My 2024 Endorsements for the OVA Board

I endorse Matt Oliver, Heidi Klyn and Jerry Gladstone for the 2024 Oakmont Village Association Board of Directors. I will explain why below. These are my personal endorsements and are not those of The Oakmont Observer, which will not have any official endorsements. Author’s note: When I took the job of Editor of The Oakmont…

Read More

Candidates Night: Questions Not Asked

This is the second article covering important questions that OVA members submitted, hoping to have OVA director candidates answer them during Candidates Night. The first article, Candidates Night: Questions Asked, listed the 13 questions (out of 49 submitted) that were asked and then answered by the candidates at Candidates night. As you can see, there…

Read More

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 More

Democracy 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 More

Freezing Out Dissent in a Community Election

Political figures at the community level often frame criticism of their voting record and policies as “personal attacks” for important strategic reasons. This strategy can serve as a diversionary tactic. It shifts the focus from the objective and substantive issues that interest the community, such as a candidate’s on-the-record statements, voting record or policy positions,…

Read More