Every year the election to select the Board of Directors at the beautiful and vibrant Sunnymead Ranch, a quiet and prestigious homeowners association tucked away at the base of the northern foothills of Moreno Valley, runs into the problem of not having enough homeowners turn in, or mail back, their ballots in time to be counted for the election. What makes it an even greater challenge is that with almost 10,000 residents, it only needs as little as 371 ballots returned in order to hold their annual election. Getting those ballots turned in on-time is not a problem just here, but it happens at many HOAs nationwide. And for a variety of reasons including voter apathy, not enough information about the candidates, and so on.
This year, however, and with five seats available for filling on their Board, three of the candidates have joined forces to make every effort to turn out the vote. Robert Riddick, current Board president, along with George Gallanes, the association's current treasurer, are joined by newcomer to running for the Board, Ms. Renee Osburn, (collectively known as “Team Sunnymead Ranch”) are doing everything they can to encourage residents to vote. And for good reason. Last year's election, which cost close to $15,000 to conduct, resulted in no election at all, because not enough ballots were returned to meet the required quorum. If it happens again this year, the association, and every single homeowner there, will be saddled again with a bill close to that amount again, and for an event that didn't take place. Riddick states that “this is a cost that can be managed, by having as many homeowners participate in the election-process as possible. The question is how do we get them to respond to voting?”. In an effort to answer that question, the team has launched a grass-roots effort to get residents to cast their votes, including neighbors offering to drive other neighbors to the office to turn in their ballots, if they can't get there on their own before the deadline. Social media is also being used to get the vote out, driven mostly by the team ( www.TeamSunnymeadRanch.com ) who are running on the important platform of protecting home values, while keeping dues from being raised for the seventh straight year.
Hopefully with their efforts there will finally be an election this year. Only time will tell. For more information on their efforts, go to www.TeamSunnymeadRanch.com
At the Feb. 13, 2019 Sunnymead Ranch Annual Member's Meeting and Election, quorum was not made for that meeting, but there were enough ballots turned in to assure quorum being made at next week's adjourned meeting, so there WILL be an election held on next Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019 , to fill the five seats to serve on the Board of Directors at Sunnymead Ranch.