What is the Discretionary Fund Cap for the Board?

Can someone verify if the discretionary fund limit for the Board is $500?
This question has been asked several times and no Bluewater Board member or Bluewater official has answered.
Does anybody know? Please explain.

Please read the By-Laws and Ciovenants and see if you can find such a limit. There is no discreitionary limit to spending specified that I have ever read or know of.

Pam

This is the response I received from Karen and I think it does make good sense;

One idea of his that I think merits serious consideration is a forced cap on discretionary spending, though I'm not sure $250 is a practical limit. We used to have (and observe) a discretionary spending limit of $500, and I need any of you who know to refresh my memory as to whether that rule is still in effect, or when or why it was rescinded. Help me with this, please??? Whereas we all know that we, the current Board, are diligent about keeping spending to a minimum, a forced cap would protect BPOA from a future Board less dedicated.

I have personally been involved for many years with Bluewater's Board of Dirctors. There are currently 7 board members. In order to spend money, at least 4 of those board members must OK the expenditures. I assure you, in past years no board has considered spending member's money without great deliberation. Surely, this continues today. Spending money truly is a consideration every board member thinks about very seriously before using community money. Our biggest annual expense, far and away, is keeping our roads in good shape. Only weeks ago, we spent tens of thousands of dollars to just patch the bad spots. Not that many years ago, we could resurface all the roads in here for about $40,000. Yes, the cost has gone up and we have no control over that. I'm telling everyone, you really don't have to put any kind of cap on our board's spending ... they all are already most concerned with saving money. These folks are volunteers trying to do their best for our community. They don't need any needless constraints to do their jobs.
Jim Kundreskas

As someone who has actually witnessed board deliberations concerning spending, you know first hand that the board does not spend our community money willy-nilly - like we would have something to gain ourselves from doing so!! Thank you for your comments.

I agree that unexpected expenses do happen, but if no limit is ever placed on the Board that is split, or ultimately the 4 deciding players on the Board, the whole community of 235 members or families will pray that those 4 people made the right decision. I would hope that this would not come into play and I would agree that most of the time, a decision of this sort would be parallel to what the community would desire or rather need. However, on something that exceeds a certain dollar amount, we should still consider asking to the community for their input, even if we have to use email or a few phone calls for a quicker response if urgency prevailed. High expense items normally present themselves with a little less urgency and most likely could be broadcast in the Newsletter. I think in good forethought and sincerity, Karen, our current Board Chairman, mentioned that in years to come, the Board will eventually turn over to other HOA members, and some limit established and put into place would safeguard the community against a future fallacy or decisions that may not work out. The roads, are a primary example, and are important; and perhaps one day we will need to do a complete overhaul. A decision of this nature or expense should rest on the voice of the entire community and it would be a way to justify how the Board works with the majority without repercussion. I commend Karen for her insight to set a spending cap and I think that most of the community would agree if they were asked.