Meet Our 2023 Election Winners

The annual election to select members for CoastHills Credit Union’s volunteer Board of Directors and Supervisory Committee took place in January and February, and the Credit Union was proud to announce the election winners at the CoastHills Annual Meeting held in March.

Elected to three-year terms, the Board will be represented by Bill Anders, Jeremy Moreno and Jeanne Piper. The Supervisory Committee will be represented by Paul Klock, Sergei Sanders and Chuck Winkles.

Kris Andrews is the Board Chairman, Homero Contreras the Vice Chairman, BeeJay Jones the Secretary and Jeremy Moreno the Treasurer. R. Bruce Coggin, Earl Murray and Chuck Scheithauer are the remaining directors.

Hugh Rafferty, who has graciously served on the Board of Directors since he was elected in 2004, including 10 years as Chairman of the Board, will become a Lifetime Board Emeritus member and will continue to support the success of CoastHills.

Paul Klock remains the Supervisory Committee Chair and Allison Smith the Secretary. Colleen Scott also serves on the Committee.

Learn more about each of the election winners below and view our 2022 annual report:

Board of Directors

Bill Anders (Incumbent)

As a CoastHills Board member my primary goals are to protect member deposits and improve customer services. I will continue to insist on accountability, effective risk management and good auditing processes to ensure the credit union’s liquidity and security. I championed efforts to provide modern financial services to meet a diverse demographic and to sustain our outstanding financial reputation. In this period of intense market instability and high inflation, I have the credit union experience required to anticipate and respond to the needs of CoastHills’s growing financial community. I encouraged CoastHills loans to our small business and deferments of loan payments for our individual members to survive the Covid shutdowns. I have led in several challenging positions in our credit union, Air Force and aerospace industry including serving as CoastHills Board Chair. My community involvement includes terms as president of the local Air Force Association’s Goddard Chapter, vice president of the California Air Force Association, and corporate president of my church. I have an MBA from the University of North Dakota and a BS in Biochemistry from Penn State University. I look forward to supporting the community through continued CoastHills Board service.

Jeremy Moreno (Incumbent)

Jeremy Moreno currently serves on the board for 3 years running with CoastHills Credit Union. This most recent year he was elected as the Vice-Chair of the board and is completely passionate about making it a great place for the members and the employees during probably some of the most challenging years anyone has had to endure during the pandemic. He has served on multiple committees within the Board, along with also being the President of the board for the Santa Maria Organization of Transportation Helpers (SMOOTH- A public transportation Non profit organization). He has also served on the board for the Boys and Girls Club of The Mid Central Coast (Santa Maria Valley), he was the past president of the board for the Rotary Club of Nipomo and has also been a Court Appointed Special Advocate in Santa Barbara County. He continues to want to serve our community.

Jeremy has worked and resided on the central coast since 2009, owning businesses along with being a Vice President-Risk Advisor-Branch Lead at Pan American Insurance, advising business owners and executives in regard to their risks of owning a business and protecting their assets. He has been in the financial world ever since he graduated from the Sid Craig School of Business at Fresno State University with a degree in Business Management- Entrepreneurship.

Jeremy continues to be the voice of reason for the board, with knowing the risks that businesses and organizations face today. He continues to expand his knowledge in the credit union space and only intends to better the oversight of the credit union. Jeremy truly cares about bettering the experience and position of our members.

Mr. Moreno feels an extreme amount of gratitude to serve on the board, and he is very proud to represent as the youngest board member currently on the board, not only as a member that speaks Spanish, but also a board member that is Registered Native-American. He represents the true roots of our community, along with the core population of our Credit Union’s membership!

Jeanne Piper 

My name is Jeanne and it would be an honor for me to represent you, the membership and owners of CoastHills Credit Union. As a member of the board of directors I will ensure all decisions made are in your best interests, I will focus on serving this community we call home, and I will work hard to improve the lives of the members. I have been a professional educator for over 20 years, and I feel financial literacy is an important aspect of one’s education. I believe that my graduate degrees and experience in education will contribute to my ability to facilitate the management and leadership of CoastHills. I have worked with many student groups on budgets and raising money. It is challenging and takes creativity to cover all expenses on a smaller budget, but my students, colleagues and I were always successful in reaching our goals. My vision for CoastHills is to continue supporting our community in a variety of ways. We need to continue to keep fees and rates low. We can look for ways to improve on the process of becoming a member to help increase the membership numbers. CoastHills would benefit from increased membership and financially healthy members. Keeping CoastHills in the current with the ease and efficiency of electronic banking while continuing to serve community members with open, in-person branches would be ideal for all members. I hope that I have your support, so that we can, together, continue the great service of CoastHills Credit Union.

Hugh Rafferty (Lifetime Board Emeritus)

Mr. Rafferty is a past Chairman and current board member of CoastHills. He’s a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and founding/charter member of the local Marine Corps League, the founder of the Military Wall of Honor at the Santa Maria Airport, and a Santa Barbara County Veterans Stand Down volunteer. Now retired, Mr. Rafferty has a distinguished volunteer record having served on the boards of the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce Board, Coastal Business Finance Corp (a Small Business lender), the Santa Maria Public Airport District and the OASIS Senior Center among others. He is current President of the Santa Barbara Chapter of the California Special Districts Association (CSDA), and member of the CSDA state board, and board member of the Leadership Santa Maria Valley Program. He is a past president of the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association as well as a past chairman of the Bond Oversight Committees of both Allan Hancock College District and the Santa Maria High School District. He is recognized by the California State Assembly and California State Senate, as well as Congressional Representative Salud Carbajal for his community service. While serving on the board of CoastHills he has worked with his fellow board members to grow CoastHills Credit Union from $375 million to $1.7 Billion. His continuing goal for CoastHills Credit Union is to act on behalf of members to achieve controlled growth while maintaining the highest level of service, products, education and community involvement for members, employees, and the community.

Supervisory Committee

Paul Klock (Incumbent)

The Supervisory Committee’s main function is safeguarding CoastHills member’s assets through audits and reviews. Paul has been on the CoastHills Supervisory Committee for 8 years; last 5 as Chairman. Through Paul’s cooperative arrangement with the Board of Directors and Senior Management, CoastHills assets have increased from $900M to $1.7B with more than $1.1B in loans to CoastHills member-owners. He’s instrumental in overseeing the re-competition of several contracts consisting of auditing and compliance function. Each year over 30 compliance and financial audits have been successfully conducted. He leads his Committee in tracking hundreds of open action items to completion to be in compliance with State and Federal Regulations. Paul has updated the Supervisory Committee’s Charter; a Continuity Binder; a consolidated Operational Handbook, and an On-Boarding Checklist.

Paul’s a native Central Coast resident. He is a retired Federal Government employee. He served in supervisory positions, managed operational budgets and had extensive experience in compliance inspections and audits. Paul has a BS and MS degrees both in Chemistry. His community involvement includes serving on the Board of Directors for the OASIS Senior Center; Central Coast Home Vintners Association (past Treasurer);
and Leadership Santa Maria Valley (Emeritus & past Treasurer).

Paul’s dedication in giving back includes being a PCPA Usher; a licensed U.S. Soccer Federation National Referee Emeritus, and an NCAA Soccer National Assessor. He’s a graduate of the Leadership Programs from Lompoc; Santa Maria; and Santa Barbara County. He’s looking forward to continue to protect CoastHills members’ assets and would appreciate your support.

Sergei Sanders (Incumbent)

The Central Coast has been my home for more than 20 years, even though I am not
from here. When I joined the military in 2000, I was stationed at Vandenberg AFB, and I have mainly lived out here since then.

There is something special about CoastHills Credit Union for me. Between 2012 and 2022, I worked at CoastHills in the IT department and if it weren’t for my opportunity to work with NASA, I would still be there without a doubt.

CoastHills has always been an organization that gives back to its community, and I have had the opportunity to be a part of that every step of the way. It was amazing to be a part of an organization that allowed us to put in so much volunteer work, from painting schools to building bikes for the less fortunate to donating money and assisting Veterans. It had always been my favorite part of working there.

I am looking forward to serving on the CoastHills Supervisory Committee. My goal is to help and share my knowledge on the Information Technology side. Knowing the systems I helped implement and/or upgrade, I feel like I could be an asset while still being a part of an organization that I sincerely love and appreciate.

Chuck Winkles (Incumbent)

Chuck Winkles has been a loyal member of CoastHills for over 15 years. He appreciates the Credit Union’s altruistic support for the community, local nonprofit organizations, and its members. While serving on the supervisory committee for 4 years, Chuck has reviewed countless audit reports and obtained a great appreciation for the operations of CoastHills. Also during this time, Chuck has gained a lot of respect for executive team, the employees, the board, supervisory committee and all its volunteers, and the its members that make it the best credit union and banking choice on the central coast.

Chuck and his wife Shelley have lived on the Central Coast for over 40 years.

Together they raised two sons, who are now both married with 5 young grandchildren. For over 43 years, Chuck has worked as a General Contractor and led the business operations of three successful ventures that employ 45 workers: New Life Bath & Kitchen, New Life Painting, and New Life Restoration. While his two sons now run the day-to-day operations, Winkles has experience evaluating financial reports, audits and managing resources. With a passion for learning and personal growth, Chuck has had the privilege of coaching several business around the country. He has served on multiple boards, and non profit organization. Mr. Winkles would like to thank you for your consideration to elect him to serve another term of the CoastHills Supervisory Committee.