We can hardly complain here in Huntington Beach, since nice weather stays with us virtually year-round. But it's still nice to have summer here, with all the fun activities that go with it.
The Orange County Register has a nice feature on kayaking in Huntington Harbour. Might be time to take mine out for a nice paddle!
On Sunday, May 18th, I invited all declared candidates for the board of directors to participate in The Bridge's "Meet The Candidates Forum". I received information from the following:
Homeowners who have registered on this blog may click each name above for more information above and beyond the candidate statements you received along with your ballot.
Each of these candidates took the time to respond and I believe is worthy of your vote. Because I did not receive statements from all candidates, let alone a majority, I am publishing all profiles at once. I may also exercise some additional discretion when moderating the Q&A.
Talk to people who know the candidates and/or attend meetings. Do your homework. More than anything, I encourage all homeowners to exercise their right and responsibility to vote for members of the board of directors.
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 22rd:
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
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.
Downtown Long Beach is at the edge of Seabridge Territory, but neighbor Debby and I just had a dining experience there that was too amazing not to write about.
Pâtes Fraîches means "fresh pasta" in French - and that perfectly describes the essence of the restaurant: fresh, artisan pasta with a french flair. It's located just east of downtown Long Beach, at 1st and Elm, in an area that's seeing a lot of redevelopment. As it's situated on the corner, it has two full walls of windows that let in a lot of light. The back wall is a colorful mosaic of tiles based on a french textile. And the focal point of the restaurant is the 10-person communal table in the center. You can almost imagine that the people surrounding you are family.
But it's the food that was the highlight of the experience. The herb salad tasted like it came right from the garden, with a mix of flavors that blended perfectly. I had a whole-wheat fusilli with fresh tomatoes, basil and mozzarella, while Debby had a wonderful salmon and asparagus on top of barley cavatelle shells. All the pasta is made fresh daily by the restaurant. Neither of us could pass up dessert, so we shared the chocolate mousse and pear clafoutis. In the true French tradition, the meal satisfied without stuffing us silly, and it didn't take a big hit on the wallet, either.
I would totally recommend it for a new and different casual dining experience - and it's only 25 minutes away. Pâtes Fraîches is located at 400 East Elm in Long Beach. 562-437-2222.
Do you have any dining recommendations to share? Write about them in the comments!
Return to The Bridgehome page.Just a reminder that if you are considering being a candidate for the board of directors - or if you know of a good candidate - the forms are due to Cardinal today. I have copies if you need one.
We all benefit when we have choices to make come election time. Last year we didn't have enough people interested in serving. I hope that this year we'll have a good group of people willing to help the community. Participating on the board of directors is a great way to have a say in what's going on around Seabridge.
