Bell Ridge Homeowners Association

Neighbors, do we want the HOA to provide a forum for the candidates who are running to represent our neighborhood in the Miss. House? Here's a recent email exchange on the question in reverse chronological order. If you are for or against it, I am interested in hearing your thoughts in this forum.
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From: Raley, Melvin J Civ 81 MSG/SVR [melvin.raley@keesler.af.mil]
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 9:05 AM
To: alpettigrw@aol.com
Cc: jlester@aol.com; Robert Spivacke
Subject: RE: HOA Meeting

The simple answer is as the board for the HOA the decision was made that we would not entertain politicians, you have chosen to push your own agenda, and I will not allow that to happen within the HOA arena. I will be calling Mr. Jones today and asking him not to show up and if he does I will not only make an issue of it at the meeting but will let the media know that he has chosen to disregard the wishes of the HOA. Mel.
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From: Albert Pettigrew [mailto:alpettigrw@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 8:07 AM
To: Raley, Melvin J Civ 81 MSG/SVR
Subject: RE: HOA Meeting

Mel, the candidate is Brandon Jones. He will be at the clubhouse on Thursday at 630 and you are invited to meet him. Would you please provide your reason for opposing a political forum?

Al

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From: Raley, Melvin J Civ 81 MSG/SVR [mailto:melvin.raley@keesler.af.mil]
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 7:36 AM
To: alpettigrw@aol.com
Cc: jlester@datasync.com; Robert Spivacke
Subject: RE: HOA Meeting

Al regardless when the meeting is you were told that we did not want the HOA in the political arena. If indeed who ever your candidate is shows up at or before the meeting I will personally ask he/she to leave. If they refused to do so I will go out of my way to inform all of the HOA members on the situation and personally ask all HOA members to VOTE AGAINST, who ever shows up. I again ask you to honor our request and you do your political work elsewhere! I would hope you would ask Mr. whoever not to show up. Mel.
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From: Albert Pettigrew [mailto:alpettigrw@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 4:45 PM
To: Raley, Melvin J Civ 81 MSG/SVR
Subject: HOA Meeting

Mel,
Are you and Speedy in agreement about the date and time for the HOA meeting?
Al


By Al Pettigrew

How it Went

On 9/20, Brandon Jones arrived at the Clubhouse, met about 25 diners, and received a $100 campaign contribution. However, I was the only one to arrive for the purpose of meeting the candidate.

One thing new I learned was that Fontainebleau consists of only about 10% of the representative's district. The rest are in Pascagoula. Why is this important? It seems to me that if we are average voters, our representative should only be about 10% interested in how we feel about matters that concern all his voters. In matters in which our interests are opposed to the voters in Pascagoula, we lose. For other matters of no concern to the Pascagoula voters, we should expect representation at a priority B level.

So what concerns do we have that may be different from Pascagoula? I can?’t think of anything in which our interests are opposite. However, our needs are different from Pascagoula voters. We are rural and they are urban. We do not have a city government trying to improve our quality of life and we are much less densely populated. Our different concerns include regulation and protection by the sheriff, utility services provided by private companies, volunteer fire protection, regional wastewater utility services, private water and septic services, water recreation, golfing promotion, rural public transportation, rural fire and ambulance services, Ocean Springs school, postal, and hospital services, marsh preservation and enhancement to improve our protection from Hurricanes, county zoning and efforts to promote smart growth in our area. Our interests are so different from Pascagoula we should have never been joined with them in the representative?’s district. But, that is a matter to be more directly addressed in 2010.

So as a minority, how can we promote our collective interests above the priority B level with whomever is elected? The least we can do is vote at a greater percentage than the voters in Pascagoula. Additionally we can reach a general consensus beforehand about who best represents our interests, and vote to reflect our consensus. In that regard, this website can be very useful. Additionally, disproportionate campaign political contributions will be useful. We all know that candidates live and die at the ballot based on how well they get their message out, and the media demand a high price for their services. Let me know if you are interested in working with me on this.

HOA Political Forum

I agree with Mel that the HOA should
not be a Political Forum for canidates
running for office. I also don't think that ''Our'' St. Andrews Web Site
is a place for it either. If this is a
St. Andrews Web site, it should reflect
not only the wishes of the Home Owners
Association, but other residents as well concerning activities within St.
Andrews, not for Political Speeches!