|
General Knowledge
This is the second Friday the 13th in as many months, and I am feelin’ it. In fact, 2026 has 3 Friday the 13ths. The last one will be in November, which seems appropriate as it will be right around national election time. A quick googling and I learned that this triple 13th only happens twice every 14 years. The last year it happened? Answer: 2015. That was a good year, as I remember it.
Anyway, feel free to use that little tidbit as a conversation starter tonight. I wouldn’t advise trying it as a pickup line in a bar, though. As a general rule, references to Friday the 13th probably venture into the world of creepy.
Back to why I am feelin’ it. I knew you were wondering, and I didn’t want to leave you hanging. I want to be very transparent about all the changes coming in the next few months and the likelihood that, like all big changes, there will be growing pains and frustrations.
This is about your money!
April 1st, we are moving to monthly assessment billing rather than quarterly. We are changing banks and community management software. This means that you will have to create a login and get set up on a new system. You should have received a postcard from Action Property Management, and you will be receiving a letter from them with instructions. All of this change is aimed at improving our financial system and saving the association money. It will be rocky at times, but we will figure out the challenges together.
This is about your vote!
The second piece of mail or email you will be getting related to the HROA is from The Inspectors of Elections, or TIE as they go by in acronym form. Every time I read or write Inspectors of Elections, I think of Inspector Clouseau and hear the Pink Panther theme song. Please be on the lookout for information from TIE! Look in your spam folder if you are doing online voting, or in your mailbox if not. If you aren’t sure, feel free to email us at office@hroa.us.
I know what you are thinking, “how on earth can we be talking about another election so soon!? Didn’t we just do this!?” And yes, yes, we did. But you will remember that last year we only had two candidates for two open seats after the close of the candidate nomination period. It seemed common sense that we should be able to save money and not have to pay for balloting in that scenario, but this is California, and common sense rarely factors into legislative decisions.
In a scenario where there is an equal number of candidates to the number of open seats, the board can simply vote to put those candidates into office, which is called an election by acclamation. We didn’t start early enough last year with notifications to allow us to conduct an election by acclamation. You might also remember it was a real push to get enough votes to certify the election, partly because so many folks thought that they didn’t have to vote since there were only two candidates for two seats. That made sense, but that is not how the law works. According to State law, preserving that option means you need to start a lot earlier than we did last year. Fortunately, if that happens again this year, we are ready! An election by acclamation would reduce the cost of our election this year by $4,000, and that is why it is worth preserving that option.
This is about Boating
Not a big deal, but if you are planning to take your boat to the marina next week, the lower marina road (the section between the entrance and exit of the marina parking lot) will be closed Tuesday-Friday for repairs. The marina will remain open via two-way traffic through the upper parking lot. We expect the lower Marina Road to be open by the weekend. As with all of our needed road repairs, this one has been a long time coming, and I am excited that it is getting done!
Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you around the Ranch!
Jim
| 
