By Phil Trubey
November 6, 2020
Internal Dispute Resolution
Hallelujah! After highlighting, complaining, and raising the alarm about the Association’s egregious Art Jury IDR process (see here, here, and here) put into place a year ago (the one that explicitly allows members to potentially halt permitted construction even if the construction follows the Art Jury approved building permit to the letter), the board voted 7-0 to replace both Association’s IDR processes with a simple half page procedure that hews more towards the IDR process that the Davis Stirling act suggests. There are still a few oddities in it, but it is vastly better than the old ones it replaces.
Restaurant Remodel Committee
In a similar vein, another outbreak of common sense occurred when board president Mike Gallagher appointed Tyler Seltzer to the 3×3 committee that is overseeing the golf club restaurant remodel. While the original intention was that this final member not be a golf club member (and Seltzer is one), Gallagher decided that because Seltzer has school age children, this tilted the appointment to his favor. Gallagher stated that he wants to have more representation at the board level, and especially on this important restaurant remodel committee, from the “families with school age children” constituency in our community. I applaud this attack of common sense.
The 3×3 committee is now composed of Rick Sapp, Sharon Ruhnau and Tyler Seltzer (these ostensibly represent the Association at large), along with Bill Johnson, Steve Dunn and Debra Gustafson representing golf club members. Brad Shupe (GC General Manager) and Christy Whalen (Association General Manager) round out this working group.
Tennis Club
John Chanfreau, Tennis Club General Manager was once again invited to give an update. Summary: All is Well. Chanfreau has been at the last three board meetings now, and while I applaud the outreach efforts, perhaps some other parts of the Association could get some board face time, such as the golf club, or dare I say, the Art Jury?
By the way, the tennis club website has been down for over three months. Does anyone know? Does anyone care? As it happens, the error it is showing (WordPress critical error) is something I know how to fix, since I’ve been geeking out coding a couple of other WordPress web sites recently. I had offered to help fix the site a month or two ago, but no one has gotten back to me. It would likely be a fifteen minute fix, but either no one gives a crap about the tennis club website or ??
RSF Connect
We are up to 865 connected RSF customers (out of about 2,000 potential customers), with 80 new connection requests in October alone. The October rush was probably due to the RSF Association “subsidy” expiring, which will result in an average of $600 extra installation cost per residential house going forward.
There is now another deadline of December 31st to take advantage of low negotiated rates for installation. When you order new service, you must typically trench a conduit from the street to your house. The Association had negotiated a $6.25 fixed price per foot rate from Race Communications to do this work, but that rate is only locked in until December 31st, after which Race will be raising their conduit installation rates. I personally have always recommended you use your own contractor to install this conduit for a variety of reasons, but some people have found Race’s current rates to be cheaper than other third party contractors. On the other hand, others have found that Race doesn’t do a great job when crossing through driveways, for example.
These installation numbers put RSF Connect on a firm financial footing.
Regulations
Another burst of sanity! Association staff put together a decent process for creating, adopting and reviewing new regulations. And as a result, new regulations will be worked on at a more measured pace. The Association may not have had a choice as the number of permitting requests has skyrocketed recently (double normal volume) and the building department is busy just processing applications.
Here’s the new process for adopting regulations:
It’s pretty self explanatory. I like that we will be warned about upcoming changes and be allowed to provide comments before regulations are drafted. Being able to see other member’s comments is also nice.
And here’s the timeline for the next five regulations the Association is working on. Given how busy the building department is, I’m not going to knock them if this schedule slides as long as they follow their outlined process above.
In the meeting, directors Gallagher and Bill Weber both praised building commissioner Maryam Babaki for putting this together. Greg Gruzdowich asked that the Art Jury be involved in the process and Gallagher stated they would be included. Director Bill Strong expressed frustration at the planned slow pace.
Parks and Recreation
The Parks and Recreation department asked for two non budgeted items, both of which were approved by the board. $25K for an interior remodel of a maintenance building to give their employees more space from what was described as very cramped working conditions, and $25K for a new (actually used) pickup truck.
Osuna
Director Sharon Ruhnau is spearheading an effort to establish rules and regulations for the use of the Osuna ranch. Director Laurel Lemarie voiced objections on some proposed language she has seen regarding building fencing and gates around Osuna. Lemarie stated that the Osuna committee hadn’t officially weighed in yet on these proposed new rules. Per Christy Whalen, these rules will continue to be developed and presented to the board to post for comment at the December board meeting.
Separately, Rick Sapp is spearheading an effort to investigate alternate uses for part of the Osuna property. I wrote about this effort here.
- TOPICS
- Association
- Internet
- Osuna
- Restaurant
- Tennis
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