Author: Nona Tobin

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.

  1. 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.
  2. Ask why didn’t they post the petitions so people could know what the complaints against the four directors were.
  3. 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.
  4. Ask why no attempts to correct any of the listed problems were ever made.
  5. Ask why no provision for notifying voters who might have their mail on hold the entire voting period how to get their ballot.
  6. Ask why, when the petitions came in, management only notified David Berman.
  7. Ask why only six of the seven members of the Board were notified.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.

Fire the debt collector

On January 25, 2017, I sent an email to HOA General Manager Sandy Seddon and to the Sun City Anthem Board of Directors warning them about the serious financial risks the association was facing due to the misconduct of its debt collectors. The GM and the Board ignored this warning.

Then they did everything wrong.

  1. They added debt collection to the duties of the new Association Legal Counsel, The Clarkson Law Group without an RFP and without addressing the inherent conflict of interest this created.
  2. The GM withheld debt collection records from me as an elected member of the Board
  3. The Clarkson Law Group got the 6 other Board members to vote to order me to recuse myself from al HOA collection matters.
  4. They made no investigation of the charges i alleged regarding the HOA agents stealing from the association.

2007-2017 Debt Collection Contracts were all flawed

Nevada Debt Collection licenses note that attorneys have an exception from the requirement to have a NRS 649 debt collector license

3/19/07 SCA contract with Red Rock Financial Services

4/27/12 SCA contract with Red Rock Financial Services

5/1/17 Clarkson

Contracts with Red Rock

4/27/12 SCA contract with Red Rock Financial Services contains an Indemnification clause that is favorable to the HOA but this contract provision has never been enforced by Sun City Anthem managers and attorneys. This has resulted in at least $100,000 in litigation costs being shifted from Red Rock Financial Services to Sun City Anthem homeowners. HOA attorneys concealed this contract in discovery in my case. HOA attorneys (Clarkson) and Rex Weddle, Board President who aided and abetted the HOA agents’ unjust enrichment, prevented my bringing this issue to the HOA board as was my right under NRS 116.31087.

David Ochoa, Lipson Nielson attorney for Sun City Anthem in my case, A-15-720032-C, Joel A. Stokes and Sandra F, Stokes, as trustee of Jimijack Irrevocable Trust vs. Bank of America and Sun City Anthem Community Association, Inc., failed to disclose the applicable debt collection contract, dated, 4/27/12. Instead, he disclosed the 2007 contract as SCA 164-167, that does no have this protection for HOA homeowners.

Most, if not all, of the $87,797 should have been paid by red Rock financial Services per the 4/27/12 unenforced indemnification clause.

3/19/07 SCA contract with Red Rock Financial Services disclosed as SCA 164-167 instead of the applicable 4/12/27 contract

Whose interests was David Ochoa representing when he disclosed the wrong contract? In my opinion, this “error”, combined with Ochoa’s other actions in my case, shows a pretty strong alignment of attorneys with HOA managers and agents against homeowners and the HOA itself.

4/20/15 Alessi & Koenig contract with Sun City Anthem – Alessi & Koenig held foreclosure sales out of their 9500 W. Flamingo office with no notice the SCA homeowners. All were sold to investors for a small fraction of their value. David Alessi was not licensed to practice law in Nevada and so should not have been exempt from NRS 649 licensing and oversight. A&K hid their assets, went Chapter 7, and morphed into HOA Lawyers Group.

8/15/16 HOA Lawyers Group contract with Sun City Anthem should not have gotten a no-bid contract expecially since they were A&K’s alter ego to evade creditors.

5/1/17 SCA contract with The Clarkson Law Group was not based on a debt collector RFP (Sandy Seddon put out an RFP for Legal Counsel on 1/9/17.)

Clarkson’s flawed hiring and his unscrupulous handling of the inherent conflict

1/9/17 legal Counsel RFP did not include debt collection

4/27/17 Board item 15A did not include debt collection

4/27/17 Board minutes #15A approved no-bid (without RFP) debt collection in the Clarkson contract. The Board’s giving “management” discretion over which matters remained with Leach should be noted.

5/23/17 Clarkson’s first quarterly litigation report

5/23/17 Lipson quarterly litigation report Lipson handled the litigation related to many of the foreclosures. Upon information and belief (UIAB), Lipson worked for the insurance company (“carrier” ) that may have had financial reasons for supporting the interests of Red Rock. Further, UIAB, Lipson attorney Ochoa did not get direction from the HOA Board and acted according to direction from GM Sandy Seddon and/or CAM Lori Martin and HOA Legal Counsel/debt collector Adam Clarkson. All of them defamed me, damaged me and worked to obstruct my access to HOA records and to obstruct a fir adjudication of my quiet title case.

5/25/17 Executive session minutes contained an order for me to recuse myself from all HOA collection matters

Note that I am identified as a party to A-15-720032-A as “Nona Tobin, an Individual and Trustee of the Gordon B. Hansen Trust”. Ochoa later lied about this repeatedly into the court record in order to obstruct a fair adjudication of my claims and to prevent my access to the Nevada supreme Court on appeal.

Note that there are three other items on that executive session agenda that, in my strongly stated opinion, the Board was prohibited from discussing, or acting on, in closed session, and which contributed to the unjust enrichment of HOA managers and/or agents and which were detrimental to the HOA per se. I will give those items to the police rather than publish them n the internet to spare myself the grief of more abusive threats and harassment from the lying, self-serving attorneys.

12/3/16 Tobin email re SCA’s flawed contracting/hiring practices

July 28, 2016 HOABoard minutes

July 28, 2016 Board action item #07-28-2016-05

6/5/17 Clarkson’s unbelievably broad, self-serving recusal acknowledgment I signed without consulting an attorney, which I never violated, and which Clarkson used as a ruse to remove me unlawfully from my elected seat on the HOA Board on 8/24/17 so he and Seddon could take over the recall election and keep compliant Board members safe from recall.

12/1/16 Board Book collection report by Alessi & Koenig in the HOA office hard copy is incompatible with the report in the online version of the Board book which was done by HOA Lawyers Group at Alessi & Koenig’s address.

A bunch of stuff about what’s wrong with Alessi & Koenig & HOA Lawyers Group

Thomas Baynard CA bar discipline

10/1/17 Thomas Baynard disbarred in California (I don’t know if he was ever licensed in Nevada. David Alessi was never a licensed attorney in Nevada.)

Melinda Ellis vs. Alessi & Koenig 20955 Pathfinder Rd #100 Diamond Bar CA 91765

Levi Jones case A-14-695093-c Register of Actions in Exhibit 3

A & K skipped on $500K racketeering judgment

NV Secretary of State entity Info HOA Lawyers Group

NV Secretary of State Entity Info Alessi & Koenig LLC dissolved

Alessi & Koenig filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy

David Alessi’s sworn declaration doesn’t explain what happened to the money in his attorney trust fund

7/27/16 David Alessi Declaration

Bank of America didn’t buy David Alessi’s sworn declaration any more than I did

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SdzP-QMQqibc46iOF4bR6_2DEbX7GBjF/view?usp=sharing

8/11/16 BANA objection

2763 White Sage Drive APN: 191-13-811-052

Clark County Official 2003 Property Records

2003 RECORDED DOCUMENTS

200307310004443 POWER OF ATTORNEY

POWER OF ATTORNEY from Marilyn to Gordon Hansen   is significant because it is the only recorded power of attorney in this property record from 2003-2021

“limited to executing loan documents for purchase of home located at 2763 White Sage…power of attorney is null & void after execution.”  

Marilyn Hansen in granting her power of attorney to Gordon Hansen solely for the purpose of purchasing their new Sun City Anthem home.
Marilyn 2 Gordon Hansen Power of Attorney is the only recorded power of attorney in this property record from 2003-2021.
Nationstar disclosed it as NSM 117-120.

Nationstar did not record Power of Attorneys for the claims NSM recorded as “attorney-in-fact” for other entities on 12/1/14 (Bank of American), 8/17/15 (Wells Fargo),  3/8/19 (Bank of American), 3/8/19 (Wells Fargo) or 6/3/19 (American Trustee Servicing Solutions)

200307310004442 DEED

DEED Del Webb 2 Marilyn & Gordon Hansen

200307310004444 DEED OF TRUST

Borrower: Gordon & Marilyn Hansen

$310,600 1st DEED OF TRUST   Lender: City First Mortgage