At the Poudre Overlook HOA Annual Meeting on December 14, 2022, Treasurer Clay Jones gave a long presentation to try to convince homeowners to turn the Association’s Reserves into Gold Coins and Bullion. He had thus far avoided signing the required Conflict of Interest Policy (a violation of our governing documents) for 7 months in spite of working at local shop that sold the products he was advocating. And, while his pitch was suspect, it would be a few weeks before he revealed to other Board members that his advocacy was based upon sources and influence at the heart of the Qanon Conspiracy movement.
The spot price for an ounce of gold was $1,818.75 on the day of the meeting. And, Director Jones insisted that due to the imminent collapse of the US currency (and economy), the price of gold was poised to rise significantly and indefinitely. A proverbial and literal golden opportunity as he saw it. And, we were fools if we didn’t follow his advice.
It was true that after reaching a high of over $2,045 in March of 2022, the price had dipped significantly by November of 2022. It had reached a low of $1,630 on November 3, which was a solid 20% below that peak 8 months earlier. But, just a month later, when the meeting was being held, the price had already climbed back half of that dip.
But, in spite of a significantly negative reception to the idea at the Annual Homeowner’s Meeting, Director Jones continued his Qanon-driven advocacy behind the scenes in an email thread to Director Mowery and the rest of the Board in advance of the January 10, 2023 meeting where he intended to advocate for reconsideration of the investment sales pitch, once again.
And, once again, at the January 10 meeting, the price had risen steeply since December 14, which he seized upon to justify his doom and gloom pitch. By the January 25 meeting, he was once again gloating during the meeting about how right he was about the increase in price. Turns out that day coincided with the most recent peak at $1,959. But, this is where the Bull run ended, and the Bears took over the market.
As of Friday February 24, 2023, just 72 days after the attempt to convert our Reserves into gold coins, the price dropped below the level on December 14 – which with the cost of the transaction, would have been an overall bust – while we could be earning over 3% in a simple savings account.
Of course, markets go up and down, and looking back 6 months, perhaps it looks equal to that Savings account with a gain of 3.21%. But, once again, if we extend out to one year, we see that we are back in negative territory with the price down 3.69% for the 1 year period.
Where will the market go in 2023?
Well, if we zoom out to the view of the past 10+ years, we can see that the price has been on a plateau since the beginning of the Pandemic – significantly higher than the middle of the last decade, but not too much higher than even 10 years before. In other words, it’s a commodity that goes up and down in relation to many economic and political factors, many of which are fear-driven.
We can agree that perhaps gold outperformed other investment opportunities for periods of time over this longer span, but it completely depends on the timing and the costs of the transactions. This is risky business, to say the least.
So, this raises questions about why Poudre Overlook continues to support having a Treasurer who wants to engage in speculative investing with our collective money. It he’s willing to take such risks citing Qanon as his advisory council while simultaneously entering into Conflict of Interest territory without out following our policies, why do homeowners tolerate such irresponsible displays of fiduciary duty?
I believe the choices are indifference, ignorance, or philosophical alignment.
The only other Treasurer POHOA has had since 2019 is Ms. Jen Hutchinson. And, she recently won a no-bid contract that was given without a full board vote in December of 2022 to manage the Quickbooks account and prepare our taxes. Like Director Jones, she is not shy about her Republican credentials. The question is whether she is succumbing to the extremist point of view advocated by Qanon conspiracy theorists who are now advocating for civil war, book bans, and targeting the LGBTQ community.
You’d think that someone in the Poudre Overlook community of homeowners would stand up and speak up about this, but thus far, there’s no emergent voice. It appears we are going to have to suffer significant losses before anyone will do anything about these practices. With Directors Jones, Ballweber, and Flanary all enjoying 2-3 year terms, it would take a Removal Petition to turn this around in the short term, which seems unlikely.
Of course, there’s always the hope that Director Jones recognizes that Qanon is an extremist conspiracy theory and cult, and disavows. But, when given the opportunity by email, his response was a fairly defiant “go ahead and prove it wrong” when referring to his Qanon YouTube video source.