Image Up Advertising & Design

Two Candidates File For HOA Board Seat Two candidates have filed to run for the HOA Board seat up for election in April. Incumbent Vice President and Secretary Loren DuChesne has filed for re-election. Barbara J. Kwiatkowska-Amerton, a retired music teacher and doctor of ethnomusicology, is his challenger. Ballots were mailed to residents in mid March. They must be returned by April 15, or voted in person at the Annual District meetings on April 16 in the Lodge Ballroom, when they will be counted. To vote in person, residents must appear in the Ballroom at the time set aside for their district (see schedule page 7). The results will be officially announced at the Annual Board Meeting on April 25. A "Meet the Candidates" forum was held in the Ballroom on March 19. In preparation for the Board election, 13 District Delegates and 11 alternates were elected in February. The delegates cast the votes of their districts for the Board, much like members of the Electoral College in U.S. presidential elections — but with a difference: If a majority of the district homeowners vote, the delegates must cast all the district's voting power in the proportion of the votes cast. If there is no majority, the ballots are unopened and the delegate is free to vote in any way he or she sees fit. Alternates act in the absence of the delegate. It is in the best interest of all homeowners to vote so that their ballots and those of their neighbors are counted. In the Board election last year three districts failed to reach a majority. Two homeowner Board members, President Jacque Sneddon and Treasurer Wayne Staples, have a year left on their terms. The Four other Board members are appointed by builder K. Hovnanian Homes. The appointed members will remain a majority of the Board until the last home are built. After that all Board members will be elected from the community. Loren Duchesne has been a Board member for two terms and takes pride in the Board's accomplishments over that time. Among the achievements he cited were: • "We have put together an effective process for recovering delinquencies (unpaid fees and penalties) that has been very successful. We have recovered many thousands of dollars, mostly from people who don't live here anymore." • The Board set out to improve communication with residents through the Breeze, the website and Town Hall meetings on specific issues. The effort "has improved trust" within the community, he said. • "We fixed landscape problems in the Laurel Paseo, the Monarch homes and the Springdale common areas." • "We worked with the Beaumont police to improve traffic safety, (builder) K. Hovnanian to fence and secure the perimeter and the HOA has improved gate security and installed security cameras at each gate." • With the Rules and Regulations Committee The Board spearheaded last year's drive to amend the CC&Rs to strengthen the community's 55-and-up age requirements. In general, he said, "The Board works together well. It's timeconsuming and we each focus on the committees which we serve as liaisons — but at the end of the day we have to come together and agree on what is the best long-term solution for the majority of the community. "The Board has a good, effective process. I'm very happy about how we operate," he said. Among upcoming projects for the Board, are increased maintenance as the community ages and grows. "We are going on seven years old, facing more and more replacement and maintenance decisions — but we have very sound reserve funds," he said. "We Barbara J. Kwiatkowska-Amerton is a life-long music teacher who has instructed kindergarten children, graduate students and everyone in between. She holds a doctor's degree from UCLA in ethnomusicology — the study of how music relates to the culture that created it. In a way, she was born with ethnomusicology. "The term was first used officially in 1950," she said, "the year I was born." She is a pianist and an active member of San Jacinto Community College orchestra and is a member of the Performing Arts Club and sings with the Four Seasons Singers. She first came to the U.S. from her native Poland in 1975 as a student at UCLA's School of Ethnomusicology — the first for that subject in America. After several years of study and passing qualifying exams she earned a PhD. She already had bachelor's and master's degrees from Poland. She later picked up a second master's in education from Loyola Marymount. After gaining her doctorate she returned to Poland in 1981 to find the country embroiled in political upheaval, with great danger of invasion from East Germany or the Soviet Union to suppress the Solidarity movement. "Within one week I was back in the United States," she said, and began her teaching career. She became a U.S. citizen in 1989. Her academic career led her to teach at colleges in both the U.S. and Canada and to deliver papers and lectures in the U.S., Canada, Austria and Poland. A number of her papers were published in professional journals. She finally took a full-time job with the Lynwood Unified School District and retired from there before moving to Four Seasons. She said she was attracted to Four Seasons by its beauty and location. She said she dreaded to leave her apartment in Westwood (near UCLA "I couldn't part from it"), but she had long wanted Loren Duchesne continued on page 7 6 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | APRIL 2013 | community News Barbara J. Kwiatkowska-Amerton continued on page 7 District Delegates, Alternates and Meeting times The delegates and alternates elected in February for each district are: Arbors One, Niles Sundstrom and Diana Cook; Arbors Two, Noel Myers and Peter Paladino; Colonnade One, Margaret Freeman and Toni Finer; Heritage One, Lynn Gerlack and Willa Bonner; Heritage Two, Suzanne Roldan and Tina Soeten; Keystone One, Judith Erickson and Janet Burns; Landmark One, Loren Stassart and JoAnne Terrell; Landmark Two, Dale Beckes and no alternate; Laurel One, Leslie Diamond and no alternate; Laurel Two, Howard Lyon and Thomas Danielson; Monarch One, Dennis Mallon and Del Lyles; Monarch Two, Stephen Sarchett and Rob Gardner; Springdale One, Don Fant and Betty Ann James. Schedule for District Delegate Meetings on April 16 Arbors One................ 9 am Arbors Two .......... 9:30 am Heritage One ..........10 am Heritage Two ......10:30 am Landmark One ........11 am Landmark Two ...11:30 am Laurel One ............... Noon Laurel Two ............... 1 pm Monarch One....... 1:30 pm Monarch Two............. 2 pm Springdale One.... 2:30 pm Colonnade One......... 3 pm Keystone One....... 3:30 pm Loren Duchesne continued from page 6 Barbara J. Kwiatkowska-Amerton continued from page 6 have already worked to improve and expand our facilities to accommodate growing community." Another set of decisions involve the old K. Hovnanian sales office that has recently been turned over the HOA. A special committee — the Recreation Center North ad hoc committee — is being formed to accept input from the community and make recommendations to the Board about how best to develop this new asset. The committee will consist of one member from each of the standing committees (there are nine of them) and six at-large members. He said the Board is interested in the short- and long-term needs, the cost of improvements, the suitability of uses for the building and how it will relate to the existing Lodge and the other two recreation centers to be built by K. Hovnanian before Four Seasons is finished. DuChesne had a 36-year career in law enforcement, starting as a cop on the beat in Santa Ana (officer of the year in 1968 and as a sergeant, supervisor of the year in 1969) and finishing as chief of the 225 investigators and support personnel of the Orange County District Attorney's Bureau of Investigation. After retirement he ran a consulting business that helped private businesses and police departments with operational and administrative matters. He has a master's degree in public administration from USC and is a graduate of both FBI's National Academy and its Executive Development Program. He is the Board's liaison with the Bistro, Event Systems, Rules and Regulations and Safety and Facilities committees. During his tenure, he said he has maintained, "An open door, spending hundreds of hours meeting with homeowners to resolve community issues." He said the Board's "first loyalty is to the HOA," not the builder, the City of Beaumont or any other agency. "We don't want to expose the community to any weakening of viability. a house of her own, for herself and her mother who moved from Poland in 2002. "I wanted a home that was new, pretty and part of community as opposed to single home with everybody disconnected from each other." On the Internet she found K. Hovnanian. She made a trip to Beaumont eight years ago, just as Four Seasons was beginning. "I remember liking the Lodge, the sales presentations, the sales people. Everything was so pretty. I looked at the lovely floor plans, the grounds — what was coming I liked very much what I saw." When she finally retired she moved here in March 2010. Among her goals, if she is elected to the HOA Board, are to ensure the beauty of the community is maintained and that all community members are given opportunities to have their problems solved. "I would like to accomplish an even greater sense of community and greater sense of unity of all who live here. I want to continue the beautification of our little town within a town." She thinks the Board and its members need, "To be the source of solution to any problems through communication and discussion; to convince people of whatever needs to be convincing — in a democratic way. To make sure the Board is open to discussion from all." She said she has begun reading back minutes of the Board meetings on the Internet to get up to speed. "On a personal level, I want to be more active than I have been." She hopes to see that the Board is involved in everything from "fixing the bumps on road," to overseeing that the big things operate well. Community News | FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | APRIL 2013 7

• Cover