lake forest shores

A Bit of History...

February 20, 2022

A day of celebrating the chopping down of a cherry tree, happy President's Day. (J/K) The day came about in celebration of the 1st U.S. president, George Washington, who led the Continental Army to victory in the American Revolutionary War against Great Britain. And what was originally known as Washington's Birthday on February 22nd, is now known as President's Day which is celebrated each year on the 3rd Monday of February; yep, it had nothing to do with the chopping down of any cherry tree. It was to recognize / honor great leaders, George Washington & Abraham Lincoln, that made huge impacts in American history to help build and transform our great nation.


These days, President's Day is a mixture of all U.S. presidents, but I think people have a tendency to associate the holiday with whichever current president is serving that year. This could lead into a celebratory day of recognition or simply another 3-day weekend to enjoy without thinking more of it; depending on your politicial belief. No matter, if you've got some free time from work, enjoy your time off and take advantage of the sales.

As for George Washington, he had a list of accomplishments from being the only president to have a state named after him and being the face we all recognize of the U.S. dollar bill. In addition, George Washington stepped down from office after his 2nd term to set an important presidential precedence for future presidents to serve a maximum limit of two terms, should they be elected for a 2nd term.

What happens after the president finishes their term(s)? Well, the people elect another candidate via the Electoral College into the office of the President. But as you know, elected positions aren't solely about the presidency, but an array of all sorts of different official positions; including our HOA board. Each year, the homeowners vote for the Board of Directors representing the Lake Forest Shores community. Therefore, you should have received the annual meeting and election notice sent via U.S. mail; including the irrevocable secret ballot that lists all of the candidates. Your secret ballot should have been submitted by the due date, Thursday, February 27, 2022. Each lot/unit was able to cast up to five (5) votes which you could dispurse any way you wanted, as long as you used whole numbers and didn't exceed the maximum amount of votes. You could distribute your votes equally, so everyone gets one vote, or more votes can be allocated to some of the candidates over the others; as long as the total number of votes doesn't exceed the maximum of five (5).

Hopefully everyone was able to submit their votes because the minimum needed to conduct the annual election meeting that was scheduled for February 27, 2022 is 51%. And depending on the outcome, the top three candidates will serve a 2-year term while the others with the lowest amount of votes serve a 1-year term. All of this seems reasonable, except that the only candidates on the ballot were the incumbents; those currently on the Board. Where was the Call for Candidates? It is a form used for homeowners at Lake Forest Shores who are interested in pursuing leadership positions on the Board of Directors by getting their names listed on the secret ballot. But this time around, absolutely nothing! I sent an email to Crummack Huseby and still no response. Ouch! This brings back memories regarding the last property management company, Associa-PCM. In my opinion, that company was a total disaster due to the lack of transparency and customer service. Anyways, I'm not that familiar with the voting process, but I would think that making it fair and giving everybody a chance to apply would be the right thing to do.

Notwithstanding, the agenda and meeting minutes located in the client portal on the Crummack Huseby website have not been updated. The last known board meeting was January 18, 2022, but there is no posted minutes of the meeting and it's been over the 30-day timeline. Reason for my gripe is it would be helpful to know what transpired in those meetings because a lot of homeowners cannot attend. Hopefully we're not going back to a time where the homeowners of Lake Forest Shores were left in the dark.

There are a few other concerns within the community that are based on my observations (parking, trash containers, storage closets, etc), but I will save those for a later time. I'm hoping Crummack Huseby does a 180 before it falls down the rabbit hole and gets lost in the endless twists and turns. I still think they are a better property management company than the previous nightmare, but I've been noticing some of the same issues from the past. :(

I guess we'll find out more over time.