensive irrigation audit with Andre Landscape and Monarch Environmental, it was determined that the irrigation pump was not working properly, as it had insufficient pressure and was unable to pump water from a lower level to a higher level to adequately irrigate the slopes. A repair was made to the irrigation pump and the Board is now in the process of having it inspected and plans to continue a recommended preventative maintenance program to ensure this does not happen again.
Each year the Association has a reserve study prepared to determine the current level of reserve funding for the existing components. The recommended reserve contributions were increased by 37% for this upcoming year in order to adequately fund the reserves and meet anticipated expenses. Due to these factors, the Board of Directors has determined that an increase of 10.87% is needed to responsibly meet the Association’s financial needs in the upcoming fiscal year. Please note that effective August 1, 2022, your new monthly assessment will be $153.00 per month. If you are on auto-pay, please be sure to adjust your payment to the new assessment amount.
The Board recognizes that the timing of an assessment
