Current State Law Provides Too Much Protection for HOAs and Metropolitan Districts

I would like to preface this message by saying that I am currently a Director on the Board of the Heritage Ridge Metro District in Berthoud for the past 3 years. I have also been a public-school administrator for 28 years now retired. I believe the current laws in Colorado provide far too much protection to these organizations but I do believe they should have protection against frivolous lawsuits. The current laws and covenants protect Boards and Management Groups by not holding them accountable to any oversight agency or rules governing reasonable rules of conduct. They are literally protected from any kind of punitive action short of committing a crime and are free to act inappropriately while at the same time being able to fine residents and attach financial burdens to their homes. The only method residents currently have is to replace Board members in elections and in this District, they are discouraged from doing so by being told that it will cost $10,000 to run an election and as long as all positions are currently filled it will save the District money not to run. This act promotes stagnation and inhibits changes in operating procedures and promotes nepotism.

Remedies to these types of situations are as follows. There needs to be a Government agency in Colorado that has the authority to actually do something when inappropriate behaviors by Boards are reported. They need to have the power to investigate and levy fines against districts that are abusive of their powers and not transparent with residents. They need to establish a State training program for new Board members. They need to develop a process of legal actions that can be taken by residents when abuses of power become obvious. In short, no government agency should be so completely unregulated or untouchable as is the current case with HOA's and Metro Districts. There is absolutely no control over them whatsoever and this promotes many of the notorious practices within these organizations. I would very much like to be contacted by someone on the committee to elaborate on my findings.