James Ransdall - Unit 153

My wife, Lisa, and I have lived in Kingswood Village – we’re full-time – since 2020.  We’re on the Creek and absolutely love it here.  We love the lifestyle – skiing, biking, hiking – and being close to our grandsons who live in Tahoma.

I joined the Board two years ago and, at that time, things were in some disarray.  The physical condition of Kingswood had degraded significantly and little was being done about it.  Our finances were weak and reliant on repeated special assessments.  Our operational planning and execution were very poor.  Our operational systems were antiquated, and we were experiencing management churn.

Under Rich Rosemount’s leadership, our situation has been turned around.  Our new management team has performed in an exemplary fashion.  We are now getting done in one year what previously had taken four to five years.  Our financial house is in order and healthy.  Our operational systems are upgraded and modern.  While much remains to be done – a decade of stagnation takes a while to rectify – Kingswood Village is well-prepared and well-positioned for the challenges ahead.

So, what are those challenges?  I see three primary ones:

1. Aging Infrastructure: Kingswood is 50+ and things are showing that age, which is why we need to manage our reserve fund well.

2. Climate change, the threat of fire, and insurance costs: while we are currently handling this pretty well (FireWise and other mitigation measures), we, along with everyone else living in the Tahoe Basin, are vulnerable to “One Big Event,” which, even if it were not to impact Kingswood directly, could change the price and availability of insurance.

3. drive up Kingswood’s insurance costs and increasingly threatens our ability to even find insurance, as well as degrading quality of life (noise, smoking, excessive substance use, garbage and litter).  As we are near the 40% STR insurance threshold, we are planning to cap STR’s, but I further advocate a more stringent regulatory framework to deal with bad behavior (above), but also a fee structure to deal with the disproportionate burdens STR’s impose.

By way of background, I am retired.  I worked most of my life in management consulting, most recently I ran a large, global consulting practice, for IBM, helping large businesses and governments address challenges by harnessing the power and leverage of successful innovation and transformation.  The work was always engaging; I had the opportunity to collaborate with brilliant people on big problems.  Plus, I got to see the world.

James Ransdall