This is my personal opinion, but I my belief is that the HOA Board is here to serve us, the homeowners, and look out for our best interests.
What I witnessed at the last Board meeting on May 12th was instead a sad spectacle of board members that have long ago forgotten their obligation of fairness and integrity, indeed behaving like dictators of a “banana republic” where the rules can be changed to fit their whims.
I was in particular appalled to see one homeowner singled out and harassed with 6 (yes, six) reports of violations, all of them eventually rescinded for lack of grounds. This is out of control! This board apparently has no qualms about attempting to trample our property rights, practicing “selective enforcement” and harassing people they do not like for any personal reason. A homeowner that was present also mentioned giving up his dog because of the harassment he was subjected to by board members. That summed it up for me!
I also witnessed with some serious concern that the board is preparing to spend over $500K on a project to re-pour all driveways and breezeway concrete surfaces at once. What a fine mess this will look like, with people having to move out of their units for perhaps several days!
This is firstly, not necessary and secondly, complete overkill and worse, this will leave us with only $300K (or less) in reserves at the end of the year. We have always tried to keep between $500K and $700K in reserves, which is a prudent minimum. There is no emergency requiring that all driveways and breezeways should be done at the same time. This type of misguided management is sure to lead to more unnecessary hikes in our HOA dues!
And I am willing to bet that a small earthquake happening right after so much money is spent would leave us with as many cracks as we what started with!
But it need not be this way. Driveways could for example be repaired in sections over a couple or three years using interlocking pavers. These, unlike concrete, will never crack and can be added in sections as needed. They also look far better than boring gray “project-style” cement! I don’t know about you but personally, I don’t like my breezeway to look like a flood channel! We deserve better.
My fellow homeowners, this board is stale, vindictive, un-imaginative and out of touch. They have to go. We need new blood to run this complex as it should be done: with fairness, integrity and financial responsibility!