George Staropoli is one of the most astute and most articulate people in the national Homeowners Rights movement. The link below is his take on the historic HOA battle going on in North Carolina. Have everyone you know read his post!
What’s difficult to understand about the word ‘accountability’? Texas is one of a number of states where legislation is pending which would reign in the massive power of private HOA management companies. Homeowners in Texas, and elsewhere, are tired of being ripped off by arbitrary fines, punitive social controls, predatory towing of vehicles, confiscatory debt collection practices, abusive lawsuits, and massive embezzlement from the budgets of Homeowners Associations. This is not a hard problem to understand. Your home is your castle. Isn’t it?
But on the other side of the accountability aisle are State Representatives and Senators who’ve made hundreds of millions of dollars for supposedly ‘managing’ planned communities. They hover like birds-of-prey over the neighborhoods they supervise, and the moment any weakness is spotted they swoop down and make a kill strike on a beleaguered homeowner, liening his home and selling it at auction before the homeowner can even catch his breath.
As good as this pending bill is, it doesn’t have a ghost of a chance of passage. The powers that be rake in too much money. An accountability bill would murder their profit margins.
I used to live in Texas. I never thought Texans were stupid.
Maybe they are.
http://www.texastribune.org/2013/04/09/hoa-accountability-bill-stirs-debate-capitol/
We in the Homeowners Rights Movement are deadly serious, and we hear so many heartbreaking stories from around the country. But it’s critically important that we all keep a sense of humor. Our movement is not Republican, Democrat, Tea Party or Libertarian. It’s about keeping government out of our pockets and our bedrooms. But remember that the political movement which is able to laugh, mock, even poke fun at itself; that’s often the one that wins!
Remember that Richard Nixon won the Presidency after agreeing to use the idiotic “sock it to me” line on the controversial comedy show, Laugh In.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFEhmF-cSi8
It’s quite possible he only won the Oval Office because the country thought he had a sense of humor.
Clint Eastwood’s bit with the chair at the Republican National Convention didn’t win the election. But it may have tightened the margins.
And for many years, George Carlin has paved the way for Democrats and liberals to win office.
Back to us: we absolutely need to keep our sense of humor!!! A friend of mine in the old Kingston Trio (“Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley”), is working on a CD of songs mocking the abuse by the HOA tort industry. I’ve heard some, and they’re hysterical.
And yes, Good Friends, we already do have a friend in the Los Angeles music business named H.D. Flagle. Most of our ‘in-crowd’ has already heard his HOA song, which he donated to the movement after his mom was harrassed and burned by her own HOA. But for those new readers who join our blogs each day, here’s the link to his song:
http://www.ccfj.net/onewayticket.htm
It takes a while to load, but thanks to Jan Bergemann and his Cyber Citizens for Justice (ccfj.net) we can help keep the humor alive.
Egads, that’s an impossible question to answer. But read the column linked below and make up your own mind.
Oh, and remember that Robert Frank (retired Air Force Colonel) was one of two whistle-blowers who were jailed, strip searched and accused of fraudulently reporting a crime to a police agency. They were eventually exonerated. No, they were more than exonerated when the IRS discovered their allegations of fishy tax returns were spot-on and the HOA was hit with a huge federal fine for trying to skirt around millions of bucks worth of taxes.
Robert Frank, as far as this investigative reporter can determine, has a spotless background. He’s the man you’d like to see in public office, but the kind of person who generally avoids public office because it can be so vituperative.
Sun City Anthem is a Nevada Homeowners Association for folks older than 55. Who knew that retirement was going to be so complicated?
If you’ve gotten this far, then the link below is included for the record to show the Las Vegas Sun’s article on the jailing of Col. Frank. Vicious, indeed.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/mar/30/dont-question-your-hoa-or-you-might-get-arrested/
Some news stories are so hilarious and beyond belief they don’t need embellishment.
A Homeowners Association in Orange County, California sponsors an annual fiction writing contest. The Rossmoor HOA says the contest is open to any member of the community with a good imagination and a yarn to tell.
A suggestion: How about a piece of fiction about how peaceful the typical American Homeowners Association is? How about some fiction about the annual HOA meeting being a place where love and neighborliness dominate neighborhood affairs?
On this Easter Sunday, 2013, I just wanted to bring you a good chuckle.
