Initial Draft of Reserve Study

Into which category of exec session topics, as listed at https://www.davis-stirling.com/HOME/E/Executive-Session-Meetings, does this fall, in your opinion?

Because the board would be discussing matters very specific to the HOA, I say this is not a work session nor executive session but the stuff of a properly noticed, open board meeting.

The Board discussing a reserve study draft must be done in an open meeting in Calif. I'm wondering why you'd want to discuss the draft in secret????

If you really want the Board to understand the draft study, I urge you to invite the reserve analyst to present & explain it at an open board meeting. This will help owners too, who usually have no understanding of a reserve study. Our former & current RS's were eager to present the study to all and at no charge.

I believe you previously had a lot of questions about the tile roofs to this forum. How much remaining useful life has your current RS assigned to the roofing underlayment (if that's the right word) ? (We know the tiles can be re-used.

What everyone else said. There's nothing wrong with discussing this in an open meeting - since it will ultimately affect assessments, this is the type of thing the board SHOULD be discussing in front of the homeowners so they can understand the backstory around assessment increases rather then just raising them because they can.

You should have the reserve study specialist sit in on the meeting so he or she can explain why this roof replacement is so important and show the numbers. You said previous boards didn't seem to pay much attention to this, and you're probably right. Roof replacement isn't a small thing and it's not at all cheap, so some people go into the see no evil, hear no evil mode and pretend the problem isn't as bad as it looks, hope it'll resolve itself - or everything will go to crap after they've left the community for whatever reason.

This is a draft study after all, and boards can amend portions of it, but that shouldn't be done solely because people squawk at the cost. When the board has settled on a final version, ask the reserve specialist to make a presentation at a special homeowners meeting where people can hear the results of the entire study and ask questions. Ultimately, the board has to approve the budget, so if you know assessments will go up (and they will), you can also go into detail on what people can expect regarding maintenance.

I'm just remembering, Susan. Concrete roof tiles, if reasonably maintained should last 50-60 years. But the underlayment, if never yet replaced, certainly is due as it only last 20 years or thereabouts.