When I first started looking at houses in this area, I worked my way through Legend Oaks, Western Oaks, and even Shady Hollow. One of the things I was looking for, was an active HOA (a lot of the HOAs near us have all but died off). A community pool, playground, and sidewalks (even hike & bike paths !!) all got my attention.

Circle C Ranch has pland to tie the neighborhood and future commercial properites together with bike paths - I really like that idea.

But, what shocked me was to find that their are Circle C Ranch neighborhoods, paying dues like everyone else, who have very little to show for their contributions. The Circle C North neighborhoods on both sides of Barstow appear to be forgotten. Where is THEIR pool ? How about the other remote neighborhood by the Wildflower Center ? Oh, yeah, they have the Veloway (and all that car traffic it attracts).

Seems unfair to me.

But, now, with the expansion of Circle C Ranch to the west, what can we expect ? I'm worried that the next and newest community assets are going to be in the newest subdivisions. It's seems inevitable.

What is CCHOA doing for your section of of the neighborhood ? Is there a playground in walking distance ? Is the pool something YOU are using ? Is your mailbox in a bad place - is it lighted at night. Are your mailboxes large enough ?

Has anyone asked your for your input on a Teen Center, new child care center, a community Hall ?

Are you comfortable with how your HOA money is being spent. Do you know that the CCHOA has to spend ALL the money they collect or they have to reduce your assessments (think THAT will ever happen?)

Taxes always seem to go up, yet this year, for the first time I can remember, my property taxes actually dropped. Did your HOA assessment ever drop ?

$33/month doesn't sound like much, but it's YOUR money. Half of it goes to the Landscaping (and I really don't have a problem with that), but that big chuck that goes into the pool fund really worries me. It's just no equitable. One out of ever 5 dollars of YOUR money is supporting a pool facilitiy than relatively few members use.

I'm not against the pool, I'm questioning why we don't have 3 or 4 pools, located in each neighborhood section - pools you don't have to drive to in your car.

Lets sell off the pool and build 3 more that everyone can use and can walk to.

Quarterly Town Hall meetings

Russ,

We need quarterly ''Town Hall'' style meetings so all residents can talk about the needs they have and so we can all ask the BOD questions. I'll say it again, this is OUR company.

Right now we have a BOD than has a once a year meeting and they talk about what a great job they've done for the year. This is called a one way line of communication, not a meeting. They DO NOT answer questions at these meetings, and at the last meeting would not even follow Standard Rules of Procedure, ''Roberts rule of Order''.

http://www.constitution.org/rror/rror--00.htm

Our Annual Meetings are only a presentation.

ELECTION

The next election NEEDS to be handled by a neutral group such as the League of Women's voters...

''The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.''

...this way everyone will know that the election was fair.

OHAN has offered it's help

OHAN's officers have offered to monitor the next CCHOA election.

I hope that the nomination process is restarted - there no way I can see a fair election without a fair nomination process. Nominations from the floor are a cruel and unrealistic joke - impossible to over come those kinds of odds with proxy voting from people who don't even live here any more.

In some neighborhoods, the votes are house by house - regardless of who lives there. Absent home owners don't usually make very good HOA members, in my experience.