A Tribunal Grows in La Costa
Leaves of controversy.
Trees are taken seriously at the 336-unit, 40-acre Sea Point Tennis Club condominium project in La Costa, where units sell for $170,000 to $300,000.
The homeowner association has a rule that homeowners are not to seek special treatment from the gardeners for their greenery. Gardeners are instructed to reject all entreaties.
The specter of each homeowner demanding gourmet landscaping gives association leaders the willies.
“It would be mayhem,” said Trisha Askren, president of the Sea Point association’s board of directors.
“It would be chaos,” said Mike Packard, whose Carlsbad real estate firm manages the property.
Recently, though, a Sea Point homeowner decided to break the tree rule. As the association newsletter later reported, he “was observed assisting one of the gardening crew in unauthorized tree trimming .”
Pressure mounted to have the landscaping firm fire the gardener. As a warning to others, the newsletter announced that the gardener, a recent immigrant whose English is limited, had indeed been fired.
Gus Vincent, supervisor of the Pacific West landscaping firm in Encinitas, says that’s not so.
He says he “talked to” the gardener and then transferred him to another project, with no loss in pay. “I don’t enjoy firing people. I try to take care of my people.”
Back at Sea Point, a mini-debate has now broken out about the fairness of punishing the gardener and leaving the homeowner-instigator untouched.
“I think the wrong person was penalized,” said association secretary Vic Totah, a retired doctor. “I think she (Askren) means well, but she just got caught up in the emotion of the moment.”
Askren promises that the offending homeowner--whose name is being kept secret--will be brought before an association tribunal. Maximum fine: $25.
“I wish there was a process going on in society that, when you get into a condominium project, you get a whole new brain to make you community-minded,” said Askren, who describes herself as a grandmother of six.
“Everybody believes that his home is still his castle, but it doesn’t work that way when you have a homeowners association.”
Next It’ll be Chilly in Hades
It says here.
* Who’d have thought it would ever happen?
Utility fighter Michael Shames notes: “I think the only two things in San Diego going down (in price) right now are utility rates and real estate values.”
* Roger, Rush and Reagan.
A rumor in radio circles has Roger Hedgecock running for mayor and KSDO trying to fill his morning talk-show slot with the nationally syndicated “Rush Limbaugh Show,” which is now on XTRA.
The ultra-conservative Limbaugh’s contract is “under review” at XTRA, which has been going all-sports.
Secondary rumor: If Hedgecock stays put, the Limbaugh Show, based in New York, replaces Michael Reagan in KSDO’s afternoon slot, on a tape-delay basis.
“One way or another, Rush is going to KSDO,” says a source at a rival station.
Mike Shields, KSDO’s president and general manager, won’t comment on the rumors. Look for some sort of announcement soon, though.
* Bill Lowery is strengthening his ties to the anti-abortion movement as he prepares to fight a fellow anti-abortion Republican incumbent, Duke Cunningham, in the new 51st Congressional District primary.
Lowery was prominent at an anti-abortion rally last week on the anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision.
And now comes word that the Lowery campaign has hired Dan van Tieghem as a part-time community organizer.
Van Tieghem’s claim to fame is that he mobilized anti-abortion forces for the Life Chain demonstration, in which 20,000 of the faithful joined hands in solidarity.
* How tense is the relationship between Lowery and Cunningham?
The two taped a joint session on Channel 39’s San Diego Headliners last week--to be broadcast today at 2:30 p.m. Off camera, moderator Tim Chelling noted that in 1804 when Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton got into a blood feud like this, it ended in a duel and Burr killing Hamilton.
“I could go for something like that,” said Cunningham. He was not smiling.
And It Builds Character
North County bumper sticker:
“Self-Delusion Is Better Than No Delusion at All.”
