Life is short.

Life is short. Take the trip. Buy the shoes. Eat the cake.

Today’s hiking club meeting made me realize acutely how much of the fun of living here I gave up when I made a two-year commitment to serving on the Board.

I’ve been beating myself up for taking so long to get the word out about the SCA Board brutally ejecting me from my elected seat. They beat me bad and kicked the fire out of my belly.

Problem is they’re still spending lots of owners’ money to keep that fire out.

Right now, the fun life is calling me so I can’t see much value in fighting to get back on such a dysfunctional Board, but I can’t quit just yet.

Wild Ride

First, I need to show owners that we are being taken for an expensive ride, and how those in the driver’s seat are spending lots of our money to keep in control and to run over and crush the spirit out of anyone who gets in the way.

Thursday, Sept. 28, 5:30 PM Board will adopt the 2018 budget – that’s at 5:30 PM, not at the usual 1:30 PM.

This decision will be virtually 100% final even though there is a November 16th member “ratification” meeting in which 90% of all owners would have to vote it down. No big deal. The attorney says the GM doesn’t have to follow it anyway.

September 28th Board Meeting Agenda and Board Book (pdf)

Other Irritating Agenda Items Worthy of Note

Buying the Hand that Beats You

We have paid $103,000 in attorney fees in the four months attorney Adam Clarkson has literally been running the show. These giant legal fees just blew by the $30,000 budget for those four months without so much as a “fare thee well.” How much of that high-cost legal work was necessary and how much was used vindictively to punish a homeowner that was getting in the way, or to evict the Foundation Assisting Seniors, or to interfere with the recall election of Rex, Aletta, Tom & Bob?

Last Among Equals

I’m a little touchy about this attorney because he is a bully who cares more about the General Manager (GM) and Community Association Manager than he cares about homeowners. He’s bullied the board into not using their common sense, and lots of those dollars went to writing nasty letters telling me to stop questioning why the GM is paid $100,000 over market value or why four managers compensation eats up 10% of the operating budget.

It has cost the homeowners many thousands to use the attorney to threaten me, to carve me out from the Board, and to not only treat me less than the other Directors, but less than a human.

Embarrassing Loss of Budget Control

The attorney self-servingly advises that the GM doesn’t have to get Board approval or even notify members that money is being taken from Peter to pay Paul. Remember the consultant the GM needed to tell us why the restaurant is closed? It wasn’t budgeted in 2017, and I didn’t see it in 2018 either.

The 2018 budget will deal with it by doubling the amount budgeted for attorneys rather than asking why SCA needs to pay attorneys 100 times what Anthem Community Council pays in legal fees.

So, I guess the GM can take money from whatever purpose is favored by people she doesn’t like to pay the attorney. The Board sure won’t stop her. They didn’t stop her from paying a CPA to kick the Election Committee off the job for the October removal election.

Wait, what removal election?

I’m not surprised you didn’t hear that on August 11, 825 people turned in petitions to recall Rex Weddle, Aletta Waterhouse, Tom Nissen & Bob Burch for just cause – such as secret meetings and lying.

No official information has gone out about the HUGE event that the majority of the board was facing a recall vote. They didn’t even give me a notice that four of them were facing recall while six of them were secretly plotting to surprise attack me and dump me from the Board on just their say so.

When is Vote to Remove Rex, Aletta, Tom & Bob?

Who knows? They’ve done a good job keeping the word quiet. At Thursday’s Board meeting a verbal report will be made, and supposedly the ballots for their removal will go out on October 2 with the caveat that they must be back for counting by October 20. I guess people who are gone are just SOL and can’t vote.

Why didn’t owners get to vote when I was kicked off?

Who knows? Owners voted me in. I sure don’t want to pay the attorney $325 to write another letter saying why the law requiring 2,501 owners here vote for the removal of a Director doesn’t apply to me.

By the Numbers – Part 2

Who Controls the Budget?

Sun City Anthem (SCA) homeowners are being taken for a very expensive ride. Six of the seven elected members of the SCA Board are allowing SCA’s new attorney, Adam Clarkson, along with Sandy Seddon, General Manager and Lori Martin, Community Association Manager, to have an unlawful level of control over Sun City Anthem.

These highly compensated employees and attorney are unjustly profiting from their power grab. Six of the seven members of the Board are just letting them do it. Owners are expected to ‘just take it and pay for it.’

Cost of Control

Every expenditure for one purpose is an opportunity lost for something else you wanted to buy. Why do we have a budget (which is a spending plan defining the priorities and use of money that is assessed from the homeowners for the benefit and betterment of the community) if the GM can change it at will?

Why even have a Board if the attorney in concert with management is really calling all the shots?

Who said that the 2017 adopted budget, which has NO allocation for any of these expenses, could just be ignored so the unit owners would have to pay?

Who said it was okay to over-expend the $30,000 (May-August) Legal Services budget by $73,000 to pay Adam Clarkson $103,000 for his first four months of service as SCA’s attorney?

Who said the attorney Clarkson was authorized to take over the removal election process at a cost of $325/hour?

Who said that the GM had the authority to execute a contract with an unknown CPA to pay for an unknown, and unlimited, amount to work with Clarkson Law Group to certify petitions and mail out ballots for the removal election?

By the Numbers

Based on their current compensation, Sandy Seddon, Lori Martin, and Adam Clarkson will continue to financially benefit if they can help keep the four directors currently facing a recall vote, from being removed from power. These four the directors helped to hire them and fiercely protect them during any discussions from the residents. However, they illegally removed without a recall election the one director, me, who challenged their salaries and actions.

Here’s the profit they are making for working for the Board:

The GM was paid $100,000+ over market when hired and was given a bonus of $20,000 six months after FSR left.
The 2017 budget also includes another $20,000 bonus but is not tied to any publicly-adopted performance standards or measures.
Compensation for four management employees eats up 10% of SCA’s total 2017 operating budget.
The legal services provided by Clarkson during his first four months as association attorney have cost owners $103,000, primarily spent on writing “legal letters” to stop me from questioning or to take legal action to evict the Foundation.

The Finance Committee stated that the legal services budget should double to $180,000 in 2018 proposed budget by extrapolating the trend of payments. How does SCA benefit from this expenditure?

My Removal from the Board

The reason given for removing me from the Board is that I was trying to profit. Here’s the profit I was making for being on the Board…Zero dollars.

My cost so far has amounted to $3,000 in attorney fees for my defense against the other six members of the Board’s illegal actions against me. However, by law, these attorney fees should be paid by SCA.

According to Article 3.4 (f) of the SCA by-laws – Indemnity. If a member of the Board of Directors is named as a respondent or sued for liability for actions undertaken in his role as a member of the Board, the Association shall indemnify him for his losses or claims and undertake all costs of defense, unless it is proven that he acted with willful or wanton misfeasance or with gross negligence.

Clarkson has refused to let SCA pay my attorney fees, stating that I am personally liable (even though I am innocent of any charges). SCA paid Clarkson ten times that $3,000 amount to illegally attack me, while objecting to my rights, under the above-stated By-Laws, to attorney representation.

Clarkson also redefined my demand for attorney fees as a ‘demand for monetary damages as putting matters before the Board from which I could make a profit.’

I’m saying that because of their obvious conflicts of interest, Sandy Seddon, Lori Martin, the majority of the Board, and attorney Adam Clarkson should have been excluded from making any expenditures or making any decisions related to the recall election. I don’t believe that they are performing in a neutral or fair manner, especially after their secret meeting to expel me from the Board.

I’m saying that the attorney and the GM, having convinced the other six members of the Board that the GM has the authority to spend money for unbudgeted purposes, make a pretty big profit and have an extraordinary level of power. For instance:

Hiring a consultant about the shuttered restaurant,
Hiring a CPA to do the Election Committee’s job for the removal election
- According to Article 3.5(b)(i), The secretary or other officer specified in the By-Laws shall cause a secret ballot and a return envelope to the sent prepaid, by United States mail to the mailing addresses of each Lot or to any other mailing addresses designated in writing by the Owner.
Paying the attorney $73,000 over the $30,000 budgeted for his first four months.

Did you get that?

I’m saying that the other six members of the Board have abdicated that much power even though it is flat out against the law. Right now, the GM is able to rob Peter to pay Paul. She has been allowed to expend SCA funds as she sees fit without legal Board action to amend the budget, without any financial limits, and without any notice to members regarding where the money would come. So much for our spending plan.

I’m saying, these highly compensated individuals certainly have a motive to do just about anything to protect their gravy train, and we have seen how they have taken illegal actions to run me over for getting in the way of that train.

I’m saying that Adam Clarkson should not have been given a blank check to collect $325/hour for whatever he says SCA needs. Why do we need a Board if an attorney has to bless every decision?

Resources:

GM compensation comparison chart (pdf)

By the Numbers – Part 1

You’re fired!

A closer look at surprise decision to fire me from the Sun City Anthem Board made secretly by the other six members of the Board and announced to me at the August 24 Board meeting shows why SCA’s new attorney Adam Clarkson is the one who should be fired.

Clarkson advised the other six members of the Board that they could take unlawful action in secret to remove me, the elected seventh Director, from the Board without using the removal election process. Then, adding insult to injury, Clarkson took over the removal election process of Rex Weddle, Tom Nissen, Aletta Waterhouse and Bob Burch after four petitions signed by 825+ owners had been submitted and fired the SCA Elections Committee. The integrity of the removal election process has been compromised by the actions of management and the attorney, the very people who said I could be fired without a removal election.

Says Who?

Who says Board members,management and the attorney are allowed to diminish the value of your vote or lessen owners’ control over who sits on the SCA Board of Directors?

Who said the attorney Clarkson was authorized to take over the removal election process of the four directors who had more than 825 signatures to recall them at a cost of $325/hour?
Who said that the GM had the authority to pay a CPA an unknown, and unlimited, amount to work with Clarkson Law Group to do what is normally done by the volunteer Election Committee on any other SCA election?
Who said the Election Committee could have no role in the removal election of four members of the Board?
Who said the Election Committee could be relieved of all the duties listed in its adopted charter to conduct any Sun City Anthem election?
Who said six members of the seven-member Board had the authority to vote the seventh elected Board member off the island without a removal election for any reason, let alone because I blew the whistle?

So, here’s what I’m saying…

My sudden forced exit from the Board was done in retaliation for my complaining that the Board and management were violating SCA’s governing documents and NRS 116 and other statutes.

I’m saying that their allegations including that I am using my position on the Board to make a profit are all false.

I’m saying the attorney should be fired for causing six members of the Board to act illegally to kick me off the Board based on unproven allegations, without making the slightest attempt to prove whether the allegations are true or false, and without the common decency of even telling the seventh member of the Board what they were sneaking around doing

I’m saying that six of the seven members on the Board have no legal authority to just fire the seventh member from Board without a removal election called by a petition signed by at least 10% of the 7,144 members.

I’m saying that six of the seven members on the Board have no legal authority to just fire the seventh member from Board regardless of merits of their allegations and regardless of the intensity of the six Directors’ personal beliefs in the allegations.

Clarkson told the other six members of the Board that making an unproven allegation that I was making, or could theoretically make, a profit from being on the Board was sufficient justification for kicking me off the board instantly. No need to have a hearing to find me guilty. No need for 10% of the owners to sign a petition asking for a removal election. No need for for a removal election with 2,501 to vote for removal.

I’m saying the action was taken to boot me off and refuse to indemnify me or provide me a defense as required by law was done in retaliation of my giving notice to the GM, CAM, attorney, and Board of my intent to bring their actions to the attention of the authorities.

I’m saying that we unit owners have a right to know who made these decisions and by what legal authority.

I’m saying that the Ombudsman or some other neutral State official should have provided independent oversight to the Election Committee to ensure the integrity of the removal election process,

I’m saying the four people who are facing recall should not have dismissed the petitioners’ complaints without consideration of their merits on the belief that anyone who would complain is obviously just a malcontent or a whiner.

I’m saying the four Directors facing the unnecessarily-expensive removal election should not have treated the complaints as unworthy of response and there’s no need to listen to owners when these Board members already know what’s best.

I’m saying the four Directors facing the unnecessarily-expensive removal election should have done the right thing – and just resigned.

I’m saying that you all should vote for the removal of the four Directors who are making you pay through the nose to have a removal election right after they refused to honor your vote that put me on the board and did not ask for your vote when they removed me.

Resources:

Nona’s Notice of Intent (pdf)

SCA Response to Demand Letters and Board Decision (pdf)

Get involved: Questions To Ask

I’ve been asked how a homeowner can get involved and be heard…

Here are some questions to ask at the next HOA meeting, or, if you can’t make it, login to the SCA HOA website and use the management request form.

Ask why they made it so hard for people to find anything out about the removal election of four directors who are ga-ga over the GM.
Ask why didn’t they post the petitions so people could know what the complaints against the four directors were.
Ask why there was no official response to the petitioners’ concerns was ever given to 825+ owners signed petitions for removing Rex, Aletta, Tom and Bob.
Ask why no attempts to correct any of the listed problems were ever made.
Ask why no provision for notifying voters who might have their mail on hold the entire voting period how to get their ballot.
Ask why, when the petitions came in, management only notified David Berman.
Ask why only six of the seven members of the Board were notified.
Ask why the GM did not notify me, the seventh elected member of the Board, that four petitions with 825+ signers were submitted on August 11 citing a long list of complaints justifying a call for a removal election of four members of the seven-member board.
Ask why no petition of 10% of the owners or removal election was required when I kicked off the board on August 24 without just cause.