Volume 40 - No. - 14 - April 4, 2025

Connecting our Community

Hello Homeowners,

As I write this, I am looking forward to our first Coffee with Carl sessions. I plan to do more of these every few months so that I can meet more of our homeowners and provide useful information. Our first sessions are on Friday, April 4, at 9 am and Saturday, April 5, at 10 am in the Par Lounge.

• Board of Directors Election: If you have not done so already, please fill out your ballot, follow the instructions of the double–envelope secret ballot process, sign the outer envelope, and mail it to the Inspector of Elections. SDCEA cannot receive ballots.

• FIREWISE Community Information Meeting/Training. Please register online to attend this free event held at the IEC Rotunda on Saturday, April 12, at 8:30 am. The information provided will help you protect/harden your home and property when a fire comes to our community. FIREWISE is an ongoing program that enables homeowners to receive savings on their homeowner insurance policies. To qualify for the savings program, we need participation to achieve Certification from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). HERE IS THE REGISTRATION LINK

I like to use analogies to explain the concepts of running a successful HOA. Above, you have a photo of a pristine 1972 Cadillac. Imagine SDCEA as that car; it represents the assets and amenities of the HOA common areas. There is a limiting factor to consider, we cannot buy another car to replace the one that we collectively own. As a result, our only option is to take care of that car to a reasonable level. Every Board since that time is responsible for doing exactly that. The Board approves an annual budget to do that job.

We know that there are some classic car owners that maintain their prized possession to a high standard. We also know the owner whose classic car is rusting away and ready for the junkyard. It costs more to resurrect that rusty car than keeping up on maintenance every year. SDCEA is neither pristine nor ready for the junkyard. It is my goal to get that car to a reasonably well-maintained standard. There is deferred maintenance here, and we need to address that. If we had a more fully funded reserve account, we could do more of that deferred work now. That is our dilemma to solve. WE, as a community, together with the Board and management, need to find our best solution. Regardless of the extent to which the efforts or decisions of previous Boards fulfilled their fiduciary duties, we are here today, dealing with our overall condition. We need to utilize a strategy that balances the current and future needs of our assets, our current financial status, and our budgets going forward to achieve those goals.