Featured Post

Recap of 2016 HVPOA Annual Meeting

April 30th, 2016. The annual meeting was held at the Wilkerson Student Center @ BYU. Our president Randy Hill opened the meeting with Trust...

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

A Board can be as petty as it's most petty member

Rueben from Cambridge gave us this about Borads:
"The board is only as good and responsible and reasonable as the individuals who serve on it. What's more, and this is very important to understand, HOA boards can be as petty as their most petty individual board member." Reuben Moore

     Below this post, we have some moore from Reuben--we think he should move to Hideaway! OK--time to talk about honor and duty and ask why Roy won't just do the right thing and run again--as promised at the April meeting by the president?
     Recently a member sent in a cartoon and we at the Member to Member site passed it along--it showed a man declaring that his term for trustee was up, BUT he didn't want to bother to run again. So the cartoon guy was just going to pretend there was a mistake on the ballot and simply stay in office. That would be like Roy Walker.
     Then a trustee sent in an email saying the cartoon was rude and asked members to let bygones by bygones and try to get along. So the administrators of the member to member site took it under advisement and did not send out the 5 other humorous cartoons in our possession.
     But this is a two way street. More importantly we want the board to just follow the rules. What is rude is for a grown man to not honor a ballot he, himself wrote and ran on. The ballot said, "You are voting to elect these trustees until April of 2012,." Roy's term was up 3 months ago. He doesn't want to run like a big boy for another term. "the ballot was a misprint" he whined. Gary Jorden, the then president promised the members at the April Member's meeting that they would correct the situation. Gary Jorden was right--but he resigned before the problem was corrected. Why?
     If you don't care about our bylaws, do nothing. If you want our trustees to follow our governing documents--the ones we voted on, then show up and let your voice be heard--the unfortunate thing is members have been showing up to a lot of the meetings complaining about this--but Roy just keeps on doing what he wants--NOT following the documents and ignoring valid points about the law and ballot.
     So show up. If Roy chooses not to resign--as dictated by the legal ballot he himself wrote, then the member to member site will begin the process of vetting Roy-something that hasn't been done yet.
     Do the right thing or we'll be doing the FACTS BACK. -Randy may not know who sent out that despicable email in his name, but many of us do.

So here is Moore from Reuben about how petty tyrants get on boards:
So how does a good idea go bad? Well, I think we have to look at the people inevitably drawn to the leadership of any given HOA. Whether they win an HOA election or not, the petty tyrants always want to run the association. They are the first to line up as candidates, and they are too often unchallenged in the elections. So, if not enough members stop them, they end up running the show.

And here's another fact: Most HOA members, like myself, are too busy attending to their own lives, families, and careers to worry about their neighborhood association. It's just one of those things we often choose not to worry about. Most of us do not participate at all and that includes participating in the board elections. Again, the petty tyrants know this and take advantage of this. Therefore many HOA boards, like ours, are largely unelected and unaccountable. Beware unaccountable petty tyrants run amuck!

Monday, July 9, 2012

Cheating in HOA Elections

Yes, we did have a "cheat" in the last election at Hideaway--he ran to fill an office until April and just decided to stay on the board without running again as the ballot stated. That's cheating--you don't take away the right for people to bleive in their ballot--your don't appoint yourself to fill a different position from that voted on.

Read here what an attoreny says about cheating by clicking on the link.

         Cheating in HOA Elections

     Residents of a community who believe an election was conducted improperly can challenge the results of that election. The matter can wind up in court, costing everyone a great deal of money, time, and energy. In the process, neighbor can be pitted against neighbor and hard feelings can unwittingly be engendered—sometimes over what is fundamentally just a misunderstanding of how to conduct a proper community election.


     Nobody wants to wind up being viewed as a possible cheat by his neighbor just because his HOA's election rules weren’t specific enough, or because board members themselves weren’t aware of how to run the process correctly. That’s why it is essential to understand the proper election procedures, and run things in accordance with them. A properly run election helps to avoid even the appearance of impropriety and reduces the risk of expensive legal challenges