Issues

My priorities for CA: 

  • Maintain open space as a local treasure that can be enjoyed by future generations

  • Ensure Owen Brown's outdoor pools are not closing earlier than others

  • Provide a variety of quality amenities so that all residents benefit from CA

  • Foster sober, civil, and professional leadership for CA

  • Prioritize traditional Columbia values of diversity and integration

  • Modernize CA's technology to ease user interface and enable data-driven decision-making

  • Responsibly and efficiently manage the community's money

Why you can trust that I am prepared: 

  • I have served on the Owen Brown board for six years and have been trusted by my peers to serve as the Chair for five of those years

  • I have a lifelong connection to Columbia, embrace its values, and understand its needs

  • I am a proven leader having had the honor to lead Soldiers in war and peace

  • I have had leadership positions in large organizations and know how to navigate and improve bureaucracies

  • I have attended or watched most CA board meetings over the last several years, documented the board's issues to help others understand them, and am intimately familiar with CA and the board's issues

What I've Helped Accomplish on the Owen Brown Board: 

  • Fostered an environment of civility. Our board likes each other and loves when neighbors come to solve problems with us

  • Trusted by my peers to serve as board chair and president for all but my first year on the board

  • Implemented structured financial reviews to ensure we are spending money effectively

  • Started our tradition of annual plant and/or tree giveaways

  • Supported the community's effort and advocated to get the new East Columbia 50+ Center built

  • Planned and implemented large tree planting along the border of Brokenland and Lake Elkhorn park. In time these will provide shade and screening for the park

  • Facilitated and participated in multiple tree planting events in Owen Brown including near Homespun Pond

  • Established the Owen Brown CARES group to invigorate trash cleanup and other environmental efforts in Owen Brown

  • Directed the 50th anniversary celebration of Owen Brown

  • Had a bollard installed near Dasher Court to prevent cars from driving onto the Lake Elkhorn path

  • Established a fair and assertive architectural enforcement approach to maintain home values and local aesthetics

  • Established annual reviews of our architectural guidelines so that our guidelines stay up to date with contemporary standards

  • Successfully lobbied the county to install new signage to mitigate risk to pedestrians along Cradlerock Way and advocated for a capital project for improved safety

  • Invited to represent Owen Brown on the Gateway Master Plan Advisory Committee to ensure that major development benefits Owen Brown

  • Engaged Howard County Economic Development authority to help reverse the trend of vacant buisnesses in Owen Brown Village Center

  • Advocated for more local law enforcement to address nuisance issues such as vandalism, drag racing, commercial vehicle parking, and modified car exhaust

  • Advocated for long-deferred maintenance for local schools

The Boring but Important Things

What does CA do?

 

Columbia Association (CA) is meant to make living life in Columbia better. Technically it is a 501(c)(4) non-profit corporation and Home Owners Association. But, more specifically, CA manages Columbia's 3,600 acres of open space (including Lake Elkhorn), three gyms (including Supreme Sports club), our outdoor pools and swim center, the tennis club, ice rink, and many other amenities. CA has a staff of several hundred employees to maintain these services and amenities for the community and perform the administrative functions (HR, legal, IT, etc.) needed to keep an organization of this size running. It has an annual budget of over $80 million which is funded primarily through an assessment charge all property owners pay and membership dues people elect to pay to access some additional services (gyms, pools, etc.).

 

What is CA not?

 

Importantly, CA is not a municipality. This means it is not responsible for a lot of important issues we all care about. As important as these are, CA does not provide law enforcement or other emergency response, it is not responsible for sanitation or garbage collection, has no authority over zoning or development, and CA is not responsible for schools or redistricting. These are all the responsibility of the Howard County Government and fostering an effective relationship between CA and the county may help address them.

 

What issues is CA facing?

 

CA faces a variety of issues that don't grab headlines:

 

  • Aging Assets. Our community is over 50 years old now. Many of CA's facilities are decades old, showing their age, and need to be replaced or maintained. The CA board will need to carefully consider whether replacing or refurbishing facilities is more fiscally responsible than spending more and more money to keep aging assets in service.

  • Climate Change. Climate change isn't just theoretical. An increase in intense storms have washed out CA bridges, damaged paths, filled lakes with sediment, eroded streambanks, and downed trees all over the community. CA must invest to make its infrastructure more resilient.

  • Invasive Species. Additionally, invasive species are becoming more and more of a problem. This includes stilt grass, vines, emerald ash borers which decimated a large portion of our large trees as well as kudzu - as the climate warms, kudzu could spread to and overtake CA's open space. For our open space to flourish, we need to invest properly to proactively mitigate these threats.

  • Economic enviornment. CA is not immune from global economic issues including supply chain stress, inflation, or growing labor costs. All these factors impact CA's ability to perform its mission and sometimes painful tradeoffs may be necessary.

  • Pool staffing. Outdoor pools are many people's favorite CA amenity. Unfortunately, CA has had difficulty maintaining enough lifeguards to keep all outdoor pools open for the entire summer. CA must improve staffing or make other changes to ensure its not always Owen Brown pools closing early.

  • Financing. Because of CA's uneven cashflow, it relies on a line of credit to fund operations in many years. Additionally, in the future the community may benefit from future capital projects that could require taking a loan. Maintaining a healthy financial position will enable CA to obtain those lines of credit and loans on favorable terms but mismanagement by the board can threaten that.

 

While perhaps boring, these issues - whether through cascading effects or the amount of money involved - have a large impact on CA's ability to serve the community. It's critical that board members understand the importance of tackling these issues.  Board members who are prone to drama or focus on pet projects or issues outside CA authority threaten CA's ability to address these topics.