The Poudre Overlook HOA held it’s Annual “Homeowner’s” Meeting on December 14, 2022. It wasn’t anything more than a Regular Board Meeting, strictly run by Director Ballweber with an agenda that was not open to actual homeowners. In fact, they were essentially given a grand total of 2 minutes – and in fact, never even got to vote on the Budget. It was simply declared as passed!
Most of the time was filibustered by a very long presentation by Director Jones who was trying to convince the audience that inflation is really 16-20%, that fuel prices are bound to go straight up, and we had better put our reserves into gold and silver because . . . a series of complicated charts. He eventually withdrew his proposal after significant pushback from homeowners.
Perhaps the most lively part of the evening was the election. Essentially, with 3 seats open, nominations initially got blank stares from the room. And, given the fact that literally everyone avoided my wife and I by sitting TWO FULL ROWS away (we were in essentially an open section while everyone jammed into the remaining seats), it was pretty obvious that the point of the meeting was literally to try to figure out who was brave enough to keep me from being re-elected by simply putting their hand in the air.
Unsurprisingly, Mr. Flanary is now Director Flanary. But, it may be surprising to many of you, I voted for him. It’s time for the puppetmaster to come out from the shadows and step into a voting role – and be in a position of accountability where is obliged to follow policies and rules. And, as I’ve said before, we agree far more than perhaps most people would anticipate.
The real surprise of the evening was Mr. John Tunna nominating himself for the Board. And, he was swept in with cheers.
While I intended to offer a motion to limit proxy solicitation and hoarding, Director Ballweber rushed the end of the meeting, which she has at every single meeting since she took power. The lack of a vote for a budget is troubling, but the fact that we are now handing out gift cards to members without any system, and hiring homeowners as contractors is leading us into a new era. Perhaps it will work, but good intentions should be matched with good practices. I hope we develop some.