| Aloha Welcome to the March 2022 edition of the Makaha Valley Plantation newsletter! The aim of this newsletter is to bring you the latest MVP news, project updates, and help to inform the community on the Westside. General Meeting Our annual meeting is fast approaching where owners can meet, raise issues and questions, and hold general elections. The general meeting will be held at: 9am – March 19, 2022 Makaha Valley Country Club 84-627 Makaha Valley Rd. Waianae, HI 96792 Owners should now have received and returned your proxy packet but if you have had any issues, please reach out to Chester at Touchstone https://makahavalleyplantation.org/contact/. You can also read our Proxy FAQ at https://makahavalleyplantation.org/proxy-form-faq/ to get a better understanding of the proxy process. Parking situation at MVP MVP was built in the mid 1970’s and was originally designed to be more of a resort type property and not a residential community. Society has changed, having a car was sort of a luxury. Now having two cars is almost a requirement for most families. With 101 parking spaces, for residence to rent, from the association, it isn’t enough. There is a two-year waiting list. We only have 47 visitor’s parking space with some areas not having any visitor spaces. So, there is a lot of competition for parking spaces. Some homeowners who have a second car are so desperate for a second parking space they park their vehicles in someone else’s space without approval, especially if they know they are out of town or take up a visitor space. Some homeowners are here only part time and keep their car in their space. If they have a guest use their unit. Where does the guest park, well, in the visitor stall parking? If there is only one visitor parking space in your area and you have a guest come over, where do they park? So, some guidelines needed to be made that would make it fair for everyone. It was decided that we must limit the amount of time a visitor can stay overnight and occupy a visitor stall. If you have a guest staying in your unit and your parking stall is empty, your guest can stay in your stall as-long-as they are staying in your unit. If your car is parked in your stall and if a guest is staying in your unit they are only allotted 10 overnight parking passes per month. This is on a trial basis to see how it works out with guest parking in your unit’s stall. We need to accommodate everyone and so explain that to your guest about our parking situation, so they know what to expect when they arrive. Nobody knows Do any of you know anything about the Board members and their backgrounds? Let’s start with Regan. When it comes to construction, he is our man. With 44 years of international construction knowledge. His last major project was building the Atlantis Hotel in the Bahamas. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know too many people with those kinds of credentials. We are very fortunate to have him on the Board. He has assisted with reviewing plans, and he also helped write the specification for the PV System and the contract that is underway. Then you have Tommy and Kathy who have been real estate developers in San Diego and Hawaii. You know being a developer takes a whole another level of understanding construction. You must have the vision and understand the whole dynamics of getting a project off the ground through completion and then leasing it up to make it successful. That is not something you read about in a book, you must go through the trials and tribulations to work out the problems. Larry has been a Union Steward for 25 plus years as well as running the union as President for 12 years he has worked on investigations on behalf of his union members as well as management. This involved contracts, safety, security, and regulations that helped run the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. He also served 5 years active duty in the Army with a tour in Vietnam. We thank him for his service. His background helps to oversee our Security and Personnel at MVP. Patrick is our Medical / Psychological person having worked in a hospital and school environment he provides and introspective view on matters and has been a great sounding board for all of us. Andrew our newest member has been instrumental in upgrading our communication system and the creation of our newsletter. Greg has been in the arena of finance for the greater part of his life. With 35 years as a commercial real estate agent, a financial planner, obtained his series 6 and 26 securities licenses, a business broker, a Reginal Vice President with a national insurance company and over a decade as a VP and Senior Business Banking officer at Central Pacific Bank, currently working with some of the largest architectural firms in the State on parking solution integration. Security at MVP There seems to be some confusion about what our Security people can and cannot do here on MVP. Hopefully, we can clear this up. Some believe that our Security are like police officers. They aren’t. The City and State do not grant them that kind of power. They can enforce our House Rules, and in the case of people breaking the law, as in spouse abuse happening on the property, they call the police. Yes, we can and do cite them for noise complaints, but the abused must press charges for the police to arrest the abusers in most cases. If the abused person does not press charges against the abuser, we can do nothing. We can appear as witnesses, and our reports on the incident are evidence. There seems to be a perception that when a resident calls Security about noise from another unit or some other complaint, our Security does nothing about it. False. Security will come down, investigate the complaint, and follow up. If in the say noise complaint, the security personnel find it accurate and going on when they are there, they will ask the residents of that unit to keep the noise down. If they must return and find it going on, they will issue a citation. Now, this is where many think nothing is being done. Security is not allowed to tell you what kind of action has been taken other than they have issued a citation. They cannot tell you if it resulted in a fine, how much the fine was, or anything of that nature. We must deal with the Privacy Act, which prevents us from telling you precisely what Security did. We cannot put them on blast or anything else. If applicable, the unit tenant and owner would get a copy of the citation and the fine amount. In the case of a renter, the owner may pay that fine and then collect what has owed them from their tenant. If there were too many citations, the owner would evict the offender in the past. If you’re wondering if the owner does nothing about that tenant, then be assured that we have our attorneys get on it and tell the owner to evict the tenant. To my knowledge, we have never had to go further than that before the owner has evicted the tenant. Be assured that your complaints do not get ignored, but sometimes it can take some time to get the unit back to normal. We all get frustrated when it seems to take a long time to get something done, but we must follow the law. I hope this clears up some of the misconceptions that take place here in MVP. Thank you! To be continued. Controlling The Coop Our maintenance crew has been hard at work removing chickens and eggs! In February 15 chickens were caught and removed, 7 of which were roosters. The City and County of Honolulu themselves is working to reduce the number of feral chickens on the island, and they provide helpful information and phone numbers here: https://www.honolulu.gov/rep/site/csd/Feral_Chicken_Info_Sheet.pdf |
Living Aloha on the west side of Oahu