January 2026 HOA Newsletter
January 2026 Newsletter
Happy New Year and Welcome 2026!
We hope you had a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season with friends and family!!
As we turn the page to 2026, we are looking forward to seeing all of you at the 2026
Annual Meeting to be held at the end of April in the Community Room at the District
Four Fire Station on Crawford Street. The tentative date for the Meeting is April 25,
2026 starting at 2:00 pm. The date will be confirmed in mid-January and you will be
notified in an Email Blast, Facebook Post and in the April 1 st Newsletter what the exact
date and start time is to be. At the December 2025 Board Meeting, we had over 17
HomeOwners attend which was very exciting! In discussion with them, we asked why
we had such a low attendance at the 2025 Annual Meeting. (Only a total of fifteen
HomeOwners were present including the Board Members.) The overall consensus was
that we should move the 2026 Annual Meeting back to the end of April and after Easter.
We heard you and the change has been made.
To ensure that our 2026 HOA Annual Meeting is meeting your expectations, we ask that
you tell us via the HOA’s website (deerparkgolfhoa.org) what you would like to see
presented and discussed. Just access our Website and hit “Contact Us” to send your
message. We will do our best to include it on the Agenda. The Annual Meeting belongs
to all of us. Together let’s make it the best Annual Meeting yet with your input and
attendance!!
This month, we need to say goodbye to Gayle Swartman, a long-standing Board
Member who served as our Board Secretary for four years and is resigning from her
position effective January 1 st for personal reasons. We thank Gayle for serving over
four years on the Board. She brought her energy, ideas and experience and has been
the cornerstone of the HOA’s successes during her term. She has given over 100 hours,
establishing contracts with vendors, negotiating insurance coverage, drafting Meeting
Minutes, Agendas and Ballots and the list goes on and on. Thanks Gayle, for all you
have done to support the HOA.
The Board has the authority to appoint a new Board Member to fill a Board opening.
Last year we reached out to any person interested in completing Gayle’s current term
which ends April 30 th 2026. We wish to thank Lori Smith for stepping up to assume the
position as Board Secretary effective January 1, 2026. Lori retired from the Department
of the Navy after nearly 30 years of service as a civilian. Her experience ranges from
administrative duties to creating and scheduling a metric system adopted by the entire
Navy both overseas and stateside. Lori and her husband Randy, moved from
Bremerton, WA to Deer Park in 2018. She is a proud Mom of three sons and five
grandkids. She is looking forward to working with the Board Members. She has also
indicated that in the April 2026 election of Board Members, she will run for one of the
two open Board positions for the term 2026-2028. Thanks Lori, for stepping up and
bringing your knowledge and energy to enhance our Board going forward.
Another long-time Board Member, Carla Phillips, has advised that she will not run for
re-election once her term is up this coming April. We thank Carla for her four years of
supporting the Board, providing great insight and attending every Board and Annual
HOA Meeting despite a very busy personal schedule. Our entire HOA thanks you for
your dedication and service.
As said, this year we will have two open Board positions that need to be filled by
election. In 2027, there will be three positions that need to be filled by election. Per the
HOA’s governing documents, to be eligible to be a Board Member, a HomeOwner must
be in good standing and current on their monthly dues. Serving on the HOA’s Board is
an important commitment and a chance to really get involved to help guide the HOA by
bringing new ideas, energy and direction to the Board.
To run for election, we request that you contact us through our website
(Deerparkgolfhoa.org) and provide us with a brief Bio on yourself including your
experience and why you would like to be on the HOA Board. Copies of these Bios will
be sent out along with the April Newsletter together with a Ballot to cast your vote for
two Board positions which can then be mailed in to an address that will be included or
you can vote in person at the Annual Meeting. We request all nominees be present at
the 2026 Annual Meeting as you will be given time to introduce yourself, share your
experience and reasons why you want to be on the HOA Board. At the conclusion of
the Annual Meeting, all ballots which were mailed in together with those executed at the
Annual Meeting will be turned over to the HOA’s Accounting Firm for a ballot count and
the results will be posted on our Website and also sent out in an Email blast. Once the
new Board Members are seated in early May, the Board will meet privately to assign
Board positions based upon preference and experience. The assignment of positions
will be posted on the Website as well as an Email blast and included in the July 2026
Newsletter.
It is time for a straightforward conversation about Monthly Dues. At $40.00 per month,
our HOA enjoys a really low monthly dues compared to all other Golf Course
Communities in Spokane County. We have done the research. The Board continues to
find and implement cost cutting measures to ensure that the Dues amount stays low
and that any increases in such Dues occurs only when absolutely necessary. Life is
expensive enough these days. Adhering to our Budget, and paying our bills on time, is
predicated on all 250 HomeOwners paying the entirety of their Monthly Dues on time.
If you are one of the 231 HomeOwners that are current on their Dues, THANK YOU!!!
As of Dec. 1 st 2025, we have 19 HomeOwners delinquent over four (4) months that
contribute to a $6452.26 short fall for the 2025 budget year. This is not sustainable, nor
is it fair to the vast majority of HomeOwners who pay their dues in a timely manner.
In the past, previous Boards have placed liens on those HomeOwners over six (6)
months behind in their Dues. This was done only after exhaustive efforts to
communicate with the delinquent HomeOwner without success. The cost of placing a
Lien on a property is about $800 per Lien including Legal and Recording fees. The
HOA is out of pocket for this expense until the HomeOwner pays, tries to refinance or
sells their home which could take years to recover the costs associated with the Lien
process.
Last year, the Board following Article V Covenant for Maintenance Assessments in the
CC&s, voted to use a “collection agency” in lieu of the Lien process for any accounts
past six (6) months delinquent. The Board always balances compassion with business.
In our documented initial communication with the delinquent HomeOwner, we always
ask the HomeOwner if there are any reasons why they cannot pay their dues and for
them to contact the Board to work out a payment plan to catch up BEFORE we proceed
with the “collection process”.
If no return communication is received, the delinquent account is turned over to a
“collections agency” at the 7-month mark. Once in collections mode, the HomeOwner
may be reported to the Credit Bureaus and wages garnished. The HOA will be charged
40% of the dues once collected by the collection agency. This is not good for the
affected HomeOwner or the HOA. We want to avoid this situation as it costs money,
expends time and causes significant anxiety to all parties involved. We share this
information in order to be very transparent of the process as it will be a major focus in
2026.
Dues Payment Portal Update
Last April, your Board introduced a new Dues Payment Portal for our HomeOwner’s
use. One reason we set up the new Payment Portal was to allow the Board to have
more immediate access to our HomeOwner’s Dues payment status. This has helped the
Board keep track of those few HomeOwners who are delinquent in paying their HOA
Dues as well as improving the collection of any delinquent Dues.
We try to be fiscally responsible with our limited HOA funds, and in order to keep a
balanced Budget we need every HomeOwner to pay their Dues in full and on time.
Thankfully, the vast majority of you understand this and willingly make timely Dues
payments.
However, as the year progressed, we started seeing a few problems with the new
Payment Portal. Some examples of these are double subscriptions, and the difficulty for
HomeOwners to access their account to make changes such as changing the credit
card used for payment. Another problem brought to our attention is that some
HomeOwners would like to look at their Dues Invoice quarterly and make the payment
themselves, rather than have the payment automatically deducted.
We are in the process of updating the payment portal, located on the “Go Paperless”
section of the Website, by offering a more comprehensive explanation of how the
system works, more payment options, as well as the ability of a HomeOwner to access
their account to make necessary changes, such as a new Credit Card number, new
email address, etc. These changes will be introduced over the next few months, and
when they are ready to be launched, we will send all HomeOwners an email
announcing the changes. In the meantime, we welcome HomeOwner input that will help
us make a more accessible Dues Payment System for our HOA. If you have any
comments or suggestions, please email them to: [email protected].
January 2026 Dues billings will go on the 1st of the month. For those HomeOwners that
pay their entire annual dues in January, we have requested that our Accounting firm not
send any further billings to these annual payers in order to save on postage costs.
Further, in 2026 we will be contacting all HomeOwners that have their email address on
file with the HOA, to see if you want Email billing invoices rather than regular Post Office
mail to further save on postage costs that are rising each year. We are doing all we
can, based upon many of your ideas, to further save and control the HOA’s expenses.
Our first quarter 2026 Board Meeting will be held January 20, 2026 at the Courthouse
City Council Chambers starting at 6:00 pm. We hope to see you there as well as the
Annual Meeting in April.
Until then, stay warm and have a safe and enjoyable winter!
Sincerely,
The Governing Board - Tanj, Paul, Craig, Gayle and Carla
