The Good People of Poudre Overlook deserve a straightforward plan to address the actual needs of the community without more drama and disputes. While my interpretation of the documents was derided as being “crazy”, one by one, we are arriving at the conclusions some of us reached 2-4 years ago – and I have been the whipping boy for having articulated them. It didn’t have to be this difficult. We simply needed open and transparent processes to discuss contested issues, and then allow the democratic process that is inclusive of all homeowners work.
Mr. Bielli from VF Law has affirmed this approach in their document review. And, Trademark and the Board, have finally recognized that even different attorneys are interpreting our documents differently. We can remove controversial subjectivity by making things that are vague specific – and often for $200-300 via a revised or new POLICY. We do not need to trash the entire set of documents and start from scratch.
So, the Budget vote has two major expenditures that are not appropriate – the legal expense line item, which includes increasing the annual budget by 10x, and a one-time $10k expenditure for this overhaul boondoggle. As I explained last week, given the moving target with the Colorado legislature that may undo some of our efforts by the middle of 2022, we would be better off waiting to see what changes to CCIOA are made before spending a large sum. As Mr. Bielli said at the Annual Meeting, our documents are useable, and in response to Mr. Flanary’s question, things like the “declarant” language can easily be fixed with an amendment/addendum to the Bylaws and CCRs.
The only argument made regarding urgency was about the documents “readability”, which is weak relative to the expenditure. I don’t think the vast majority of homeowners are or have any interest in reading the documents on a regular basis. As someone who has been in deep study of our documents since 2017, I disagree with this as being any type of priority, and I agree with Mr. Flanary’s proposed fix. Again, for probably $200-300.
What we should be talking about are things like snow removal. At the 11/3/21 Board Meeting, the Board revealed that the contractors could do snow removal for the ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOOD for the same price as the small common-area sidewalks that are required by the governing documents. For some reason, the current Board opposed this benefit to everyone’s backs and time, rationalizing that someone might complain about the quality of snow removal. It’s kind of gobsmacking logic. I would advocate for us to do this, and maybe even reduce the threshold from 6″.
The mowing of the native grasses around the perimeter of the HOA needs to be done with contracts that are negotiated between August and October of the prior year. I called around to many vendors and property management companies, and this is the practice in Fort Collins. Thinking this was an on-demand service for our relatively small contract attracted few bids. We need to pay attention to the weed-whacking need around the perimeter, ignored by the current Board in 2021, leading to additional expense for dealing with noxious weeds, and putting us afoul of code because grasses and weeds were hiding fire hydrants.
Once we have these contracts stabilized, I believe the priority in the documents needs to be adding a policy to become compliant with the Fair Housing Act’s Hostile Environment Harassment rules. It should cost no more than $200-300, same as any other policy updates. There are templates from CAI-trained attorneys, and that is what we have with VF Law.
The law changed in 2016, so this is long overdue. And, the Board’s refusal to consider adopting this policy already led to litigation, which did not fail because the issue was invalid. It failed because the Board chose to use dishonesty and scorched earth legal tactics to defeat litigation – the merits were never considered. Over in the Civil Rights Division, however, the issue wasn’t the merits either – the Colorado Civil Rights Division claimed that they were not the correct jurisdiction for that specific nuance in law.
What that law requires is that HOAs intervene when there are disputes between neighbors that meet criteria for Hostile Environment Harassment. And, while limited to actions involving protected classes, it is becoming appropriate to consider that an HOA Board presume all persons are in a protected class in developing policy – because some of those protected classes include things you can’t see on the outside, and would invade privacy to know for certain what is beneath the surface – entangling us in things like healthcare privacy. We should develop a policy that requires the Board to intervene, even informally, and to follow a written and defined policy that satisfies the written criteria issued by HUD.
CAI initially opposed the changes in the Fair Housing Act, but as of 2021, now supports it, and advocates for adding this type of policy. That is all that was necessary to avoid litigation – engagement and mutual agreement to resolve a dispute over interpretation of the laws.
Therefore, instead of spending $15k on the legal budget, far less money should be spent having our Board Members get structure education in HOA management. CAI has just created a credentialed program that only costs $99 per person, and only takes 5 hours to complete. We need to be done with the era of Board members claiming they don’t have the time to become informed, leaning unethically on a Property Management Company to “know the law”. As Trademark said, they can’t give legal advice, nor can they take a side in interpreting governing documents (or state/federal law). They just do what the Board tells them to do, as long as it doesn’t land them in hot water themselves.
In addition to CAI classes and credentials, there are free classes offered by the City of Fort Collins, the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), and we could even consider classes offered by more developed programs in other states. I spoke with Mr. Little from the Nevada Ombudsman’s Office, and there are online classes we could “audit” to improve our knowledge, and thereby avoid some of the disputes that have arisen because we are deliberately choosing ignorance.
We need to be even more transparent in our operations. The ACC should have open meetings via Zoom, and the homeowners should be allowed to see an agenda in advance, and participate with comments whenever there is a vote, the same as with Board Meetings. If we ever have other committees again, the same rules should apply.
And, we need to have a required ADR process by modifying our Policy for Enforcement, which isn’t 20 years old, nor was it written by a developer who “didn’t care”. It was added in 2014 because CCIOA was updated, and our lack of a policy required it’s inclusion. No one seems to know who wrote it or developed it, but it was in the middle of the period when we had 3 Board members (two have since moved), and Mr. Dauster was our attorney. More than likely, it was a template offered by Mr. Dauster – there is no record (I searched while being Secretary) that anyone put any thought into it.
When homeowners have a dispute over non-action by the Board (lack of enforcement of rules), there shouldn’t be broadcast emails and letters sent to the community that create an uproar. There should be a form, and a flow chart. If we look around, CAI, CAMICB, and even the State of Nevada’s Ombudsman’s Office give us plenty of examples to consider and copy as a base that we can customize after direct homeowner input.
The goal should not be to treat those who make a complaint as the enemy to be defeated (and put down as a “bad person”), but rather a process that is followed without question by Board members who are neutral and impartial to the matter at hand. If we cannot have this put in place, we run the risk of continuing an unjust kangaroo court that divides us into good people and bad people, where only those with “connections” to those in power get justice, and the rest are punished for attempting to seek justice in good faith.
If we keep the snow from piling up, the grasses from getting 5 feet tall, the weeds from moving in, and take care of the actual priorities in our documents, we can then focus on building up the reserves to deal with our perpetual issue of fences that are falling apart. On that front, it’s time to consider alternate solutions. I look out my back window at FOUR different fence designs on the perimeter of our property – and only one of them is 5-foot cedar. Most of them date back to the 90s and are original, with zero cost for upkeep. I do not understand why we have to have opaque wood fences that are draining our budget, particularly now that prices for the materials are beyond our budget.
Most of the homes are unaffected by these fences, and the adjacent homeowners outside our HOA are not all fond of this fence design. It’s time to consider something else because repeating the same mistakes over and over and expecting a different result is . . . the definition of insanity.
As for a new Community Association Manager (CAM or Property Management Company), we need to ensure that any company we hire actually has the credentials they claim to have. Trademark used CMCA references to fool us, and the CAMICB Board (Community Association Manager International Certification Board) has now informed me that no one at Trademark had ANY credentials beyond a simple M-100 class being taken by Mr. Rand. We must do a more thorough job of reviewing the backround of those we hire, and make sure that they are also getting an ongoing education relevant to their profession – via CAI, CAMICB, or any other accredited institution.
And, we should consider whether the value of such a company is really delivered to the homeowners, or just a Board that wants to avoid becoming educated themselves, or abdicate their duties and responsibilities to others – for any reason. Yes, Board members are volunteers, but they have duties – and the power to take away homes over minor disputes. We have had two companies in the history of this HOA, and neither was the caliber we deserve.
There’s gotta be a better way, and I hope to contribute to finding it as a new member of the Board.
Please consider your votes accordingly. They are due on December 20, 2021, and I am available for questions via the email for this site – poudreoverlook@gmail.com. I would be happy to schedule a talk by phone as well. I will not put a CAM between myself and my neighbors, even if you disagree with me, if elected.