Courage

Letter to the Editor
Daily Press

April 29, 2010
Re: “Arizona’s answer” (Chicago Tribune Editorial, Daily Press, Victorville Ca., April 29),

We your readers are grateful that today's editorial page includes the above article. You have shown some courage to face an issue that is probably “to hot to handle” in any California city tabloid. The hope of your readers is for the Daily Press to exhibit slightly more courage and share it’s own opinion. Doing so would light up your message boards and give all of us a forum for honest discussion of this issue. Instead, you seem to employ this article as an avoidance technique to deflect the outrage that is out there in the community.

The article from the Chicago Tribune implies that all would be well in America if our immigration laws were changed. The writer would have us open the legal immigration doors so wide that illegal immigration would not happen. In effect, this article is a call for no immigration laws and open borders. Let’s all just mingle together as one big happy family, a world wide family. Of course, the elites shall direct this new family and bear none of the financial burden dumped on the middle class. It is not surprising that this opinion is coming to us from Chicago and it’s gangster political climate.

Courage is again the problem, the writer’s mental gymnastics would agree with this summary but as stated it is much to blunt to be politically correct. The elites need to ease we Americans into this new reality. This one reader will not be so manipulated. The liberal slight of hand is all about social and economic engineering, about the federal government's designed and controlled workforce. Our founding fathers, Timothy McVeigh and Ronald Regan were all correct, the federal government is the problem.


G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca. 92395

Rev. Jim Wallis

April 26, 2010

Rev. Jim Wallis would have us believe that God wants our immigration laws broken. Shame on you Rev. Wallis for perverting the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the biblical record. What don't you understand about rendering unto Caesar what is Caesars? Jesus came to change men’s hearts not necessarily their societal standing. By changing men’s hearts we are better able, hopefully, to love all our brothers but social justice is your gig not God’s.

Every nation on the face of the earth has immigration laws to protect it’s own citizens and their jobs. Any elitist theologian who preaches social justice probably hasn’t scratched for a living in his life. He hasn’t felt the sting of watching his children suffer because of the greedy few. Sure, life is terribly unequal both at home and abroad but what, pray tell, is evil about maximizing the opportunities that hard work presents to we Americans.

Really preach Rev. Wallis, condemn the greed of our times, defend the weak and the aliens, but desist from calling immigration laws evil. To so state is a bald faced lie, for these laws defend our jobs when and if enforced. We, the people, will accept enforcement help from whomever is willing. Thank you Arizona!

Sir, your message smells of self interest. I do not recognize the church for whom you claim to speak, dare not speak for me.

G.Goslaw

The National Shame

Letter to the Editor
Daily Press
P.O. Box 1389
Victorville, Ca. 92392

April 24, 2010

The state of Arizona has trumped the trashy liberal mentality of some by enacting a new immigration law. The responses of our president, CNN, the Hispanic organizations and the unwashed masses of effected persons, are predictable and predictably motivated solely by self interest. This is the United States of America, citizenship with a job is a central historical privilege of our way of life. It is the dream of the rest of the world but this gives no one the right to steal in and destroy the opportunities of we citizens. This is not a racist opinion but one shared by every nation on the face of the earth.

The historical linkage of our capitalistic economy to legal immigration is fundamental to our identity as a nation but we the people say enough is enough to this new kind of immigration. The illegal policies allowed by our politicians are insane in a sane kind of way. Capitalism values cheap labor and the control of labor costs, not the integrity of our borders. Without the lowest possible wages on the bottom of the labor force, wages for all are prone to rise. Big business and the Chamber of Commerce own our politicians and they therefore promote illegal immigration.

Hence President Obama wants to see enacted a get out of jail free card for all who are here illegally, all their distant relatives in the four corners of the earth, all the welfare babies dumped on the system, all the drug runners, the gangsters, the murders, the kidnappers and violent felons terrorizing our country. Arizona
has onerously suffered from these crimes. As a nation, we are truly insane to allow this injustice. Insanity has been defined as continuing to do what hasn’t worked in the past. Have we not learned from 30 years of failure? What is required is the enforcement of laws already on the books.

Defend the integrity of our borders, prosecute anyone who hires an illegal alien, prosecute fraud upon our Social Security system, make it easy for all employers to check a persons immigration status, check the immigration status of all persons encountered by the police and for legal citizens “to turn in” illegal workers and their employers. Citizens bend over no longer. The time has arrived to protect our integrity as a sovereign nation. Admittedly,this does sounds a bit like big brother. However, shame on the responsible parties for making it unavoidable.

At least there are a few Arizona politicians who have gotten the message, safety and opportunity for citizens and a ride home to your own country if you are here illegally. Thank you Governor Jan Brewer and the politicians of Arizona for forging a possible way of escape from the current trashy politics of this great country.

G.Goslaw
7983 SVL Box
Victorville, Ca. 92395

Heaven and SVL

Each of us is prone to design heaven according to our own tastes. However, let us pause for just a minute and assume that we had the power to design our SVL community in this rather unique way. As an association we have bylaws and many rules but let us dream as if we really had a heavenly vote. If SVL were a heavenly abode, what would we look like?

Our perfect community would look as much like heaven as possible. We would live together according to heavenly priorities.

1. People not property.
2. Concern for others not power.
3. Mutual enjoyment of our circumstances long term (forever).

This is heaven, at least as far as God is concerned. What would be the yearly association fees for such a place?

G. Goslaw

Open Letter to the Board of Directors

Spring Valley Lake Association
13325 Spring Valley Parkway
Victorville, Ca. 92395

Mr. Glen Goslaw
Proxy for Mrs. Marjorie Goslaw (AC 360)
7983 SVL Box
Victorville, Ca. 92395

October 1, 2009

Dear Board of Directors:

This letter is not a notification of an assessment increase but rather to notify each of you that this one SVL homeowner is in opposition to your continued service on the Board of our community. Your style is to berate and belittle descent but this one voice will not be stifled. My action is in response to your lack of leadership and the refusal to hold yourselves to any standard of accountability.

As noted in a previous letter to this board, big government solutions to association management issues will compound our pain into the future. Real change begins when oversight failures are acknowledged and corrections instigated in full public view. Back room manipulation of any crisis is big government leadership. Our small pleasant community wants real people centered change. This may be an unfounded assumption but let us hope for the best.

Prior to the tenure of our current general manager, the juvenile mismanagement of our members interests were your team’s responsibility. Your leadership was and is SVL. There are three questions that any reasonable association board member should have address without direct prompting.

1. The accounting mess.
In this member‘s opinion, this mess is in your lap. The prior “sloppy at best accounting”(not my words) was on your watch. You will not own up to this responsibility. Instead,you hire a very competent firm at $8,ooo a month. This firm tells us at the meeting of August 26, Haney & Associates will “not” assess past accounting. This created a stir at the meeting and many asked, “if you won’t, who will?” Again, your members ask you,our leaders, who will? Our fear is that investigating past accounting is mere lip service because it was your system.

2. The security issue.
The security budget of the association has exploded in the last two years under your watch. Security visibility has increased proportionately but are we any safer? This member believes not. A criminal element lives in our community as it does in every community. We are very appreciative of the sheriff’s criminal sweep of this past Friday and the eleven arrests. Security visibility will not scare off this criminal element, to so assume is to be at least naive. To pay for this visibility we are being asked to fork over 7.5 % increase in assessments. You, our board, are acting in juxtaposition to this age of belt tightening mandates. Again, your members ask you, our leaders, are we any safer?

3. Association mismanagement
Credibility from the office of association management is one cause for our mistrust of this board. When employees are guilty of extreme misrepresentations to this member, some would use a better word, management is a failure. Rules are made up on the fly to hamper visibility and protect jobs. The bylaws of the association are not so specific as to address every issue. Like every business the association needs a written policy statement by board action.

Remember every policy passed by the board, the board owns. Possibly, that is why undue authority is delegated to management as has happened in the past. A change is needed. The new general manager, Jon Sabo, seems to be a capable and sincere administrator operating for the protection of our interests. He has signed onto a tough job and this member is willing to give him time. We have no such sentiment for the board, you have had your time and failed.

Some of us are experienced enough to remember the “Laugh In” television show. Well, this is a “sock it me “ letter. This is a no confidence vote and a call for new leadership. We shall not pay the 7.5 % increase, ever. For the above stated reasons, we vote NO!



Glen Goslaw
Proxy for Marjorie Goslaw ( AC 360 )

Association Email

Mr. Jon Sabo

General Manager

Spring Valley Lake Association

Dear sir:

Thank you for the numbers and information sent to our emails. It appears that the finances are“just” getting by with the prior cuts. The numbers do not reflect the balloned security force in effect for four years(?). It says nothing about the future. Please tell us how collections are going. What percentage of properties are in arears? May I ask Mr. Haney? Surely this is public information.

Respectfully,

ggoslaw

The Unasked Question

On Saturday April 3, a few of us gathered at the community center to hear from the candidates for four directorship’s on the new association board. The priorities of each of the candidates soon became clear. The time to argue priorities has passed for the current marked difference of opinion will remain after the election. However, amidst all the questioning, one question never got asked. The omission is startling.

What percentage of association members are not currently paying their membership annual dues? What percentage of properties are in arrears with the association? A parallel question would be, over the last two years, how many of these uncollected obligations were written off by our board? The answer to these questions would go a long way to deciding the direction of the associations spending habits. Are we in a financial crisis? If there is a collection problem, we are in a crisis and the board should act accordingly by aggressively cutting costs.

Possibly, this question was the elephant in the room.

g. goslaw

ggoslaw@gmail.com

SVL Election2010

Open Letter of opinion for the SVL voter.

This Spring Valley Lake resident would like to express an opinion as to the upcoming association election. This opinion has been formed from observing both management and the workings of the Board of Directors over the past year. Like so many other residents, our family shares the blame for the lack of oversight over the past 30 years. We stood by and allowed our beautiful community to sink into an era of lax governance. How many years has our community so languished, we can only guess?

The current board is to be congratulated for restoring some semblance of order. Those four incumbent candidates up for election appear to have exerted leadership in this effort over the past two years. Their most needed accomplishment was the hiring of a responsible experienced financial management company to oversee the monies. Some strides have been made to give us vision inside of the accounting process. The few interested residents are now given the opportunity to track the money month to month. Haney and Associates has finally updated our organization into 21st century status. Thank you Board of Directors for this professionalism.

A second positive accomplishment is the hiring of a professional experienced general manager, Mr. Jon Sabo. His leadership can be trusted to protect the interests of all property owners, be it the finances, the lake, the equestrian center or personnel in general. This is no small accomplishment by the Board of Director’s and again they are to be congratulated. An organization functions from the top down and now Mr. Sabo brings the credibility to see us into the future.

Lastly, the Board of Directors encouraged the prior general manager to leave. We are somewhat unsure of the exact circumstances but a change in leadership was an absolute requirement. A cursory examination of financial record keeping of his administration makes the quality of his leadership obvious. The in house accounting process, if there was one, was at best superficial and made no sense. At worst it was a massive rip off. No one would ever expect a 4000 member association to be operated in such a rinky-dink manner. The members of the board who supported such an administration should suffer a life long eviction from our political process. Whoever you are, please bough out quietly and gracefully.

This is the good news that occurred over the last year. The downside is that these positives are diminished by the Board of Director’s continuation of expansive spending priorities. Our goal as an association is not to be the largest employer in the county but to further enhance the best place to live. If spending contributes to our well living, it is a positive and to be supported. The current board has given superficial attention to this matter but in general it has operated business as usual.

In this era of big government cutbacks, our Board of Director’s will not say where assessments are going into the future. The silence means that they will be raised again. Mr. Marvin Anderson points out that annual assessments have risen from $ 310.00 just six years ago to $ 866.23 in 2009. They were raised again in the current year. This obscene inflation of assessment fees has to be addressed. As these fees rise, as more homes become problematic, more homeowners are unable to pay the assessment. This means that the rest of us have to pick up the tab. It is a very negative cycle, a cycle we are experiencing in the city, county, state and national arenas. Instead, the board should be cutting expenses and fees for the good of the whole community.

If the board had the will, where should it cut expenditures? The answer is,everywhere for this is a crisis. No area of the budget should be sacrosanct. However, in my casual observation of our operations, two areas appear to be worthy of brutal cuts. They are the security department and the administrative offices. The administrative offices are an easy call. Every voter should sit in the foyer and watch as most of the ladies try to look busy while they take turns with questions at the front desk. Office efficiency appears to be seriously lacking, to many hens in the henhouse.

The security department is where the most money can be saved. The present Board of Directors would like to convince us that the present level of services is all that is keeping us safe. Sunday’s Daily Press (Mar 28)had an article bragging on the state of security and the security department of SVL. Is our crime rate lower than the rest of the communities of the high desert? Of course it is but it has nothing to do with the size of the security force. SVL is rather isolated, we are a group of the more affluent, and we have none of the crime hot spots that infect all other communities.

A more scientific approach would be to compare the in house crime rate before and after the ballooning of the security department. Are we safer now after all the money and manpower expended? Those numbers would be informative. This slight of hand was also noted by the Daily Press article quoting Karen Hunt, the sheriff‘s Public Relations Officer. Larry Hoover , the SVL security guru, responded with a letter to the editor, March 29. His argument only makes the comparison to the rest of the communities nonsensical. We are a safer community for reasons that have nothing to do with the security department.

Another argument is that because security is so busy answering thousands of calls each month, surely present staffing is necessary. No information is ever extended to us about the nature of these calls. This is just an opinion, but it would be safe to bet that 95% are more or less nuisance calls, neurotic residents with nothing to do but complain about their lives. Our neighbor has two big beautiful Great Danes. Occasionally they may bark during the day but they are dogs, why can’t neighbors be neighbors? Talking face to face would surely accomplish more than calling security. We need not pay higher assessments for this foolishness.

The roving patrols are nonsense. If the motive really was to keep us safe, the greatest man hours would be utilized after four in the afternoon and on weekends. Of course those hours are not as cushy. The departmental hours should at least be cut in half with less supervision, fewer cars etc. etc. That is more security than this community will ever need or that this voter wants to pay to support. Our neighbors by and large are regular friendly people and not the snooty persona our board assumes that they serve.

These are some of the pro’s and con’s of SVL, let’s get back to the election. How shall we vote? This household will not vote a straight ticket because too much power means the board is free to ignore the members of the association and do their own thing. That is happening now, the board cowardly refuses to respond to any inquiry’s from the residents at board meetings. For that reason we shall not vote for Mr. Mahlum. We shall vote for a couple of the airr candidates and the upstart candidate Mr. Read. He appears to be the young level headed American, born and raised in SVL, who would consider the interests of us all. The goal of the election is to bring a cross section of people to the board.

Once elected, the continuing participation of members in the governing process is most important. To let others call the shots is to ask for trouble. Every board meeting I have attended has been a disappointment as to the turnout of members. Fifty out of four thousand members attend the meetings. This is shameful and it appears the board likes it that way, possibly their would be more involvement if we felt like our participation as more than a social club was appreciated. This is, however, the time to participate.

Let’s have an election!

G.Goslaw
7983 SVL Box
760-245-3244
ggoslaw.blogspot.com
April 3, 2010