At a work session held on Tuesday, Aug. 17, the POA board discussed changing a policy related to the indemnification of board members and corporate officers. A first reading of Policy 8.01 will be subject to a vote on Thursday, at the regular board meeting.
After the meeting, POA attorney Doug McCash explained that the policy was rewritten for clarity.
"The current wording of the policy is awkward and can lead to misinterpretation of the policy," he wrote in an email.
Indemnification protects board members who are volunteers from lawsuits. The policy makes it clear that the indemnification comes first from insurance policies purchased for that reason and then from the POA.
The recent settlement of the Armstrong case reminded board members that the policy should be clarified, he said.
The Rules and Regulations Committee met earlier and recommended the policy to the board.
The board voted on two capital projects at the work session. Typically, votes are not taken at work sessions but both of the capital projects are somewhat time-sensitive. Since the work session is a public meeting, votes can be taken.
One project is the Lake Ann spillway, and three bids were received. One bid was significantly lower than the other two, but General Manager Tom Judson said he was confident the low bidder, the Bentonville engineering firm, CEI, knew the entire scope of the work. They have worked with the POA before, he said.
The bid was for engineering on the project which should solve the problem of a recurring sinkhole.
The bid for $69,500 is a lot of money for engineering, Judson said, but he added, "it's one of those 'you gotta do it.' We have a problem. We have to solve the sinkhole problem that's over there."
The board voted to accept the bid.
The second project is to stabilize the creek bed around a bridge at the number 5 hole on the Country Club golf course. Judson explained that only one company bid on the project, but that company did a similar project on the Scotsdale course. He asked the board to approve a waiver of the three-bid policy and they complied.
On Thursday the board will vote on an offer to buy out leases on cell phone towers located on POA water towers. Although the board would make more money by collecting monthly lease payments, the leases could be canceled at any time. The buy-out amount would be $500,000 in cash.