Today's board meeting lasted less than 45 minutes, and a good chunk of time was spent introducing Marriott resort employees in attendance (I am sure they were a larger number than actual owners) and a raffle for small prizes such as $50 gift certificates, spa treatments, movie tickets, and the grand prize a week through II (no, even though there were a lot of prizes compared to the small number of eligible owners present, I did not win anything). Prior to the start of the meeting I met the resort manager, an owner who when I told him I was running said that he had given me half of his share of votes and also the other Orange County based independent owner Jeannie Hagedorn. The meeting covered two short presentations prior to the raffle and announcement of election results. The resort manager presented recent improvement and maintenance projects. The director of finances for the resort talked about the maintenance fee. The fee will increase by 3.9% in 2020 from $1320.46 to $1372.39, and was billed as one of the lowest percentage increases in years. Most of it was blamed on California's minimum wage going up to $15 and the tight labor market with record low unemployment. The actual breakdown of the 3.9% increase is: 1.41% for reserves, 0.87% for insurance, 0.51% for labor (mostly housekeeping), 0.45% for wages (excluding housekeeping), 0.27% for outsourced laundry, and 0.4% for all other (yes, these add up to 3.9%). Then they were finally ready to announce the election results. There are three different associations, so three separate elections and announcements (one apparently has 3-year terms, the others 2-year terms). To keep the suspense, the names of the 3 people elected were read in different order, but nevertheless they were the same 3 individuals each time. It is no surprise that Don Baarman and Bill Whelihan, both Marriott employees, were elected. The third victorious candidate was William Humphries from Savannah, Georgia (who was not present). Looking at his candidate profile, he appears to be a non-Marriott owner, already on the board at Canyon Villas, and seems to be very heavily invested in Marriott weeks and points. Maybe there is a requirement to have at least one outside director. The board chairman congratulated the winners and welcomed the new member William Humphries. There was no mention about vote numbers, nor ranking of the candidates that did (not) make it. I was not surprised, nor did I have any illusions going into the election and meeting. I did not ask for further vote details, maybe I should have but I did not want to be contentious or a sore loser, and with a Marriott employee certifying the election results what really is the point? The meeting ended after a short Q&A. What I learned there is that the Marriott trust owns 27% of the Newport Coast property (most of the last phase 9 went directly into the trust and destination points program, the other 3% comes from foreclosures over time - currently owner delinquencies are less than 0.5% though), which perfectly explains the voting results. Interestingly, it takes only 15% of the ballots to be returned to have a voting quorum.
Anyway, this was a good experience for me and I appreciate everyone's support here. I will certainly let you know if I decide to run again next year.