In my earlier guest blog this month, Uncovering The Real Community Associations Institute (CAI), I presented a number of CAI quotes on where it stood regarding constitutional protections for homeowners, and its claim that HOAs are not governments in fact. What does the HOA Establishment find so horrible, so objectionable, so damaging as to give rise to its rejection of our system of constitutional government?
The only arguments of any worth, regardless of how slight, is the false claim that HOAs are businesses and that this new form of government is what all the members signed up for and is the voice of the members. Really? In earlier internet postings on HOA Constitutional Government I presented the alternative of using special tax districts as a vehicle to return HOAs to the Union. This week I presented arguments that HOAs violate local home rule doctrine and are outlaw governments. HOAs violate even the most liberal of home rule statutes; statutes that would give the HOA concept all the local government control of the community, except its creation would now be subject to state approval and to our system of constitutional government.
As an example of how this approach is very do-able, I received info on Florida’s Community Development Districts, a form of taxing districts, but one not quite suitable for HOA governance. However, the MEADOW POINTE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT, GENERAL AND PROCEDURAL RULES document provides an example of the benefits and protections of creating HOA taxing districts. The Rules document spells out the procedures for managing the district under the state’s Administrative Procedures Act, Rule-Making statutes. It contains rules for record access, open meeting, board conflict-of-interests, etc. all under the municipality statutes. This is important as district boards and officers, as government employees, are subject to civil penalties of up to $10,000.
What it shows by concrete example is the protections of rights and freedoms for all the people; and a long standing legal doctrine or set of laws written not by profit-seeking lawyers and developers, but by people concerned with good local government under the constitution. It is an extension of the liberal home rule doctrine for local government and good for the people, the community and this country.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal, which is the only news outlet in the nation to thoroughly and consistently report the massive HOA scam, is out with new details this weekend on the decade-long scandal.
More than forty people were indicted, pleaded guilty, committed ‘suicide’ or are still awaiting trial in a scheme to take over Homeowners Associations in Nevada. After gaining control of the boards of at least ten HOAs, these criminals voted themselves untold millions of dollars of homeowners’ money. Instead of paying for repairs and maintenance, the millions were diverted into the pockets of lawyers, police officials, businessmen, politicians and others. The big suspect is Las Vegas night club owner and tequila manufacturer Leon Benzer. He claims he’s currently paying his massive legal expenses by driving a taxi.
It now looks like the racketeering trials will be delayed another six months to March of 2015.
Pennsylvania’s gotten a good bit of attention over the years for its inordinate amount of corruption. The usual law enforcement wisdom is that hefty jail time for criminals is a good deterrent. They can’t really embezzle pension funds if they’re behind bars, right?
Well, there’s apparently a lot of sympathy among federal officials for elderly embezzlers like 81 year old Charles Poalillo, Jr. He embezzled a million dollars from his employees’ pension fund, and of course pleaded guilty. By special arrangement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He’ll get three years probation. And yes, he’ll have to return some of the money.
But what’s the lesson for other Pennsylvania embezzlers?
Ft. Lauderdale is a gorgeous part of the country, beautiful blue ocean, magnificent greenery, vacation paradise of the rich and powerful. My only real experience there was back in the 1980s when a number of organized crime boiler rooms were doing their telephone scams from office buildings located on NE 125th Street. The federal investigator who accompanied me said the boulevard was well-known among the feds as “Maggot Mile.”
Well, the swampland salesmen eventually moved out of Ft. Lauderdale and spread across the country, mostly in the sunbelt states where they continued running their scams. Those memories sort of popped up in my head as I watched the television story linked below.
Seems an investigative reporter in Ft. Lauderdale has discovered a longtime HOA president has been paying himself tens of thousands of dollars a year salary, and even bought himself a $20,000 car in another state with the community’s budget but without the community’s knowledge.
Complaints were filed with local authorities but they won’t investigate because it’s….(hold your breath)…. a civil matter. Some things never change.
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