Time for truce in Country Estates

By Charles LeMenager

The community of San Diego Country Estates was master planned 38 years ago. It has evolved as its developer Ray Watt envisioned, as a great place to live. That’s because a good cultural and physical foundation was provided and our homeowners take pride in their homes and neighborhoods.

The developer deeded to the property owners all the amenities: the golf course, equestrian centers, riding trails, resort facilities and 1,300 acres of common space. That is not a typical thing developers do. This gave the homeowners complete control over those assets and provides revenue of over $8 million annually, helping keep our association dues lower than others.

The association is a serious business and is run by an elected board of directors and professional staff of over 100.

Unfortunately, far too much of our energy and resources have recently been absorbed with legal actions. It’s time to call a truce and make a clean break with this nonsense. Our annual election of officers is scheduled in April and gives us a chance to re-evaluate our options and stop this negativism.

There will be 10 candidates for the five board seats. All but one of the current board members is running for re-election. While I’m not running for the board, I will remain active helping wherever possible with new park development, water resources and such.

Each member of our association, all 3,455 homeowning families, will have five votes to cast in this election. Ballots will be mailed out March 24. Because our bylaws allow for cumulative voting, many of you will be pressured to give over your proxies so they can all be cast for one or two of the candidates. Please don’t give them away. If we ever needed the involvement of all members of our association government before, we need it now. It is imperative that we elect knowledgeable, honest, mature and tested people.

There will be two candidate forums this year, instead of the usual one. The first will be on Thursday evening, March 24, in the San Vicente Room and the other on Saturday afternoon, April 4, at James Dukes auditorium. Please try to take the time and attend one of these before you vote. Please vote your own decisions on the candidates rather than handing over your rights to others.

Charles LeMenager, a Ramona resident, is a San Diego Country Estates Association director.