Association board meetings are designed to allow the chair or president to disallow conflicting opinions and to defend dictatorial governance to its members at large. Last Thursday night”s Clear Lake Riviera meeting exposed the kind of mentality prevalent in association cliques.
In case you aren”t aware of the growing kingdoms of the so-called non-profit California Homeowners Associations, backed by an abundance of otherwise unemployed attorneys and politically supported by county seats, take note. The allowed exploitation of the incomes and pensions of people living within the borders of these developments often provide fulfillment of personal agendas by a small handful. Under the guise of “rules,” you can lose property and home.
Along with the arbitrary and disorganized enforcement by an association board such as ours, in which next to nothing is offered to its community, our “violations” have been judged and ruled upon in one subjective stroke. There is no consideration of an issue even when you are forced to hire an attorney yourself.
Thursday”s meeting was an attempt to quell and suppress any homeowner who didn”t agree with their high-handed tactics. Most of the meeting was a one-sided spiel on congratulatory volunteerism of the board, obedience, and trivializing mine and other”s complaints.
In that effort, the board president, Alan Siegel noted that we are fortunate we don”t reside in Hidden Valley and in the City of Clearlake, as the other implied extreme. Hidden Valley has lots of problems stemming from the common interest properties and governances. How inappropriate that Mr. Siegel should use that development as a comparison. It is a false one. Look around, we have no club house, no private pool, no yacht club, no private golf course or pro shop, no restaurants, just an association office.
The future of our community should be based on the fairness, self governance and existing taxes; not on financial gouging of its citizens who don”t have equal recourse when charged with breaking a rule. A volunteer board that follows a rigid set of revenue generating compliances injures the hand that feeds it, as well as, discourages future home sales. Who needs them?
John W. Stoddard
Kelseyville
