Our Mission

The Kensington Property Owners Association is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit membership organization whose mission is to disseminate information and analysis and promote community engagement on issues affecting all Kensington property owners. KPOA has been a trusted, independent, nonpartisan voice in the Kensington community since 1972.

Membership is open to all Kensington property owners, and member dues are typically used for community educational outreach and to promote civic projects. Our volunteer board of directors brings together professional and volunteer resources to collect, analyze, and communicate information to decision-makers and all Kensington residents.

WHY JOIN KPOA?
Kensington Property Owners Association

Our Activities

  • Annually host a town hall-style meeting at which we invite knowledgeable speakers to address timely subjects of concern to residents.
  • Publish a Kensington directory with contact information for our community government, local services, and community groups.
  • Gather information from local, county, and state authorities, identifying policy options and recommendations to our two special districts (KPPCSD and KFPD) and Contra Costa County.
  • Liaison to Contra Costa County and other bodies on infrastructure-related issues such as road resurfacing, undergrounding of power lines, and other topics which require Kensington property owner input and coordination.
  • KPOA also collaborates regularly with the other K groups on matters of interest to the community such as conducting local candidate forums and fundraising for community projects.

Board of Directors

THE KPOA

Our membership organization is managed by a Board of Directors who bring volunteer and professional backgrounds and resources to the organization. Directors must be Kensington property owners and members of KPOA. Directors are nominated by the Board and elected by the membership at the annual membership meeting by a ballot. Directors are elected for two-year terms and are required to attend all board meetings. Our bylaws allow seven to thirteen directors and the Board sets the number by resolution. The officers of the Board are the President, Treasurer and Secretary.

Kensington Property Owners Association

Jennifer Jacobs
(Director)

Gail Feldman (Secretary)

Gail has lived in Kensington for 27 years and served as a KPOA President for 20 years. She was a director for the Kensington Police Protection and Community Services District 1996-1998. She worked for over 25 years in financial and legislative senior management positions for several Bay Area local governments including Napa and Solano Counties, San Francisco, and Berkeley.

Kristine Hafner (Treasurer)

Kristine Hafner moved to Kensington in 2003 from Madison WI when she joined the University of California Office of the President. This followed a 15-year career in information technology marketing and consulting at IBM. As associate vice president and chief information officer for the 10-campus University of California system, Kris oversaw shared IT systems and strategic IT investments.

Upon retiring from UC, she was interim IT division director and chief information officer at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She served on the California Independent System Operator’s Board of Governors and is in her 9th year as an independent board director at Western Electricity Coordinating Council (wecc.org)- responsible for ensuring the reliability of the electrical grid in the Western U.S. and Canada.

Following the completion of a Ph.D. in French at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she attended the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.

Kris has been involved with Kensington Property Owners Association, as a member and board member for many years.

Candace Capogrossi (Treasurer)

Candy joined KPOA in 2019. She relocated from San Jose to be closer to her family and luckily is 7 doors down from her two grandchildren. Candy served as deputy executive director of Santa Clara County Housing Authority and appreciates the importance of everyone having a safe, decent, and sanitary place to call home. She is a certified property manager through IREM and has served on various housing boards over her housing career of 34 years.

Maya Churi (Director)

Maya has lived in Kensington since 2013. She served as the CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) area coordinator for many years where she worked closely with the community on wildfire and earthquake preparedness. She’s been a writer and producer in film and interactive media since 1999 and lived in Philadelphia, New York, Austin, and Los Angeles before moving here. She loves Kensington for its country living close to the city. It’s the best of both worlds.

Dave Spath (Director)

Dave has lived in Kensington since 1983. Before retiring he was an environmental engineer/division chief with the California Department of Public Health until 2006. Presently, he works as a retired annuitant at the California State Water Resources Control Board. He grew up in Massachusetts and spent time in Ohio before moving to California in 1972.

This is his second term on the KPOA Board and previously served as the president. He has served on a number of committees in Kensington over the years including the Ad Hoc Committee for Governance and Operations Structure, Kensington Police Protection and Community Services District, Emergency Preparedness Committee, Kensington Fire Protection District, and the Steering Committee for Kensington Pathkeepers.

Rob Firmin (President)

Rob has founded and run companies around his inventions, the best known being internationally award-winning Javelin Software’s modeling innovations, and has managed numerous complex projects—in high tech and public art. Earlier he headed financial planning and analysis for a major computer manufacturer, and was CFO of an innovative computer/software company. He is working on his new electronics invention for athletes.

His public sculpture monuments span the country. Meeting the President of the United States before the dedication of the Rosa Parks sculpture at the U.S. Capitol was exciting. He is in design and production of several new monuments.

His formal education includes history, historiography and art history, advanced quantitative analysis with a Ph.D. in Population Dynamics (U. of Chicago), and an MBA in Finance (Columbia U.).

Rob has published peer-reviewed original techniques in predictive statistical process control for semiconductor production, new project management statistical measures, and time series forecasting. He has been interviewed three times by C-SPAN and appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and many trade publications.

Jennifer Jacobs (Director)

Jennifer has lived in Kensington for 12 years. She spent 20 years in software development before leaving the industry in 2011 to focus on family and non-profit work. She currently serves on the boards of Dharmata Foundation in Point Richmond and Planting Justice in Oakland assisting with finance and operations. Jennifer is passionate about personal, environmental, and cultural regeneration in these unusual times and teaches a course on Mindfulness and Climate Resilience at UC Davis.

Join Our Board

Get involved with your community!

Directors volunteer on various KPOA projects throughout the year. This usually amounts to a few hours a month in addition to a monthly board meeting and a yearly annual meeting.

Directors are required to be:

  • Kensington property owners
  • Dues-paying members of the KPOA
  • Voted on during our annual meeting

Interested in becoming a KPOA board member?

DOWNLOAD OUR BOARD MEMBER APPLICATION

Questions? Email us: [email protected]