Category: HOA Announcements

2020 Annual Meeting Wrap-Up

There was no quorum for the annual meeting. See a draft of meeting minutes here:

Traditionally we have held the annual member meeting and election of board of directors in September of each year. Due to extra planning required to conduct an online meeting, this year’s annual meeting and election was postponed to November.

All members of the Rio Crossing Homeowners Association were sent candidate application forms in September, and a meeting notice with a hard-copy ballot and postage-paid return envelope in October, with an early November deadline.

A quorum is normally described as the number of people that need to be present at a meeting in order to conduct business, such as an election. Arizona statutes (ARS 33-1812) state that absentee ballots also count toward a meeting quorum.

Our Bylaws state that one-tenth of the Eligible Votes constitute a quorum, and with all members eligible to vote and 345 homes in the community, the quorum requirement is 35. There were 28 absentee ballots to be counted as “present,” and only 3 association members present — all of whom had already voted absentee ballots, so their presence did not add to the number “present” for purposes of quorum.

What happens to the election? Nothing. The election is part of the business of the annual meeting, and there was no quorum, so no business can be conducted.

Who are the directors now? The incumbent directors — those previously in office at the time of the election — remain in office, per the association bylaws in section 3.1.

This is the second consecutive year with no quorum at the annual meeting. Quorum was present in 2016, 2017, and 2018, and historically not very often before that.

Thank you to those of you that took the time to send in an absentee ballot.

Annual Member Meeting

Information about the annual member meeting and election of board of directors was sent via postal mail to all owners mid-October. Deadline for receipt of ballots is 5:30pm Wednesday November 4.

The login information for the meeting was sent with the ballot packet. It is not published online due to privacy and “event bombing” concerns. Contact our Community Manager Lisa or one of the incumbent board members for information if you can’t find yours.

Annual Meeting and Election Postponed

At its regular board meeting in early July, the board made the decision to postpone the annual member meeting and board election to Thursday, November 5, 2020.

Note: It was originally rescheduled for November 12, 2020, but that’s the day after Veteran’s Day; it was moved forward a week to November 5.

Like most people, we were hopeful and optimistic that the COVID-19 situation would be way better by now. While there is some indication that the situation may be improving, the board indicated an intention to move forward with an online meeting in November.

“But we usually meeting in September — don’t we have to meet every September?” While we’d love to stick with tradition, the association’s bylaws state “An annual meeting of the Members of the Association shall be held at least once each year…”, which is generally understood to mean once during each calendar year.

At the board’s next meeting (scheduled for September), we’ll review and approve an election process and meeting approach being worked on by the president, the community manager, and the association’s attorney.

If you are new to Rio Crossing, the process for the election usually goes something like this:

  1. The management company sends out a “call for candidates”, and anyone wanting to submit their name for the ballot fills out and returns a form.
  2. The management company prepares a ballot and a candidate information handout.
  3. The ballot, candidate information handout, and a postage-paid return envelope are mailed to each owner’s address (mailing addresses may be different than the property addresses for some owners).
  4. Owners submit a ballot (1 ballot per lot owned) per the included instructions via postal mail, email, or fax; alternatively, an owner can chose to attend the meeting in person and cast a ballot there.
  5. During the annual meeting the ballots are tallied and the results announced.

Obviously, if the meeting is online and not in-person, then it’s not possible to “come to the meeting and vote”. Also, there are some alternate methods of voting electronically, but to meet the security and processing requirements of an association’s governing documents and various state statutes, available suitable electronic voting technologies tend to be cost-prohibitive.

We’ll send more information out just after the September board meeting. We will do what we can to facilitate the election process and everyone’s attendance at an online meeting. The last few board meetings have been hosted by PDS using the GoToMeeting online service, and a few homeowners have “attended” the meetings successfully, so we’re confident that this will work well.

Anecdotal information from other HOAs is that online annual meetings have been much better attended than prior in-person meetings. We hope that is the case here in Rio Crossing, and look forward to seeing you online!

July 2020 Board Meeting

The July 2020 Board Regular Board Meeting will be held Thursday July 9 at 7pm. It will be conducted online, hosted by PDS’s GoToMeeting account.

Homeowners are invited to attend, as usual. Please contact community manager Lisa Riesland to register and obtain the login information.

Playgrounds and Picnic Areas Reopen

From the Mailing List archive (subscribe here).

Hopefully by now you’ve heard that Governor Ducey has released additional executive orders which rescind, modify, or update previous orders,  In general, there is an easing of some of the previous restrictions along with additional guidance, and some timelines exist for future adjustments.

In accordance with his new executive orders, and based on numerous opinions from a variety of sources, Rio Crossing will remove the “caution tape” and prohibitive signs at playgrounds and picnic areas throughout the community’s common areas in the next day or so.

However, new signs will be placed which advises and reminds visitors to those spaces that certain precautions are still required, and that use of common area space remains at your own risk.  The following guidelines should be followed at a minimum:

  • If you are sick (not just with COVID-19,but with any potentially contagious disease), stay away from playgrounds, picnic areas, and other common areas to the extent possible.
  • Continue to observe social/physical distance guidelines of 6-foot separation in these areas.
  • Avoid these areas if you are in a high risk category.  This includes adults 65 or older and people of any age who have serious underlying conditions.
  • While visiting/utilizing these areas, don’t touch your eyes, nose, or mouth.
  • After leaving these areas, use hand sanitizer and/or wash your hands (recommended washing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds).

Additional public health guidance is available from sources such as the Center for Disease ControlArizona Department of Health ServicesUS Department of Labor, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

As situations warrant, we’ll continue to update you through this mailing list and the various community social media venues.

Please do your part to stay healthy and reduce the risk of becoming infected, and be watchful of those who need supervision.

May Board Meeting

This is an online-only meeting.

Homeowners are invited to attend. Please contact our Community Manager Lisa at [email protected] for details.

Date: Thursday May 14, 2020
Time: 7pm – Open Session

Street Work Next Week!

April 6 thru 9, 2020

You should have received a notice from the City of Avondale and Sunland Asphalt about the street work being done in Rio Crossing next week, Monday through Thursday, April 6 thru 9.

This is important! Please read!

If you did not receive the document, I’ve scanned it an made it available… click here to download.

Important notes:

  • This is for next week – April 6 thru 9
  • Roma Avenue and streets to the south will be done Monday and Tuesday.
  • Streets north of Roma Avenue will be done Wednesday and Thursday.
  • Look carefully at the document to determine when your street will be worked on. Pay particular attention to which side of the street is being done on which day.
  • Your car will be towed if parked on the wrong side of the street. Move it before 7am.
  • If you run irrigation, it must not put water into the street. See the document for details.
  • Trash and Recycle Bins must be out at 5am!! I believe they’ll pick up early those days to be done and out of the way before the street crews arrive
  • Don’t drive on fresh street material!!

Please read the document for full details!!
Be sure to view the map on page 2!!

Town Hall – Landscape Revitalization Project

We previously announced a Town Hall meeting for 11am on March 21 at the Roma Park Ramada/picnic area. Due to COVID-19 concerns and to facilitate more participation, we’re moving this meeting to an electronic meeting… same time and date: Saturday March 21 at 11am.

Now you can participate from your computer or smart phone wherever you happen to be. I recommend starting the connection process 5-10 minutes ahead of time. Go to this page for details on how to join the meeting.

March 2020 News!

You can get your March 2020 news in so many ways!

If you want to watch (or re-watch!) specific items from the YouTube video, but don’t want to wade through all of them, look for the topic below and click the link to go direct to that topic in the video:

  1. Check your first quarter assessments – link
  2. Heatherbrae Entrance and the Landscape Revitalization Pilot Project – link
  3. Community Town Hall – Saturday March 21 at 11am at Roma Park – link
  4. Monthly Meeting Dates and Venue Changes – next meeting Thursday March 12 at Avondale City Hall – link
  5. Revisions to Policies: Collections, Violation & Fines – link
  6. Register for access at RioCrossing.org – link
  7. Changes to Architectural Request Review Process – changes to Design Review Committee meeting processes – link
  8. Can You Volunteer an Hour a Month? – link
  9. Holiday Decorations Should Be Down By Now – link
  10. Vehicle Parking on Lot and Bulk Trash Violations – link
  11. Maintenance of Home Exteriors – link
  12. Upcoming Social Events – link
  13. Tenant Registration Policy – link
  14. Tot Lot Sand Sifting – link
  15. Avondale Police Department Community Resource Program – visit by Officer Archer and Vice Mayor Pat Dennis – link

Meeting Date and Venue Changes!

The March regular board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 12, 2020 at 7pm at the Avondale Civic Center.

It’s hard to find a meeting location that is affordable, reasonably close by, available year-round, and with adequate facilities. The meeting location we’ve used for the past year significantly raised their rates once we changed management companies, and the accommodations were often noisy and accompanied by problems with building access. We met for a long time at nearby schools, but they’re closed (or difficult to get access to) in the summer and we often had problems getting the rooms unlocked.

So, starting with the March 2020 meeting, we’re going back to the Avondale Civic Center located at 11465 Civic Center Drive in Avondale, along Avondale Blvd just south of I-10. Their rooms are spacious, easy to set up, generally have overhead projectors and WiFi availability, good bathroom facilities, and a guard who ensures we have access and provides a level of facility security we don’t have at other venues.

Almost as hard as finding a place, is finding a date where all of the five board members are able to attend. People are busy! To help us maximize board participation, we might shake it up a bit and meet in different weeks of the month, but it’s shaping up that Thursdays are more available for most of us. That’s why you’ll see the March meeting is the second Thursday of the month.

See this page for more information about the meeting location and other details.