By coincidence the celebration of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving begin in the same few hours this year. And I am thankful for all my friends in many faiths… and even those who are skeptics. But you can all have faith in this: I respect you and am thankful for all of you.
Ward Lucas
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.
The initial news was stunning. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer had just signed a campaign finance bill that radically changed the powers of Homeowners Boards and HOA managers. That little contradiction should raise your eyebrows. A campaign finance bill that allows untrained HOA managers to appear in Small Claims and Administrative Law Courts playing like make-believe lawyers on behalf of Homeowners Associations? A Campaign Finance bill that regulates whether Homeowners Associations can have on-street or off-street parking?
The story behind the story is that the Community Associations (CAI) Institute is in every Legislature in the land, constantly lobbying to increase the powers of HOAs, and weaken the Constitutional powers of average citizens. This organization has done a stunning job to radically transform our government. In the process, billions and billions of dollars have been sucked away from homeowners in these gated communities and funneled into the pockets of lawyers, property managers, favored vendors, and in many instances into the pockets of board members themselves. So there’s a steady stream of proposed HOA laws constantly flowing over the desks of confused lawmakers.
Arizona Representative Michelle Ugenti, a cute young thing, thought it would be a great idea to jam all these individual HOA proposals into a single package, House Bill 2371. It was defeated.
Then a few nights ago, while Legislators were debating Senate Bill 1454, the Campaign Finance bill, Michelle Ugenti, the cute young thing, sneakily slipped her failed HOA bill into the Campaign Finance bill which was passed amidst a slurry of other legislation.
Sneaky, underhanded, and exactly the kind of legislative dirty tricks that generate voters’ contempt for lawmakers.
Governor Brewer, faced with a mountain of bills to sign, signed off on the Campaign Finance bill. The process is eerily reminiscent of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s comment during the jam-down of the national health care law. “We have to pass the bill so we can all see what’s in it,” Pelosi said. Again, it’s the reason lawmakers are so despised.
The future of this fundamentally dishonest Arizona law is still up in the air for at least a couple of days. It becomes law this Wednesday, June 26th. But in the Arizona Constitution there’s a well-known rule that demands that the major content of a bill be reflected in the bill’s title. There’s nothing in the HOA reform montage even remotely connected with the title of the bill.
Blondie Brewer has every reason and responsibility to veto this bill and order the cute young thing to start being honest with the voters. They’re both Republicans. Brewer should show some leadership.
Not a word from CAI during this whole scam. They’re collectively holding their breath, of course. But if Brewer doesn’t catch on, there’ll be a hundred thousand champagne corks popping.
While this blogger continues to be hypercritical of uninformed reporters, sometimes they actually do get it right when it comes to rogue HOAs.
At the links listed below, reporters and anchors with the ABC affiliate in Mesa, Arizona, knew how to ask the right questions and expose the contemptible HOA president of the Superstition Lakes Condos.
Seems that president Michael Cassady has asked his treasurer for lots of unusual ‘reimbursements’ supposedly for HOA board meetings. Things like vodka. Laundry detergents. Big restaurant bills. More liquor. In two years, $38,000 worth.
Then there’s the reimbursement for nearly six hundred dollars for ‘gate repairs’. But officials with the company listed on the receipt says they never repaired any gates for Cassady or the Homeowners Association.
This kind of thing goes on in HOAs across the country. And HOA board officers continue to insist that homeowners do not have the right to see the books and discover how their mandatory dues are being spent.
That’s what’s so beautiful about a society with a free press. Once in a while it can pry open some secrets.
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