Advisory Board Formed, first meeting held.
- Jun 23
- 2 min read
The advisory board had its first meeting with LARMAC today. Meeting minutes will be up soon, and anyone will be able to read them.
For transparency, the resident advisory board members at today’s meeting were: Dustin Matteson, Taryn Morais, Nubia Krikorian, and Tiffany Kahnen. This is an advisory group, not a decision-making board. It was formed after the July 8 LARMAC meeting, when LARMAC agreed to work with residents on a possible organic/IPM policy. The group is made up of residents who have been actively working on the pesticide records, agency outreach, research, and proposed policy changes. Any final plan still has to go to the LARMAC Board for a vote.
LARMAC has said it is willing to implement an organic-first policy and will allow us to have an organic consultant of our choosing at the next meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, August 4. We were given confirmation that once we have an organic plan in place, it will be presented to the Board for a vote.
The original 60-day pause was apparently only for two herbicides.
However, LARMAC has indicated that in August it will also be reducing pesticides and rodenticides. Once that list is finalized, it will be posted on Ladera Life.
The Board still would not agree to put the new plan out to bid, due to its long relationship with O’Connell. This is something we will be strongly advocating for.
We also made it clear that residents want much greater transparency and physical signage anywhere synthetic chemicals are placed in Ladera. The standard should be signs clear enough that children playing outside know to avoid a certain area.
The pressure from the community, the media, and our elected officials has been effective. We are going to try to get this done before the next Board meeting on September 9, so there can be a vote. It may take longer because we still need to work through the financials and phasing of the program, but we are pushing for the quickest implementation possible.
One important thing to mention is that the agreement we are working on will only apply to LARMAC-managed property. It will not apply to schools, commercial properties, or the 17 sub-associations. If you live in one of the sub-associations, I recommend working with your neighbors to find out who your HOA is and what herbicides and pesticides are being used.
This is not finished yet, but today was a meaningful step forward.
For those who are looking, current notices are posted here:
