The Latest Ocean Ranch News for you

Feb Newsletter Vol. 12 Issue 2

February Board of Directors Meeting

The February Meeting of the Ocean Ranch Homeowners Association Board of Directors will be held on Thursday evening February 16^th, at the Laguna Niguel Sea Country Senior & Community Center located at 24602 Aliso Creek Road. The meeting will begin with the closed Executive Session at 6:30 PM followed by the regular Open Session of the Board Meeting which will begin approximately 7:45 PM. For your information, the proposed Meeting Agenda is posted on the Bulletin Board located at the Ocean Ranch Community Park Complex.

All Ocean Ranch residents are invited to participate in the Open Session to discuss any matters of business that would be proper to come before the Ocean Ranch Board of Directors. While it is not necessary that the Board be notified ahead of the actual Board Meeting, it may be more effective if Ocean Ranch’s Community Manager, Mr. Roger Velasquez be apprised of the subject matters you wish to discuss ahead of time. You may contact Mr. Velasquez at (949) 448- 6122. Mr. Velasquez’s email address is rogelio.velasquez@fsresidential.com If you would prefer, you may write directly to Roger at First Service Residential, 15241 Laguna Canyon Road, Irvine, CA 92618

Jan

Thursday

BOARD MEETING

Burglary Activity

It appears that the house burglaries which have plagued South County in recent months may have taken a short hiatus in our Community. According to the Orange County Sheriff's Department reports, it is likely that the organized crime gangs behind these burglary activities are still in the area. In fact, a drone was observed flying over Ocean Ranch just a day or two ago. Reportedly the Sheriff’s Office warned we could not “shoot it down.” We have to follow the law but the bad guys do not have any compunctions about breaking the laws.

Nevertheless, if behooves all of us in Ocean Ranch to be vigilant in monitoring activities in our Community. We are likely to be our best avenue of preventing further robberies. IF YOU SEE SOMETHING THAT LOOKS SUSPICIOUS, CALL 911 AND REPORT IT TO THE SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT.

ACCESS CONTROL

VISIT OUR WEBSITE

Gate Access Improvements

It has been pointed out that Ocean Ranch’s Gate Access controls were not working as intended. Without going into specific issues, we have initiated a number of tightened procedures to make the controls more effective in preventing unauthorized access to our Community. It is very important that our residents cooperate with the new controls as they are necessary to acheive effective Gate Access Controls.

We have met twice with Allied Universal, our Gate attendant providers, and have made their present performance level is unsatisfactory. The periodic admittance of unauthorized or unexpected visitors is unacceptable; Immediate improvement in effectiveness must be achieved immediately; required processing procedures were not being followed; Gate attendants have received specific instructions reemphasizing the need to carefully follow required procedures for every entry.
We implemented procedures to scan the back of ALL driver’s licenses. The back of driver’s licenses includes computer code with all information displayed on the front of the license that cannot be easily read except with the appropriate computer equipment. The private information is very secure, except when it might be necessary for legitimate authorities to review such. If your visitor is unwilling to show their license, they will not be admitted to Ocean Ranch. The driver’s license scan is not a pass to get in Ocean Ranch, it is the second part of the admittance process, after the Gate Attendant has perused the Quick Pass system and noted the authorization provided by the Ocean Ranch resident. Obviously this process will somewhat slow entry, but we feel it is necessary in order to improve our Gate entry security. Please be sure to enter your visitor’s names into the QuickPass system.
We are also going to initiate a system scrub to remove old or no longer applicable visitor authorizations. More on that later.
We are reviewing potential new gate software that will be easier to use.

The most significant improvements will come from continually focusing on making sure our Gate Attendants ARE IN FACT following required procedures. If you find that your guests have been admitted without proper scrutiny, and driver’s license scanning, please report that information to Ocean Ranch’s Community manager, Mr. Roger Velasquez at (949) 448- 6122. Mr. Velasquez’s email address is rogelio.velasquez@fsresidential.com.

The Board is very focused on achieving effective Gate Management which is vital to Ocean Ranch.

Safety Improvements

At last month’s Board of Directors meeting approximately 50 residents of Ocean Ranch showed up to proffer comments on the burglaries we have experienced in the last several months. While there are likely some things that can be implemented, Ocean Ranch is a Homeowners Association with no policing powers. Nevertheless, the Board of Directors is entirely attuned to trying to enhance the safety of our Community. Prior to the last Board Meeting, the Board had previously initiated several actions to try to improve the Community’s safety and, we clearly realize continued efforts are necessary.

The first actions we took (and they are ongoing) were directly focused on significantly improving Ocean Ranch’s access control. We met with Allied Universal, the service agent for our Gate Attendants, to make sure they knew that we felt they were not doing an acceptable job. We have been totally focused on having effective Gate procedures. Since that meeting several gate attendants have been reassigned by Allied and we have implemented new procedures such as scanning Driver’s Licenses. See separate article on Gate management.
In accordance with OC Sheriff’s recommendations, we scheduled our Ocean Ranch Patrol to run 8 to 10 routes on Ridgeway Avenue each afternoon. As a result of our request, the Sheriff’s Department is also running extra patrols on Ridgeway.
We scheduled a Community meeting with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department at their first available time, which unfortunately is not until March 23^rd. This will be an interactive “Zoom” meeting with Sheriff’s Department personnel giving us the latest information about what we can do to make our Community safer. A link to the session will be sent to all community members that have given the Association their email addresses.
We have appointed a new Safety and Gate Access Committee to advise the Board of Directors. The Committee is made up of five Community members. two of which have been victims of the burglaries: Debbie Wilemon, Lisa Cooper, John Etemadi, Carrie Leventhal, and Director Michael Leventhal who will coordinate with the Board of Directors. The Committee has been asked to entertain input from the Community in general. On February 7^th, a Community wide Town Hall meeting was held at the Community Pool Complex to solicit input from the Community. The Safety and Gate Access Control Committee has been actively reviewing suggestions which were submitted.

Canyon residents, please take note: The Ocean Ranch Patrol vehicle has been equipped with a powerful search light for use when patrolling the canyon.

The Board of Directors is fully committed to doing what we can to improve Ocean Ranch’s safety.

Dear Monarch,

The landscapers were in our area, and they barely pruned anything! We have many shrubs, and I expect them to be neatly clipped on every rotation.

Pollen Press .PDF

Trash Cans

Page 30 of Ocean Ranch’s CC&Rs related to Trash Cans requires that trash be kept in sanitary containers, screened, and concealed from view; and that such trash containers cannot be exposed to view for more than twelve hours before and after scheduled trash collection hours. The reason for these restrictions is to maintain Ocean Ranch as a clean, orderly, and beautiful Community.

While most residents are reasonably careful with their trash and handle it in accordance with our Community's Rules and Regulations, we have noted some trash cans have been put out by the street on Saturday morning and several on Sunday morning. We have even had one case where the trash cans were put by the curb on Friday. If you are going away for the weekend, please make arrangements with one of your neighbors to put your trash cans out for you late Sunday afternoon. If your trash cans are put out ahead of time, it is very likely that you will receive a citation asking you to correct the problem.

Also, trash cans should be put away by Monday evening after trash is collected.

Thank you for helping to keep Ocean Ranch beautiful.

If you would like to review Article X of the CC&Rs, please click on this link: Article X, CC&Rs

If you have information for the Board of Directors, Please contact Ocean Ranch’s Community manager, Mr. Roger Velasquez at (949) 448- 6122 with your suggestions. Mr. Velasquez’s email address is rogelio.velasquez@fsresidential.com.

Let’s all work together to address the problems we are experiencing in Ocean Ranch.

The Board of Directors:

Richard Belliston, President

Daryl Jacob, Vice President

Janice Wolf, Secretary

Tom Williams, Treasurer

Michael Leventhal, Member at Large