Thagard , Zipperman Elected to 2006 Coto de Caza Board of Directors!

Thagard , Zipperman Elected to 2006 Coto de Caza Board of Directors! May 25, 2006 Elections Results Available Now!

In the CZ Master Association meeting to be held May 25, 2006, George Thagard, current district delegate and board member will be elected to a new term and so will new-comer Steven Zipperman. CotoBuzz has been calling the Coto de Caza elections, weeks before they take place, for the last four years and have been 100% accurate. Actually it is not rocket science – it is cumulative voting:

In this case, through the use of cumulative voting, the fact that six candidates are running for two seats and the fact that all seating board members are also district delegates, the current board can dictate who gets elected. Assuming that each delegate in Coto represented the same number of homes, in this election, the delegate has six votes (because of the six candidates), that they can use: Either all on one candidate, or spread out. Having six candidates simply allows for independent, un-organized delegates to dilute their vote, while the board can focus on two candidates of their choice.

Eternal optimist and former board member Joseph Morabito believes the current “CZ Delegate Electoral System is corrupt which is probably the reason that the state legislature with the Governor's signature passed SB 61 which will take effect in July 2006 to finally end this farce for all and us in 2007”. We of course share Mr. Morabito’s views in this regard and fought to pass SB 61 and fought to eliminate cumulative voting from Coto de Caza.

Although we share Mr. Morabito’s optimism, there are various forces of influence acting against homeowner’s interests and association’s electoral reform. The strongest being industry lawyers- who have the most to win from the status quo- backed by Senator Battin, who has introduced SB 1560 to force the use of cumulative voting. As the April 2, 2006 Adam & Kesler Newsletter reads “ The new election requirements are creating a lot of disagreement in the legal community about what they mean and how to implement them”. Another element is the California Legal System: A press release dated March 27, 2006 reads “West Virginia, Louisiana, Illinois, California, and Texas were among the worst states for legal fairness, while Mississippi is improving after enacting legal reforms, according to a new ranking of the best and worst state legal systems released today by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR)”.

Then we have the county elected officials such as Orange County Supervisors Thomas Wilson, who already has a Trojan Horse firmly in place, which allows the Coto de Caza Board of directors to turn Coto into a city, seamlessly.

So, the moral of the story is that the more things change, the more they stay the same: Welcome George and Steven and Congratulations!