News From Board of Directors

Friends and Neighbors,

Major initiative number three is now complete and we have secured landscape maintenance services for the 2024-
25 contract year at a contract rate of $36,680, which is a whopping $21,456 below the budgetary forecast of
$58,406. This result was accomplished by developing our own detailed bid specifications, developing our own
contract that required more favorable terms and protections for the association, and competitively bidding across a
large cross-section of the industry. We were looking for an opportunity to partner with a growth-focused company
that is fully capable of meeting our needs, but isn’t so big that we are just another account. We looked for
companies that Valencia would be their most important account, and as such we can expect to receive the
attention and responsiveness that companies provide to their largest and most important account. In business, the
exchange of value can take many forms and fees charged are only one of those forms of value. Other, nonmonetary
value in the form of a solid platform to grow a business resulted in an extremely competitive fee to go
along with the most important account status we will have with this supplier. Some members of the community
utilize Domex Lawn Care for their own property, myself included, and while my experience with them is over 2
years, other homeowners have an experience base with Domex that spans 8 or 9 years. The common themes of
those that use and continue to use this contractor is that they work very hard to go a good job, they take personal
pride in the quality of their work, and when adjustments need to be made to align expectation, they are very
responsive and take all feedback constructively. All exceptional qualities for us to have in an important business
partner.

The contract itself has several important features that serve Valencia better than the practice of signing the service
provider’s contract. As the old saying goes. ‘he who writes the contract wins’, the differences between the old
contract and the new contract illustrate this perfectly. Some of those features are:

• The new contract pays in arrears as opposed to in advance so we pay for services have received the
previous month as opposed to paying up-front for the coming month. An important difference that again
keeps the performance incentives where they should be.

 

• Provides for contractor responsibility for liability and workers compensation insurance coverage for their
employees and any subcontractors employees, including requiring that Valencia be added as a named
insured on the contractor’s liability and workers compensation policies. This is important so that we can
(and did) eliminate the need to buy a separate policy to cover a fear that our contractor will leave us
exposed.

 

• Required indemnification for any liabilities arising from the execution of services on our property.

 

• Specific waiver of subrogation to shield us from contractors’ insurance companies coming after the
association for any losses experienced as a result of their insured contractor.

 

• Requires contractors to avoid rolling mower tires directly over sprinkler heads and making them
responsible for any repair of any damage caused in this way. This drives significant repair cost for which
the contractor will now be responsible.

 

• Requires certification of compliance with all federal and state employment laws, including E-Verify.

With the first initiative improving the financial performance of the association by $10,365 per year, the second
delivering insurance policies at $5,205 favorable to budget, and now the third landscape maintenance services
secured at $21,726 favorable to budget, we were able to take the extraordinary action to do a mid-year
amendment to the adopted 2024 budget, and reduce the 2nd half of the 2024 assessment from $893 to $743.

 

You will receive hardcopies of the amended 2024 budget directly in the mail and it will be accompanied by a detailed explanation of how it was achieved. This was a very big win for Valencia and we still have opportunities before us. This action is only a down payment and budgets and assessments for 2025 will be even better.

Be on the lookout for a full-membership meeting that is intended to cover a single important topic – Reserve Planning and Analysis. This is a critically important topic that I hope you will be able to attend in-person.

 

This is our next major initiative and we will keep you informed as we make progress on your behalf.