Seasons Greetings

Kudos to the residents of the south end of Sparkler Drive for their coordinated holiday light display!

I thought it was impressive several years back, when 4 adjacent homes had come together to decorate their garages with light. This year, I see the whole building is aglow!


December is one of my favorite months at Seabridge, a time when we once again see our neighbors who seem to have gone into hibernation. I thought this year's boat parade was especially good.

In HOA news, I believe there is still a board meeting this coming Tuesday, December 16th. Last I heard, parking rules are slated for approval. I have unfortunately been able to attend the past few, and no one else has given me news from the meetings. Hopefully I'll be able to attend this one, so I'll be back to providing highlights from the meetings.

Best wishes to all of Seabridge for very happy holidays!

Quakes and Parking

Where were you during the Big One? While we can't predict the answer to that question, most of us will be able to recall where we were at 10AM today, the time of the Great Southern California Shakeout, a simulated drill for a magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the San Andreas fault.

We in Seabridge would be well-served to use this opportunity to reflect on our own preparedness. How are we with supplies on hand? Do we know how to turn off our gas? How is you insurance coverage?

Beyond that, maybe it's time to get together more as neighbors - do we know who lives near us who might need assistance? Do we know how we'd be able to work together in a recovery?

Even if you miss the drill, it's still a great opportunity to take some time to better prepare.

Also, don't forget the special meeting tonight to discuss possible changes to the parking rules. I understand it's at 6PM in the clubhouse.

Mosquitoes and Meeting

What is with the mosquitoes this week? I remember them last year in August, but it seems unusual this year - and I know of many people who have commented on them in the past week.

Also, just a reminder that there is board meeting tomorrow (Tuesday, 9/16) at 7PM. I don't know what's on the agenda, as it wasn't posted in the common area as it's supposed to be. Look, I'm not trying to be a stickler, but that's what's required, and there are good reasons for it.

CC&R Revisions

E-mail readers, click on "CC&R Revisions" title above for full story"

It's been a while since I've commented on our CC&R revision process. While I support the goal, the approach has made me tired. To be fair, I'm sure the board feels this way, too. Interested people can read my past posts on the matter here.

The board recently sent a letter to homeowners to gather input regarding another planned vote. While I welcome the idea of getting input, it's pretty late in the game. But I'll give it another go with my thoughts...

I've been consistent in saying "Define the problem, and then propose the solution". You've got me convinced with the maintenance issues. But other proposals seem to address topics that not everyone agrees are problems. And we've seen in the past that things that some people consider to be "problems", result in solutions that many in the community are not happy with (witness our entry gate modifications, now in their second year). So - if you truly care about what will make me comfortable with the revisions: tell me what each real issue in the community is, what has been done to understand that problem and confirm it affects the majority of us, and how the revisions address it.

The recent letter to the community talks about the need to revise the CC&Rs to remove developer language, get current with state laws and allow for clearer maintenance responsibilities. If the revisions stuck to those stated goals, I could support them. But if there are other goals, these should be stated as well.

Return to The Bridge home page.

Board Meeting, August 19th

As you may have noticed, summer is in full swing, and I have not been posting as much as I'd like, nor have I been able to attend recent board meetings. I will try to make up for that a bit today.

In recent association news, our community manager Morgen Hardigree has left Cardinal Property Management to allow for a schedule that better fits with her family. I look forward to meeting our new manager, Jim Goldman.

There is a board meeting this coming Tuesday, August 19th. The agenda has been posted, and I find the following items of interest:

• Landscape committee appointments

• Dock Repairs

• Key Fob Distribution and Entry Gate Procedures

• Investment Requirements

• Window Washing

I encourage everyone to attend. There are a lot of decisions to be made on behalf of the community and you should understand and have your say on how they are being made.

Board Meeting, July 15th

E-mail readers, click on "Board Meeting, July 15th" title above for full story.

We have a new board of directors, and its first meeting will be this coming Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 7PM in the clubhouse.

The board of directors makes important decisions for our community in each of its meetings. If you haven't attended, it's always helpful to sit in on one.

The agenda for the upcoming meeting is posted in the pool area. Topics slated for the Tuesday meeting include:

• Bids on pathway lighting poles

• Appointment of landscape committee members

• Announcement of secret ballot results (CC&R revisions)

• Work orders for various homeowner units

I will be unable to attend this meeting and would really appreciate a volunteer to take notes for me so that I might report them on The Bridge.

Return to The Bridge home page.

Vote!

Remember that the Seabridge Annnual Meeting and Election is next Tuesday, June 17th. This is one of very few opportunities most of us get each year to actually vote on something that matters to us as homeowners - please take advantage of it. You should mail your ballot immediately, or be sure to drop it off at the clubhouse before the meeting to have it counted.

As you may know, I was a big proponent for not reducing the annual meeting quorum. I think that it's important to have at least 50% of the homeowners involved in the decision as to who leads our community. So however you vote, please make sure to return your proxy/ballot and have your voice counted in the quorum.

It would have been helpful had the association sent out a reminder mailing, as they did on multiple occasions with the CC&R change ballot. But in lieu of that, please make sure you and all your neighbors participate in this important process.

The Importance of Your Vote

E-mail readers, click on "The Importance of Your Vote" title for the full story.

The national media may have us all looking ahead to November already, but when it comes to elections, one in June may have even more impact on our day-to-day lives at Seabridge.

The Seabridge Annual Meeting and Election of Directors takes place on June 17th. You may think this is akin to a high school student council election, but you'd be wrong. The Seabridge Board of Directors manages an annual operating budget in excess of half a million dollars, as well as a reserve fund with several hundred thousand dollars. They also make important decisions affecting how you and your neighbors can use your property and our common areas. And with nine candidates vying for five positions, there is no reason each and every one of us should not cast our votes for those who will represent our interests.

Unlike in national contests, the candidates in our Seabridge race are not covered by the media 24/7. Although they are your neighbors, you may not even recognize their names and faces, let alone what positions they hold. So I'm hosting a Meet the Candidates forum and encourage you all to participate before casting your votes. The e-mail below was sent to all candidates on the ballot and describes more specifics of the forum.

If you wish to even view the discussion, you will need to register for the site. Seabridge Homeowners can do so by e-mailing me your name and the address of the unit(s) you own. I hope that you will find this to be a helpful forum and that you will exercise your right and privilege to vote.

E-mail to declared candidates:

First, I’d like to thank you for submitting an application as a candidate for the Seabridge Board of Directors. Relatively few residents take an active interest in this community, let alone take the additional step of running for the board, so it is very exciting to see a large field of candidates for the office of director.

Many of you know that I blog from time to time on matters that I think are of interest to Seabridge residents. Last month I asked my readers whether they thought it would be helpful to use “The Bridge” as a forum to learn more about our candidates for office. You can read more about it by clicking here. I was glad that the response was favorable.

So now that we know who the declared candidates are, I am inviting you to participate in this “online candidates’ forum.” Your participation is obviously optional, but I would hope that you would take advantage of the opportunity so that homeowners have a better understanding of the candidates beyond what they glean from the form that we received in the mail.

Here’s the way I envision this working:

· If you elect to participate, please submit the following additional information to me electronically (e-mail) by Thursday, May 22^rd:

o Any additional candidate statement you wish to make. It will be printed as-is, though I reserve the right to format it to be consistent with other statements and the website.

o A photograph of yourself. It may be cropped and scaled to be consistent with the other photos I receive.

o Your answers to the following questions that were submitting by blog readers:

1. What do you see as successes of the board in the past year? Is there anything you believe the board should have done differently?

2. What is your understanding of the “fiduciary duty” of a director, and how does that/will that guide your actions on the board?

3. Can you give a specific example of a decision you’ve had to make when you didn’t feel you were fully knowledgeable on the topic? For current or past board members, an example related to the HOA board is preferred.

· On Friday, I will have an uninvolved party draw names from a hat, and each candidate will be featured on the blog daily, in the order they are drawn. Homeowners will have an opportunity to pose additional questions to you using the “comments” feature, and you will be able to respond in kind. I will not allow homeowners to post anonymously, and I will ensure as moderator that each question is posed respectfully before it gets posted. Aside from that, I do not plan to moderate the questions or the answers.

· Viewing of these posts will be restricted to registered homeowners, who must log in with a username/password to view that section of the blog and participate.

In this “electronic age”, I hope this will be a useful and even fun way for candidates to interact with homeowners on the topics that are important to voting homeowners. I think it’s especially relevant since no other forum, real or virtual, has been scheduled to provide this dialogue. I hope that you’ll join in it.

Thanks –
Todd

"Meet the Candidates" Concept

E-mail readers, click on "Meet the Candidates Concept" above for full story.

In recent years, California has tightened up the way elections are conducted in community associations. I think this is generally good, as people should be able to truly vote in secret, and they should make their own choices rather than turn the decision over to the association president or whoever comes knocking on their door asking for their proxy.

Some of the downsides are that I don't believe you can "recall" your ballot once you've voted, and most people have voted by the time the annual meeting comes along. It's far less likely, then, that the majority of the community will get a chance to hear the candidates speak and pose questions to them before making a decision.

So here's a thought I'd like to throw out to my readers: what would you say to a "Seabridge Candidates' Forum" here on The Bridge? The concept would be as follows:

• Readers submit questions that they would like posed to all candidates.

• All candidates are invited to participate and will be "featured" a few days apart, with the order determined by random drawing.

• Each candidate who chooses to participate can provide further information to the community on why they should be elected, and will be asked to answer the submitted questions.

• The Comments section will be a way for you to follow up with the candidate with additional questions and responses.

Weigh in with your feedback and additional suggestions on this concept in the Comments section of this post. And in the meantime, you can get the word out to your neighbors so that we have a good audience for such an event. I anticipate that this discussion will take place in the homeowners-only section of The Bridge so interested homeowners can shoot me an e-mail to gain access to that.

Board Meeting News

As promised, news from last Tuesday's board meeting is available to registered homeowners here.

In other news, if you're looking for something to do this weekend, consider checking out the Taste of Huntington Beach.

Notes from the Regular Board Meeting of April 15th

E-mail readers, click on "Notes from the Regular Board Meeting of April 15th" for full story.

If you haven't recently attended one of the meetings of the Seabridge board, it's something I would recommend everyone do. It gives you a deeper understanding of the challenges we face as a community, and it lets you see what a group of dedicated volunteers tries to do to meet those challenges. I don't always agree with those decisions, but when things work ideally, it's really pretty cool to see community-in-action.

Last night afforded us a great example. We had a homeowner who wanted to challenge an ARC ruling. Normally these hearings are private, but she wanted it to be public. She stated her concerns with what information was provided on the violation, how there was a long history with the structure in question, and the emotional connection she had to it.

The board, and in particular the president, was very good about giving the homeowner an opportunity to speak. They were also good about representing the interests of our association as a whole and in recognizing there are tough decisions to be made in balancing out the need to maintain standards with the desire to get along as neighbors. Bob Gallucci from the ARC was exceptional in explaining the committee's reasoning in denying the ARC request after the changes had been made without approval. In the end, the best part was that there was a dialogue between the three parties, with the ARC offering to help the homeowner make modifications that were acceptable to the committee. The homeowner appeared happy for the assistance with labor and decisions, and the board doesn't need to compromise on our community standards. We don't often get to see such a process, and I appreciate the fact that all involved participated in a non-confrontational way - I think everyone is set to come out of this a winner.

There was more news coming out of the meeting, but for that you'll need to go to the homeowner-only section. I'll post a link to that article here once it's written!

Return to The Bridge home page.

Monthly Board Meeting - this coming Tuesday, April 15th

E-mail readers, click on "Monthly Board Meeting - this coming Tuesday, April 15th" for the full story.

Unless you're one of those procrastinators frantically working on taxes April 15th, you should consider attending Tuesday's board meeting. The agenda is posted in the pool area, and I see the board plans to consider a lot of items that have a direct impact on the community. Of note:

• Counting of ballots for the vote on the governing document amendments

• Window/Sloped roof cleaning proposals

• Water intrusion policy

• Public hearing for an architectural violation

At some point soon, the board will also need to approve a budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year. I didn't see it on this agenda, so I suspect there will need to be a special meeting to do so. If you have an interest in where your monthly assessment dollars go, you'll want to attend that.

News from the February 19th Board Meeting

E-mail readers, click on "News from the February 19th Board Meeting" for the full story.

I attended last Tuesday's board meeting and have written up some of my impressions. They aren't comprehensive, but in absence of other communication, you may find them interesting.

Registered homeowners may click here to read the details.

I'm curious what you think about the level of communication in the community. So I've set up a small poll on the right-hand side of this page and would like you to weigh in with your answer. (DON'T include "The Bridge" in considering your answer, as this is just a "bonus"!) Answers are anonymous.

Return to The Bridge home page.

Confirmation of Board Meeting Tonight

I have received confirmation that there is indeed a board meeting this evening at 7PM.

The agenda includes topics such as

• Individual unit repairs

• Governing documents revision contract

• Landscape committee presentation

• Gate upgrade

• And much more...

News of the Day, 2/18/2008

E-mail readers, click on "News of the Day, 2/18/2008" title above to read the full story.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday! A few interesting pieces of news to report today...

I believe there is a board meeting tomorrow evening, 2/19/2007 at 7PM in the clubhouse. I have not yet seen an agenda posted, so I'll contact management for confirmation. There are several important projects underway that affect us, and I believe it's important to keep current on the discussion.

These bits of news also caught my eye:

• Interesting story from last Thursday's OC Register regarding our neighbor to the north, the Naval Weapons Station and the new Hampton Inn being constructed adjacent to it.

• I just received the February Neighborhood Watch Newsletter from HBPD. If you haven't yet checked it out, I recommend doing so, as understanding what goes on in our neighborhood is an important component of crime reduction. I was happy to read that things remain quiet in our neighborhood.

• Also in the Neighborhood Watch newsletter, I learned that you can now pay your water/sewer bill on-line by credit card at no additional cost. For those looking to rack up frequent flyer miles, here's another way to get you closer.

• Thank You, Lu Mendenhall, for asking the question we've all undoubtedly asked ourselves from time to time. Good to know the answer, even if I don't like it.

News from the January 29th Board Meeting

E-mail readers, click on "News from the January 29th Board Meeting" title above for the full story.

How are we holding up with the recent rains? What's going on with the gated entry upgrade project? Is there really a buried treasure under the greenbelt? Registered homeowners may click here for news from the recent board meeting.

Return to The Bridge home page.

Board Meeting Next Tuesday, January 29th

E-mail readers, click "Board Meeting Next Tuesday, January 29th" for complete story.

Don't forget that the January meeting has been rescheduled to this coming Tuesday, January 29th at 7PM in the clubhouse. In accordance with a new state law, the agenda is posted for all homeowners to view on the clubhouse door.

So I took a peek at what's on the agenda. Among the items featured:

• Appointment of new ARC committee member

• Gate upgrade

• Governing document revision contract

Remember, if you care about any of these items, or anything else slated for discussion, you can state your views and discuss with the board in the open forum at the beginning of the meeting. For the complete agenda, you can visit the clubhouse entrance.

Return to Seabridge Journal home page.

January Board Meeting Time Change

Please note that there has been a change in the date of the next regular board meeting, from Tuesday, January 15th to Tuesday, January 29th. Same time (7PM), same location (Clubhouse).

Many thanks to BarbraSue for providing the information in the comments to a post below. You heard it here first ;-)

New Year, New Laws

E-mail readers, click on "New Year, New Laws" title above for full story.

It's an invisible occurrence, but may be one of the most important ones affecting us in the coming year at Seabridge and elsewhere. When the clock strikes 12 on New Year's Eve, not only will the party horns be tooting, but a set of new laws will take effect in California.

Of these, the one I believe will be most obvious and important to us Seabridge homeowners is the change to the law resulting from the passage of Senate Bill 528. With a few exceptions, this law requires that the board post meeting agendas in advance and keep decisions limited to the topics on the agenda. If you don't like decisions that have been made in the past, there is virtually no reason left for you to be surprised by a board decision you don't like. So keep an eye out for agendas and make sure you keep informed on the issues affecting our community. And share your views with the board.

If you're curious about the other laws lurking just around the bend, the San Jose Mercury Tribune does a decent job at listing some of them. Of the ones they mention, I was happy to read about the changes to acceptance of gift certificates. California has always been good about looking out for the consumer in the area of gift cards and certificates - including our state's unique law about not allowing cards bought in the state to expire. Also, I see that the hands-free-cellphone-use-while-driving doesn't take effect until July. Still, I believe it's good practice now.

Community Association Law isn't the most fascinating topic, but it has a big impact on how our association runs and how our money is spent. If you're in doubt, consider the numerous organizations - including realtors, management companies, homeowners and contractors - taking positions on all sides of pending legislation, and the lobbyists they send to Sacramento to look out for the millions of dollars they have at stake. I think it's worth an hour or two to understand the basics of the Davis-Stirling Act that guides much of the association's operation. Also, the shiny new 2008 California Condo Bluebook is always an excellent guide. If you are curious about other legislation being considered, there is a good summary of what came up in 2007 here and especially here. Of the information, I was intrigued by the legislation our own Senator, Tom Harman has proposed. It would require mandatory education for board members. I can see the arguments that this is an intrusion into the affairs of the association, but I also understand the intent of making sure people running and HOA understand the basic concepts. Ideally all board members would get this education voluntarily as a part of making sure they understand how to best live up to their fiduciary duty.

"Enjoy"!

Return to Seabridge Journal home page.

News from the December 18th Board Meeting

E-mail readers, click "News from the December 18th Board Meeting" title above for full story.

Do you know the status of the gated entry system upgrade project?

Do you know what's happening with respect to revising our CC&Rs?

Registered homeowners may click here to get answers to these and other exciting questions addressed in tonight's board meeting.

Return to Seabridge Journal home page.