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For those neighbors interested,
I did receive emails from both Jack Feller's office and the Mayor within a day of sending my questions regarding the RDO street lights. To no surprise, both deferred to the City Attorny's office, (below is a copy of Assitant City Attorny Barbara Hamilton's responce). Although Barbara did not answer all my questions, I believe she's trying hard to be informative, but has to respectfully walk that fine line without saying something prematurely. I also received an email from Maryann at Prescott (representing the HOA), that includes a very informative summary of the HOA's perspective on the issue. I thought about including the attachment, but Maryann said you'll all get a hard copy mailed to you soon, so it seemed inappropriate for me to do so.
Based on all the information I've received, I believe our HOA and Counsel members are taking this very seriously. However, there was an unfortunate sequence of events that have left all of us in a tough place, so understand, there are no easy solutions! Unlike the Feds, I don't believe the City of Oceanside has the resourses to print money to solve their financial problems, so something will have to get negotiated. Please take the time to get yourself thoroughly informed (with all the perspectives), get involved and pass on information to your neighbors.
Take care, Tom
Dear
Mr. Picard, Your
message has been referred to me for response. Thank you for contacting the
City with your concerns. You
have asked about who is responsible for maintaining the street lights in the RDO
neighborhood. An important part of the answer to that question is the fact
that the galvanized metal street lights in the RDO neighborhood are different
from the City’s standard concrete poles throughout the rest of the City.
At
the time the community was planned, the developer desired to establish a special
aesthetic character unique to the RDO neighborhood, which was accomplished
through the use of specialized improvements, facilities, signs and street
furniture. Those improvements and facilities, including the street lights,
are not standard City items. Pursuant to Street Maintenance Agreements
with the City formed at the inception of the development, the City accepted
responsibility for maintaining the street lights but only to the same extent as
the City maintains City standard street lights. The RDO property owners
(through their HOA) are responsible under the Street Maintenance Agreements to
pay any extra cost to maintain the street lights “to the extent it exceeds the
City’s cost of maintaining standard City items.” In
short, the
City is responsible for performing the actual maintenance of the street lights,
and the HOA is responsible for the excess cost, if any, incurred by the City to
perform maintenance on the RDO street lights that exceeds the level of
maintenance provided to the street lights in the rest of City. This
concept—whereby the City performs the actual maintenance, repair and replacement
of the specialized street lights and the RDO property owners, through their HOA,
fund the City’s extra costs to do so—is described in the CC&Rs for
the RDO community. The City has, in fact, been maintaining the RDO street lights since they were installed, by replacing the lamps and cleaning and replacing the photo cell sensors as needed. |