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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE – A plan to replace existing structures at the gated Hidden Valley Lake subdivision has turned into a contentious issue, pitting a coalition of residents against the HVLA board of directors and management.
Spokesmen for the Hidden Valley Lake Association of Concerned Citizens say they are prepared to go to any lengths to block replacement of a building on Hartmann Road housing a restaurant, bar and golf pro shop, a community activity building and an administration building. All three of the buildings are reportedly at least 35 years old.
Strange as it seems, a possible scenario is that the HVLA members would, in effect, be suing themselves in the event the issue becomes a litigious matter.
The coalition is demanding that a decision on whether to go ahead on the construction project be put to a vote of the general HVLA membership.
But HVLA General Manager Rick Archbold says that moving ahead on what estimates have put in the range of a $10 million construction project is strictly a board decision, because it involves replacing older facilities.
A vote of the membership at large is required only if new facilities are to be built where none had existed before, he said.
In this case, Archbold says the subdivision’s general membership will never be allowed to vote on the construction project.
“I can’t answer for the board, but my opinion is no. Why? (Because) this is what board is to do ... repair, restore, maintain or replace ... and that’s right out of the civil code,” he said.
Archbold added he has told coalition leaders “they don’t have the right to demand a vote on replacing a facility.”
Thus, the battle lines are drawn.
So far, the coalition has delivered a petition protesting the project with 291 qualified signatures to the board, accompanied by a letter from Geoffrey A. Munroe, a Concord attorney.
The letter expresses the coalition’s position regarding submitting the decision on replacement facilities to a general election and sets forth guidelines on how an election should be conducted.
But while personally certifying that 291 signatures on the petition are HVLA members in good standing, Archbold scoffs at the letter..
“If you don’t react to that (Munroe’s letter), so what? ‘I’m going to sue you.’ For what? Not responding to your letter?” says Archbold, adding that he thinks the Concerned Citizens should get the money they paid Munroe back.
“They can require anything they want,” says Archbold. “The law is something we adhere to; not somebody who’s making this stuff up.”
Additionally, he said that by hiring Munroe the coalition had effectively cut off any possibility of direct conversations with the board and management and put future communications in the hands of attorneys. He said that he had warned coalition leader Alec McCourquodale this would happen.
“ ... So, now the association is going to be spending lots of money in talking about things we could have talked about for no money,” said Archbold, “but I’m assuming somebody is paying for this guy Munroe.”
Bob Tingey, a spokesman for the coalition, has expressed hopes that discussions between Munroe and the HVLA attorney could enable the two sides to “settle this out like gentlemen.”
And Archbold is hopeful that three “town hall” meetings, held on April 14 and 17, giving residents a “chance to be heard” on the replacement-building issue will ease some of the tension.
At the meetings, he said, a facilitator will collect the ideas for what Hidden Valley Lake residents would want included in new facilities.
“We are in a state of flux right now,” Archbold said. “This board and this management have no clue as to what we’re going to be building. The reason is we haven’t talked to the community. Everybody is going to come up with a different idea of what they think the function ought to be.”
Just how much cooperation the town meetings will get from the coalition remains to be seen. At the moment, Tingey said, the group is prepared to take its next step in May. One of those steps, Tingey told a group of homeowners in a meeting last month, could result in the homeowners in the HVLA suing themselves.
“We have two options,” he said. “Both of them are going to be expensive. One is an injunction to get this thing shut down – the other one is a recall of the board.”
Most of the coalition’s anger over the project is aimed at Archbold, whom they believe is dictating to the HVLA Board of Directors.
Regarding the board, Tingey said, “They’re spineless, weak people (who) let Archbold run the show, because he’s a very aggressive individual.”
Archbold disputes that, saying he functions at board meetings much like a city manager or county executive for Hidden Valley, a community of 7,200 residents: his job is counseling, not ordering, he said.
“People like this – for whatever political or personal reasons – are stirring this pot of disinformation and making it look like the people who are trying to do this (build replacement buildings) are in some way evil or have some special agenda,” he says. “I come back and say to you, ‘What would that be?’
“What am I doing this for? It’s not going to be named the Rick Archbold Memorial Country Club.”
For a discussion of several sub-issues involved in the situation at HVL, see the related story, “Several secondary issues add to HVL strife.”
E-mail John Lindblom at
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE – The bigger issue of replacement structures which is causing controversy in Hidden Valley Lake has broken down into several sub-issues.
Among them:
– One Hidden Valley Lake Association director, Tom Miller, aggravated other board members when an article he wrote saying that the board should put the project “on hold” until productive participation by the HVLA membership is assured. According to Tingey, directors sought to impeach Miller after his comments appeared publicly.
– The door-to-door campaign for petitioners by the Hidden Valley Lake Coalition of Concerned Citizens was halted by the directors, management and security on the grounds that it was soliciting, which is against the HVLA bylaws. But then the restriction was lifted because of possible interference with civil liberties. “Our attorney said it (going door to door) was in violation, but recommended not stopping it because it’s going to look like a violation of free speech,” Archbold said. “So, I stopped our security guys from going any further.”
– Some members of the coalition are trying hard to discredit Archbold. Its Web site cites a remarkably similar incident at the Heritage Ranch subdivision in Paso Robles, which wound up in the courts. Tingey said that Archbold “and his cronies” lost their case at Heritage and are now being forced to come up with $265,000 in attorney’s fees. But Archbold drags a large pasteboard box onto his office floor. He says it contains the case’s transcript and says anyone who cares to read it will learn that he was not on the losing side and is not subject paying attorney fees, which, by the way, he says, were $380,000. “The judge, and I quote, dropped this suit because it was motivated by political means,” Archbold says.
– The coalition is seeking to distance itself from a Web site that has sprung up in addition to its own on which users are encouraged to take anonymous potshots at Archbold, the HVLA board, security and other aspects of Hidden Valley.
– But apparently someone siding with the board and management fired back by painting over a Web site address for the coalition on a recruitment sign on Hartmann Road. Archbold said he is convinced it was the work of a board supporter and said he does not condone such actions.
– While coalition firebrands have probed into Archbold’s past in hopes of finding a juicy item to discredit him, HVLA management has not been sitting idle. Archbold produced court documents on two of the most visible coalition leaders. In fact, Archbold says he has a file on one of the men and intimated that the man is wanted by Idaho on a $50,000 warrant, but says that the Idaho authorities don’t want to spend the time and money to come and get him.
– One of the coalition arguments against replacement structures is that the present food and beverage facilities – a luncheonette, the Greenview Room and Mulligan's bar – are operating at a loss ($12,000 last year), so why build new ones.? But Archbold's response to this is, "Guess what, every amenity we have in this community costs us money. Whether you're playing golf or tennis, swimming in the lake, riding a horse, driving on your roads, having a beer, it doesn't matter ... We are a nonprofit."
E-mail John Lindblom at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
BLUE LAKES – A multi-vehicle traffic collision that blocked Highway 20 for nearly an hour Friday resulted in major injuries for the individuals involved.
The accident was reported to the California Highway Patrol at 3:39 p.m., according to CHP logs. It occurred on Highway 20 near Le Trianon Resort at Blue Lakes.
A motorcycle and two vehicles – a black Hyundai Elantra and a silver Chevy S-10 pickup – were involved. The CHP reported that one of the vehicles was flipped onto its roof and there were accident victims in the roadway.
It took nearly took an hour to clear the accident scene in order to reopen the highway, the CHP reported, with all of the vehicles being towed.
There were major injuries reported to the accident victims, but no further information was available from the CHP Friday evening about how many people were involved or the severity of their injuries.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Chris Snyder
UKIAH – Inspired by professors to see the world in a different way while attending Santa Clara University, Rebecca Montes decided she wanted to teach.
Originally, Montes contemplated attending law school, but changed her mind after being inspired by some of her history professors.
“I attended Santa Clara thinking I wanted to eventually go to law school, but I loved my history classes and admired my professors. They helped me see the world in a different way and I wanted to do the same,” Montes said.
While in college, professors presented Montes with material from a variety of different viewpoints and exposed her to perspectives and knowledge of which she had previously been unaware.
“As for how I came to see the world different – I came to see that American society is the product of a much more complicated history of struggle and accomplishment than I had realized before college,” Montes said.
Montes, originally from San Gabriel, is in her second semester of teaching history and political science courses at Mendocino College.
After earning her bachelor’s degree in history in 1996 from Santa Clara University, Montes attended the University of Texas at Austin to pursue her master’s degree and Ph.D. in history.
“I wanted to continue my education with the goal to teach. I decided on the University of Texas at Austin because of their professors and their programs that dealt with immigration issues,” Montes said.
While attending the University of Texas at Austin, Montes was a teaching assistant from 1999-2004 and an assistant instructor from 2004-2005.
After earning her master’s in history in 1999 and her Ph.D. in history in 2005, Montes began teaching as an adjunct instructor at Austin Community College in the Summer of 2005.
While at Austin Community College, Montes taught History of the U.S. after 1877 and History of the U.S. before 1877.
“I enjoyed my time at Austin Community College and it made me think I wanted to teach at the junior college level. However, they had no full-time positions and I wanted to get back out to California for family and professional reasons,” Montes said.
Montes began teaching History 150 Contemporary America, History 210 U.S. History I and two sections of Political Science 200 at Mendocino College during 2006’s fall semester.
She then applied for a full-time position at Mendocino College.
This spring Montes is teaching History 150 Contemporary America, two sections of History 210 U.S. History I, History 211 U.S. History II, History 220 History of Mexico and Political Science 200.
“The students and professors have been very friendly, warm and genuine. I love the feeling you have a job that is doing something positive for the community,” Montes said.
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