President's Report

June 3, 2009

Newtown Reporter President’s Report – The Year in Review

NECA has made tremendous strides this past board year in re-prioritizing the functions and management of our community association. We experienced a rocky start with the immediate wildcat walk off by 11 employees, designed to cripple the functioning operation of our Recreation Center. It failed as the result of dedication and focused management that we experienced with the temporary hiring of Richard Yamasaki as General Manager. Richard came out of retirement as a property management company owner. He is a longtime NECA resident and agreed to take on the thankless task of keeping our ship afloat on a month to month, no contract basis. He stepped forward the old-fashioned way by agreeing to work and with a handshake he was off to the races. He put in 10 to 12 hours a day nearly every day as our resident users of the facility can attest to. His 3 months became 7 months and we are sad to bid him farewell as he again retires. Mr. Richard Shiroma, a long time NECA resident and a retired US Army civil engineer and former Maintenance Supervisor at NECA for many years has stepped forward to serve as the interim GM while a search is underway for a new permanent hire. At press time we have 39 applicants for the GM vacancy and we hope to have a person selected by 1 July.

When this board assumed its responsibilities the financial position of NECA was chaotic since the former bookkeeper also resigned before we were sworn into office. More than $27,000 in cash and checks were found in a cabinet drawer and nobody trained to insure if the money represented assessments or not. We also were troubled that no audit had been completed for 2007 so we were scrambling to see how our finances were in reality. One thing was evident that since 2004 through the start of this board year in August 2008, NECA had operated in the red ink taking money out of its reserve fund each year. Usually about $30,000 a year. Instead of adding to our reserve fund we were bleeding it to death. As a result we put a freeze on hiring new positions and when we replaced vacancies we did so at a lower pay and eliminated the sweetheart deals that crept into our association. Parties and other frivolous expenses were also eliminated. We still had a small staff Christmas Party at the Recreation Center and as a result of watching the bottom line we are positioned to end this fiscal year significantly below the budget and then we can restart allocating money to our reserve fund like the residents expect. We will be facing the expensive challenge of installing a new roof and it is the board’s intention to do this WITHOUT any special assessment or consideration to raise the assessments. You can do more with less if you try.

The board is renegotiating a lease with Alphabetland that will bring in much needed cash for the next 5 years with the proviso we can re-look after 2 years. A lot of hard work went into the negotiations and many people are responsible for helping.

We had a nasty electrical fire almost as soon as we assumed office and as a result we needed to upgrade smoke alarms, burglar alarms, and our CCTV systems which is still an on-going process. The access control digital machine has been a universal unpopular procedure and that is being corrected. Other resident concerns included the fees to rent our facility and all the restrictions that had become the “law” of the land and served no useful purpose other than to discourage home-owners to rent our facility were rescinded. We also rescinded the unpopular $5 user fee and as a result our Recreation Center is filled to capacity nearly every single day. In fact we are now looking for ways to establish additional parking.

The Program Committee has been busy as have all your committees. They meet on a regular basis and it is evident that things are improving because there is involvement. One of the newer ideas for Program is the Neighbor Helping Neighbor program that has been approved in concept and is under development. Down the line we would like to see more programs for seniors and even a consideration for garden plots.

The City and County owns the land near the outdoor Lavatory facility next to Kaahele. The land next to it will be cleared for a temporary storage yard while the city replaces pipes. The good news is that after 2 years the storage yard will be given to NECA for use as a dog park; or perhaps an overflow parking lot at no cost to us.

The Keiki program has about 70 children and it is one of the activities that operate at a significant deficit. This program is similar to the A+ program at the schools. Parents pay for A+ about $55 a month and the state of Hawaii adds about another $100 per student per month as a subsidy. NECA charges $60 a month and it cost us at least $90 a month, maybe more per student. A meeting was held with parents to see what their recommendations were concerning this program. A lot of discussion was held and it is definite that the parents and the NECA Board want to keep this program, but we need to make it pay for itself. Since that is mission impossible, for 2009-2010 school year, the parents and the board both agreed for a 25% across the board increase for the Keiki and Intercession programs. Parents will pay $75 a month per student.

Board changes. The year started with 2 old board members resigning on day #1 followed by a 3rd old board member resigning a couple of weeks later. As a result of having 3 vacancies the board was able to appoint Lynn Park, a City and County Prosecuting Attorney, Bob Young, a licensed attorney and former board member, and Sun Chong a retired Army Resource Manager who supervised more than 100 accountants during his career. During the board year, Dennis Hiu recently resigned because he had surgery and felt his recovery would take time.

Elections for the next board year will be held during the Annual Meeting on 12 August 2009. The following board incumbents are going to be on the ballot – Don Devaney and Sun Chong.

Committee volunteers are always needed, but the board will appoint new committees in August. Anybody wanting to remain on a particular committee should let Diane Kazama our secretary know as soon as possible.

Finally a salute to our hard working staff. They are becoming a cohesive work-force, all wear a nice NECA polo shirt with nametags and their customer friendliness is improving all the time. We are fortunate to have their dedication.

It has been a pleasure to lead this hard working board this year. My prognosis for the following year is an even sounder financial position. Improved maintenance and replacement of equipment, better user procedures and NO ASSESSMENT increases.

The month of May was a pivotal month for the NECA Board year. Our interim General Manager (GM), Richard Yamasaki, gave us his 30 day notice that will be effective 4 June 2009. Richard stepped up to the plate as a pinch hitter in September 2008 and hit a grand slam home run, saving NECA from a disastrous collapse. He brought to the job years of property management experience and being a longtime resident of NECA his heart and soul was in everything he did for all of us. We owe him our thanks and appreciation as we are now in the process of recruiting for a new GM.

The newtownestates.org Web Page is taking on a new look and I encourage all of you to visit it often and send in your suggestions to Jenna Wong our webmaster. The details of the specifics for the GM position are posted on the web page, please check it out. In addition to personnel changes we are undergoing a reorganization to improve the work process and strengthen the “chain of command” at the Recreation Center. Board member Sun Chong has agreed to be the assistant to Shizuko Hanumi, our hard working Treasurer, and to mentor Debbie Jang our new office manager and bookkeeper. Sun is a retired US Civil Service employee and at one time supervised over 100 accountants for the US Army. He brings a wealth of talent to Newtown. As part of our transitional team at the Recreation Center, Mr. Richard Shiroma, a longtime resident and former Maintenance Supervisor at NECA for many years and a retired US Army Engineer, has agreed to become the interim GM starting 4 June 2009. When he is away from the property the next in charge is Ms. Debbie Jang, office manager and bookkeeper. Jerry Ha is now the night manager. Jerry has been working part-time as a maintenance person and party manager and now we are expanding his responsibilities.

We experienced a difficulty with the Covenant enforcement process during the month of May with an out of the blue citation being issued to homeowners who have reinforced their perimeter fencing to protect their dogs from running away or biting people passing by. As we all know NECA is a community that has many walkers and it is wonderful to see people exercising and walking their pets. It is only prudent that those homeowners who have pets inside their yard take every precaution. Some have posted “Beware of Dog” signs, others have added protective fencing. For some unknown reason the Architectural Committee, in my opinion incorrectly, interpreted one of their guidelines concerning exterior walls facing the street, and told the Covenant inspector to issue citations to these homeowners, which have now been suspended. Common sense needs to prevail in our community. We had enough problems when the previous administration incorrectly interpreted the MDCCR concerning deeds and we don’t need to have our community’s pet owners up in arms again.

The Program Committee reviewed all the rules we had in place concerning facility rental. Mrs. Sue Savio our insurance agent was present. Naturally our insurance agent prefers more deep pockets between the homeowner and the insurance company, thus a false sense of protection was implemented against our residents when renting our facilities. We checked with Mililani Town Association and Kapolei concerning their procedures for renting their facilities for parties. None had the burdensome requirements that we did and therefore we are in the process of making changes. The committee voted to end the requirement of a homeowner to bring a copy of their homeowner’s insurance policy when renting the facility. Also it rescinded the requirement to purchase an extra million dollars of insurance coverage if alcohol is being served at a party. They also eliminated the requirement of a law enforcement officer at any party that does not serve alcohol. When alcohol is being served there will remain a requirement to hire an off-duty law enforcement individual contractor and not a uniformed officer. More to follow as we modify the application form and initiate other changes.

We are looking at a better way to allow access to the Recreation Center as everybody knows the biometric machine is an unmitigated disaster.

We owe our appreciation to Dr. Diane Matsuoka for taking the time to present a mission and vision statement that everybody can own. She came twice at no charge to train staff, management and volunteers.

Our staff now wears NECA shirts and will soon all have nametags and practice the N-E-C-A motto, “Never Ending Caring Attitude!”

Sincerely,

Don Devaney, President