Neighborhood Advocate

From "Chairman of One" to OCHAA President

Even as a full-time mom, Teresa was deeply involved in her community and her children's schools. The catalyst that ultimately led her to run for the County Commission was a proposed road that would disrupt multiple neighborhoods and split her neighborhood in two. She made a pitch to her HOA to oppose it and jokingly recalls being made the "Chairman of her committee of ONE" until a few neighbors came to her aid.

Regardless, she didn't quit.

She helped organize hundreds of people, got multiple HOAs working together, and raised private dollars for an independent study. She poured over records and found ways to save taxpayers literally millions of dollars by using a different alignment, one that enjoyed the support of nearly all the affected neighborhoods.

In the end, she lost that fight. And, Teresa was stunned and disappointed by what she considered to be a lack of respect for the public's input by most of the commissioners.

Leaving that meeting, she saw two men from her HOA who had told her - at the outset - that she could never fight "city hall" and win. When she approached them to acknowledge they were right, the two men quickly corrected her and explained that they were there to support her, and that even though she lost the vote, there are - in fact - times when one has to fight for what's right!

Those words turned Teresa's defeat into determination. She was soon elected President of the Orange County Homeowners Association Alliance (an umbrella organization that represented approximately 100 neighborhoods), then elected and re-elected to the County Commission.

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