George Staropoli, one of the nation’s leaders in the homeowners rights movement, has an excellent blog post we should all commit to memory. If his five proposed legislative changes are ever enacted, this would be a far different country; a country of neighbors instead of embattled homeowners and power-tripping board members.
(click here for 5 proposed changes in law)
Florida’s Jan Bergemman is one of the early heroes of the homeowners’ rights movement. For many years, he’s had his sights set on putting rules in place that would stop the mindless unregulated tyranny in Homeowners Associations. Jan describes himself as a “retired chef from Germany.” But he’s worked tirelessly in his state to try to wake people up to the organized crime syndicate behind the Homeowners Association Movement.
This blogger was skeptical, at first, when reading about proposed new anti-HOA laws in Florida. “Impossible!” I thought, when finding that common sense laws were being suggested in the original ‘tyranny state.’
But Bergemann & Company came through and beginning July 1st, the state began regulating and trying to control some of the wildly out-of-control fascism that rules many Florida HOA communities.
First step: registration of all HOAs.
Second step: No homeowner can lose his home to HOA foreclosure when his dues are late!
Third step: Homeowners actually get the right to inspect documents in their own HOA. Sadly, this had to be legislated. It shows how outrageously out of control secretive Homeowners Associations have gotten.
Fourth step: Husbands and wives on the same board are a conflict-of-interest! Wow!
Fifth step: HOA board members and managers cannot personally profit when awarding contracts. If this one sticks, it’s huge. A first in the entire nation.
This is all what Arizona’s George Staropoli has long termed “The Enlightenment Movement.” I like that term, but I don’t have the guts to steal it from George.
Whatever term is used, this is like changing the course of a wayward ocean liner. It can’t be reversed immediately. It takes time, effort and risk to right the ship-of-state.
But Jan? Congratulations! I never would have predicted your victory on behalf of all homeowners. Jan’s website is http://www.ccfj.net
The Orlando.com article is linked below.
A slimy piece of legislation in Arizona is finally making it’s way to the mainstream media. We began discussing this ugly bill on June 24th. What it means is that Representative Michelle Ugenti, who was soundly rejected when she tried to introduce an HOA bill that among other things would allow convicted felons, child molesters, etc. the right to move into HOA crime free housing, sneaked her bill into law anyway!
Remember…she was voted down twice!
Also remember that the Arizona constitution mandates that every bill contain only one subject, and that one subject has to accurately depict the contents of the bill.
Silly Dilly Ugenti waited until just a few moments before Governor Jan Brewer was scheduled to sign the annual budget bill, and she slipped in a bill named ‘campaign finance’, which along with a few finance matters, also included the mandate to provide HOA housing for thugs.
Governor Brewer signed it, obviously believing that legislators who take an oath of honesty would somehow all be honest. Such gullibility. Brewer ought to be furious! Actually, Brewer should be at Ace Hardware buying a hangman’s noose.
Anyway, the inevitable lawsuit’s been filed. Ugenti’s character can now be considered ‘officially trashed’ and the matter now goes to the courts.
Really, you shouldn’t miss clicking on the first mainstream news media story linked below.
One of the early founders of our movement who’s perhaps one of the top three homeowners rights advocates in the country is Arizona’s George Staropoli. He has testified before legislatures, he’s a devout Constitutionalist, he’s perhaps one of the most articulate people standing up for downtrodden victims of the national HOA scam. To say he was a huge inspiration to me is putting it mildly.
His website, pvtgov.org, has tens of thousands of fans. In fact, his was the first site I discovered when I was trying to learn what was wrong with the basic nature and structure of American Homeowners Associations.
But his post linked below is exceptionally powerful, and should be spread to every legislator in the country. It should be a guest editorial in every newspaper. It’s not negative, but is actually a positive critique of HOAs because it points us to an escape route from the current HOA system.
Read it! Learn it! Do it!
These words were once penned by one of the mightiest men in our movement. Understand, of course, there are still miles to go before we sleep. But read, Dear Friend, and take heart.
In the beginning
There was the land,
And the land was good
And the people were happy.
Soon upon the land
Came the moneychangers
In the guise of builders
Of the community.
And the moneychangers said
Behold, the covenants, conditions and restrictions
Were sacred and holy works,
And the people shall flourish and prosper.
And the legislature looked upon these CC&Rs
And said they were sacred and holy,
And that land values shall multiply ten-fold,
And the people shall flourish and prosper.
But the moneychangers were not content,
Seeking laws that forced the people
Against their judgment and wishes
Into mandated planned communities.
Soon, the multitude became angry at their plight,
Yet the moneychangers and legislature
Cast the people into involuntary servitudes
With continued tithes while disputes went unresolved.
The child-like people, seeking paradise
on earth and the gates of heaven,
Were not permitted audiences
With the magistrates.
And so the multitude suffered
A long and terrible time,
Praying for a savior one day
To deliver them from their existence.
One sect sought the accommodation
With the ruling powers and moneychangers.
Another sought a cleansing
Of an unworkable oppression upon the people.
Those seeking accommodation held fast to their desires
To see their fortunes on earth multiply ten-fold,
And that all such plans were good and just,
For the land values increased for all the community.
But many saw the desecration of the beliefs, values and ideals
Of the founders of the Great Nation that covered the land,
Saying behold the society that thou hast created,
Where Me First has replaced Love Thy Neighbor.
A babble of communities arose
By the followers of the moneychangers,
With beliefs, values and ideals of the Old Ways,
Once rejected by the Founders of the Great Nation.
Woe unto the followers of the moneychangers
For the sins of the fathers shall be cast upon the sons.
Repent now and restore the beliefs, values and ideals
Of the Great Nation and make the land good once again.
