Democratizing OVA?

This article will include a brief report on the most recent meeting of the OVA Governing Documents Ad Hoc Committee (GDC), which took place on Monday, September 22, but it will mainly be a commentary on the prospects for democratizing the Oakmont Village Association (OVA) through the efforts of the GDC and the OVA Board of Directors.

Members of the GDC have been working hard to prepare for the October 7 Governing Documents Educational Townhall, which will serve both to educate the OVA membership on the activities of the GDC and their importance for Oakmont’s future, and to allow members to express their opinions about what revisions should be made to our governing documents. This activity will also include five Fireside Chat meetings within October. The GDC will consider all of the member input from these meetings, and will likely decide at the November general GDC meeting on a plan for an initial governing documents amendment election. This plan will be proposed to the OVA Board at its meeting later in November. The current expectation is that the initial amendment election will include changes to the voting thresholds for both the OVA Bylaws and the OVA CC&Rs — for more discussion on this, see the progress report for the September 2 GDC meeting.

Brief Report on the September 22 GDC Meeting

This meeting dealt primarily with making minor decisions and approving materials to be used in connection with the upcoming Town Hall meeting and Fireside Chat meetings. David Simpson, speaking for the Voting Threshold Working Group, discussed voting thresholds. Considering practical issues and the recent historical voter participation in OVA elections (averaging around 50%), this group has chosen, as a starting point for discussion, a 50% quorum with a supermajority of 65% of those submitting ballots required for approval for Bylaws amendments. See discussion in the progress report for the September 2 GDC meeting. The OVA Board and OVA members will be able to weigh in on this, and the Board will have the final say about what goes into the first Bylaws amendment election.

There was also discussion about the various materials and mechanisms to be used to try to reach as many OVA members as possible. In addition to the Town Hall and Fireside Chat meetings, they are developing a web page for the OVA web site and will provide future articles in the Oakmont News and on the OVA Inside Oakmont web pages.

Commentary

The Democratic Ideal vs the Real World

I believe that most of us learned as children that, in the ideal democracy, every citizen has the right to vote and has an equal influence on decisions made by our government (at all levels). This ideal also assumes that everyone understands the issues and has accurate information on which to make decisions.

This is, of course, an unrealizable ideal in any context beyond the old fashioned town hall governance, in which all the citizens of a town could vote on all decisions made on behalf of the town. As soon as we go to a representative democracy, the elected representatives have more power than their constituents over governing decisions. Even if all elected representatives are conscientious and honest, their representation will be uneven. Furthermore, our world is complex and there simply isn’t time enough for all of us to be fully educated on every issue that must be decided upon.

Ways in Which OVA Governance Falls Short of the Ideal

A number of factors contribute to a less than ideal correspondence between the democratic ideal and our OVA governance:

• Self-selection — Very few of us are willing, able and interested in devoting the volunteer time required to run for and then serve on the OVA Board. This means that, even with the most sincere and honest candidates, those who are elected to the Board have different visions of Oakmont from the average Oakmont resident.
• Small candidate pool — In one recent year, there were only 4 candidates for 3 director positions. This made it simply impossible for the voters to choose directors who reflected their views on OVA issues.
• Poor support for popular sovereignty in our governing documents — Our documents were largely written 60 years ago, with a central goal of protecting the developers of Oakmont. Virtually all power to make OVA decisions is vested in the Board, with no requirements for membership votes outside of director elections. California laws, enacted within the past few decades, have added a couple of narrow requirements for membership votes (dues increases above 20%/year, large special assessments), but OVA Boards within the past ten years have often asserted that they were the “deciders”, i.e. that once elected, they not only could but were obligated to make even the largest decisions without holding membership votes on the issues, except for the narrow conditions where the law requires membership votes.

Within the past 15 years, there are at least three instances that I am aware of in which the Board over-reached, to arrive at decisions that went against popular opinion in Oakmont:

• Proposal for an office building on the CAC/Berger greensward
• Proposal for pickleball courts, to be constructed next to the central pool
• Oakmont 2030 project, arriving at an ultimate proposal (the “Walk in the Park”) for the central area which is out of touch with the willingness of the OVA membership to support such a grand scheme

In each of these cases, a great deal of time and substantial OVA funds were wasted, and the plans were ultimately defeated by throwing the perpetrator directors out of office. We were saved by the simple fact that implementation of such plans takes longer than our OVA election cycle (half the Board gets replaced every year), but not without a great amount of upheaval and ill feeling within Oakmont.

Opportunities for Democratization of OVA

For reasons stated above, there will never be OVA governance which achieves the democratic Ideal, but amending our governing documents will give us the opportunity to at least partially correct some of its worst shortcomings, in order to more closely approach the ideal. Some possible amendments:

• Make practical voting thresholds for amending Bylaws and CC&Rs — Current thresholds, as discussed in the progress report for the September 2 GDC meeting, make it virtually impossible to implement amendments, including those supporting democratic reforms.
• Allow one vote per member, instead of one vote per property — This proposal is controversial (it would shift voting power from single residents to married residents), and may also be difficult to administer, but it is certainly worth discussing.
• Require OVA membership votes to approve the largest OVA decisions — If a decision would obligate the OVA membership for millions of dollars, or for payments over many years, or would change the nature of Oakmont in some way (e.g. by making an entertainment venue that would be open to the public, to generate revenue), then it seems unreasonable that directors elected for 2-year terms should be able to make the decision without membership approval by a direct vote.

GDC Progress and Prospects

The efforts of the GDC are directly relevant to making these democratization amendments into reality. The first meeting of the present GDC, under the leadership of David Simpson, took place barely two months ago, on July 22. Since then, they have had multiple meetings with HOA attorneys, organized how they intend to go about their chartered tasks, and organized a Town Hall to kick off the needed interaction with the OVA membership. Their stated first goal is for OVA to hold the first election since 2006 in which amendments to the governing documents are put before the members, concurrent with the spring 2026 OVA directors election. This may seem like a long time just to get to the voting thresholds amendments, but given the necessity for discussion with and approval by the Board, and the election timeline mandated by state law, this is the earliest that such an election can realistically be held. And, as already discussed, the voting threshold amendments are an essential prerequisite to making any other democratization amendments. After the voting thresholds issue is resolved, the GDC will consider amendments to bring our governing documents into compliance with current California law, and for other changes desired by the OVA membership, particularly including the democratization amendments identified above.

Important Dates, Past and Upcoming

• September 13 issue of Oakmont News contained an article describing GDC activities and goals, and announcing the October 7 Town Hall meeting
• September 27 – next issue of Oakmont news – there will be an additional GDC article with more information
• October 7 at 1 pm in Berger – Governing Documents Town Hall meeting
• TBD date in CAC – GDC Fireside Chat
• October 10 from 2 to 3 pm in Berger – GDC Fireside Chat
• October 15 from 9 to 10 am in East Rec – GDC Fireside Chat
• October 29 from 7 to 8 pm in West Rec – GDC Fireside Chat
• TBD date in Oakmont Gardens – GDC Fireside Chat

The OVA GDC meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 10 am in Suite B of the OVA offices. Minutes provide the official documentation of Committee activities and decisions and will be posted on the OVA website after they are approved at the succeeding GDC meeting. The Committee web page, with links to all posted agendas and meeting minutes, can be found at https://oakmontvillage.com/article/author/bylaw-revision-committee/. If you would like to see first-hand how the Committee operates and what progress they are making, or if you would like to express your opinion about their activities or goals, then you should consider attending.

FINALLY — If you have any opinions to express on this topic, feel free to express them in Oakmont Observer comments.

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