HOA Board Dictators

In the HOA where I live, the Board makes all of the decisions regarding spending our funds with no or little input or vote from the residents. A $20,000+ additional sign was erected at the entrance, which serves no purpose; a $5,000+ sidewalk was installed that only leads to a street, not another sidewalk and was not in the original site design approved by the City of Aurora; the entrance was redesigned at a cost of thousands as well as the security gate was removed (the info sheet for removal contained absolutely nothing about the security it would offer, and many of us moved here because it was to be a gated community so it was not a proper vote proposal containing pros and cons). The President handpicks those he wants on the Board so he has no one to disagree with any of his decisions. There needs to be a provision in CCIOA on Board term limits and that a resident can only serve so many times on a Board (we have had others run for the Board but certain Board members collect ballots and offer to help fill them out to prohibit anyone else getting on the Board) and that all expenditures over maybe $5,000 have to be put to a vote of the residents. There should also be a requirement that a certain % of Reserves should be maintained as well as a provision that assessments can only be raised a certain % each year. The Board members do not want to discuss anything with an individual homeowner; homeowners are told to attend the meetings and publicly ask their questions. The Board makes rules and regulations that are in conflict with the Declarations. And, when we had a construction defect claim with the last and final developer here, the certain members of the Board stopped the inspections thus prohibiting the lawyer from doing their work and reducing our opportunity to get more money from the developer. Why would any Board to this to the residents? It is especially frustrating when the Board signs a contract and then refuses to make the contractor abide by those terms. Residents have offered ways to reduce contract costs; however, the Board refuses to consider these suggestions and continues with their own agenda. And, there needs to be an agency in the state that can enforce HOA laws instead of just telling a resident to hire a lawyer if there is an issue. If a resident pays a lawyer, the Board's lawyer is also at our expense so now the resident is paying for both lawyers.