Someone sent us the Notice for the Member Meeting

Receivership anyone? Tom's Take on the Membership Meeting

No, I'm not proposing a receivership--but some one is--AGAIN. We'll get to him later.

These are simply my thoughts on the Hideaway Valley annual membership meeting, events not necessarily in the proper order, just the highlights of the meeting and a few thanks to those who stood up for our membership.

As members arrived, it did not appear that the board intended to stay for long. There were no snacks, water, a pop to drink. There were no tally sheets for the vote counters, as if no real meeting were planned...although Bryan Cook was taking ballots.

I asked if he was going to take my ballot since at the last board meeting, they informed me that I was no longer a member of the association. That was news to me as I had purchased my lot in 2003, served as a Trustee and even was Hideaway's corporate agent for a few years. Bryan said, "Well, uh, you just are not on the county records."

"Really Bryan?" I asked him. "When you were collecting funds for the Concerned property owners, I took you cash for the legal fund and you gave me a receipt that I still have. My name was on the association membership list for years and I paid my dues as Tom LeFevre until Roy Walker took my name off that list. I marched to Roys house and showed him my bill of sale..."

Bryan told me to put my ballot in the pile.

Before the meeting was called, discussions ensued around the room. Erik Peterson noticed a man sitting at the board's table he did not recognize--"Who are you?" The stranger answered that he was the association's attorney. Erik told him he was not a board member and he didn't want him sitting at the board table.

First big thanks goes to Erik Peterson.

The attorney went and sat at another table when someone wanted to know who he represented--the Association or the Board--he said the Association and he was here for us because some issues of voting had come up. I asked if he was telling us the responsibilities of the board were to legislate or to administer. He did not answer.

Members began quoting the documents of Hideaway when a question was posed about which Bylaws the members were quoting and Becky Peterson said they were using the ones legally voted in by the members in 2010. The attorney said they were not legal because they were not recorded and Becky pointed out that the law that required bylaws to be recorded was not enacted until 2011. Even so, she explained, nothing in the law invalidated the bylaws if they were not recorded, "And you know that." she told him, "These are our legal bylaws. And we have written to you about this issue signed by many members and your law firm just ignored us. I thought you were supposed to be working for us."

Becky Peterson gets a huge thanks for standing up to the attorney.

Vivian Kuntz commented, "You're not being forthright with us. He's not here for you", she turned to the members, "he is here to protect and support the board with your money. She turned to him and asked, "I worked for an attorney and I know about this. You can't even tell us what the board discusses with you, can you?" he affirmed that he works for the board and Vivian said "and he uses our money to do do it."

Next big thanks to Vivian.

Someone asked why an attorney needed to be there anyway and Roy Walker stated there had been a letter from an attorney who said if there were any improprieties in the election there would be legal action. Roy said they would postpone until some issues were resolved. The attorney said he dealt with many HOAs and resolving conflicts--and said at some point this was going to go before a judge and maybe now is a good time.

Fred Smith, one of the original developers stood up, and said, "I wrote those documents and if you need clarification I can give it to you. I know what they mean and so you don't have to hire attorneys and go to court. I know who is allowed to vote and who is not. Ask me. The attorney who wrote the documents isn't practicing but he's alive and I'll get him to write a clarification for the association records if that is what you need and it won't entail huge legal fees." He went on to explain the hierarchy of documents--Federal law, State law, county, then the plat map, covenants and bylaws. We are already governed by these and we don't need clarification. I know what I meant by these documents."

Thank you Fred Smith.

After 45 minutes of discussion, the attorney got up and left. Someone motioned for the members to conduct their own meeting since the board didn't seem to want one. Finally a member noted that the president really was supposed to chair, so Roy reluctantly agreed to chair the meeting and follow the agenda.

5 volunteers went to count the ballots. They were a bit handicapped as the board had not come prepared to count ballots with tally sheets and pens and a roster of members from the records. Fred Smith was one of the volunteers and officiated for the counters so it would be done properly.

During the meeting our acting president once again suggested that the only solution for Hideaway is a receivership--ra ra ra for the acting president. Every time it looks like he is not going to be in charge--like when Roy quit in 2009, like when he sued the association in 2011, and like when he was voted off the board by the members in 2012, he wants us to go into receivership. Same old same old.

I was asked to fill in with the counting when one of the counters had to leave so there's a bit of a gap here.

We came out with 3 clear winners, Becky Peterson with 82 votes, and Kurtis Zobell and Vicki Hill both with 73 votes. After the counts were announced, once again, our receivership advocate stated that 2 of the winners were not really winners because they did not get 51% of the votes represented at the meeting--the quorum was 150 and 73 was not 51% . Fred Smith put a stop to that nonsense. He stated that "majority" when voting for Trustees meant the ones with the most votes. Period. When Roy ran out of wiggle room to invalidate the outcome, Vivian again stepped up and asked the room, "Do we agree that the candidates with the highest number of votes are the winners? Everyone nodded in agreement. Does anyone disagree? No one disagreed, not even Roy. It was unanimous, Becky, Kurtis, and Vicki were declared the winners.

Then out of some child's fairy tale book, a new rule appeared. Poof. The new rules says that trustees are not to be seated until May1 for untold reasons. The acting president just shut the meeting down and said the next board meeting was to be May 1. For 33 years the new board members have been elected and seated at the annual board meeting--not with the fiscal year.

In fact when I drove to the meeting I saw the postings on the association bulletin board. It said, "HVPOA Annual member meeting at the Senior center in Fairview followed by the board meeting."

Roy has been seated a number of times and it is always immediately after he wins. It looks like if they don't get what they want, they make up rules to suit themselves. But that couldn't possibly be, could it? Their behavior in having an unauthorized, unnoticed board meeting on Friday and hiring an attorney without a legal board action had nothing to do with them wanting to stay in power, did it? Their attempt to take away membership in the association had nothing to do with trying to manipulate the election outcome did it? Or trying to rewrite the bylaws and covenants to give more power to the board and not the members who pay. Or getting the attorney to stop the vote count by hook or crook and invalidate the election and the bylaws that give members strong protection... they wouldn’t do anything like that, would they? Nah...

Maybe the new board will have regular meetings not in private homes and not during working hours so that members might attend. Lets hope.

Basic opinion and perspective from one member: Tom LeFevre

FAIR ELECTIONS? HOW to rig an election without even trying

Apparently fraud is big in HOA elections. Recently in Nevada a huge investigation has ended in jail sentences and death for a number of those involved. Many elections, unless run by third parties, are often not fair--sometimes it is unintentional and sometimes not.

What about our elections?

Electing a Board of Directors to manage the Association is a complex and time consuming process. Despite the best of intentions, sometimes things slip through the cracks, whether it's the qualifications of someone on the ballot or the manner in which votes are collected and tallied. Often, it is inintentional, and often Directors who do not want to lose their grip on your rights fudge things so that they can manipulate an election without really seeming to. 

Our current board may have fudged a bit. We already told you about how they are disqualifying votes that members (not now considered members) who have voted for years, pay their taxes and their dues--now are persona non grata. We already told you Tom LeFever has been told he is not a member. Who is next? Here are some easy ways to "fix" an election.

So the first way to manipulate elections is to disqualify votes you don't want.  Instead of asking Fred and Don, the developers of Hideaway, if they intended for people buying on contract to be voting (which they did) our board interpreted the covenants for their convenience and now a lot of land buyers who last year were considered owners have lost that privilege

The second way to manipulate votes is to "lose" and "find" ballots way after the fact. We saw that after the 2013 elections--After one member won an election with 4 tellers, including 2 impartial students from BYU--the ballots were mysteriously opened MONTHS after the election--recounted--and viola--the man they wanted won. How 'bout that?

A third way to rig elections is to ignore rules and bylaws. For instance, our bylaws state you cannot even run for the board unless you are paid up, "a nominee must be current on his or her assessments before the election" Two of our current trustees were NOT current back then when they were written in on a ballot--so the sitting board just ignored the rule (had an executive session) and let them serve anyway. We don't really know what happened because they didn't provide any records. Not cool guys. If you owed the association money do you think you would be allowed to serve? Apparently only if you are their friend!

The fourth way to manipulate votes is a parlor trick on the ballot itself. Research shows that the people at the top of a ballot are most likely to get votes. That is why incumbents often win because they are listed first on most ballots. The only fair thing is to list names alphabetically and say so on the ballot--so people think about the order before they vote. On this ballot for 2015 trustees Vicki Hill is listed last. Why? With her name, she should be first.

I question the order in which the names appear because I think this board intentionally wants to manipulate not who wins but who doesn't. The last names on the ballot are the ones who talk about protecting members rights. So please read all the platforms carefully--call the candidates who have their numbers listed--get to know them-- I know who I'm voting for, the ones that this board has listed last on the ballots because I think they did it on purpose. Ask yourself why.

Go to the webpage and download a ballot and read about the candidates--don't let a manipulative board continue. 

But whatever you do, please vote. Informed voters make for a better Community.

'via Blog this'

CAI concerned about growing strength of advocate arguments for HOA reforms? | HOA Constitutional Government

There are a growing number of advocates for homeowner rights around the country. The CAI (Community Association Institute) is an organization that protects lawyers, managers and other vendors that make money off our dues--they do things like recommend doucments that allow boards to make  decisions without the member vote, that gives major power to boards and makes it impossible for members to reign them in..I personally find them very offensive (I was a member for a while when I believed their hype that they represented owners--learned quickly that was far from the case). You can read about the CAI and some of its horror stories here:

You can read about the Community Association Institutive (CAI), an organization designed originally to "protect" and serve the industry,  and how it morphed. Now it seems that it mainly protects vendors at the expense of the owner. Read, in the HOA primer about why the CAI usually doesn't protect YOU, the owner, even though they like to claim they do:  The CAI: Putting in the Fix

20/20 did a great program on what went wrong in HOAs. The CAI went ballistic and claimed that ABC got it wrong. But an involved Homeowner advocate, Jan Bergemann, wrote her take on their take, 

The CAI is a trade organization trying to advance the monetary interests of their members, mostly attorneys, management companies, landscaping companies etc. For them HOAs are in existence to make money for them, since they have no invested financial interest...(Read Jan's full 'take' here)

Thank goodness HOA homeowner advocates are gaining ground. The CAI is designed to take in money for predatory vendors who suck cash out of homeowners for things they often don't want. They manipulate and scare untrained board members on how to "get" Members to behave--our Attorney Peter Harrison is the president of the CAI chapter in Utah and also is our collection attorney. Do you know what their website says about collections?

• All accounts are followed with aggressive, professional, prompt action with a high rate of success
• (the owner may not see their own account; only the association and manager has access)
•  Individuals who are unable to meet their financial obligations are forced to decide if they should make their car payment, mortgage payment, or homeowner assessment payment. With so many people facing financial strain, it is important that homeowner associations let their owners know their bill must be paid first and, if it is not, there will be serious consequences.
• In order to aggressively collect, associations need a plan-of-attack. 
• once they hear of the hard approach that the association is taking—they will think twice about choosing to not pay their dues. Finally, remember: when taking the hard line approach of aggressively collecting assessments, not only are you attempting to collect from the delinquent owners, but you are also sending a message loud and clear that the association must be paid on time from each and every owner.

These are the words from OUR COLLECTION company that was misprepresented when we were asked to vote on it. Is the above the way you want to treat your neighbors? I hope not. Remember--if owners cannot pay for some reason, we get the money when they sell! Every year the association collects from $20 to 30 thousand when lots sell...When the collection agency is involved WE DO NOT COLLECT ANY MORE MONEY, it simply means that they get a high high fee for collecting it from your neighbor next door who has fallen on hard financial times, and now we have increased their financial burden--now why would we treat our neighbors that way? It is time to change this travesty. Become an advocate with us for homeowner rights.



Attorney George K. Staropoli shares how the CAI is getting nervous--GOOD!

CAI concerned about growing strength of advocate arguments for HOA reforms? | HOA Constitutional Government: "CAI can be beat easily with fundamental constitutional arguments and avoiding CAI’s narrow real property approach to community government. CAI still speaks of community associations while arguing HOAs are businesses. Doesn’t make common sense, does it?  Just demand CAI answer this obvious contradiction, reminding them that advocates are not stupid."

Shelly

'via Blog this'

Citizens for Constitutional Local Government

I just love this lawyer--one of the few who stands up for our rights-you might wnat to subscribe to his blog--remember, our attorney, Peter Harrison is presdient of the CAI in Utah which is well described on this blog. You shoudl get to know what and who they are and who they REALLY represent.





Citizens for Constitutional Local Government:

The CEO of Starbucks visited West Point, the US Military Academy, where he saw three words over and over again: Duty, Honor, Country.   He told Meet The Press this morning that if Congress and the White House adopted these principles America would be a better America.  I believe if CAI adopted these principles as it public policy America would be a better America. I believe by adopting these principles the alleged purpose as advertised by CAI to build vibrant and healthy communities could be achieved.



'via Blog this'

Vivian was right about collections--and the California Supreme court agrees with her

Once the members voted in the collection agreement that the board made with Harrison (Vial Fotherhaming law firm), members signed away many of their rights. One of those rights is to pay our association directly after you get behind if the debt has been turned over to the law firm. Vivian Kuntz did a lot of work on this and researched it extensively.

She wrote up a great paper for the members sot hey could be informed, but many members did not see it. One of the things that bothered her about this collection agreement was that a member who is behind cannot even talk to the board or give them money or try to catch up little by little but has to go through the attorney. Recently one couple in Hideaway owed a little over $400 in back dues--they were trying to work with the board and the board refused to work with them (this is in the last few months--but we are withholding names for privacy's sake). After being sent to the attorney, they received a letter demanding around $1500! Part of the cost was an accounting error on the part of the board and the rest was attorney's fees!

Just exactly what Vivian thought could go wrong did! Now the couple is entangled in a legal battle. And why? We are neighbors and they don't treat each other this way--not true neighbors, close neighbors, caring neighbors. Sigh.

In any case, California is taking steps to protect their homeowners from aggressive and inherently unfair collection practices--and hopefully that will come to Utah too--even if our board doesn't watch out for members and use common sense... hopefully we can get some legislative protections in. Here are some of the things California is now dosing for homeowners in associations:

1. homeowners can make assessment payments DIRECTLY to the board – not to the debt collector
2. assessment payments can be made at any point during the collection process, even if the debt collector has recorded an assessment lien and/or Notice of Default or has sued for a judicial foreclosure
3. payments to the association do NOT have to include collection costs levied by the debt collector
4. payments SHALL be applied according to existing state law, that is: to assessments ONLY until paid in FULL and only afterwards to any legitimate collection costs

Read about it here: California Home Law Institute

and at the Justiica Site

After you read this, you will understand that Vivian was trying to protect oweners with fairness and reasonable thinking--don't you wished you'd listened to her?

So glad we have reasonable board members

I felt so sorry for this guy in his HOA--like Steve C says--we're only one election away from this!

Read about this old guy who got so fed up that he shot the secretary!!!! they took away his house over $640--true story!

Read about it here http://www.legalwritingpro.com/pdf/guberman-hoa

That shift has come at a price.Most HOA board members,who
are volunteers, fashion themselves as community representatives
or homeowner advocates. But a few board members are
hungry for power, their rule subject only to term limits, recall, or
rejection at the next ballot box. Corruption can be as unbridled
in HOAs as in big-city politics. HOA board members have been
caught fixing their own elections, finagling kickbacks for themselves
from contractors, and using their newfound authority to
settle scores against neighbors. Some residents claim, for example,
that after they’ve protested HOA policies at board meetings,
they’ve been slapped with citations for obscure rule violations,
such as putting their trash out on the wrong day or failing to
remove weeds around a tree.“The problem with HOAs is that it’s
a kangaroo court that resolves these conflicts,” said Evan
McKenzie, a University of Illinois at Chicago political science
professor and the author of Privatopia:Homeowner Associations
and the Rise of Residential Private

'via Blog this'