County Commission Moves to Resolve Conflicts in Compass Lake

The original agreement signed with the developers of Compass Lake In The Hills in 1984 in entering into a management contract with the Property Owners Association for management of the Municipal Services Taxation Unit has proven to be inadequate in form and content. As a result of these shortcomings, the property owners in the development have experienced much disagreement, disillusionment, and continuing conflict. At the Tuesday evening workshop, our commissioners presented an approach that promises to greatly improve the situation.
The commission staff had conducted a study to evaluate the performance of the Property Owners Association (POA) in delivering municipal services to the area, to identify shortcomings, and to examine issues of known concern and conflict. This analysis was presented by County Manager, Ted Lakey and District 4 Commissioner, Jeremy Branch.
The report generally gave a positive report related to road maintenance, equipment, facilities, and fire protection. It ended with outlining two possible approaches for the commissioners to take in resolving the conflict. The first option was for the County to discontinue the contract with the POA, and assume responsibility for managing and delivering services to the development area. The second approach was to engage in a series of workshops with the POA Board to amend the agreement in areas found to need strengthening, omission, or change. The board voted unanimously to proceed with the second approach.
The report specifically recommended consideration of several perceived changes for improving the contract. These included, (1) Negotiating a defined fee for the POA to be paid for managing the MSTU. (2) Requiring separation of the budget into two separate budgets, one for the MSTU operations, and the second for the POA. (3) Establishing a Compass Lake bank account for funds collected by the Tax Collector through MSTU taxation to be deposited into and then administered by the Commission. (4) Requiring all capital outlays to be approved by the Commission. (5) Requiring all purchases to be processed and controlled by the Commission through the county’s bidding process. (6) Providing for regular annual audits.
It would appear that this additional level of involvement and oversight from the County Commission would probably resolve most of the existing problems. The Jackson County Times applauds the Commission for this well conceived, positive approach to a difficult situation.