Bill Barnard, General Manager
Summer in the valley is often a time for people to escape our hot temperatures and get out of town. Freeways, restaurants, and retail shops tend to be less busy. For the HOA operations, it is our chance to take care of the many projects that I briefed you on over the last two months. One of the most important things the team does late in the summer is budgeting for the upcoming year. The budgeting process is a complex activity with many working parts. It is also one of the most important aspects of our operation. An HOA operating budget is a projection of the money needed by the association to cover its operating expenses and provide adequate reserves for repair and replacement of the assets that the HOA owns and maintains. Arizona law and our governing documents require that the PebbleCreek HOA approve and adopt an operating budget every year. The importance of the budget cannot be overstated and it is our yearly road map for operational success. It drives our maintenance plan, our social activities, capital improvements, pricing, and much more … all items that affect the property values, home sales potential, and lifestyles of the residents of PebbleCreek.
The budget process starts at the beginning of August with labor planning and scheduling operating hours for the upcoming year. We then gather together all of the data and information that is needed to form our expense budget. Finally, we look at projecting the repair or replacement of reserve-funded assets to update our Long Range Plan. The more knowledge and information that we can gather prior to the budgeting process, the easier and more accurate the process will be. Each department director puts together their portion of the budget. Luckily, we have a great staff of experienced managers and directors that I will be working closely with to put together a comprehensive draft of the 2022 budget. The staff will create a final working draft of the budget that will be presented to the homeowners and board for final approval. We will host a Zoom homeowner meeting in early November to go over a summary of the draft budget prior to presenting it to the PebbleCreek HOA board of directors for final approval in their November HOA meeting.
There have been many challenges presented over the past 18 months that we have to consider when compiling next year’s budget. Labor is our biggest challenge with lack of employees and rising wages to compete in the labor market. Many of these changes have already been made this year with increasing wages for current employees and beginning wages much higher to attract new employees. Another major challenge is the increasing cost of materials and supplies as well as the difficulty in procuring many of these items. The supply chain has been significantly affected during the pandemic and the recent hurricanes this summer. Despite these challenges, we will strive to put together a budget that maintains PebbleCreek at the level required to keep PebbleCreek one of the premier Active Adult Communities in Arizona.