Quote from Andy Mowery on December 12, 2022, 3:43 pm

After a tumultuous 2022 at Poudre Overlook HOA, we need to return our HOA to an agenda that focuses on the basic services and needs of a simple group of 87 single-family homes.

I believe we need to focus on the following:

• Proxy Reform: Bar Solicitation and Hoarding
• Agenda Reform: Allow Homeowners to Add to the Agenda of Meetings
• Timely Mowing of Out-lots and Weed Mitigation
• Timely Snow Removal from Streets and Sidewalks
• Timely Notice and Reasonable Scheduling of Meetings
• Timely Posting of Financial Documents
• Timely and Free Response to Document Requests for Transparency
• Updating POLICIES (not Bylaws/CCRs) to Reflect Community Values and Be Enforceable
• Preservation of all Board Communications (Transparent to Homeowners)
• Stop the practice of getting legal advice from homeowner-attorneys

PROXY REFORM: Proxies are being abused in HOAs across Colorado. They were meant to give someone who cannot attend a meeting the right to vote, but they are being used by some homeowners to accumulate power by soliciting them and acting as representatives in a "republic". This was never the intention or design. We should bar solicitation, and limit any homeowner from holding more than 5% of the total votes (4 proxies). This should be voted upon by the homeowners.

AGENDA REFORM: The 2022 Board, and in particularly Director Ballweber, has taken abusive steps to prevent not just homeowners, but other Board Members from putting topics or issues onto the agenda. This is not defined by CCIOA, the Non-Profit Act, or even our governing documents. Any homeowner who submits a written complaint at least 10 days in advance of a Regular Board Meeting should have it included on the Agenda. And, if 10% of homeowners sign a petition, an issue should be either added to the Agenda for Board Vote or a vote by homeowners at a Special Meeting (just like removal of a Board Member). This is the statutory practice in other states like Nevada, and the practice in many HOAs across the US. It would reduce friction and divisiveness vs. draconian practices to silence neighbors.

MOWING: In 2021 and 2022, we failed to line up and schedule contractors to get the grasses behind our homes mowed until they are full of 5-foot tall weeds and a fire hazard. Even the front of the community along Overland was a hellscape until August 1st this year, and once again, the contractor was blamed. We need a Board and/or a Landscaping Committee that recognizes that the first mowing should be in the 3rd or 4th week of MAY, and that the second mowing should occur in August. We don't need to spend extra on chemicals for tall seeding weeds if we keep up with the mowing in the first place.

SNOW REMOVAL: We need to increase our budget (by decreasing legal and administrative expenses) to get a quality contractor for snow removal. We've been told by multiple companies that we can remove snow from ALL of our sidewalks for nearly the same cost as removal from the community sidewalks - and should do so. We should make living in POHOA easy for our aging community members - including getting the streets cleared more quickly. We should also consider lowering the threshold snow amounts for action.

TIMELY MEETING NOTICE: We have seen a Board in 2022 try to schedule meetings at noon on weekdays (more than once), only post meeting notices on the website, and try to find the shortest requirement while ignoring our plainly written policy. We should email notice reminders for EVERY Meeting at least 2 weeks in advance, we should set a quarterly schedule for Regular Board Meetings that is followed and posted months in advance, and we should follow USPS mailing requirements for the annual meeting 30 days in advance.

TIMELY FINANCIAL DOCUMENTS: No true Annual Report was issued for 2021 until May, and the Monthly Reports for 2022 were not issued until November, and only for June and August! Meanwhile, we have moved our funds from banks, and claim to have a surplus of $13k while we have a negative Accounts Payable of $5k, which is absurd. We need to have homeowners as watchdogs to stop problems and bleeding from accumulating over time, and only by producing timely financial reports is this possible.

TIMELY DOCUMENT REQUESTS: In May of 2022, the outgoing Board AFTER resigning, downloaded the entire contents of our Gmail accounts for their personal use. In August, in response to a document request for business done one Director Jones PERSONAL email, he demanded that another Board Member PAY $334 (and held out his hand at the meeting, literally and figuratively) to get just the emails related to his use of his PERSONAL email address for HOA Business. Document Requests are a right with penalties under CCIOA, and digital response costs nothing. Printing pages to create a high expense to discourage transparency is not good corporate governance, it's a sign there is something to hide - even for political reasons. We must operate transparently going forward and stop the practice of creating expenses when some homeowners got GIGABYTES of emails for FREE.

UPDATING POLICIES, NOT DOCUMENT REVISION: In September of 2022, we updated several policies related to changes in CCIOA - without changing our Bylaws or CCRs. Clearly, we believe we can do this. We simply have a Board that refuses to do so when it may limit certain powers or actions by the Board that certain Board members wish they did not have to. We need to have a community-driven review of our policies, and update them in a similar manner to reflect our actual values, not just the values of a small pool of homeowners holding a large number of proxies that they solicited.

EMAIL PRESERVATION: The practice of deleting emails or email accounts must cease. There is no good faith reason any digital records need to be deleted - ever. The practice has the appearance of deceit or cover-up, and the business of the HOA should be open to all members upon request. If it cannot be said in the open, it is a sign of bad faith actions. Even the appearance is harmful to the community. All email accounts, including individual board member and committee accounts, should be preserved and subject to the Colorado Open Records laws.

STOP HOMEOWNER ATTORNEY ADVICE: We appear to have abandoned doing our own legal research (for free, oftentimes) or paid legal advice, in favor of having retired or even current attorneys who live here acting as legal advisors to the board. This practice is not recommended by actual HOA attorneys and has the potential to put is in legal situations that are unnecessary. This is not to say all questions need to result in legal expenses - we can be smart about this. We spent at least $11k on legal advice for matters that were NOT "document revision", and then buried the costs in our financial documents without details. We have NOTHING to show for that expense. The solution isn't to ask homeowners who were or are lawyers for "free" advice - we need to be better at our discretion on when legal expense is actually necessary.

SUMMARY

We need a diverse Board of Directors that is inclusive of perspectives that are both geographical and conceptual. We seem to have groups opposed at the East and West ends of the neighborhood, but it's also this conceptual divide that has driven us into a ditch.

The solution isn't a new lawyer or property management company - until those industries are regulated, we are swimming with sharks and charlatans, and we don't seem to be able to afford the ones that might actually be in it for more than the money (ironic, I agree). The solution isn't Lord of the Flies, with one of the factions gathering enough proxies to dominate and shut down all others at meetings, locking homeowners not in either camp from having their concerns added to the agenda. The solution isn't to avoid participation so we don't have targets on our backs.

The narratives of past Boards always puts the blame on others, and fails to take a good hard look in the mirror at how and why we keep making the same mistakes as other HOAs that put repeatedly put themselves into risky financial and legal situations. It's always someone else's fault, and that finger has been pointed at me several times.

Yet, I'm still willing to volunteer and serve, particularly after 4 years of volunteering at the state level to address deficiencies in Colorado HOA law that have a fundamental relationship with our troubles. It's not a matter of choosing Attorney A over Attorney B, or even CAM A vs. CAM B. The problem is that the system, by design, WANTS conflict within HOAs because it is PROFITABLE. When only the wizards in law offices have the answers, and every email is 50 bucks, disputes over interpretations of law make them rub their hands together. We need to step back and away from this, and turn our attention to the more basic needs of the community.

Our documents cannot be fixed when CCIOA (Colorado Statutes that govern HOAs) and the Non-Profit Act (Colorado Law that also governs HOAs, which are non-profit corporations) are an intentional mess. As much as our Board members have tried to convince us we need to spend thousands of dollars to fix our governing documents with "document revisions", its all a waste until the law (which they admit and promote is superseding) is fixed. And, as much as I'd like to believe the 2023 Legislative Session will accomplish something, some problems will more likely persist for years or decades - again, because attorneys PROFIT from the chaos and therefore oppose CCIOA reform carte blanche. It's design, not defect.

The path forward regarding legal matters is to finally realize that Colorado HOA Attorneys have opinions that are in opposition, and that all sides (there may be more than 2) need to be considered before exercising good discretion and judgement. In 2021, we spent legal fees TWICE on the same issue (RV parking) costing us THOUSANDS of dollars, only to find out later that the legislature was already in progress to make enforcement of any rules about parking in public streets moot. The Board needs to be inclusive of opinions that disagree, not work to exclude them or even make political moves to have others removed because they raise valid points with factual evidence and citations.

We have seen in 2022, a Board that REFUSES to get legal advice on serious matters before acting, but then proposes a budget that is TEN TIMES the budget from 2006-2021 ($5000 vs. $500). We are walking a dangerous path in parallel when we substitute legal advice from homeowners who are lawyers, but have neither Colorado licenses active, nor have any actual experience in the practice of HOA Law in or even outside of Colorado.

In spite of being removed without any factual basis, I am willing to volunteer again. Mr. Flanary has run a good campaign to convince others that my personality bars me from service. Yet, when asked to provide any factual basis for removal, the best he could come up with is that I previously entered into litigation against the Association - which he describes as "suing your neighbors".

It's true. I filed a suit against POHOA for failing to intervene in a clear-cut case of Hostile Environment Harassment. I asked the Board in 2019 to step in after Mr. Flanary and Mr. Denenberg had spent 3 months inciting anger and hatred against the sitting Board, which led to both the President being threatened at his own doorstep, and then a December 2019 meeting that nearly became a physical brawl. I asked that the Board take steps to stop Mr. Flanary from directing comments at other homeowners, using loud and abusive language at meetings, using threatening body language, and attempting to cross-examine nearly everyone who disagreed with him. I asked for a hearing, mediation, and all the other things that are necessary obligations that could have resolved the matter instead of litigation. And, when I asked the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) what to do, I was told that the ONLY option left if they were breaking FHA law was . . . private litigation.

And, I've worked for 4 years to have REGULATION of HOAs so that instead of litigation, a homeowner that thinks an HOA is violating the law or their documents can simply turn it in to a State Agency for investigation or action (just like Nevada does). We are getting closer to that reality.

In the meantime, even Director Jones suggested at an open meeting that the fact I engaged in litigation meant I could not be "trusted". Quite the opposite. If someone wishes for the HOA Board to follow the rules, and does NOT take the final step after all others are exhausted, then that person cannot be trusted to follow through on their good faith discretion and judgement on the matter. I literally have a track record - and you can trust that I would apply the same in all matters.

The problem with HOA Law in Colorado IS the fact that the ONLY venue for dispute resolution is a State or District (Federal) Court. Until that changes, we cannot twist the fact that some of us want justice when we have Board members operating far outside the boundaries on major, not petty matters, into character assassination. Otherwise, the whole system becomes dominated by bullies. And, given the passionate speeches against bullying made on 5/25/22, you'd think this would be apparent and obvious.

So, I am proposing that we change a few policies and just try to mow the grasses, keep out the weeds, and remove the snow for as little as possible. We should do this in an open and transparent manner at meetings that allow homeowners to influence the agenda. And, our records should be provided at no charge to homeowners who request them. It's not complicated.

by Andy Mowery - December 12, 2022