Plan for youth council is offered by RMA president
Published
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Rancho Murieta Association President Mike Martel's plan to form a youth council received the board's support at the February board meeting.
The board unanimously approved Martel's proposal to form an ad hoc committee with an RMA director as chair, some non-authoritative community members to help conduct the meetings, and a dozen teenage members from 13 to 17 years old, with boys and girls equally represented.
Martel said his goal is to gain "a vision of the place from their perspective" and to share ideas and collaborate on solutions to problems in the community, including vandalism. The committee chair would bring the council's recommendations back to the board for its consideration.
Martel said the Elk Grove Unified School District was contacted and has agreed to provide students who participate on the council with community service credits.
He said many people have expressed their interest in the plan, and he didn't anticipate any difficulty in recruiting members. "We're going to make the community aware that this is a possibility. I actually think we're going to get a lot of interest in this," Martel said. He indicated he would like to see a range of the community's young people involved, including some who could offer personal perspective in some problem areas.
"It's our way of getting them to look at security issues, recreation issues, anything you want to talk about," Martel told the board.
Cable controversy continues
John Weatherford brought charts and graphs comparing the business plan for the cable system with actual budget performance, although the changeover to digital programming has been delayed from the original January start date. No new start date has been set.
Weatherford, a longtime public skeptic about RMA cable operations, said the business plan projections are not being met.
According to Weatherford, homeowners associations can't compete in the highly competitive business of TV programming, and are ill-equipped to adopt and carry out plans like the RMA's five-year cable improvements plan because boards -- and their priorities -- change within that timeframe.
The handwriting has been on the wall since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 "changed everything" by enabling people to add satellite dishes to their homes, Weatherford said.
Martel stated his belief that the plan to upgrade the cable system has revenue potential for the association and it's too soon to pull the plug.
The board approved spending $200,000 from reserves last year to replace failing cable on the North and upgrade the system to offer digital programming.
Trees for Stonehouse Park
The board approved spending up to $5,000 from exclusive use funds to plant shade trees at Stonehouse Park.
RMA Maintenance Manager Rod Hart said mitigation trees such as oaks and sycamores weren't suitable choices for the project, which requires fast-growing trees with no invasive root issues.
Martel proposed dedicating a tree to the memory of Harvey Hatfield, a retired 25-year RMA employee who recently died.
