• Candidacy: I believe residents empower home owner associations. Without buy-in and engagement from homeowners, HOAs function as mere administrative and legal instruments. Such is the norm, and most HOAs operate as essentially redundant adjuncts to the property management companies they hire. This works well enough in Beverly Hills, The Hamptons or Potomac, where multi-million housing prices, political clout and privately contracted services pretty much isolate these communities from the challenges of crime, speeding, dumping or zoning conflicts.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, home prices and circumstance here at Sumner Grove aren't yet on par with these up-market communities. I'm interested to serve on the HOA because of the obvious stake I share with every homeowner in this community, but also because of this concern that the new Sumner Grove HOA be empowered by residents, and be relevant to them. I believe my involvement will help the HOA to be pragmatic and efficient, but also to value community-building, in spite of the organizational inertia it brings.