CA by the Numbers (Part I)
By Chao Wu
The village and CA are quiet and people are on vacation. After I came back from my vacation in late July, I found that the uneven sidewalks in front of my house were fixed. That is really nice. And I received a large handbook and a bill from the Columbia Association (CA), as many of our residents did. Yes, CA is collecting money from us in the name of “Annual Charge”. In this issue, I would like to share some general information with you.
Columbia Association’s Board of Directors (CABOD) will hold a pre-budget public input forum on Thursday, Sept. 3, beginning at 7:30 p.m. at Slayton House, 10400 Cross Fox Lane in the Wilde Lake Village Center. The forum will be hosted by the Board’s Planning and Strategy Committee and is open to the public.
Representatives of CA’s BOD will join our River Hill Board of Director’s meeting on Oct. 5 in order to reach out to our residents. Please come and share your thoughts.
1. CA Responsibility
Some people in our neighborhood are confused about what CA does versus what the county does. On the CA website, we can view the following table and find CA actually is doing many things for our residents. CA contributes to funding for River Hill Community Association staff and the operations of Claret Hall, River Hill’s community center, and the Meeting Room too. The following table is extracted from CA website http://www.columbiaassociation.com/about-us/who-handles-what:
River Hill Community Association
|
Columbia Association
|
Howard County
|
| Enforcing covenants |
Maintaining fitness facilities,
golf clubs, tennis and basketball
courts and swimming pools |
Schools and library
management |
Advocating for residents
at the village, Columbia
and county level |
Operating the Columbia Ice Rink,
Columbia Horse Center
(via lease), Columbia
SportsPark/SkatePark |
Water and sewer
management |
Facilitating information sessions
and community meetings |
Operating the Columbia Art
Center, Youth and Teen Center
at the The Barn, Columbia
Archives and Volunteer Center
Serving Howard County |
Road maintenance
and snow removal |
Hosting individual village
events and partnering with
all villages for Columbia-wide |
Providing Before and After
School Care to Howard County
students |
Waste and recycling
collection |
| Creating village master plans |
Developing plans to protect
and restore Columbia’s
watershed |
County parks and
recreation facilities |
Communicating to residents
via newsletters, websites
and social media |
Organizing free summer
concerts and films at the
Downtown Columbia Lakefront |
Watershed management/
restoration |
Providing resources and
referral services for residents |
Providing summer camps |
Inspections, licenses
and permits |
Fostering partnerships between
villages, Columbia Association,
Howard County, local businesses, and non-profits |
Maintaining approximately
3,600 acres of open space |
Planning and zoning
management |
Managing, maintaining and
renting out CA’s village buildings
and neighborhood centers |
Developing plans to improve
the connectivity of the
pathway system in Columbia |
Historic preservation |
Offering programming, including classes, camps
and lectures |
|
Police, fire and rescue
services |
Encouraging neighbor-to-neighbor
connectivity via
block parties, beautification
grants and block captains |
|
|
2. CA Income and Expenditures
Let’s look at CA’s income and spending. These numbers are important as a reference since CA’s board of directors is working on a new two-year budget (2017-2018). In FY2015, CA’s revenue totaled $70.576 M. CA’s Sport and Fitness programs, which includes the income from Package Plan memberships and fees for fitness classes, generated the greatest amount of income ($28.103M). The following data was extracted from “CA at a Glance, Columbia Association Annual Report 2015”:
2015 CA Incomes by Percentage
2015 CA Spending by Percentage
- Large CA Vendor Expenditures in FY 2015 (quarter ended on April 30, 2015)
CA’s Annual Report itemizes all vendor spending greater than $25,000. In order for you to have a sense of CA’s large expenditures, I have listed those greater than $300,000:
| Vendor |
Paid |
Description |
| Autlex Electric |
354,971 |
Electrical work-various facilities |
| BGE |
1,388,306 |
Utility |
| Brinton Building Services, Inc. |
1,112,752 |
Construction services multiple locations |
| Crawford Advisors, LLC |
2,907,225 |
Benefit advisors |
| DLA Piper US LLP |
312,379 |
Legal services |
| Fidelity Engineering Corp |
344,749 |
HVAC maintenance and repair Ssrvices |
| Fidelity Investments |
2,604,275 |
Employer/employee 401kpension service fees |
| JP Morgan Chase Bank NA |
1,416,928 |
Procurement card payments |
| Marsh USA, Inc. |
628,544 |
Insurance broker and insurance Premiums |
| Paetec |
306,632 |
Telephone and Internet services |
| Redhead Companies, Inc. |
376,937 |
Creative advertising services |
| Scott-Long Construction, Inc. |
4,690,871 |
Hobbits Glen Golf Club construction services |
| Shapiro &Duncan, Inc. |
399,208 |
HVAC repair and maintenance |
| The Baltimore Sun |
338,895 |
Advertising and recruiting |
| Two Center East Business Trust |
624,158 |
Rent-headquarters building |
| Whiting-Turner Contracting |
4,134,136 |
Haven on the Lake construction services |
I am concerned about keeping CA’s expenditures reasonable and that new programs and facilities provide a good return on investment. Although the Annual Charge and membership fees increase yearly, even when there is no new construction project underway the costs of maintaining and running the facilities also rise annually. As more facilities are built, even more money is required to operate and maintain them. The CABOD has to make difficult decisions during the budget process and cannot fund all budget requests. ………….
Thanks for reading this. Hopefully the data are . Let me know what you think and where you’d like CA to focus its efforts inFY17/18 and beyond.
Chao Wu, Ph.D.
River Hill Representative to Columbia Council
Columbia Association Board of Directors
Email: superbwu@gmail.com Tel: 240-481-9637 Website: http://chaowu2016.com
Disclaimer: This letter only represents Dr. Chao Wu’s personal opinion. It does not represent River Hill Board of Directors nor Columbia Association’s Board.
