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I got my ballot yesterday for the TRLA Annual Membership meeting set for May 28th. The current Board of six members, none of who have stood before the entire membership for election, will have controlled the destiny of TRLA for one year by then. Potentially, they face some big issues about the future of TRLA depending upon when the New Mexico courts deliver final decisions in the three pending lawsuits.

I think it is an appropriate time to look back and try and offer some perspective on the recurring themes I have seen throughout their first year. Clearly, I have an outsider's view, but one that is relatively close because amongst several of my fellow full-time residents we have attended all five of the public boards meetings and deeply care about Timberlake Ranch and what goes on around us. The website, reflects our concern.

The board held their first public board meeting in six months on March 5th (weather delayed it from February), and I was overwhelmed by the amount of information presented to the twenty or so landowners in attendance. I do not want to see this happen to you should you choose to attend the annual meeting, which I encourage you attend to learn more about the issues presented here.

The board will not always agree - actually may never agree-with what is presented here and I encourage you to challenge this perspective by asking the board about it. It is hard to dot your i's and cross your t's every time when there are only six public board meetings in a year and three newsletters, some of which don't tell you much about the issues before us.

So why should you care? Without the association the future of Timberlake Ranch is up for grabs. It is the association that collects assessment fees to maintain the common areas and side roads. It is the association that enforces the Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs). Multiple associations will complicate the management of the ranch and add competition for already limited resources. No CC&Rs may allow your neighbor to subdivide their property or to place a manufactured home next to your land. Such actions will decrease the value of your investment here by lowering property values and destroying the character and charm that is Timberlake Ranch. As one landowner put it, "Timberlake will no longer be a place where nature is not overpowered by man."

So, let's see what this board has focused upon: 1. The lawsuits and their associated costs; 2. the legality of the association as it currently exists; 3. the CC&Rs; 4. the roads; and 5. a few other expenses associated with running the association, such as website maintenance, the newsletter and telephone costs.

Lawsuits

As late as the March board meeting, the board continues to convey the misperception that past TRLA boards were responsible for all three of the current lawsuits. This is incorrect. The Garcia case is the only lawsuit filed by a past board. The McGarry and Allen lawsuits were filed against past boards.

The costs in litigating these suits have been incurred by the association on the behalf of you, the landowners, primarily to defend the association's right to enforce the CC&Rs prohibitions against manufactured housing and its right to collect assessment fees through mandatory membership in order to maintain the common areas and roads of Timberlake Ranch.

The current board has shouted loudly about past legal expenses, noting in the last newsletter, "the amount of money which was spent by the previous boards on lawyers and lawsuits…in less than six years…totaled approximately $89,000". This averages out to be $14,833/year, and, yet, if you look at the financial statement sent with the same newsletter, this board has spent $16,610 on legal fees as of the end of February.

This is the board's report on all three lawsuits on March 5th:

Allen Case: Mr. Ken Cassutt has filed his last brief in this lawsuit. His cover letter stated it will most likely be six months to a year before we hear from the court and it probably will not ask for oral arguments. For now it is all over but the wait for a court decision.

Garcia Case: Been waiting to hear on this case, too, for the last six months. Expecting a decision at any time. No money is being spent here

McGarry Case: A hearing is being held on Monday, March 7, 2005 to request a Summary Judgment.

Legality of TRLA

Mr. Wallace first spoke in June about breaking up the association into several smaller ones based upon a letter from Mr. Ken Cassutt, the former TRLA attorney. This was a proposal - one way in his opinion- to resolve the legality of our landowner's association. This issue is before the courts in one of the lawsuits yet to be decided. In the eyes of many, this has become unofficial board policy, contrary to statements from Mr. Wallace stating this is not so.

Mr. Wallace has repeatedly said he believes breaking up the association will make managing the Timberlake Ranch and its common areas easier. Other alternatives, such as waiting for the court decisions to tell us what is wrong with the current structure and then fixing these problems appear to be falling on deaf ears.

Covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs)

To my knowledge the board has made no progress regarding the CC&Rs., other than to obtain an outdated copy from a member of the previous board sometime before March.

It is my understanding that under the direction of Barbara Lambert, the previous board president, a rewriting of the CC&Rs was completed and legally reviewed at least once. She still retains this copy and has been willing to turn it over to the current board at any time as long as they sign a legal release for it. I do not understand the reasoning behind this, but at the March board meeting, Mr. Williams made a significant effort to let those in attendance know he had obtained an older copy from a previous board member.

My question is, after almost a year, why hasn't the board obtained Lambert's copy if it is the best and most up to date and all that is required is signing a release? There has been no explanation from either party as to what this dance is all about. How much more time and money is going to be spent/wasted in legal fees repeating work already done? And I thought the mantra of this board was no more lawyers!

I still have two more areas to cover, but this is enough to digest. I will take up the roads, the proposed Public Improvement District, property taxes and a few odds and ends next time. Look for Part II later in the week!

Ah, politics - you gotta love them or not! Either way, I hope you find this helpful. -- Your Fellow Landowners David Skinner and D'vorah Curtis

As We See It…Let’s Get Educated (Part II)

I want to reiterate our main purpose here is to educate landowners about the issues before us all and board actions regarding them. We may be critical at times. However, if the membership does not hold our board accountable for its actions and its decisions, how will they improve their performance or consider alternatives?

Roads

This winter has been very hard on the dirt and gravel roads here at Timberlake. Warmer than usual temperatures and higher amounts of rain and snow have contributed to create difficult driving conditions. Due to road conditions, UPS and FedEx refused to deliver packages to Timberlake residents and the provision of emergency services was almost impossible.

Currently Cibola and McKinley counties are required to provide road maintenance to Timberlake Ranch Road in accordance with its classification as a recreational road. This equates to grading it twice a year. To their credit, Cibola County graveled the road from the entrance of Cloh Chin Toh to the cattle guard before the fire station last summer. Unfortunately, you will have a hard time finding much of it on the road today. To their credit, McKinley graveled Timberlake from the firehouse to the Box S a month ago. However, no one appears to be taking responsibility for the section from the cattle guard to the firehouse, and to my knowledge the board is not dealing with this issue. It shows when you drive on it.

It is interesting to note this board has spent 60% less on culverts, driveways and road gravel than the previous board as of the end of February ($3,347 vs. $8,562). Yet, with the roads in the worst shape long time residents can remember, this board has spread gravel in some interesting places. Two loads of gravel were spread in front of the boat landing at the lake in November, just before our first winter snow (and now under water.) Gravel was spread in front of Mr. Dick Fishers place after he had left for the winter. And the portion of Lobo from Sagebrush to just past the entrance to Mr. Joseph DeLorenzo’s property, our newest appointed TRLA board member, was graveled in early April. (In his introduction to the membership in March, Joseph noted he has never seen any gravel spread in front of his cabin since he has been coming here for weekend fishing and hiking trips.) I suppose it is just a matter of priorities, but it seems to me with winter approaching and given the shape of other more heavily traveled side roads the limited amount of gravel could have been put to a more beneficial community use.

It is also interesting to note that the board does not seem to understand the usefulness of the dump truck used so effectively in past winters to gravel trouble spots on TRLA side roads, something that sure could have been effective around the ranch this winter.

Now the board wants to step out from taking any responsibility for the side roads entirely. At the March board meeting, they finally elaborated on their proposed plan to create Public Improvement Districts (PID) within the boarders of Timberlake Ranch. These would enable the counties to recoup the costs of improving all the roads in Timberlake from recreational to residential (Class C), a requirement for the counties to accept responsibility for their maintenance.

To do this, all side roads would have to be widened to a minimum of 34 feet—22 feet of gravel, 4 feet of shoulder on each side (add an additional 8 feet) and drainage/bar ditches of requiring about 2 more feet on each side. Picture Timberlake Ranch Road transposed on top of all of our side roads. And this will help do what--improve the charm and character of Timberlake Ranch?

McKinley County estimated it would cost $7.4 million to upgrade the 24 miles of side roads in its jurisdiction, which the board has been able to reduce through negotiations to “a little less than $3 million”. I don’t know what went away with that $4.4 million reduction, but I would like to know. There is no estimate at this time from Cibola County to upgrade the side roads on the ranch in its jurisdiction.

Through the PID, which requires the approval of 51% of all landowners, each county will recoup the cost of “improving” our roads through issuing bonds and then assessing a property tax surcharge of an undetermined amount on the acreage you own.

I am no expert on bonds, but I did talk to someone who knows something about them. He said the complexity of factors that go into issuing a municipal bond (most likely a general obligation bond in this case) is what makes the increase in property taxes unknown at this time. The bond rating (if any), credit rating of the municipal entity issuing the bond, legal expenses, underwriter costs, property assessment values, weighting repayment of the bond on term and associated interest rates are some of the factors that will impact the total cost of what we will have to repay. These costs will be added to the “little under $3 M” for the upgrades.

These things we know: there are approximately 480 5+ acre parcels in McKinley County and that upgrading the 24 miles of roads is now estimated to cost just under $3,000,000. So, let’s be conservative and say total costs for improvements and services to issue the bond cost $3 million even. Based on variety of factors, here is an ESTIMATED range of what McKinley County landowners might see added to their property tax bill for five to twenty years depending upon how the bond is structured:

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Based on these assumptions, your property tax surcharge might range from a low of $314 per year for 20 years to a high of $1,251 per year for five years to upgrade the roads just in McKinley County. In exchange for doing this, the board estimates it will be able to reduce your annual assessment fees to about $25 per year. Remember, there are no estimates available for Cibola County residents yet.

So we get wider roads maintained by the counties by trading-off lower assessment fees for higher taxes for five to twenty years. Okay, but what else do we get with this deal? Certainly fewer trees, a loss of the “backwoods” feel to much of Timberlake Ranch, and a (McKinley) county maintenance budget estimated at $195 per mile per year. This is a total of $4,680 per year to maintain 24 miles of side roads.

I am not a civil engineer, but this sounds woefully inadequate to me considering Cibola County estimates it will take $35,000 to grade, gravel and install culverts on the one-mile section of BIA road coming into Timberlake. Another winter like this one and we will be back where we are now—mud, ruts, mud puddles akin to lakes, and no gravel. Maybe we will be able to raise money for the additional maintenance costs to repair our roads by creating a reality TV show entitled “Mud Wrestling for Cars and Trucks!”

Odds and Ends

In the April TRLA newsletter, the board responded to a letter I personally handed to each board member in attendance, with the exception of Mr. DeLorenzo who I did not know had been appointed. In my letter I attempted to explain that much of the opposition they have encountered from the 70 landowners who signed the complaint sent to the Attorney General stemmed from their style of operation and lack of communication.

To this point, I found it very interesting that nothing was mentioned about the proposed PID plan in the April newsletter even though it was a significant portion of the March board meeting. This is leaving landowners in the dark, and without any prior knowledge it will leave many overwhelmed when the issue is finally presented for decisions to be made. I was certainly overwhelmed by the end of the last board meeting when much of this information was presented.

Finally, here is what galls me the most about this board. They have repeatedly castigated past boards “for having done nothing”. This is code for a perceived lack of action on the roads, a lack of action on the CC&Rs, and a belief that the amount of money spent on lawyers, lawsuits, newsletters and telephones has been excessive and irresponsible. And they have come to town to set things right!

I find this to be an appalling level of self-rightness, arrogance, and disrespect for all the hard work that past boards and those serving on them have done in your behalf to maintain Timberlake Ranch. Unfortunately, they have often appeared (though not always) to be a bunch of angry old men, interested in listening only to themselves, and not very open to community involvement or hearing alternative solutions. No person is perfect and neither is any board. It is time for them to pull the lumber from their own eyes, begin taking responsibility for their actions, and stop pointing fingers at everyone else.

We are hoping the election of two new board members brings a change in this board’s attitude and a new spirit of community to Timber Ranch. --Your Fellow Landowners, David Skinner and D’vorah Curtis

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