Why Is Poudre Overlook Electing Board Members Again?

This email was sent today to members of the Association:

Dear Homeowner,

The Poudre Overlook Board of Directors has rushed to schedule an election tonight with only 13 days notice in advance. Many are asking questions about why this is necessary at this time, and the Board is not responsive to questions. This email will give you a brief on recent events, and what you may want to consider before casting your vote, or giving anyone your proxy.

After reading this email, please take this SURVEY

Here’s what we know:

• Poudre Overlook HOA lost over $29,000 per the 2021 Annual Report
• The 2020 Annual Report is just a monthly report, and therefore missing (but appears to be another year with a major loss)
• The POHOA Board says some losses are due to not knowing that a fence is an expense, not an asset, raising questions about our Reserves
• The POHOA Board stated at one point they would be taking money from reserves to pay for Document Revision
• The POHOA Board miscommunicated with Trademark PMG on the basis for Accounting (Cash vs. Accrual), obscuring the accuracy of our books/financials
• The POHOA Board has used Action Without A Meeting (AWAM) for 42% of POHOA Business since 1/1/21 (excluding approving meeting minutes) – without allowing notice, participation or comment prior to votes
• The POHOA Board used AWAMs without proper notice, participation, or signatures for over 1 year, and attempted to “affirm” at least 18 decisions with a blanket voice vote (not following governing documents signature requirement to be “effective”) on 5/12/22
• The POHOA Board appears to have allowed Trademark PMG to create significant legal expenses without Board knowledge or approval in 2021
• Poudre Overlook had a legal expenses budget of $500 and spent over $13,000 in 2021
• Poudre Overlook hired VF-Law without fully vetting the firm’s attorneys in advance
• The VF-Law attorney who performed the Document Review was previously at a firm involved in over 32,000 fraudulent foreclosure actions 
• The VF-Law attorney who previously worked at a firm accused of fraud. That firm had to be shut down and dissolved by the Attorney General of Colorado in 2015
• The VF-Law attorney’s Document Review recommended adding SuperLien elements to make Judicial Foreclosure on Fines easier – the same powers used in prior scandals
• The VF-Law attorney was involved in the Green Valley Ranch Foreclosure Scandal, and MANY other Judicial Foreclosures (primarily over petty fines) across Colorado 
• The VF-Law attorney has now quit the VF-Law firm, and removed herself from the cases in April 2021 – as questions were being raised about the propriety of these foreclosure practices
• HB22-1137 has passed the Colorado Legislature making it illegal to turn Fines into Foreclosures, with a $25k punitive damages penalties for non-compliance to stop the actions like we saw with the VF-Law attorney take with her prior firm, and at GVR.
• The POHOA Board has now spent over $21,000 with VF-Law since November 2021, exceeding the combined budget for TWO years by thousands of dollars.
• The POHOA Board will not fully explain the purpose of “Document Revision”, and has shut down all participation of homeowners at Document Revision Meetings
• The POHOA Document Revision Committee had 2 members vote to release documents, 1 member vote against, and 2 abstain – but then 2 Board members tipped the vote back to 3-2
• The POHOA Board has voted 3-0 not to release the Draft Documents from VF-Law after an appeal per CCR Article IX Section 7 of our governing documents
• The POHOA Board has pre-paid for “Document Revision”, but has only received a boilerplate/template draft document that includes superfluous language about “master associations” not all that different than “declarant” in our current docs
• The POHOA Board was approved to spend $10k for Document Revision by homeowners, but will not explain, at all, the details about the other over-budget charges from VF-Law (or other attorneys hired in 2021) other than to say that it was “more than we expected”
• VF-Law has now terminated the agreement on 5/12/22 putting in limbo the Document Revision project with documents we probably cannot use with a new firm
• The POHOA Board has called a Snap Election for the purpose of having new Director(s) hire new attorneys
• The POHOA Board claims new attorneys must be hired because of imminent litigation that has not been disclosed to members that would disrupt sales or refinancing of homes
• The POHOA Board claims that Document Revision will somehow continue with new attorneys without explaining additional over-budget expenses, or whether the VF-Law document could be carried forward and used by the new attorneys. (unlikely)
• The POHOA Board will not disclose which Directors have resigned, the reason for resignation, or how many seats are being voted upon in advance of the meeting
• The POHOA Board is holding the first in-person meeting in 2 years during a pandemic surge without accommodating members who cannot participate as required by our governing documents. No explanation for why Zoom cannot be used as it has in prior elections has been given. If you can’t attend the meeting, you are left out of participation, other than by proxy.
• The POHOA Board has refused a proposal by a homeowner to expand the Board to be more inclusive of members who have different ideas and vote on it tonight
• The POHOA Board has voted 49 times since 1/1/21 without a single dissenting vote on any matter whatsoever, with only 2 Directors making the motions 48/49 times.

Given these extraordinary circumstances, it is very important that all homeowners attend the meeting tonight and ask questions about these issues in advance of a vote. The POHOA Board has been hostile towards members who ask such questions, and has been evasive to the point of stonewalling. This is not proper transparency, and it appears that the current POHOA Board seeks to continue this pattern of technical compliance.

The Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled on April 14, 2022 that technical compliance is no longer appropriate, ironically, in yet another case of predatory foreclosures (although involving different attorneys than the ones we hired). It is no longer acceptable to say “But, we are in compliance with CCIOA” as an excuse to avoid basic transparency that isn’t spelled out in detail in statutes. Homeowners have a right to know why decisions are being made, to get answers to questions, and most importantly, know why money is being spent – particularly when it is tens of thousands of dollars that are not in the budget.

The timing and odd choice to have an in-person meeting in a field of grass appears to have the design of controlling participation, and most importantly, for members to be less informed in advance of the meeting so that the choice is made with full knowledge of the challenges ahead. The current Board has sought to have only yes-people on the Board, and their record of 100% unanimous decisions (at open meetings, and with AWAMs) demonstrates that opposing or even mildly different opinions on any matters are only tolerated as a matter of technical compliance. They certainly do not welcome them, and there is scant evidence of the normal weighing of pros and cons on decisions – particularly when hiring attorneys.

POHOA has now hired at least 4 different attorneys/firms in the past 2 years, with none of the actual decisions being made in open meetings where homeowners can comment. The last decision to hire VF-Law was made in a secret AWAM in August of 2021 AFTER the Board chose Altitude Law in an open meeting – but for a reason the Board will not explain, they changed their mind (making the decision made in the open, moot).

Comments at the Annual Homeowner Meeting by Trademark and recently disclosed emails indicate that the Board let Trademark change the firm for reasons that only benefitted Trademark (who then quit in November while under investigation for submitting false credentials in the sales process). There is no evidence at all that any due diligence was performed that would reveal that the attorney from VF-Law was previously involved in scandals involving foreclosure fraud – even though the evidence was available with simple google searches of the attorney’s name. The Board has produced zero evidence of due diligence in advance of a secret AWAM decision, even after a proper document request.

We need new Board members who will bring transparency to the Board, stop the abuse and overuse of AWAMs (that are not properly signed to be effective), and will put an end to the extraordinary legal expenses that have no explanation of purpose. We need oversight of the Board through open meetings, and for every decision, including ones that legitimately need to use AWAM, to be properly noticed to members so that comments can be made – to avoid hiring people or vendors that have such huge questions in their backgrounds. 

Doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. We need someone who will actually perform due diligence, and start asking questions about why we are working so hard to put Judicial Foreclosure Powers into our documents (SuperLien is only used for foreclosures) when the legislature is moving in the opposite direction. It appears we have just wasted $21k (and we don’t know if all the bills are in) on this boondoggle. We need Board Members that will defend us from predatory actors in the HOA industry, and will ensure that we only spend money with attorneys that is absolutely necessary.

Our current volunteer Board appears incapable and paralyzed when presented with the fact that different attorneys have different interpretations of statutes and our governing documents. We need Board Members who know you can’t go running to the attorney for every single question, and that sometimes, a Director has to choose between these interpretations – because there is no objective right answer. Vendor Shopping for attorneys that agree with the interpretations we prefer creates risks of litigation and legal expenses – and is creating the disputes that have plagued us for years. 

A better path forward is to follow the CAI Civility Pledge, which acknowledges that all Common Interest Communities have members with diverse opinions. All members should be allowed to fully participate, even if they completely disagree with one another. Robert’s Rules of order says “The Minority shall be heard”. The manner in which homeowners and Boards/Committees engage should be Civil Discourse with the shared goal of the Common Good. This is what the Civility Pledge is about – which the POHOA Board has refused to sign or use. The Board fails to lead by example, and routinely puts restrictions or censorship in place to avoid all homeowners from hearing the full opinions of members they disagree with – they use the powers of the Association to gain political advantage.

PoudreOverlook.com was established independently in 2019 to overcome such suppression of Civil Discourse in the Association. It features a Forum (Message Board), as well as documents and recordings of the HOA meetings to give homeowners a clearer picture of what is happening in our community. There’s also a Facebook Group. If the initial list on this email reveals information you had not heard before, it demonstrates that we are rushing into an election that the current Board wants to happen without members knowing the details or context of current events. 

If you’d prefer that the HOA just mow the grass, plow the snow, and leave everyone alone – you aren’t alone. After the last debacle, we’ve heard several homeowners say out loud they wish that the HOA could just be dissolved altogether. The Board appears hellbent on revising our documents, and for a community that has no amenities and such simple maintenance (that hasn’t been done all that well the last 2 years), the extreme level of time and resources going into it while ignoring the fact it may be inviting predatory behavior into our community, is quite odd. There must be some reason they want to do all this, and when they only say “to remove the declarant” from our documents, it’s not unreasonable to say “yeah, but for $21,000?!”

Your email was added to this list after the 3/8/22 broadcast email by the Board exposed the email addresses because they failed to use a proper email system (like the one sending this one). We’ve removed members known to have stated they prefer not to receive these emails. If you wish to be removed, just hit unsubscribe, and you’ll never get another email from us again. If, however, you think it’s important to get answers to questions, we will continue to keep trying to overcome the non-transparency of the current Board, and share what we collect openly so that you can make informed decision – like the one we have to make tonight.

Thank you for your time and attention, and hope this is helpful in your consideration of your vote. If you have time for a brief survey, please let us know what you think.

Sincerely,

PoudreOverlook.com