Ask your questions for the candidates
When you submit a question here, we’ll send it directly to the candidates and update this page with their response as soon as we hear back. Your engagement helps ensure transparency and informed decision-making, so feel free to ask about the issues that matter most to you!
Your Questions Answered
What is your long-term vision for Desert Horizons Country Club?
The candidates share a unified commitment to building on the strong momentum Desert Horizons has achieved in recent years. Their collective vision centers on completing a comprehensive community master plan that will guide financial decisions and capital investments well into the future. Beyond the plan itself, they are focused on elevating the dining experience to consistently meet resident expectations, protecting and growing property values, and fostering a true sense of community—one that brings together golfers, pickleballers, full-time residents, and seasonal members as one cohesive neighborhood. Looking further ahead, the candidates are interested in exploring sustainable initiatives such as solar energy feasibility and water-conservation landscaping, while also taking a thoughtful approach to the community’s vacant pool lots, which could represent a valuable one-time revenue opportunity.
What are your top priorities if elected to the Board?
The candidates’ top priorities are centered on financial stewardship, strategic planning, and community transparency. Chief among them is finalizing a comprehensive master plan to provide a clear roadmap for the club’s future. They are also committed to exploring solar energy feasibility for the clubhouse, implementing a resident-facing dashboard to communicate key club metrics and project statuses on a regular basis, and evaluating capital improvement needs such as irrigation, roofing, and community infrastructure. Additionally, the candidates see opportunity in member-sponsored events—held on lower-traffic days—as a meaningful way to strengthen the club’s financial position without impacting the everyday member experience.
How is the golf program performing, and what will you do to protect the member experience?
The golf program is in excellent health. Membership is at approximately 200—the established cap designed to maintain an exceptional playing experience—and the program is operating in the black. Roughly 85% of members hold full memberships, with the remainder being carefully vetted invitational members who require two sponsor endorsements. The candidates are committed to maintaining this cap, preserving the club’s private character, and continuing to invest in course quality and facilities. As membership reaches full capacity, a modest increase in initiation fees may also be considered to reflect Desert Horizons’ standing as a premier private club.
If the golf membership waitlist fills, would new homeowners receive priority?
Yes—unequivocally. All three candidates agree that Desert Horizons homeowners should always have the first right to join the golf membership. If the membership reaches its cap and a waiting list forms, any new homeowner wishing to join will be given priority over outside applicants. This policy reflects the community-first character of Desert Horizons and ensures that residents who invest in the neighborhood have full access to its amenities.
Do you support keeping Desert Horizons fully private?
All three candidates are firmly in support of maintaining Desert Horizons as a fully private club. In their view, the club’s private status is directly tied to the strength of the golf membership, the quality of the member experience, and—most importantly—the long-term stability of property values throughout the community. Moving away from a fully private model, they believe, would risk undermining the membership base that sustains the club and could have a negative ripple effect on the broader neighborhood.
Can social or part-time residents access the golf course without a full golf membership?
The candidates are aligned in their position: the golf course must remain exclusive to full golf members in keeping with its status as a private club. Social members currently enjoy a limited number of rounds per year, and the candidates support maintaining that provision as it stands. Introducing discounted or alternative access tiers—beyond what already exists—could undermine the value of full membership, reduce revenue, and strain course resources. Any formal proposal of this nature would appropriately come through the Golf Committee before the Board would consider acting on it.
What is your vision for the pickleball program, and should all social members have free access?
All three candidates strongly support free pickleball access for all social members. The program is an amenity built into the HOA fee, and they see no reason to change that model as long as the club’s finances remain healthy—which they currently do. The pickleball community at Desert Horizons has grown tremendously and is one of the club’s most vibrant assets. Rather than dictating the program’s direction from the top down, the candidates believe that future changes or improvements should be driven by the Courts Committee and the pickleballers themselves, who are best positioned to identify what they need. The existing guest fee for non-members is also supported as a fair and appropriate policy.
How would you approach disagreements or differing viewpoints on the Board?
The candidates bring a range of professional backgrounds in business, strategy, and community leadership—all of which have prepared them well for collaborative decision-making. They are committed to entering every discussion with an open mind, setting aside individual biases, and keeping the focus on what is best for the club and community as a whole. They value honest and respectful dialogue, and believe that healthy debate is part of good governance—not something to be avoided. At the same time, they are prepared to stand as the lone vote when their convictions, after hearing all perspectives, clearly point in a direction they believe serves the community’s best interests. Consistency between what they say publicly and how they vote is a commitment each candidate takes seriously.
What would you do to improve transparency and communication with residents?
Transparency has greatly improved during the past year but more can be done. The candidates are enthusiastic about implementing a regular dashboard—issued quarterly or more frequently—that tracks key club metrics such as golf membership numbers, rounds played, dining activity, financials forecasted versus actual, and the status of the Board’s top projects. This would give every resident a clear, honest view of how the club is performing. They also envision a simple, trackable request system for HOA maintenance and improvement submissions, so residents always know where their concerns stand in the pipeline. The goal is to make transparency a built-in feature of club operations, not something residents have to ask for.
What are your priorities for capital improvements in the community?
The candidates are committed to letting the master plan guide capital investment priorities, ensuring decisions are data-driven and financially sound. Near-term items on their radar include the irrigation system, roofing, street signage, and mailboxes. The candidates also want to assess the feasibility of solar energy for the clubhouse—a potentially significant long-term cost savings given the Coachella Valley’s abundance of sunshine—and to explore water-conservation landscaping options to reduce ongoing maintenance costs. Major capital decisions will be brought forward through staff, committee recommendations, and the master planning process, and weighed carefully against the community’s financial position.