Jan Jackson
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Homeowners: Stand Up To Be Counted
#5564 - 06/25/05 07:17 PM
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A old friend sent me a copy of a poem today. It so moved me that I was prompted to write the following letter to the editor of my favorite local newspaper. Here it is (see below).
Jan
To: The Mountain Jackpot ( Subject: Mountain Jackpot letter to the editor
From: Jan Jackson ( <a href="mailto:wiwleb@netzero.com">mjackpot@concentric.net">mjackpot@concentric.net</a> )
Subject: Mountain Jackpot letter to the editor
From: Jan Jackson ( <a href="mailto:wiwleb@netzero.com )
June 25, 2005
Editor,
"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of Nature and of Natures God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation..." (excerpt from our Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress in Philadephia on July 4, 1776)
With another celebration of Independence Day (the Fourth of July, 2005) almost upon us, perhaps the following poem might remind the city-minded folks around us in Teller County just where their freedoms came from (country-minded people here in Teller have always known).
Independence Day is not about barbecues or parades or having fun. Or the right for the wealthy and politically powerful among us to turn small, peaceful, country towns into crime-ridden cities just to make themselves more wealthy and powerful. Or the right for the wealthy and politically powerful among us to take private property to build roads that are popularly called "Super Slabs" that will just make them more wealthy and powerful. Or the right for the wealthy and politically powerful among us to force us all to live in little dictatorships called homeowners associations, just so they can become more wealthy and powerful. Or for any American's right to burn our American flag.
Independence Day is about good and honorable men fighting and dying for what they all believed in -- our Constitutional freedoms and liberties. So, here's a little poem that should remind the city-minded folks what Independence Day was and is really all about. It brought tears to my eyes. It also urges this old lady to stand and say, in a quiet but determined voice, as did the old soldier in the poem: "There is but one shot in this gun. And now it's time for you to decide. Which one of you who seeks to become more wealthy and politically powerful by taking our freedoms and liberties away from us is willing to stand and die for what YOU believe in?"
Jan Jackson
---
The Battle of the Flag
It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the lawyer,
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
A protest raged on a courthouse lawn,
Round a makeshift stage they charged on,
Fifteen hundred or more they say,
Had come to burn a Flag that day.
A boy held up the folded Flag,
Cursed it, and called it a dirty rag.
An old man pushed through the angry crowd,
With a rusty shotgun shouldered proud.
His uniform jacket was old and tight,
He had polished each button, shiny and bright.
He crossed that stage with a soldier's grace,
Until he and the boy stood face to face.
"Freedom of speech", the old man said,
Is worth dying for, good men are dead,
So you can stand on this courthouse lawn,
And talk us down from dusk to dawn,
But before any Flag gets burned today,
This old man is going to have his say!!
My father died on a foreign shore,
In a war they said would end all war.
But Tommy and I wasn't even full grown,
Before we fought in a war of our own.
And Tommy died on Iwo Jima's beach,
In the shadow of a hill he couldn't quite reach,
Where five good men raised this flag so high,
That the whole world could see it fly.
I got this bum leg that I still drag,
Fighting for this same old flag.
Now there's but one shot in this old gun,
So now it's time to decide which one,
Which one of you will follow our lead,
To stand and die for what you believe?
For as sure as there is a rising sun,
You'll burn in Hell 'fore this flag burns, son.
Now this riot never came to pass.
The crowd got quiet and that can of gas,
Got set aside as they walked away,
To talk about what they had heard this day.
And the boy who had called it a "dirty rag",
Handed the old soldier the folded Flag.
So the battle of the flag this day was won
By a tired old soldier with a rusty gun,
Who for one last time, had to show to some,
This flag may fade,
Yet these colors don't run.
--Author Unknown
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Jan Jackson
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AHRC User
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Reged: 01/30/05
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Loc: Colorado
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Here's another way HOA homeowners are standing up to be counted. Get your own radio show! (see below) 
I've known Shu Bartholomew for years. She's one of the most dedicated-to-the-HOA-cause ladies I've ever met. Tireless and unstoppable.
Jan
From : "Shu Bartholomew" <shu1@cox.net>
To : "On The Commons" <onthecommons@cox.net>
Subject : [hoanet] On The Commons with Michael Shaw July 30, 2005
Date : Thu, 28 Jul 2005 12:50:36 -0400
On The Commons is a weekly radio show dedicated to discussing the many issues surrounding mandatory homeowner associations, the fastest growing form of residential housing in the nation.
Sometimes we tend to only see the trees and we miss the forest entirely. For those of us concerned primarily with the issues surrounding mandatory membership homeowners associations, we have been focusing on a single tree and its branches, fruits and leaves, and for the most part ignoring the forest that surrounds it along with the impact it has on us.
I was invited to speak about homeowner associations at the Freedom 21 conference in Reno, Nevada earlier this month. The national conference is sponsored annually by eight organizations with the underlying mission of protecting property and individual rights and maintaining personal autonomy. It was a very intense and extremely informative three days and an experience I am grateful to have had. The one thing that struck me was how neatly mandatory membership associations fit into the bigger picture being presented by the speakers, all explaining and sharing their knowledge and expertise in various aspects of rights being eroded under the guise of sustainability.
Starting this Saturday and in the weeks and months to come, you will be hearing more about the conference and will get an opportunity to meet some of the speakers, right here On The Commons.
On The Commons this week is Michael Shaw. The multi talented Michael is a founding member and director of Freedom 21 Santa Cruz, www.Freedom21SantaCuz.net , an organization dedicated to the ideals of liberty. Please tune in to On The Commons this Saturday, July 30, 2005. We will talk about "Sustainable Development", and the role it will play in eliminating private property rights and personal and family autonomy. You won't want to miss it.
On The Commons is broadcast every Saturday from 2-3 PM ET on WEBR Fairfax Radio. In the Northern Virginia area, On The Commons can be heard on Cox Cable, Channel 37 (channel 7 without a box) and Comcast channel 27, live on http://www.fcac.org/webcasting/webcast.htm and on www.onthecommons.com soon after. The archives are at http://shows.onthecommons.com
I look forward to meeting you On The Commons every week for a discussion about the issues that hit you closest to home.
Shu Bartholomew
Host and producer
On The Commons is produced by OTC Multimedia Productions
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Jan Jackson
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AHRC User
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Post deleted.
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Jan Jackson
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AHRC User
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Reged: 01/30/05
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Quote:
This post is on the subject of foreclosures in HOAs. Foreclosures that, throughout our nation, often appear to be generated solely by power-and-money-seeking HOA boards of directors and their attorneys.
This story, however (see below) appears to be about an irresponsible (knowingly or unknowingly) HOA homeowner who it appears could have easily paid all of her bills (including her HOA assessments and fines) if she had wanted to.
Lesson learned: Whether you live in an HOA or not, behave responsibly -- socially, financially, and ecologically.
Here's the story.
Jan
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050804/COLUMNIST36/508040466&Page=2
Home is where the bills are; ignoring them cost family a house
Funny how people read news stories so differently.
A front page story in the Herald-Tribune on Wednesday told how a nurse and her kids are losing their Venice home, because of $1,380 in unpaid fees owed to her homeowners association.
Judging by some readers who contacted this newspaper, and by some spirited water-cooler debate in the newsroom, there are at least two very different takes on this.
One is that hard-working but overburdened divorced mother Karin Healy made a few big mistakes in getting behind in paying some bills, but taking her house as the remedy for such a small debt is unconscionable.
To get the money owed after a couple of years of lesser attempts, her homeowners association went to court and foreclosed on her house.
There are facts in some dispute about whether she received all the notice she was entitled to about that foreclosure. But then again, Healy admits she had been ignoring much of her mail and leaving bills unopened. And the clear fact is that Healy long ignored the association debt and did not pay.
Finally her home was sold in an auction at the courthouse to pay the debt. With legal fees and such, it had grown to more than $6,000.
Worse for her, though, there were only two bidders and they didn't bid high. The buyer got the house for $11,000 plus the cost of satisfying the $137,000 owed on the mortgage. The market value of the house would appear to be twice that, and maybe more.
That low auction sale price leaves approximately nothing for Healy and her kids. And had she just sold the house herself, it appears she had enough equity to pocket more than $100,000, or to pay any other debts.
That's a terrible injustice, some people are saying.
But others I heard from are saying it was just astoundingly irresponsible of Healy, and that she brought this on herself despite having many months to find a better option than ignoring inconvenient bills.
They have a strong argument. And the more I learn of the woman's financial history, the stronger that argument gets.
Dan Lobeck, a local lawyer I called because he is not connected with this case but has a law firm that represents about 500 condo and homeowners associations, said his staff got curious and did some checking on Wednesday.
Healy has a history going back a few years, that I know of, of not paying all her bills, but not because there was no way to do so.
Healy had a car repossessed for not making the payments. And Lobeck pointed out federal court records that show she sought bankruptcy protection a few years ago, but was denied. Why? Because the $3,824 monthly paycheck she listed more than covered her itemized monthly bills, right down to her dry cleaning. And the debts she listed were quite modest.
Her mortgage company also started foreclosure a few years ago. But when so prodded, Healy caught up on those payments.
Lobeck says any claim that Healy was unaware of the possible dire consequences of not paying her association fees seem absurd given that this was actually the second time the association started foreclosure actions on her house. The previous time, Healy escaped it by finally paying up.
The thing is, she had enough equity in her house to have decent options. What seems to be lacking is enough sense of urgency about paying bills.
Well, life gets complicated and demanding. For my part, I'm still able to feel sorry for any family with an overwhelmed single head of household who works hard but perhaps lacks basic financial sense.
So I have one suggestion: Can't the state make one tweak to those courthouse auction laws?
If any foreclosure auction attracts only extreme low-ball bidders, and the sale goes for less than, say, 70 percent of market value as listed by the tax appraiser, how about requiring something like a week's delay and more legal ads to seek higher bids?
Laws designed to help homeowners associations collect what they are rightly owed need not be totally indifferent to the debtor. Sure, Healy's plight might be her own fault. But our laws often help major corporations that are equally faulty in their financial planning. The state shouldn't make things any worse for someone like Healy than we have to.
---
Tom Lyons can be contacted at tom.lyons@heraldtribune.com or (941) 957-5367.
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Jan Jackson
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This article about a Colorado HOA sounds like local government is trying to stick their money fingers into private contract (the HOA) matters.
Jan
www.sacbee.com/content/community_news/el_dorado/story/13345656p-14187520c.html
Neighborhood split over debris cleanup
Under a new law, Gold River groups must either pick up bulky trash or let the county do it.
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Jan
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newbie
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Reged: 06/09/02
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"HOAs are a socialist form of governance..."
Amen to THAT! See more below (especially the bolded text).
Jan
The Future: The United HOAs Of Arizona?
By George Staropoli
I am happy to see a new crop of political scientists take on the battle against private HOA governments. [Privatized Neighborhoods: The Future We Want?, July 15 issue]
First, as referenced in the commentary, HOAs are a socialist form of governance, if not a communal form. HOAs seek "the most good for the most people," an accepted doctrine by Jeremy Bentham and Vilfredo Pareto, both concerned with the efficiency and productivity of government and not with democratic principles. When this motto becomes the overriding justification for decisions, with the relegation of the fundamental American principles of freedom and individual rights to lesser importance, we have socialism.
One can also argue HOAs are "communal," as in community property rights, when neighbors can dictate by a vote what a person can or cannot do with his private property without consent . It's like being married to your neighbors.
Second is the constitutional question raised by the creation of private governments, or at least the state's permission to create them, without any objection or oversight . Can a legislature permit private contracts that establish private governments, with mandatory membership and compulsory taxes that regulate and control the people within a territorial boundary (a definition of civil government), without requiring that these private governments fall under the Bill of Rights and subject to the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment?
This failure to protect homeowner rights with a simple inclusion within the subdivision declaration is inexcusable. This failure is tantamount to allowing private groups to operate outside the duties, responsibilities, obligations and citizen protections of municipal law. It permits the willful -- and it is willful -- circumvention of the American system of government: just draw up a governance document, call it an HOA and file it with the county clerk. This is very disturbing, especially when state agencies are accountable to the people, but HOAs are exempt. Why?
Because, through the existing law of servitudes and the mechanism of constructive notice, a homebuyer does not need to sign any documents that contain explicit waivers of his rights and freedoms. This is not a proper standard: This level of due process notice does not meet the standards as required in other areas for a loss of fundamental rights that require explicit agreement. That is, a fully informed, negotiated and voluntarily signed agreement. None of the HOA disclosure documents put the buyer on notice as to these waivers or to the implications and consequences of living in an HOA. The average person's expectations of community governance are totally foreign in the private HOA governance based on maintaining property rights.
The answer to the question posed in the commentary title is a resounding NO! The future cannot continue the trend to more and more private communities spreading across the state or the country. If the trend were allowed to continue, then Arizona must undergo a change of name to The United HOAs of Arizona. All those cherished individual rights, spoken so highly of even today, will be gone and replaced by maintaining property values. The Legislature must not let this happen.
---
George K. Staropoli is founder of Citizens for Constitutional Local Government based in Scottsdale. He is an Arizona resident who has been active as a homeowners rights advocate since April 2000. The group's Web site is www.starman.com/hoa
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Jan Jackson
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http://www.ahrc.com/new/index.php/src/tools/sub/comments/action/view/mediaid/2177/mediadb/media
Colorado Senate Bill 100 vs CAI attorneys
What one CAI law firm says about SB05-100
April 22, 2005
By Jan Jackson
Colorado Homeowner Association News
No rest for the weary homeowners who live in Colorado's homeowners associations (HOAs). The ink has hardly dried on Governor Owens signature on Senate Bill 100, and the Community Associations Institute attorneys are already chomping at the power-and-money bit ! (see story below)
Samuel Adams was right when he said, "It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."
Jan
Lawsuit a shock to board members
A resident in Westchase is suing over a $100 "welcome documents package fee" he says he had paid before.
By STEPHANIE HAYES,
Times Staff Writer
Published December 11, 2005
WESTCHASE - Board members stared blankly as a bomb dropped - they were being sued, and nobody knew it.
At a Westchase Community Association meeting Thursday night, World of Westchase magazine editor Chris Barrett mentioned, in passing, a small claims lawsuit against the community. It was news to the board.
"I'm a little bit concerned," said board member Mary Griffin, who wondered why Westchase's lawyer Steve Mezer hadn't told anyone about it.
The board didn't know that homeowner Gregory Grant filed a suit in October. They didn't know the case has already gone through a pretrial conference and court-ordered mediation with a lawyer from Bush Ross, P.A., the firm Mezer works for.
"The normal procedure has been that they advise us of what's going on and how the board wants to proceed," board president Daryl Manning said Friday. "In this instance, if they did advise us, none of us were aware."
Mezer didn't return a call Friday afternoon.
Grant, who has lived in Westchase for eight years, moved from one Westchase neighborhood to another - from Glenfield to the Fords - in 2004. Westchase charges a "welcome documents package fee" of $100 to new homeowners.
Grant was not new to Westchase and already had his deed restriction documents.
"My claim is only for $100," Grant said Friday. "I'm not suing for $100 plus my time and interest and all that kind of stuff. I'm just basically saying I don't have to pay this fee. I don't think it's fair." [Being fair... Seeking justice... That's what living in freedom is all about.
The board thought otherwise. Manning said it's procedural that everyone who buys a house in Westchase pay the fee. The board turned down Grant's request. That was the last they heard of the case, until now.
Grant said mediation went nowhere, and he's waiting for a trial to start.
Friday, Manning was trying to find out why the association was left out of the loop.
Westchase lawyers are paid by the hour from a legal portion of Westchase's tax-paid operating budget, Manning said. [<<HOWLIN' LAFFIN>> Talk about poetic justice !!]
---
- Stephanie Hayes can be reached at 813 269-5303 or shayes@sptimes.com
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Jan Jackson
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Embezzlement by Presidents of HOA BoDs (boards of directors) is apparently widespread. The below case is in Oklahoma but through AHRC (the American Homeowners Resource Center) and other publications, I have consistently read about such HOA criminal activity over the last year or so. In fact, just in my area alone, within 10 miles of my own HOA, there have been two such embezzlement cases by BoD Presidents.
HOA homeowners should be inspecting their HOA's records -- ALL of them -- regularly, especially their financial records. And they should examine those financial records in DETAIL. The HOA embezzlers haven't yet become professional thieves, it appears, so they are leaving trails a mile wide. In time, however, they will learn from others' mistakes and become harder to catch.
Jan
Published: December 15, 2005 12:00 am
Homeowners group president charged with embezzlement
The Norman Transcript
Transcript Staff
An Oklahoma City woman and president of the Briarwood Homeowners Association was charged Tuesday in Cleveland County District Court with embezzling more than $9,000 from fellow homeowners.
Jade Renne Gilbert, 34, was charged with one felony count of embezzlement, court records show.
According to an affidavit, the reporting party and immediate past president of the Briarwood Homeowners Association called a meeting of association members to vote Gilbert out of office and "reclaim the books" to have records audited.
Association members identified $9,881 worth of unauthorized expenditures, according to the reports.
Gilbert's attorney, at Gilbert's police interview, said the woman "wants to confess, make restitution and put this behind her," according to the affidavit.
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