Posts by Bruce Bon
Candidates Night: Questions Asked
This year’s Candidates Night event took place from 6 pm until 7:30 pm on Wednesday, Feb 21. In addition to in-person attendance, members could view the event via Zoom, although Zoom allowed only 100 attendees to log in – many would-be Zoom attendees were thus shut out. 49 questions were submitted, but only 13 were…
Read MoreEast Rec Overruns and OVA Plans for Future Development – Reasons for Optimism
A couple of days ago, Deborah Quam created a post on Nextdoor in which she linked to a Board meeting video from late 2018 in which Tom Kendrick and Iris Harrell described and defended the various cost over-runs and scope changes that led to the almost doubling from original estimates of the cost for remodeling…
Read MoreDemocracy in Oakmont: The Roles of Membership Surveys and Votes
In childhood, we all learned to believe in democracy, the fundamental principle that the right of a government to regulate our lives derives from the consent of the governed. A government is democratic only to the extent that decisions made by that government accurately reflect what decisions the voters as a whole would make if…
Read MoreDues Inflation in Oakmont
Much debate has taken place in Oakmont over the issue of rising dues over the years. This article will look at the objective history of Oakmont dues over the past 21 years and, in the final Commentary section, will offer my opinions on how this history should inform Oakmont Village Association (OVA) members and Board…
Read MoreThe Oakmont Observer is Back!!
After a 3-year hiatus, the Oakmont Observer will resume accepting articles for publication from members of the Oakmont Community! What is The Oakmont Observer? The Oakmont Observer (OO) is an online-only independent source of news and commentary of interest to the Oakmont Community. OO was born during the great pickleball conflict of the mid-2010’s, as…
Read MoreSMART Train Measure I
Voters are being asked whether or not to extend taxpayer funding, to provide around $2.4 billion over 30 years for the Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) system. The problem is that one can’t really make a good decision without quantitative projections of future costs and benefits that are essentially impossible to obtain, although the official…
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