VOTE "NO" ON THE DAVIS GANG

November 02, 2002

By Peter Amherst
Copyright AHRC News Services

History is replete with individuals who have robbed, maimed, and killed in order to get other peoples' land, homes and possessions. Alexander the Great (more aptly named Alexander the Greedy), Genghis Khan, Hitler, Stalin, Carnegie, Rockefeller – the list stretches on in age after age, country after country.

Unfortunately, this is not just a thing of the past. It is very much alive and well today. Oil companies kill villagers in Nigeria who try to stop the oil giants from taking their homes and land. Thousands are massacred in such diverse areas as East Timor, Bosnia, Rwanda, the Congo.

However, oppression and theft can take other forms. But oppression and theft is oppression and theft no matter what form it takes.

Today, because the oppressors and thieves often have control of the major means of public persuasion, they can sometimes put mental blinders on large numbers of people, so that the public does not see what is really going on. Pasting them with toothy smiles, and filling their mouths with nice, munchy sound bites, their public relations minions can create glowing images that hide the stark truth.

Take California – that land of 36 million where image is everything. Gray Davis has spent $65 million to create the false image that he is a friend of the people. The reality is very different.

Unbeknownst to many, over the last 30 years, vast swaths of land have been commandeered all across the Golden State so that a person's prized possession – his/her home – can be turned into a gold mine for powerful legal and commercial interests. These are comfortably – but deceptively – called homeowner associations. They are more accurately described as managed housing organizations (MHO's), where your life, home and pocketbook are mercilessly robbed from you by unscrupulous lawyers and managers.

Over 6 million Californians have now been caught in the MHO prisons, and more and more are beginning to realize the consequences. Fraudulent foreclosures by lawyers for trumped up legal fees are rising dramatically. In many cases, lawyers buy these foreclosed homes for scant pennies on the dollar. An iron clad system of regimented rules in MHOs ensures a swelling cash flow from the penalty fees imposed for the smallest infraction. As an example, speak to the seniors at Desert Springs Country Club, who have been fighting outright fraud in their MHO for years.

The developer sought to make membership in his club mandatory even though the CCR's said nothing about it. When 2 courts threw this out, he hired somebody to live in the MHO in order to take over the board, and change the CCR's. Recently, another court threw this out, but the lawyers are still trying to collect the membership fees.

The key architect of all this is the man who is asking you to give him a second term as governor – Gray Davis. He was the one who created the Davis Stirling Act in 1985 at the behest of the managed housing industry, led by the lead lobbyist, CAI (Community Associations Institute – in reality, a voracious group of MHO lawyers). This Act, among many disastrous provisions, gave MHOs the power to foreclose, without any judicial review, on citizens' homes for even the smallest of unpaid dues.

Many citizens have Davis to thank for being made homeless because of this. FOX News labeled him as the least popular candidate in the entire nation. He has sold the peoples' patrimony for $65 million to all the special interests in the state.

But the appetite of these voracious vendors (lawyers, managers etc.) is never satisfied. For example, in the current legislative session in Sacramento, Lou Correa fought tooth and nail to pass a bill, AB 555, that would give monopoly power to his CAI friends in the managing of MHOs. This means that homeowners will pay even more for the managing of their MHO. He was supported by Dutra in the assembly.

In the senate, Speier worked slyly behind the scenes to get the law passed. Speier is also the one who, as head of the insurance committee in the Senate, is supposed to protect homeowners. Instead, she has repeatedly refused to investigate the MHO insurance scam where insurance is used to rob people of their homes, and misuses her position to protect insurance companies and the CAI lawyers.

But AB 555 was not the only bill.

Christine Kehoe sponsored another one, AB 2289, that gave a 20% increase to lawyers in the interest rate that they can charge to homeowners, in violation of the state constitution.

Lockyer, the attorney general and Davis's buddy, has repeatedly refused to investigate scams in MHOs. Instead, he collects multi-million dollar settlements that go to furnish opulent offices. The victims are left to their own meager devices.

November 5 is just around the corner, and homeowners have one tiny weapon in their arsenal – their vote. It is vitally important to cast that vote. If enough people do so, the gang can be thrown out.

So AHRC asks you vote NO on Davis, Correa, Dutra, Speier, Kehoe, Lockyer. They have sold out peoples' homes. It is as simple as that.