In dramatic fashion, Secretary Flanary tore open the sealed envelopes at the 4/9/24 Regular Board Meeting to lay out in a grid the “secret” ballots from the elections on 12/5/23 and 4/9/24. It was wholly unnecessary to have this performative display to answer the question: “What were the results of the election?”
Yet, the POHOA Board saw fit to make it an absolute and strict requirement, not based in our governing documents or CCIOA (the laws that governing HOAs in Colorado), to drive over the the Laporte Post Office and pay over $8 to send the request by USPS Certified Mail (with Return Receipt Requested, no less) just to get an answer to the question via Formal Document Request. But, that’s what it took with this Board.
So, here are the results of the December 5, 2023 Election:
- 30 Total Written Ballots
- 0 Directed Proxies Recorded
- Jeff Ballweber received 30 votes
- No indication of how many votes are in-person vs. proxy
Here are the results of the March 19, 2024 Election:
- Bylaw Amendment had 26 Total Ballots
- The Measure passed 25-1
- Although there is written evidence of 2 votes sent by Directed Proxy against, the votes do not appear to have been counted
- The vote to Elect Jennifer Hutchinson was a yes/no vote (Board ignored 2 Directed Proxies)
- The number of Ballots was 27, which was explained by Treasurer Clay Jones as something about 2 ballots stuck together
- All votes were “yes”
- Directed Proxies for other candidates were ignored
Based upon these results, we are seeing that a third or less of homeowners are participating in POHOA Elections, which is down by at least 50-60% from participants in elections as recently as 2022.
I can also attest to an estimate of only 12-14 households being in-person at the 12/5/23 Election, which means that we are seeing more than half of the votes being brought to the meeting via proxies.
We can infer from the lower participation in the March election that the ratio of in-person vs. proxy is similar to what we saw in December, although the Board gave a circular response about why we cannot know the number of proxies that were turned in – unless one of us pays $300.
What is clear is that we have a very small minority of the POHOA homeowners controlling decisions, and those who disagree with these dozen-or-so households are kept from participating – particularly via remote-access or even directed proxy. Yet, the same group complains about this participation and blames those who disagree with them for the lack of others participating, and mocks them for not being able to “rally others to their cause” – which is the pot calling the kettle black.
What is painfully obvious is that those in control are willing to use strong-arm and even retaliatory tactics to scapegoat people like myself, when it is obvious that their actions and agenda are clearly unattractive and failing to rally support. When people see me being retaliated against, they realize that they could easily become targeted themselves. This isn’t “apathy” as the HOA industry likes to call it, but rather people running for cover in hopes that the POHOA Board won’t treat them as they’ve seen them treat others.
It is also obvious that there is no actual mandate for this Board. At best, 1/3 of the community supports them, but it’s really 1/6 giving them this power via proxy. There’s literally double the other homeowners who are silent at this time.