WEST GALVESTON ISLAND PROPERTY OWNER'S ASSOCIATION

MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

Jerry Mohn, President, called the Board of Directors meeting for the West Galveston Island POA to order at 9:05 a.m. Directors making up the quorum were Jerry Mohn, Tom Booth - Condominiums, Peggy Zahler - Spanish Grant Beach, John Schiller – Acapulco Village; and, Wanda Greer – Terramar, Sidney McClendon – Pirates Beach & Cove. Marty Baker, advisor, was in attendance. Susan L. Gonzales – Acting Secretary (CKM Property Management).

Elected officials introduced included; Juan Pena; Jim Schweitzer, Justice off the Peace Precinct 1; Judge Trey Dibrell, County Court #2; Al Choate, Galveston Navigation Commissioner.

Several candidates were in attendance and introduced were Latonia Wilson – County Clerk, Jim Schweitzer – Justice of the Peace, Judge Miles Whittington, John Hall – (Republican) District Attorney, Judge Roy Quintanilla, Barbara Meeks – Galveston County Clerk, Kirk Sistrunk – (Democrat) District Attorney, Bryan Lamb (Democrat) and Al Choate (Republican) – both for County Commissioner Pct. 1, and Chris Stevens – (Republican) County Judge.

Special guest speaker, GLO Commissioner Jerry Patterson, was unable to attend and was requested by the Governor to be in the funeral procession of former Governor Ann Richards to the Capital Rotunda on Saturday morning. Jerry Mohn stated that according to Jerry Patterson speech at the Pachyderm meeting, September 14, the vegetation line would not play a part in deciding on the removal of homes. If the home is a danger to health and blocks public access, then the home will be removed. The WGIPOA believes this is the best method to determine if a home is on the beach because the vegetation line constantly moves. The WGIPOA has always promoted this type of determination since former Texas Attorney General John Cornyn made this type of decision in 1999 after Tropical Storm Francis put several homes on the beach under the Open Beaches Act. The WGIPOA is very pleased with Commissioner Patterson’s new determination.

Minutes: The minutes of the August 19, 2006, meeting had previously been sent to the Board for review. Motions by Wanda Greer and seconded by Peggy Zahler, the minutes were approved by unanimous vote with the following resolution:

RESOLVED THAT, the Board approved the August 19, 2006, minutes as presented.

Treasurers Report: Jerry Mohn stated the Treasurers report would be mailed out. A copy was sent to the Board members on September 18 and it was approved by Email vote.

RESOLVED THAT, the Board approved the financial report as presented.

Galveston Bay Foundation – Bob Stokes – President: Bob Stokes stated a Monopoly Game has been developed for Galveston Bay Foundation with Galveston businesses and organizations on the board. The cost of the game is 34.99 + tax. The proceeds will benefit the Galveston Bay Foundation. On September 30, 2006 an Art Walk will be held and the game can be purchased.

Peggy Zahler – Recognized as Top Volunteer: Jerry Mohn made an announcement concerning Peggy Zahler, Board of Director member from Spanish Grant Beach. Peggy was highlighted in the newspaper as she was named Top Volunteer in League City, Texas. Peggy Zahler through the years has been a faithful volunteer on many projects affecting Galveston Island, especially the West End.

Galveston Windstorm Action Committee – Ottie Zapp: Ottie Zapp is very active in helping controlling the Insurance rates. Ottie stressed the importance of supporting the Committee and asked that donations be made to continue the fight against higher rates. Next week there is a hearing on increasing rates by 20%. The Committee needs help financially to continue the fight to reduce the cost of Windstorm coverage. State Farm will no longer write the Windstorm Policies. It was noted that there needs to be a rule that if an insurance company deletes coverage that the Insurance Company is penalized.

Meeting with Craig Eiland: There will be a meeting with Craig Eiland concerning legislation on capping the property taxes. The current homestead is a 10% cap, but second home values have gone up 40-50% and there is no stop. To change this will require a Constitutional Amendment.

Meeting with City Manager & Staff Planned: If your Association has issues and concerns please notify Jerry Mohn or plan to attend the meeting to be held Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. at Galveston City Hall. These are usually very productive meetings with the various department heads.

Telemedicine: The Clinic has shut down for the season, 20 patients were seen. Although 20 patients were not enough to fund the facility, it was a good start. The Clinic will be open from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. from Memorial Day – Labor Day. Linda Petersen from Karankawa suggested an announcement be sent to property owners and rental agencies to let people know there is a clinic on the west end to treat non-emergency problems immediately rather than wait 4 to 6 hours in the UTMB Emergency Room.

CIAP – Energy Bill Requests: A total of $60 million a year for four years will come to Texas beginning October 2007, 65% goes to the State, 35% goes to coastal counties. Of the coastal county portion, Galveston anticipates receiving $1.7 - $2.2 million each year. All projects submitted for the Galveston County 2006-2007 CIAP program were tabulated at $15.6 million total requests for the Energy Bill funds that will begin October 2007. The County selected projects that were classified as Tier I for $1.77 million and Tier II for $355,000 or a total of $2.128 million, the anticipated maximum the County expects to receive. If a project was denied this time, they have another three years to apply.

Galveston City Council: A meeting will be held on Tuesday on the money allocation for the Parks Board and cleaning up the beaches. Parks Board money comes from Hotel/Motel Tax and they allocate their work on areas where they get their money. Since the West End is one-third of the City of Galveston’s revenue from property taxes, the City should help the Parks Board get our beaches clean. The WGIPOA made a request before City Council to appropriate $75,000 to the Parks Board specifically for trash pick on west end beaches. Trash pick up was requested on Fridays for beach subdivisions south of FM 3005 from Memorial Day to Labor Day on Friday’s.

Sand Source: There is a continued effort to find sand on the island to harvest beach quality sand in order to re-nourish the beaches. An application is pending to harvest sand west of 8 Mile Road. The application has been filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. At this time there is a question on the application concerning wetlands at that location. Perry Culp of Apollo Environmental, the applicant, stated part of the delay is due to a Supreme Court Case decision on jurisdictional rights of fresh water areas. Therefore, everything is on hold.

The U.S. Army COE Feasibility Study from the San Luis Pass to the Sabine Pass is in the final phase of study and should be completed in 2007. It was a three phase study, two parts are complete, last portion is being conducted now – sand source offshore.

Texans for State Parks: This group is pushing to get a portion of the tax on sporting goods. The Parks are in bad shape. Tom Linton, President of the Friends of Galveston Island State Park requested the public and organizations like the WGIPOA to send letters to get the money for the Parks, remove the cap on the sporting goods tax, same level since 2002, and restore and fix up the badly neglected Parks like the USS Texas, Galveston Island State Park, and millions of dollars more throughout the system.

Pacific Legal Foundation: Jerry Mohn announced there will be a meeting next Saturday with Pacific Legal Foundation at 10:00 a.m. at the Galveston Country Club. Pacific Legal Foundation will discuss the consequences of the Homes on the Beach issue. Anyone who has a home on the beach should attend.

There being no further business to come before the Board the meeting was adjourned at 10:20 a.m.