Goonan on The Case Against HOAs
Deborah Goonan continues to shine as one of the best and brightest as she goes after the national HOA scam. Tonight’s blog is a keeper. Definitely save it for future reference.
Here’s the link:
http://wp.me/p54QKD-165
Tag Archives: HOA Abuse
The Hydra Begins to Emerge
In Greek mythology, the Hydra was a terrifying sea monster that had many heads and used them to devour innocent seafarers. Our hero, Heracles, forced the Hydra into the open and began chopping off its heads. But each time a head was severed two new ones grew back. It seemed like a hopeless task but Heracles was undaunted. He finally figured out that if he used a torch to cauterize each severed limb they failed to regrow.
The news this week that the nation’s two largest HOA management monsters were getting cozier with each other was beyond astonishing. Top officials for Associa are being given all sorts of awards by the CAI and vice versa. Could a merger between the two organizations be in the future? Former Texas state senator John Carona and his ethically-challenged Associa would be perfect in a merger with the similarly ethics-challenged Community Associations Institute. Such a new organization would control tens of billions of dollars worth of income-producing properties. It’s a monster. Each person in this country who thinks he owns his own home should start facing the facts. You are John Carona’s income-producer. Carona, as one of the most influential power-brokers in Texas government, built his vast wealth by sponsoring and passing state laws that directly increased his personal bank balance. Now he’s buying infrastructure around his thousands of HOAs so that homeowners have no other option but to bank in his banks and buy insurance from his insurance companies.
Associa and the CAI? Together? And this massive (anti-trust?) organization which perpetuates the lie that it represents homeowners, when it actually only represents its own income stream from dues-paying lawyers and management companies, is becoming a regrowth of the legendary Hydra.
The symbol of The Torch is often used to represent light, the shedding of light on a dark subject. Maybe, just maybe, we can take a lesson from Heracles, the slayer of monsters. We just need to find a way to cauterize these various heads to keep them from growing back.
(link to ethics problems in Carona-ville)
(link to CAI awards for Associa)
My Evan McKenzie Confession
As a lifetime broadcast journalist, I sometimes did some odd things as I negotiated my way through the low ranks of radio journalism into the top ranks of TV journalism. One odd thing that became a habit was ‘snooping’ on the reading habits of my supervisors. Really! Whenever I was called into the office of a supervisor I would carefully note which books I saw on his or her desk. When a book is recommended by upper management you can usually see copies on the desks of each of your managers. I used to carry a tiny notepad into the boss’s office and write down the names of books and authors that various managers were reading. It seemed a clever and calculated thing to do, just to track what management was thinking at any given time. It’s how I came across, “Winning through Intimidation” by Robert Ringer and “How To Stop Worrying and Start Living” by Carnegie. I ALWAYS bought and read copies of the books I saw on the boss’s desk.
About fifteen or twenty years ago while I was working on a story, the subject of which I don’t remember now, on the floor of my photographer’s van was a book with an intriguing cover. At first glance it looked like a contorted x-ray of a human spine. At second glance it was an aerial photo of a California Homeowners Association. The book was called, “Privatopia,” by Evan McKenzie.
Of course, I ordered a copy of the book. It completely blew me away. It perfectly described the kind of torment I was going through in my own Homeowners Association at the time. I read it twice, three times, possibly more.
I have never spoken to McKenzie on the phone or in an email. But I’ve ordered copies of his book and have sent them to various members of the Colorado Legislature. When I learned from an intern that state legislator Morgan Carroll hadn’t read the first copy of Privatopia I sent her, I had Amazon send her another Privatopia, then another. In fact, McKenzie should probably have paid me a commission for the number of books I sent to various Colorado Legislators.
McKenzie is one of the pioneers of The Awakening, the realization by homeowners across America that the national HOA Movement is one of the biggest financial scams in modern history. He’s too classy to describe it as such. But those of us in ‘the movement’ know about it all too well.
Thank you, Dr. McKenzie, for waking me up!
George’s Take on the Amateur Radio Parity Act
We have some really great minds in our movement. But when you ask the experts who’s in the top three… George Staropoli’s name inevitably comes up. That’s why I’m asking all of you to check out the link below, in which George discusses the Community Association Institute’s fight against the right of ham radio operators to operate in Homeowners Associations. When trying to explain to your attorney or your legislator how insidious and deceptive the CAI really is, include a printout of George’s analysis. It’s short, but it’s amazing insight.
(CAI flexes its muscle in Congress arguing Constitutional law and judicial review)
Warning to Prospective HOA Home Buyers!
Some pretty crazy ‘stuff’ happens in Texas Homeowners Associations. One family in Frisco is now learning how dangerous it is to live near an HOA common area. Brian and Natalie Woodward thought buying a home next to a pond would be fun. Now that the water drainage is threatening to destroy their property, the HOA and the developer are pointing fingers at each other but nobody is planning any changes. Meanwhile, the Woodward’s property is ‘slip slippin’ away.’
(link to Dallas News story on fight over disappearing backyard)
