..."good actors and good payors"...

There is a name for a system of governance where the state (HOA/Community Management) subjugates the individual (house owner) not only economically but by attitude and beliefs. As I've listened to these many webinars and discussions, one cannot escape the overriding conclusion, there is no authentic or genuine understanding of the problems house owners face. Economically, we are seen as the bottomless well of assessments. We have no voice in those assessments. Even as I write this in February 2024, my HOA has no financial statement available since October of 2023. We have no posted budget for 2024 although assessments were doubled on December 1, 2023. We have no posted meeting minutes for 2023 except for a Board Meeting that took place, unannounced, on a Thursday morning in May, 2023. We had an Annual Meeting in December of 2023. There may have been an election. We have no posted Board Members. I was told in December 2023, IF I attended the Annual Meeting in December 2023, all things would be explained to me and I would receive a "packet" providing the underlying reasons for the increase in assessment. Since caring for my spouse makes it impossible to attend these meetings in person, I was never sent or given or provided any documentation for the increase. The December 1, 2023 email of assessment increase is all I have. Informed Consent? But I am a "good actor and good payor". I am told what to pay and if I don't there will be consequences. I understand that.

What I also understand, all too well, is that contract between myself and the HOA/Management Industry only exists in the framework of me upholding my end and there is no reasonable expectation of the same from the HOA/Management Industry. There are no consequences for them. They can violate even the most easily understood requirement of CCIOA for notification. They can choose what to interpret when it comes to CCRs or resolutions. Retention of documents, meh ... transparency...meh, ... accountability ... again meh.

What all of your discussions of the months has lacked is ANY description of what, if anything, the HOA/Management Industry brings to the table. Where's the deterrence for the HOA/Management Industry bad actors? True story, in 2017, my house was painted by the HOA. I was told it would be painted. I was not allowed to choose the colors. The house was indeed painted, and I opened my front door to find the HOA had painted my front door black. It was not a color I would have chosen in my most wildest abandon of pre-HOA days. It was offensive to me as the Zebra house was to Ms. Jackson. Yet, it told me everything I needed to know about the HOA. My rights outside that front door did not exist. It is still black. This spring, I will buy all the "fake flowers" Amazon will allow and I will celebrate the Fake Flower Revolt to remind myself of what totalitarian really means.

My story is not unusual and I think given the many, many stories published here probably par for the course. When those on the task force cannot admit to the bad actors within their own professions and know the danger that presents, then there is no hope and the status quo remains. Those house owners in Loveland who woke up to find their Management Company had allegedly walked away with hundreds of thousands of community funds (Loveland Police investigate suspected theft of HOA funds | 9news.com) didn't have their assessment increased because of "notification".

What then is the greater danger? Lack of legitimate oversight or "Fake Flowers".