Event Complete issued the following statement through its Facebook page : 

Dear supporters,

The Taste of Ladera Event, a community hallmark for the past seven years, needs your help! LARMAC and LARCS - the two organizations charged with approving community events - have failed to approve the 2011 Taste of Ladera Event.

As a result we are requesting you to make every effort to attend and encourage others to attend the upcoming homeowner's meeting on Wednesday, December 8th at 6PM at the Avendale Clubhouse in Ladera Ranch to voice your support for Taste.  We want LARMAC to change their position and approve Taste of Ladera for 2011.

The Taste of Ladera Event is Ladera Ranch's largest fundraiser that supports youth programs, local schools, and over 20 nonprofits made possible by generous donors, volunteers, and business relationships. Through the years it has evolved into South Orange County's biggest charitable event with well over 20,000 attendees per year while raising more than $300,000 dollars.

To learn why LARMAC and LARCS are killing off The Taste of Ladera Event follow the links to the interview with Carol McCormick, the LARCS' President, as well as the recently published Ladera Times Story and the attached article, 'Taste of Ladera - What's At Stake'.

Please read the article and vote here: www.laderatimes.com, Town Green is not an option because we outgrew it our first year.

Also, please come to the LARMAC Board Meeting to support Taste of Ladera. 

Sincerely,

Michelle Patterson
Event Complete, CEO 

Additionally, Event Complete posted the following in a PDF on their Facebook page.   

Ladera Ranch’s own Taste of Ladera Event held annually since 2003 has failed to secure approval by the local governing bodies for its 2011 Event.

 

The future of the Taste of Ladera Event is at stake. Recent Board actions by both the master homeowner’s association (LARMAC) and its community services arm (LARCS) have made it clear they no longer support the community’s premier event – The Taste of Ladera. What’s not so clear though is why.

 

Like all community events, Taste of Ladera was required to submit its event request through LARCS for review and final approval by LARMAC. But in what has become an increasingly byzantine approval process LARCS’ President Carol McCormick claimed they no longer approved events at Founders Park.

 

In response to the change of policy, Taste requested LARMAC President Jeff Blugrind and the LARMAC Board to consider a grandfather clause that would allow the Event to continue at Founders Park for two days but under the oversight of LARMAC. The answer was a resounding NO.

 

How is it that such a beloved community event can be undone by such a small number of individuals leaves one to wonder. For instance, was this lack of support due to last year’s failed attempt by LARCS to secure the Taste of Ladera Event as its own? Or was it simply that the respective Boards fancy themselves as the Tastemakers of Ladera Ranch?

 

No matter how you cut it, the Taste of Ladera Event has been Ladera Ranch’s largest fundraiser that supports youth programs, local schools, and over 20 local nonprofits made possible by generous donors, volunteers, and business relationships. Through the years it has evolved into South Orange County’s biggest charitable event with well over 20,000 attendees per year while raising more than $300,000 dollars.

 

Incredibly enough, there was no public hearing, nor would LARMAC allow for a public vote. To think that two Boards acting in concert would subvert the community’s wishes by attempting to quickly and so quietly kill off the Taste of Ladera Event begs the question, why?