Coto de Caza Dues Increase Coming! – The CZ Schizoid Lifestyle
The CZ Gates do not prevent crime of opportunity. The gates provide an opportunity for crime
October 10, 2007
The question is not whether a CZ Master Association dues increase is coming, a third in less than four years. If the heated discussion between former members of the CZ board of directors in the Coto Discussion Forum is any indication. The real question is when and how high!
Business Management 101 indicates that prior to answering the question of when and how high, one might want to look at the major CZ expenditures. For example, landscape, gate access infrastructure and property management.
It is generally agreed that an argument for a gated community is for safety. In theory, a gate is supposed to remove the opportunity of a crime, similar to locking a car or home. Numerous studies also show that most security breaches are consummated by insiders.
Then there is the CZ gate access controls process. Functions more as a placebo: Coto residents driving a car without a transponder - say because of auto maintenance, such resident needs to drive a loaner, - is held at the gates and interrogated with “rank and serial number”-type of questions, whereas, any non-Coto resident can drive right through, no questions asked!
Coto de Caza Crime and Vandalism. Source: OCSD
Additionally service providers routinely solicit business from other Coto residents – guess what happens to the possibility for crime and vandalism? Exactly! – The CZ gates instead of removing the opportunity for a crime create the opportunity for one. The OCSD’s Crime and Vandalism figures appear to bear this out, since crime and vandalism rates for 3Q2006 and 2Q2007 are at an all time high.
Other CZ facility usage for consideration
· Horse trails are used by 10% of dues-paying CZ residents
· Sports Park is used by some 10% of dues-paying CZ residents
· According to former security Director, roughly 30% of CZ budget is spent on non-CZ dues paying members
· Non-CZ resident Golf club patrons are free to roam the CZ community anytime they wish.
· Non-CZ resident Equestrian patrons free to roam the CZ community anytime they wish
· Non-CZ resident restaurant patrons free to roam the CZ community anytime they wish
Miscellaneous considerations
Consider that the LWV property management company’s fees have increased some 69% without documented evidence showing the increase was absolutely, positively necessary.
Consider that the CZ board hired a private security company without any evidence of due diligence
Consider that the CZ board has failed to get competitive bids for property management services in years!
Buzz
You are absolutely correct and now seem to get the point that I have
been trying to make. Dues will only increase going forward unless
the members are willing to materially cut the services being
provided.
Even when your buddy Joe was on the Board and negotiating vendor
contracts the expenses increased. Dues increases during that period
were only avoided by the addition of new dues paying members in the
southern part of Coto whose tracts were not yet being maintained by
CZ Master. Once that era ended we went from $165/mo to $190/mo.
The "user fee" assumptions are not substantiated by facts and cannot
be relied upon to solve this problem. They will only raise pennies
towards problems requiring real dollars to solve.
Non-members will not pay enough in fees to solve these problems. Any
increase to members is just a dues increase in disguise. Former CZ board member
You missed the point. The issue is not either/or, and certainly not to cut services, as much as it is to manage the budget better: Gate access control as currently implemented is a waste. There are those who argue that the Sheriff is responsible for crime and vandalism – missing the crime of opportunity notion altogether. Consider the attempted rape in December 2006: The CZ BOD was quick to say that the perpetrator was not a CZ resident – however, for all practical purposes, the fact that he was allowed in with no questions asked, makes him a “CZ insider”.
A drastic measure that CZ should consider is to finger print all non-CZ residents entering the gates. For example.
The 10 principles of crime opportunity [RFN1]
1. Opportunities play a role in causing all crime, not just common property crime
2. Crime opportunities are highly specific
3. Crime opportunities are concentrated in time and space – Dramatic differences are found from one address to another even in a high crime area.
4. Crime opportunities depend on everyday movements of activity – Offenders and targets shift according to their routine activities (eg. work, school leisure). For example burglars visit houses in the day when the occupants are out at work or school.
5. One crime produces the opportunities for another – For example, a successful break-in may encourage the offender to return in the future or a youth who has his bike stolen may feel justified in taking someone else's as a replacement.
6. Some products offer more tempting crime opportunities – For example easily accessible electrical items such as DVD players and mobile phones are attractive to burglars and robbers, 'hot product'.
7. Social and technological changes produce new crime opportunities – Products are most vulnerable in their 'growth' and 'mass marketing' stages, as demand for them is at its highest.
8. Crime can be prevented by reducing opportunities – The opportunity reducing methods of situational crime prevention cut across everyday life, though they can be tailored to specific situations.
9. Reducing opportunities does not usually displace crime –
10. Focused opportunity reduction can produce wider declines in crime – Prevention measures in one area can lead to a reduction in another nearby, a 'diffusion of benefits'. This is because offenders might overestimate the reach of those measures.
References
RFN1 Marcus Felson Ronald V Clarke. London: Home Office, 1998. Police Research Series Paper 98
RFN2 Crime Reduction Reading Series
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