Tag Archives: HOA corruption

The Hideous Underbelly of Power

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In my new book, Neighbors at War, I delve deeply into the lust for power and how easy it is for seemingly normal homeowners to go crazy when they get their first taste of power over their neighbors. We’ve seen it among Nazi prison guards, we’ve seen it among those who guard our jails, we’ve seen it repeatedly in double-blind science experiments.

“Power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.” (Lord Acton)

But Pennsylvanians, shattered by the recent “Cash for Kids” scandal are still trying to wrap their minds around this one. Two former judges, Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, reportedly accepted millions of dollars in bribes from privately owned juvenile detention centers for sentencing thousands of juveniles to those institutions. “Good Lord!” you say. “Impossible!”

When you put someone into a position of power in your neighborhood, be very, very suspicious of that person. Never let down your guard. In our current system in HOA Amerika there are no checks and balances. None, whatsoever. There’s no court of last resort. There’s no Due Process. In the vast majority of Homeowners Associations there are few records, poor accounting, often no audits. Our board members have complete and total power over our lives. We try to pretend that board members are fiscally responsible for how they govern. But they really aren’t.

Read about “Cash for Kids.”

And weep.

(upcoming documentary) 

 

HOA Demands: No Sign Of God In Landscaping!

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

We’ve seen the stories: No mezuzah allowed on the doors of the Jewish. No angels standing in the rock garden in remembrance of the deceased. Now, it’s no Buddhist symbols or crosses in the flower garden for Chris Bumann who lives in the Covington Bridge HOA in Spring, Texas.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution says the government cannot restrict our free exercise of religion. Yet, homeowners associations in Texas have a law that states they can regulate religious symbols at the homes of their members. EXCEPT, it also says they have to be in compliance with the Texas and United States Constitutions.

Of course, Chris can sue the HOA and take his case all the way to the Supreme Court per attorney Chris Tritico. That’s an option only if Mr. Bumann is willing to fund the legal battle. But even if he gets into court he will inevitably be told that when he signed his real estate papers he essentially agreed that the neighborhood’s covenants superseded his rights under either the state or federal Constitutions. At this point, though, he has 30 days to remove the statues he bought years ago. Or the HOA will get a court-order to remove them at his expense.

He feels bullied. I think he’s right.

Chris, you’ve gotten yourself on the radar screen of Covington Bridge! Selling out is the only way off. Say your prayers for a buyer to come along!

(click here for FOX-TV story)

 

Screw Christmas!

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If you want any proof that Americans are living in a post-Christian era, you need look no further than Highlands Ranch, Colorado, one of the largest Homeowners Associations in America. Almost 100,000 people live here, and tonight I am dying in shame over the gutlessness of this community.

For years, Highlands Ranch has collected Christmas toys for needy children across the world. Among those organizations sponsoring the toy drive are Samaritan’s Purse and Operation Christmas Child.

But the American Humanist Association, an atheist group, has sent a cease and desist letter to the school district saying that allowing Christmas toys to be collected on its properties is unconstitutional and if it doesn’t stop immediately the atheists will file a lawsuit. It seems that donations are being left at a curbside which may or may not be on school property.

The schools, fearful of the cost of litigation with the atheists, are shutting down the toy drive.

As I sit here at my desk, my blood pressure high as a kite, I’m devestated by the reality that the same threatening letter would not have been sent if the toys were being collected by al Qaida, the Muslim Brotherhood, al Fatah, or for that matter the Yakusa. I couldn’t care less if donations were collected at that curbside for tsunami or earthquake-hit areas by the Salvation Army, the Mormon Church, Scientology, or the Purple People Eater Society.

Atheist organizations, of course, have the right to threaten lawsuits because they’re offended by the revolting thought of a Christian organization collecting toys for kids. But to see one of the richest homeowners associations in the country cowering over the thought of challenging this group in court just nauseates me.

The First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…..” That’s all! There’s no question the court, in recent years, has interpreted that wording to ban certain expressions of religion on public property.

But if the gutless Highlands Ranch Homeowners Association and this even more gutless school district asked for ten bucks per household to fight this tiny atheist organization, and sued for damages against this group for trying to stifle their rights to collect toys for needy kids, at least we’d get a clearer reading from the Court on what the First Amendment really says.

Highlands Ranch is not a place where I’d like to live.

(click here for toy donation story)

 

Goats Going Great Guns on HOA Grass!

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Egads, the stories we’ve done on doggie DNA!

Many HOA neighborhoods are demanding that all dogs in the neighborhood have their cheeks swabbed for DNA. That way, if an uninvited poop is deposited on the board president’s lawn, he can send it to the lab and then have the dog owner nailed with a fine, lawsuit and foreclosure because of the ‘errant doodle doo doo.’

In the meantime, the Japanese (clever people, huh?) are hiring herds of goats to do the mowing in their Homeowners Associations. I’ve long advocated using goats for lawn mowers. The City of Denver has done it successfully for years. Herds of goats are efficient common area grass munchers. And their methane isn’t nearly as awful as the gas fumes put out by gasoline powered mowers.

Ah yes, and goats are far more cuddly than your run-of-the-mill Briggs and Stratton.

More power (bad pun) to the Japanese!

(click here for Japanese lawn munchers)

 

Is It The Kids? Or Their Race?

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I never want to jump too quickly on the ‘race bandwagon,’ but this one is really weird. The story is from Northern California.

The Tennis Villas at Blackhawk Homeowners Association has banned the three children of a mixed race couple from playing outside, from trick-or-treating and from using any of the common areas in the gated neighborhood. Seth and Carolynn Neri say their children have been ‘targeted’ by the HOA. One of their sons wrote a letter to all thirty neighbors introducing himself and asking them to change their minds about the ‘no playing’ rule. Two letters came back marked, “No!” and “No Way! Move.”

The Neris’ lawyer says the actions are in violation of federal housing law and a lawsuit has been filed against Tennis Villas and Community Association Management. The lawsuit alleges that the president of the HOA board told the Neris that some people in the neighborhood were upset that the new family was a mixed race couple.

The HOA board and its management company have not returned phone calls to the media.

Believe it. They never will.

But when those thirty neighbors start paying special assessments for all the legal bills and inevitable federal fines and civil judgments they’ll soon be racking up, they might get the message.

(click here for story from Contra Costa Times)