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Updated
Friday, March 8, 2002
The
Murieta Holdings developers agreed to postpone a community
forum planned for later this month after a resident complained
at Thursday's "town hall" meeting that a survey
being distributed in connection with the forum was "very
misleading ... outright fraud" and damaging to the
community's planned cable Internet business.
Instead
of a meeting March 26, the developers said Friday that the
meeting will be held in June.
At Thursday
night's meeting, resident John Weatherford objected to the
technology survey -- created by a consultant hired by the
developers in cooperation with the RMA -- because it was
mailed in a Rancho Murieta Association envelope and carried
an RMA logo on the form.
"I
thought it was very misleading. I thought it was outright
fraud," Weatherford said. "I don't like things
sent to me that are fake. … There's nothing on this
that identifies you or (the consultant). … If it's
from the RMA, that means one thing. If it's from you, that
means something else, in my opinion."
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The
survey, which you can fill out here,
asks the community's opinions about various technologies,
from Internet connections to smart appliances to high-tech
golfing.
Developer
Gerry N. Kamilos, who ran the meeting with partner
Robert J. Cassano, apologized for any confusion and
said there was no intent to deceive anyone.
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"I
thought it was outright fraud," said John Weatherford.
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"The
buck stops here, and we will take the responsibility for
that," Kamilos said. "But the intent was to get
some information that will be useful for this community."
Weatherford
said it was "stretching it a bit" to claim the
RMA played a role in the survey. He said two RMA board members
he spoke with were unaware of any connection at all.
"We made every effort to assure there was input with
the RMA staff as well as with the community," Kamilos
said.
"My
understanding, and I'll certainly look into it, was that
prior to the survey going out there should've been some
coordination with the RMA. My understanding too is that
the RMA agreed to use their bulk mail system … to allow
us to utilize that. And certainly all that couldn't have
happened unless there was some level of cooperation."
Kamilos
said the developers are picking up the $40,000 tab for the
research project.
Weatherford
said the survey's apparent RMA connection creates confusion
around the community's cable Internet initiative, which
is scheduled to launch May 1. That project already faces
announced competition from Pac Bell DSL, and Weatherford
said the survey, if from the RMA, seems to suggest a lack
of resolve about the cable Internet plan.
Said
Kamilos, "Maybe the timing of the survey … given
the debate going on in the community ... was maybe not the
very best."
"The
board and Communications Committee have stumbled badly in
getting information to us," and caused confusion, Weatherford
said. "This causes more."
When
Weatherford asked that the March 26 community forum be canceled
or delayed, Kamilos said he would check with RMA General
Manager Greg Vorster and RMA board members on their thoughts
about a delay.
"If
in their judgment it should be postponed, we'll postpone
it," Kamilos said.
When
Weatherford sat down, resident Robert Johnson took the microphone
to ask that the March 26 meeting go on as scheduled -- "to
have an open forum for discussing of technologies and communication."
Johnson,
who has written a half-dozen e-mails to RanchoMurieta.com
in the last month opposing the RMA's broadband plan, said
his feelings are not a secret. "I'm in favor that users
of the technology pay for the technology," he said,
"rather than everyone pay for the technology."
Weatherford
returned to the microphone to point out that Johnson, who
owns and operates the Rancho Murieta Business Center, is
signing up customers for Pac Bell DSL service through his
business, though Johnson says he is not profiting by the
arrangement.
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New
homeowners association seen as similar to RMA
Residents
of the build-out developments of Rancho Murieta North
will have a new homeowners association that's a small
governing body, strictly enforcing CC&Rs similar
to those already in place in the community.
That
was the view of the future outlined by lawyer Curtis
Sproul at Thursday night's monthly "town hall"
meeting. About 20 people attended the hour-long session,
which is being broadcast on Channel 5 through March
17. (See the RanchoMurieta.com daily calendar for
broadcast times.)
Sproul,
who wrote the revised CC&Rs approved by the community
in 1996, was introduced by Robert J. Cassano, half
of the Murieta Holdings development team.
The
new organization will be called the Rancho Murieta
North Association, Cassano said. He added that Sproul's
CC&Rs for the new organization will be written
to "live and breathe side by side with minimum
conflict" with the present North CC&Rs.
Said
Sproul, "When I do the Murieta North documents
… my thought is make all the documents for the
overall area known as Rancho Murieta as close together
as possible, so down the road … someday there
will be just one master association over the whole
community."
Sproul
responded to criticism of the Murieta Holdings developers
for their desire to have a separate association.
"I
want to emphasize that the fact they want to remain
separate, I don't perceive that as nefarious or even
out of the ordinary," he said. "In fact,
it's very ordinary that developers would want to control
their product and what they do."
He
added, "One of the things we've got is a very
easy mechanism to one day merge the two organizations,
if that's desirable."
Asked
about enforcement of the CC&Rs, Sproul pointed
to Cassano's many years with Robert C. Powell, developing
Campus Commons and Gold River -- two communities with
tightly enforced rules.
"The
whole Powell ethos … was to really be very firm
and to make the CC&Rs say something," said
Sproul. He added, "I imagine in the North as
long as these folks are running the show, it will
be very strict."
Unlike
Campus Commons and Gold River, which have a lot of
associations or board members or both, Sproul said
the Rancho Murieta North Association would aim for
a single governing body of manageable size, with a
sub-association only if needed.
Development
agreement given to RMA
The
Murieta Holdings developers have delivered to the
Rancho Murieta Association what the developers hope
is the final version of the development agreement.
The
developers say now they'll next begin a dialogue with
the Community Services District on providing service
to their developments.
Developer
Gerry N. Kamilos said the county is in final stages
of preparing the environmental impact reports for
the developers' Murieta Hills and Retreats projects.
"It
appears we're on track to begin the public hearing
process sometime in late April or early May,"
Kamilos said. The projects probably will go before
the board of supervisors this summer, he said.
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