GM Dumped $73,000+ Removal Election Costs on SCA Owners

The GM is to blame for the big bill – not the SCA owners who must pay it

This huge expense is still climbing, but it was totally unnecessary, not legally authorized by the Board, and did not serve the best interests of SCA.

Both the GM and the attorney should be fired for spending our money to interfere with the integrity of the removal election.

This unauthorized expenditure is sufficiently egregious to warrant the termination of both the GM and attorney, but that won’t happen because the beneficiaries of the election interference by SCA’s agents included a majority of the Board which was apparently important enough to them to stand by and let SCA owners foot the huge and unnecessary bill.

While I was on the Board I aggressively attempted to protect the independence of the Election Committee,  but alone and constrained by ethical boundaries, I was no match for the abuse of power by the Board President and SCA’s agents who were not so constrained.

A well-documented contributing factor to my unlawful removal from the Board was that I informed the Ombudsman on July 24 of my concerns about the need to protect the independence of the Election Committee (and also to protect owners lawfully collecting petition signatures) from the significant GM/CAM/attorney/Board interference I observed.

Berman’s constant improper placement of blame

David Berman continues to perpetuate the myth that these unnecessary and unauthorized costs were caused by the petitioners who (legally) called for the removal election.

This targeting of unit owners is obviously wrong. Owners don’t have enough power to be culpable.

Think about it.

  • If 1,200 unit owners had wanted  the Election Committee to conduct the removal election, but the GM did not want it, would they have been able to make their wishes happen over her objections?
  • If any of the petitioners had come to the Board meeting and begged to have SCA fork out over $73,000 to pay an unknown CPA and the attorney to do the Election Committee’s job, would SCA have spent one dime?

Both the GM and the Board President had to want SCA money to be spent on agents of their choosing  to run the removal election (incompetently or, more likely, unethically), or OUR money  would still be safely in the bank.

The Spin Doctor at work

Yet, despite all evidence to the contrary, David Berman persists in promulgating this almost laughable propaganda that unit owners could make the GM do something that doesn’t serve her interests. Smug in this delusion, today he blogged with a melodramatic and an almost audible sigh that this big $73,000 number would still be bigger when the attorney and CPA bills all come in:

Sad. SCA deserves so much better.
But, wait, hope may be on the horizon:

CIC Commission recently held a GM accountable despite HOA attorney advice that action was OK under NRS.

If Rex and Sandy having Clarkson on speed dial is no longer as good an excuse as “the dog ate my homework”, then maybe…

AnthemOpinions blogspot reported about a case that was heard at the recent CIC Commission meeting which seemed to demonstrate the Commission’s repudiation of the “the attorney said I could” defense.

 

The Zeitgeist
Perhaps, we are reaching a tipping point.

In the whole country, the public conversation has shifted seismically around sexual harassment. Suddenly, society-at-large is not just standing silently by while men in power abuse vulnerable people with impunity.

Maybe the tide is turning here at SCA too.

Now, owners no longer seem so resigned and no longer seem willing to tolerate inexcusable behavior or poor leadership. A critical mass is forming, and this is a necessary step to creating a healthier balance of power in our community.

As formerly discouraged and disenfranchised owners are more willing to speak up and stand up to bullies, SCA’s bullies will predictably face a Come to Jesus reckoning. A tectonic power shift will occur that, in retrospect, we will be surprised at how long it took us to take our power back.

 

 

Elder Abuse: Part II – SCA Agents

We have another covert systemic type of elder abuse going on right here at SCA. We have all of the problems endemic to Nevada HOAs in general, but those generic problems have been fueled here by a historically divided community and exacerbated by a poorly-executed transition to “self-management.”

Our system fails to provide sufficient competent owner oversight and internal controls necessary to prevent abuse by professional agents who are supposed to be fiduciaries acting SOLELY in the best interests of the owners,  but who are taking unfair advantage of us for their own unjust enrichment.

You are going to hear this same refrain from me repeatedly:

The biggest risk SCA owners face is being screwed over by unscrupulous agents who are supposed to be acting solely in our best interest, but who are not. They are actually unfairly acting in their own self-interest and profiting at our expense.

The reason “they” kicked me off the Board is they wanted to shut me up. They wanted to prevent me from telling owners what they are doing. They wanted me to stop publicly trying to force them to make system changes that would protect SCA owners from abuse by our own, highly-compensated, but unscrupulous, agents.

Who is “they”?

  • “They” are now (2016-now) GM Sandy Seddon and (May, 2017-now) association attorney/debt collector Adam Clarkson Law Group now.
  • Before (2009-2015), “they” were FirstService Residential (FSR)/formerly RMI, SCA’s managing agent, also licensed debt collector dba Red Rock Financial Services (RRFS).
  • In between (2015-2016), “they” were Alessi & Koenig, LLC attorney-debt collector that went into chapter 7 bankruptcy after being sued on 500 of the 800 HOA foreclosures they did between 2011-2015 and then…
  • “they” illegally morphed into HOA Lawyers Group, LLC (2016) but continued being SCA’s debt collector until replaced by Clarkson.

“They” are NOT necessarily the members of the Board, but “they” need to control the Board. “They”get their hands so far into our pockets only because the Board lets them do it. At least a majority of the Board has to negligently, maybe unwittingly, enable the attorney and management to take over the reins.

I believe the Directors are probably acting in good faith and trying to do their best, but are simply placing their faith in the wrong “experts”. However, even if the Directors are just innocently looking the other way, their ignorance is allowing SCA owners to be taken for an expensive ride.

So, what now?

Too bad for them.

“They”didn’t really get rid of me by unlawfully deeming my Board position vacant.

Now I have the time to tell you all about it. And I think I’ll start with what’s wrong with paying Sandy Seddon twice as much as we should be paying her.

 

Elder abuse: Part I – Guardianship

Many of you may not be familiar with the guardianship problem, but it’s where unscrupulous people become legal guardians and take over the finances and lives of the frail and elderly. They use a legal loophole to victimize the elderly and even take away the rights of the victim’s family. Guardianship abuse has been much worse here in Nevada because of the corruption that is rampant throughout our legal system.

Click this link https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/09/how-the-elderly-lose-their-rights for an in-depth article published October 9, 2017 in the New Yorker, “How the Elderly Lose Their Rights: Guardians can sell the assets and control the lives of senior citizens and make a profit from it” by Rachel Aviv.

For more information about guardianship abuse, visit  http://www.stopguardianabusenv.org/ This website was produced by the Nevada Association to Stop Guardian and Elder Abuse, a non-profit organization dedicated to stopping exploitation and abuse of those in need.

SCA resident, Rana Goodman, the President of the nonprofit, is mentioned in the New Yorker article. Rana deserves our profuse thanks for being such a tireless advocate for these most vulnerable among us. She has successfully gotten some legal changes to allow us to prospectively (before we are of diminished capacity) nominate who we want as our guardian so we can prevent some unscrupulous professional guardian from swooping in and taking over our lives.

It’s tragic to think that this type of abuse can even happen. Legal guardians are supposed to be fiduciaries. They are supposed to protect people who can’t take care of themselves. They are supposed to act solely in the best interest of the client. They are supposed to use the powers they “legally” get over their wards only for the good of the person under their charge, but sadly, and with the support of lawyers and judges, many helpless people have been victimized.

Whenever there is a lot of money involved, there will be those who will scam the system and rip innocent people off, and with unfortunate frequency here in Nevada, there will be judges and attorneys who help them get away with it.

As time goes by, I will show you in my blogs how a similar type of systemic corruption is pervasive within Nevada HOAs, and I’ll show you how it can work unfairly to the advantage of HOA agents, like managers, debt collectors, and attorneys, to rip off HOA owners. I’ll show you how SCA’s former agents essentially stole my late fiance’s house, and I’ll show you how SCA’s current agents are getting the Board’s unwitting blessing to rip SCA owners off in a lot of different ways.

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