Tag: democracy

Az & TX legislators criticized for failures to support homeowner rights in HOAs

I let the Arizona Legislature know that advocates are not as stupid as they would like to believe (See Observations on AZ legislative treatment of HOA reform bills We know what is going on and has been happening for years with respect to legislative support for private government HOA regimes. HOAs that deny homeowners their rights and freedoms while imposing harsh penalties only on the members and not on the HOA boards.

The attitude of the legislatures appears to be: The HOA must survive at all costs – it’s a matter of national and state security so constitutional protections be damned.

A leading Texas advocate has added to this exposure of legislative cooperation, support, and coercion to permit HOAs to rule without accountability. Read her Open letter.

There are 4 main constitutional issues that are continually ignored by the legislatures: clean elections procedures; due process and the equal application of the laws; ‘consent to agree’ fallacy; and that the Constitution is only about ‘no contract interference.’ These issues must be addressed and reforms instituted, but they are not addressed because the legislators well know that they are defending the indefensible if they speak out.

It falls to the true advocates for HOA reform to have the courage to speak out about the reality of the HOA legal concept. They need to set the record straight about legislation supported and promoted by the so called “stakeholders”, the vendors (read as HOA attorneys and managers) who make money from the unrepresented and truly affected class, the private property owners, the homeowners.

Send a message to your state legislature.

Creating dysfunctional communities through HOAs

The current (Feb. 18, 2013) slogan on the Arizona CAI chapter website reads, “Creating Better Communities Through HOA’s”.  I find this statement to be entirely incredulous!  It dismisses the reality of an authoritarian regime that denies due process and the equal protection of the laws to homeowners. It asserts that kangaroo courts; the absence of fair elections processes; and a consent to the waiver and surrender of rights by the by simple filing of CC&Rs with the county without explicit, written agreement by homeowners all create better communities.

Such an attitude by pro-HOA lobbyist organizations is the primary cause that creates not better communities, but dysfunctional communities.  And from attorneys who proclaim to be experts on HOAs, but who clearly are ignorant of constitutional law.  (A leader of the AZ chapter is now president of CAI’s “best and brightest” lawyers group, CCAL). With the rapid growth of HOAs across the country, supported and encouraged by the state legislatures in all states, the HOA legal structure reflects values of the greater dysfunctional society that is becoming The New America of HOA-Land. 

The values, philosophies and standards of democracy set forth in America’s organic law — the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Articles of Confederation and The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 — are rapidly becoming a myth, but are still being taught in our public schools and misleading the people of America. 

Our elected representatives must restore our communities and society to those fundamental principles supporting our democratic system.  And that can be now with those HOA reforms bills now before your state legislature.

Returning to fundamental American principles, but where are the HOAs?

There are 2 bills before the Arizona legislature this session.  HB 2467 will require HS grads to sign a pledge of allegiance as a requirement for graduation. SB1212 will require public school education in American organic law.  The U.S. Code defines the organic laws of the United States to include the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance, and the U.S. Constitution. (US Statutes At Large, 1789 –1875, Vol. 18, Part I, Revised Statutes (43rd Congress, 1st session), p. v and vi).

I strongly believe that such organic law education should be a required course at all community colleges as well, open to the public on a class by class basis.  Maybe then the private government HOA regimes will better understand how HOAs repudiate fundamental American principles.  Maybe then HOA management companies, and HOA attorneys,  will begin to understand their   disgraceful attitudes and comments. Such a disgraceful attitude was exemplified by property manager David Henderson of Red Mountain Management (Arizona), who said in response to a death threat against an HOA member by a director, “This is a private association issue.” (Death threats for woman feeding feral cats in Mesa).

The director urged other board members to ”Just shoot her and put her out her misery,” speaking about a repeated HOA “offender.”   I cannot imagine a public official daring to make such a statement to other agency members.

The organic laws of HOA-Land are replacing the organic laws of the US as applied to local government. (See Legislative protection of HOAs: replacing US organic law with HOA organic law).

 

HB2467

Beginning in the 2013‑2014 school year, In addition to fulfilling the course of study and assessment requirements prescribed in this chapter, before a pupil is allowed to graduate from a public high school in this state, the principal or head teacher of the school shall verify in writing that the pupil has recited the following oath:

 

I, _________, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge these duties; So help me God.

 

SB1212

The instruction on the Constitution of the United States and American institutions and ideals shall be given in accordance with the state course of study for at least one year of the common school grades and in each year of the high school grades, and shall include instruction on the founding principles of the United States, the declaration of independence and the bill of rights.

legislative support for HOA regimes has created a dysfunctional society

“The times, they are a changin”

When state legislators allow private government HOAs to be unaccountable to state laws as required by all other government entities, then an attitude that anything goes develops. Why? Because there are no penalties to serve as a check and balance on HOA activities.  It creates a lawless attitude of, “Go for it, what do you have to lose?”   It creates a dysfunctional society.

 It is commonly known that state legislators have a blind adherence to the false belief that HOAs do no wrong, and that there is no need for HOA penalties to serve as detriments to intentional and willful violations of the laws.   State legislators continue to believe that homeowners are openly and fully informed when accepting a deed binding them to an unsigned contract; and that the HOA and its special interest attorney national organization are acting in good faith.  

State legislators continue to believe that the HOAs and their hired hands, the management firms and attorneys, will comply with both the letter and intent of state laws, rather than seeking loopholes for income producing court cases. Such dogmatic beliefs have created a dysfunctional society operating outside constitutional government under a second set of laws just for HOA subdivisions.

 And we know where this can and has led to:  financial and emotional stress and even deaths attributed to the enforcement of HOA rules uber alles (German for “above all”). The latest shocking incident, after the Trayvon Martin incident (HOA liability: respondeat superior and agents as in Trayvon case), is the incident reported in the Sun-Sentinel article, “Parking at home shouldn’t bring tow — or death.”

Ask yourself why do towing companies roam the streets towing cars in private communities without obeying the laws, or without getting a complaint from the HOA? BECAUSE they can and because the HOA really doesn’t care — its rules are being enforced by someone else. And there are no penalties against HOA boards violating their own governing documents. The HOA is the sovereign, and it can do no wrong!

 However, there is hope. An indication of a return to sanity comes from the Republican Party’s realization that its obsessive adherence to dogmatic principles of laissez-faire corporatism has been a failure. (HOAs are a prime example of corporatism in operation in America).  Republicans are beginning to think in terms of less dogma but a more principled “protecting private property,”  always a fundamental principle of this country.  It stands in opposition to socialist states operating for the benefit of the corporation and not for the rights of the people.

 State legislators should take heed. They have created a dysfunctional society with their unreasonable and irrational support of authoritarian HOA regimes.  It’s well beyond time for an awakening, enlightenment, in their views of authoritarian HOA private regimes.

In a democracy approaching corporatism, HOAs are iconic

America is still a democracy, I hope, and firmly in support of the capitalistic economy philosophy – people are  free to do as they please.  This freedom rejects government restraint and relies on the competing self-interests of the people.  In simple terms, “what’s good for business is good for the country.”

But, is America going off the deep end of capitalism toward fascism?  “Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”  So said Benito Mussolini, the founder of modern fascism in 1922 Italy.   How much of a democracy can exist under a fascist system that places government power in the hands of corporations?  Just look at the fantastic wisdom of the US Supreme Court in its United decision that corporations are people and can make campaign contributions.  And how about its Kelo decision where the court redefined “government use” as “government purpose” and took away a person’s home for private corporation development.

And then there’s this thing called a planned community, with its corporate form of private government commonly known as a homeowners association.  Where law firms and property management corporations have extreme influence or almost complete control of the HOA. Where the legal structure and pro-HOA statutes favor the corporation government over the rights, freedoms, privileges and immunities of the people.

In a democracy, how could this come to be?  In a democracy the answer must lie in the will of the people that either supported this evolution, or idly stood by and did nothing.  Mayer wrote (They Thought They Were Free), speaking of the Nazi take-over of democratic pre-war Germany,  that the “good” Germans went along “in the usual sincerity that required them only to abandon one principle after another, to throw away, little by little, all that was good.”  In America today, Rev. Jim Wallis wrote in 2010 (Rediscovering Values), “What has been deliberately and carefully made ‘socially acceptable’ was, not too long ago, thought to be irresponsible – both financially and morally.”

It was the will of the people, the voice of the majority that spoke and elected our representatives:  the President, Congressmen, and state legislators and governors.  And it is the voice of the people to accept HOAs in spite of its rejection of our founding principles in favor of corporatism, with its self-interest motivations for profits and property values. And we have become true believers in that “what’s good for the HOA is good for the member-owners.”  Or, has the voice of the people become the voice of the corporations?

American founding principles stand at odds with the self-serving HOA corporatism of the HOA-state objectives, which prevail over our founding principles.  This is the fundamental issue to be resolved!  And it cannot be resolved without legislation that addresses violations of our founding principles as contained in American organic law – the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Articles of Confederation and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. 

In a democracy, the people must act to reject corporatism/fascism and demand conformity with American principles of democratic government. But, that first requires the election and enlightenment of representatives who understand the need to return to our founding principles.