MISSION VIEJO : Group Rejects Fee Waiver for Seniors

The latest effort to exempt seniors from paying dues to a recreational homeowners association failed this week, when the group declined to meet with the city’s Senior Commission.

In a letter read to the commission Wednesday, the Lake Mission Viejo Assn. said a fee waiver for seniors is not allowed under its bylaws.

“It has been concluded that the establishment of a separate membership class by age is not warranted or permitted within the scope” of the group’s rules, said the association’s general manager, William Schwartz, in the letter. “For the foregoing reasons, the Lake Assn. declines (the city’s) invitation to meet with the commission.”

More than 17,000 Mission Viejo households belong to the group. Membership, which costs $162 per year, according to association officials, is mandatory for most city homeowners.

In recent years, some seniors have complained that they have no need for the boating and fishing facilities.

“The cost of living is going up, and seniors are just throwing money down the drain” by paying the group’s fees, Senior Commission member Milt Jacobson said. “I’m disappointed that reasonable people can’t sit down and talk about it.”

Association officials said that a large number of seniors use the lake and that discounts on boat rentals are offered to the elderly.

But Jacobson said the problem is that many elderly, especially the infirm, are not active anymore.

“What I proposed is that when a person reaches 70, or even 75 or 80, that they be given the option of remaining a member,” he said. “Something could be worked out.”

But lake officials say changing the bylaws would be complicated and expensive.

John Austin, president of the group’s board of directors, said to change the bylaws, a special vote would be needed in which 75% of the membership must participate and 75% of the voters must favor changing the fees.

“Legal advisers have told us it would cost $500,000 to hold the vote,” he said.

He added that board members believe that creating an exception for seniors would open the door for other groups to ask for fee waivers.

“It would create a domino effect,” Austin said. “Besides, we’ve been told that people don’t believe (the fee waiver) would pass.”

Austin said any group member who wants to discuss a fee waiver could speak at the next board meeting.

The issue could be revived when the board reviews its bylaws in about five years, he said.