Governance
The Upper East Association is governed by a Board of Directors acting under the guidance of the organization's bylaws. Click here to view the minutes of the Board's meetings.
2011 Annual Meeting
On November 13, 2011 we conducted the annual meeting of the Association at the Unitarian Society's Jefferson Hall. Joan Livingston, Treasurer, and Milt Hess, President, presented a short status report on the Association's finances, membership, and activities. Click here to see the meeting handout. Because there was not a quorum present we were unable to conduct the election of Board members for 2012; the election has since been conducted by mail ballot instead. Maria Fisk gave a short presentation about REEF, the Roosevelt Elementary Education Foundation, followed by a Q&A over tea and cookies.
Meet the 2012 UEA Board Officers
Lisa Burns
Lisa Knox Burns is semi-retired after a 30-year career working as a land use planner for Santa Barbara County and private environmental consulting firms preparing environmental impact reports. Her work has included preparing Santa Barbara County's Housing Element, environmental impact reports for such projects as State Water importation to San Luis Obispo County and the Goleta Community Plan, and aesthetic guidelines for cell towers in rural areas. She and her husband, W. Scott Burns, have lived in Santa Barbara since 1977 and on Garden Street since 1994. Their son, Matthew, graduated from SBHS and is attending Vancouver Film School. Now working "on-call" with AMEC Earth & Environmental, Lisa spends her time volunteering at the Old Mission's La Huerta garden on Wednesday mornings and taking SBCC Adult Ed classes.
Tony Fischer
Tony Fischer and his wife Ann have been residents of the Upper East for more than 30 years after residing in the Riviera and San Roque areas. They feel privileged to have been able to raise their four children in this community. Tony is an attorney who came to Santa Barbara in 1973 to join the City's legal team in the litigation resulting from the 1969 Oil Spill. He stayed with the Office of the City Attorney until 1981 and thereafter has been in private practice with an emphasis in municipal land use and real estate issues.
Steve Forsell - Vice-President
Steve has been the owner of a local real estate appraisal company for nearly 30 years. He has lived in Santa Barbara since 1968 and graduated from UCSB in 1972. He and his wife Mary have lived on the Upper East since 1985. He has been active locally in politics, educational institutions and government. He served 4 years on the Santa Barbara School Board and 7 years on the Santa Barbara Parks and Recreation Commission. In addition, he has served on several local boards and non-profit organizations.
Marie-Paule Hajdu - Secretary
Marie-Paule Hajdu moved to the Upper East with her husband Laszlo (now deceased) in 1999 from the Palo Alto area. Since living in Santa Barbara, Marie-Paule has been active as Board Member and Recording Secretary of the Santa Barbara Quire of Voyces for six years. Currently she is serving as Vice-chair of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Music Academy of the West, after serving on the same board as Recording Secretary and Corresponding Secretary for the previous three years.
Marie-Paule is a graduate of Pomona College and after raising two daughters returned to her former profession in medical laboratory work. Her last employment before retirement was with the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Palo Alto Medical Research Foundation. In the 1970s, while being a “stay-at–home mom,” she was Secretary of the Ladera Community Association and editor of the newsletter of this unincorporated area of Menlo Park.
Milt Hess - President
Milt moved to Santa Barbara in 2002 after retiring from a career in IT management and consulting. He served on the 2005-2006 Civil Grand Jury and is a volunteer computer coach at the Public Library and Jewish Federation and a patient care volunteer with Hospice of Santa Barbara. He was Membership Chair of the Upper East Association during 2010, a year in which the membership more than doubled. Milt and his wife Cecia have owned their home in the Upper East since 2005, where he tends their rose garden and enjoys opera, genealogy and weightlifting.
Joan Livingston - Treasurer
Joan is a retired attorney who serves on the Santa Barbara Community College District Board of Trustees, an elected position she has held for over 19 years. A 35-year resident of Santa Barbara, she has been active in local politics for many years. Joan is a member of the Travel Century Club having visited her 100th country, Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, on a 42 day cruise last year. Gardening and travel/dining writing are hobbies now filling in her post-retirement free time. She has served as the UEA representative to the Allied Neighborhoods Association and has been active in city planning matters. She represents the interests of the UEA to Looking Good Santa Barbara, which coordinates the Adopt-A-Block graffiti abatement and neighborhood clean-up and recycling programs.
Don Olson
Don is semi-retired after a 43-year career in public service, the last 28 years with the City of Santa Barbara. He and his wife Nancy Franco have lived in Santa Barbara since 1972 and in the Upper East since 2000. Don currently serves on the Housing Authority Commission and represents the UEA on the Master Plan Advisory Committee for the Museum of Natural History. He also serves as a board member for the Santa Barbara Conservancy and the Santa Barbara Middle School.
Beth Perry
Beth moved to Santa Barbara with her husband Bob and two young children in 1999. She was very active at the local schools that they attended as well as Las Aletas and National Charity League. Before moving to Santa Barbara, the Perrys lived on the North Shore of Chicago as well as Tokyo, Japan. Now that both kids are attending college, Beth is spending more time gardening, reading, exercising and traveling with her husband. She has been a member of the Upper East Association board and Secretary since January 2009.
Fred Sweeney
Fred and Jane Sweeney are 27-year residents of the Upper East where they raised their two children, who now reside in South Bend, Indiana and Aptos, California. Fred is a semi-retired architect having been a partner for the last 34 years in one of Santa Barbara’s oldest architectural firms. His latest project has been as designer of the new Santa Barbara Airport Terminal. He currently sits as a member of the City of Santa Barbara’s Single-Family Design Review Board.
In July 2012 Fred will complete his term as president of the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Alumni Association representing all 144,000 living alumni. He is also an avid watercolor scene painter, with many of his paintings collected by residents of the neighborhood and other private and public collections, including extensive representation of his work at the Santa Barbara Four Seasons Biltmore Hotel.
Fred served on the UEA Board as Vice President during 2009-2010, and he is currently assisting UEA Board member Don Olson on the Safe Passage project for the Los Olivos/Mission Canyon Road corridor.