Election Update as of September 2, 2004

No Change in Marina Hills

Mr. Tinnelly, attorney for the Board, picked three dedicated "Friends of the Board" to count the ballots for the Director Election. The counting was performed behind closed doors. Mr. Tinnelly would not permit any other interested homeowners to witness the counting.

Here are the results:

Linda Baker 414

Chuck Johnston 376 or 377 (Mr Tinnelly stated that they are not quite sure)

Hans Strupat 335

Rob Sanders 207

Milton Stanford 78

Please stay tuned for the more results of our ongoing investigation into the improprieties we have discovered. We have been told that the ballots cannot be inspected.

Election Update as of September 1, 2004

Concerns about Ongoing Election

Marina Hills association employed security guard on duty recommends to homeowners to vote against candidate Hans Strupat and collects homeowners' proxies

Several Marina Hills homeowners have reported that they were approached by the security guard on duty at the recreation center with regard to the ongoing election for the Marina Hills directors. Confirmed reports state that the security guard suggested to vote for the incumbents and against the candidate Hans Strupat.

At the Annual Meeting of the members on August 25, 2004, not a single Director was present. This puts into serious question the validity of the meeting because of the following reasons: The meeting could not be called to order, nor could any business be conducted, nor could it be adjourned properly.

Hans Strupat was asked by several Bel Fiore District residents (whose homeowners he officially represents) to put forward their concerns to the Pacific Keystone management company. These concerns apply to all Marina Hills voters. Therefore the text of this letter has been published on this web site.

So far the Keystone Pacific management company has not provided any answers to the concerns addressed in the letter.

On September 2, 2004, at 11:00 A.M. the homeowner votes are counted at the Marina Hills club house. Homeowners are invited to the club house to verify that their proxy authorization are properly counted. Homeowners may also want to volunteer as official Election Inspectors and count the votes.

Election Update

Quorum not yet achieved

Quorum requirement drops to 25% for Adjourned Meeting on September 2, 2004

On Wednesday evening (August 25) just before 6.00 P.M. about 25 homeowners gathered at the Marina Hills club house for the annual Meeting of the Members. These homeowners came to either participate in the vote, officially inspect the counting of proxies or just witness the counting process.

Keystone Pacific (The Management) was represented by Denise Bergstrom and
Kim Hockings.

No Director of the Board, not even the running incumbent candidates Linda
Baker or Chuck Johnston were present.

The only candidate present was Hans Strupat.

At 6:00 P.M. sharp Keystone Pacific announced that 688 proxy authorizations had been delivered to Keystone Pacific by mail or in person. Therefore the more than 50% quorum requirement was not met, therefore the Annual Meeting was adjourned to Thursday, September 2, 2004, at 11:00 A.M. at the Marina Hills club house. Then some homeowners from the audience positively verified with Keystone Pacific that their proxy had been received by Keystone Pacific. The adjournment of the official Annual meeting of the members was announced at 6:10 P.M.

The 688 proxies include all the proxies directly sent to SaveMarinaHills.org. 688 proxies represent about 45% of all homeowners, thus about 81 votes/ proxies were missing to achieve quorum. According to the Marina Hills Bylaws (Section 3A.06) the quorum requirement will drop from 50% to 25% at the adjourned meeting. That means that quorum is definitely achieved for next Thursday's meeting.

The homeowners will have to wait one more week to witness the counting of the proxies by the inspectors.

Voting participation is way up from 2003, when only 30.6% of the members
sent in their proxies.

If you still have not voted yet, now you have another chance to do so. Sent
your proxy authorization to SaveMarinaHills.org, 30251 Golden Lantern, Suite E263, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677. We will get your proxy to Keystone Pacific in time for the adjourned meeting.

If you need another proxy, please call 949-218-7408 and we will get a proxy to you immediately.

Also, come to the meeting next Thursday, September 2, 2004, at 11:00 A.M.
and volunteer to inspect and count the votes.

Some homeowners suggested to change future Adjourned Annual Meeting of
the Members to evening hours, so homeowners who have to work during the
daytime have a chance to participate in any adjourned meeting. This is a very democratic idea.

Election of two Directors for Marina Hills

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Time: Registration will begin at 5:45 p.m.; the meeting will be called to order at 6:00 p.m. In order to achieve quorum 51% of the homeowners need to be present in person or represented by proxy.

Location: Marina Hills Clubhouse, 31261 Parc Vista West, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

Purpose: Elect two Directors to the Marina Hills Planned Community Association Board. The term of these two positions is for two years. The three other Directors (Jane Dry, Tom Szwajkos, Vito Ferrante) were elected in August 2003; their term runs for one more year.

Candidates: Linda Baker (Unelected and appointed incumbent), Chuck Johnston (properly elected incumbent), Rob Sanders, Milton Stanford and Hans Strupat.

Duty of Board: The members of the Board are the elected representatives of the Marina Hills Homeowner Association and are the only officers of the non-profit corporation. The Board of Directors has the exclusive responsibility to supervise the property, subcontractors, finances, CC&Rs, Rules and Regulations, and in general, make any decisions, which may affect the Association and its members. Board member positions are voluntary, there is no monetary compensation.

Voting Eligibility: One owner of record per lot may vote; thus, each owner is entitled to cast two votes. Cumulative voting will not be utilized, that means you cannot cast more than one vote for any candidate. Only owners of record as of July 19, 2004 are eligible to vote.

Counting of votes: Volunteer homeowners, if in attendance at the August 25 meeting, will count ballots. The two nominees running for a board position and receiving the highest number of votes will become board members.

Contingencies: If quorum is not achieved, the Adjourned Annual Election will be held September 2, 2004, at 11:00 A.M. In the event of a tie, a recount will be performed, and if the recount confirms the tie, a new meeting will be called for the purpose of breaking the tie.

Come to the meeting and volunteer to help count the votes.

Linda Baker cannot honestly serve two masters with conflicting goals and interests

Linda Baker's Conflict of Interest

Just imagine this: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger responds to a call from President Bush to become the newly appointed Chief of Homeland Security. Schwarzenegger gets sworn in his new post, but simultaneously stays on as Governor of California, attempting to give two times 100% to two masters attempting simultaneously to solve many potential conflict of interest situations.

We all would laugh at such a hypothetical scenario, yet we have this very situation right here at Marina Hills: Linda Baker was appointed to the position as Secretary for all of Marina Hills, yet she is and has been for many years (more than term limits would allow) Director on the Siena Board. Presently she is President.

The goals, interests and motivations of the Marina Hills association and the gated Siena sub-association are not the same, often they are different, if not contradictory. If for example, a particular cost increase needs to be absorbed by either the 1538 homes of the Master Association or the 126 homes of the gated Siena Association, how do you think Linda Baker would vote?

Or why would Linda Baker vote for an improvement of the Marina Hills pool when such an improvement would not add any benefits to Siena homeowners who already have their own sub-association pool?

From an ethical standpoint Linda Baker should have never accepted the controversial appointment to the Marina Hills Board. So far Linda Baker has missed one third of all Board Meetings.

Linda Baker, now voluntarily running for a director's position in the upcoming election has a serious conflict of interest by being on two related boards at the same time.
Common sense suggests not to vote for Linda Baker.

Candidacy Statement

Hans Strupat for Director

Publisher and contributing author of this newsletter, Hans Strupat, is running in the upcoming Director's election as candidate for the Board of Directors.

Hans Strupat, in a recent interview with SaveMarinaHills.org stated: "If elected, I will work on the following issues for the homeowners of Marina Hills:

• To continue, as the present directors have done successfully, to keep the grass green and to keep Marina Hills beautiful and a well respected community within South Orange County.

• To help bring transparency of the Board of Directors' actions to the residents of Marina Hills. To ensure that the Executive Session of the Board, as required by the CC&Rs, is used as little as possible and to provide maximum information to the residents of Marina Hills.

• To be directly and regularly available by phone (949-218-7408) to the residents of Marina Hills; to be available to engage in a direct and constructive dialogue with the homeowners.

• To reestablish democracy within Marina Hills. To attempt to cause ALL Directors to follow the CC&Rs and California civil laws.

• Investigate the pros and cons of term limits for Directors; ensure that Marina Hills homeowners have the opportunity to vote on such a measure as provided by the CC&Rs.

• Investigate the pros and cons of employing a direct employee versus management employed club house support staff, which could be serving the homeowners during their evening and weekend off-hours.

• Investigate the pros and cons of reducing the monthly assessment by about 10% and reducing the present high reserve, which calculates to more than $1,500 per homeowner.

• Bring transparency of certain undisclosed accounting details to the residents of Marina Hills, as provided by law.

• To introduce the highest financial and ethical standards with regard to vendor selection, avoiding commingling of services and potential misuse of funds and power.

• Investigate the pros and cons of eliminating the ability of the association to foreclose on a homeowner?s property.

• Reduce, rather than enlarge, the power of the Directors over the homeowners, whenever such a decision is at hand.

• Use common sense in solving association and homeowner problems and conflicts"

Hans Strupat has been a resident of Marina Hills for more than 16 years. His educational background is MS Electrical Engineering.

Change requires voting against incumbents

Who should you vote for?

Besides Hans Strupat, two other non-incumbent homeowners have declared their candidacy and are running for director positions in the upcoming election. Both Milton Stanford and Rob Sanders have been present at a number of Board Meetings during the last year. During the homeowners' forum (a homeowners' only opportunity to address the board) both candidates have spoken, giving feedback and asking questions to the Directors of the Board on such subjects as the perimeter wall rebuilding project and the Wilson perimeter wall fireplace. In an interview with SaveMarinaHills both candidates stated that they support term limits and more democracy for Marina Hills.

Please vote for a total of two non-incumbent candidates.

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