Today was a great day for local college football.  LSU beats Florida, and the last time I checked, the Jags were beating Alabama A&M.

 

This afternoon, an anonymous person posted the following message on the blog.  I trust that this person is OK with me sharing their post in today’s comments.

“AnonymousOctober 12, 2013 at 3:50 PM

I think the whole thing is a mess. I think that everyone is just fed up. Complaints over and over again were gone un noticed. Never fixed..Boats in yards, trailers, wrecked cars...still sitting there. Bad yards...NOTHING. I have complained quite a few times and for years...and NOTHING...no matter who you have in charge..NOTHING

My first impression after reading this post was, the despair that I felt for this, I’m assuming, neighbor. So I decided to use this blog to respond.

The feeling expressed in this post is shared by many, and the very reason this blog was resurrected after four years being idle.  I recently wrote in generalities about leadership and communication.  Now it’s time to write about specifics.

For the past three years, we had the same president along with various board members.  But the common thread is, the same president. During this period, the president has also chaired the ACC committee which is responsible for overseeing violation of restrictions.  Violation of restrictions is the root of most complaints and issues.  The HOA officers currently consist of a president and two other board members. In my opinion, we have a very inactive group of HOA leaders.   It appears to me that the two board members serve at the pleasure of the president, and not the homeowners.  That would explain why the inactivity and lack of communication.  Property owners have to ask for meeting minutes to be posted because the HOA had not posted minutes for several months. I believe two months were posted.  When asked about the other months, the response was, “we don’t have meetings every month.” Really, then how is HOA business conducted?  How does the HOA communicate with the outsourcing management company?  How are all the restriction violations settled?  I read some of the minutes; what a joke.  You would never guess that the minutes represent business conducted on behalf of 200+ homeowners. I happen to believe that no official meeting has taken place in months.

As the poster mentioned, “boats in yards, trailers, wrecked cars still sitting there.” The problem is that property owners have no meaningful way of voicing their complaints and issues.  The online message board is totally useless.  Posting a complaint or any negative comment will get your message deleted, almost immediately.  There is also a “Homeowners Feedback Form” (I’m not sure if that is the correct official name) to voice complaints, or reports restriction violations, but even that is a convoluted and asinine procedure that requires you to establish an account to post.  I’ve read some of the feedback and most are pathetic.  In many cases the feedback is condescending and worse, a smack of mockery to any intelligent property owner trying to get an issue resolved.  So, it’s no wonder that the poster is frustrated and sees no end in sight.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Come election time we need more property owners to show up, nominate someone you think will help the neighborhood overcome some of the inactivity we see today, and vote.  Over the past three years we have not had enough property owners attend the annual meeting to hold elections.  So, special meetings were held to circumvent quorums not met.

My message to you is that we can change the current status by exercising our right to vote.  If you want improvements in our neighborhood, then get involve with the election; show up election night, nominate a board candidate, vote and volunteer.

Finally, here’s an offer.  If anyone has comments to blog, or an opinion, then write your comments to a file, save the file, and then attach that file to an email to me.  I will publish your comments as the blog’s daily comment.  One thing however; I will not edit your comments, so the way you write it will be the way it’s publish.  If you decide to do this then you may want to spell check before you send the file.  If you’re interested, let me know.  I would welcome your comments, and that would give me a break.  LOL.

Later,

Dan