Landscaping and association common grounds maintenance

In watching our landscapers and maintenance personnel. It has become extremely obvious that the performance and duties leaves a lot to be desired. Yes, the statement beauty is in the eyes of the beholder may be true, but after so many years in the Association I have seen top-quality workers. Does the management company and board have the final say on Association maintenance. Who determines our maintenance and upkeep, and then when the quality of workmanship is substandard, how can this be rectified?. Just how should the maintenance and the upkeep of association be kept to standards.
Rich.

Our HOA we were only responsible for lawncare. The HOA board hired the lawncare. Due to the variance between workmanship and other considerations, we always bid it out yearly. Does not mean we did not keep the existing one if they were doing a good job. It just meant that their contract was only yearly in case their level of lawncare was not adequate.

We can of gauged it by the number of complaints coming from the owners. Plus if it's pretty obvious not doing a good job. Remember board members are also having the same lawncare if it's for the entire place.

Having a 3 bid process for every bid helped us with renewing the good, weeding out the bad, and giving raises to those whom deserved it. Plus it helped figure out what should or should not be in the contract.

We are patio homes (1500sq ft units and about 15 ft between homes) with 40 side by side, single story duplexes and 30, single, one and two story homes for 112 owners. All units have a backyard surround by a 7 ft privacy fence. With the exception of inside this fence, the HOA does all landscaping. It is our highest expense (30% of our budget) and most controversial subject. When I say controversial one example is people complain about bush/shrub trimming. Some say we cut them to low. Others say we let them get to high. We know we will never be able to make everyone happy. We do not allow any owner landscape modification, plantings, etc. outside the fenced in area. What you do inside the fence is your business. Grow dope for all we care.

Out of BOD of 5, one Director is always complaining about the landscaping. At a recent BOD Director Meeting he was asked what do you suggest we do. He said hire a better landscaper. Our present landscaper has been with us for 2 years. Our prior one was with us for 3 years but he wanted a 20% increase. I asked my fellow Director do you think our present land scape does a better job then our prior landscaper? He replied yes. He says overall they do a good job but he wants the finer things like flower planting, bushes trimmed more often, trees trimmed more often etc. The other 4 BOD Members, myself included, said we are happy with it as is and anything additional is going to cost money. We are raising dues beginning in 01/01/2022 and we agreed to look at some additional services form our landscaper like flower bed planting, etc.

Bottom line, is landscaping will always be controversial as it is the first thing people see. Some will be more interested in flower beds then other aspects of landscaping.

Yes, the board should be the authority on landscaping planning and execution of those plans. When I first was elected to the board, the previous board had an agenda item to address the two community entrances.
The Landscape company sent a bid that was more for a million dollar gated community. We went back and forth to whittle down the amount of plants. We first started with pulling the dead and ruined plants from
the previous landscaper and having just rock refresh at the entrances. After going back and forth on landscape planning for almost a year, we finally settled on a nice landscape plan that fit our budged.

It was good timing too because we were able to use reserve funds because our reserve study called for a landscaping refresh.