RSFA Board Candidate: Rick Sapp

Author: Phil Trubey

Date: July 02, 2020

This article is part of a series of interview articles we are doing for the 2020 RSFA Board election. 

Rick Sapp wants the Association Board to look at long term issues. "What can we do today that will positively impact our community in fifteen years?". He feels that while Rancho Santa Fe continues to have advantages over other nearby communities, Rancho must still continue to invest in community projects to remain relevant. "The things we take for granted today, like the golf course, were big investments in their day". He points to RSF Connect as a current example.

Sapp is re-running to provide continuity for RSF Connect (which is about a year away from being in steady state operation), and to tackle some projects that he had wanted to shepherd before the coronavirus hit and put everything on hold. One of those is Osuna Ranch. Selling Osuna Ranch is an obvious way to repurpose this Association asset, but Sapp believes in the long term usefulness of the unique land and use of Osuna. "Is there a Rancho Santa Fe identity we can express in Osuna?", he asks.

Two things are obvious to any horse person who has visited Osuna. Use of space/land is very inefficient, and there is a lot of deferred maintenance. Sapp takes credit for pushing to have the most obvious deferred maintenance, like peeling paint, taken care of. And rather than the binary choice of selling/keeping Osuna, Sapp has grander plans. He wants Osuna to be appreciably enhanced so that it is a marketable asset when prospective home buyers are looking to buy in Rancho. This needn't even cost a lot of Association money since the land is currently underutilized. With a bit of reorganization, we can have an enhanced, higher class horse facility, keep and enhance the historic adobe, and either sell some underutilized portion of the land, or use the land for another useful and even revenue generating purpose.

Sapp would also like the Board to keep an eye on Village revitalization. He would like it to take advantage of opportunities that could present themselves in the future. Right now, he thinks the Village is looking a bit dated. 

This is a bit of a curious situation for Sapp in that after being a Board director for four years, this will be the first time members have a chance to vote for him. He was initially appointed for a one year term to fill the slot vacated by Ann Boon when she resigned in mid 2016. Then in the 2017 Board election, he and Steve Dunn ran unopposed.  

"I'm not running for the power", Sapp says, "I believe it is good practice to rotate the Presidency among the directors".

Click here to read Rick Sapp's official campaign flyer that the Association mailed to all members as part of the official election packet.