Adam Clarkson unlawfully controls the composition of the Sun City Anthem Board

Quoted below is Forrest Quinn’s excellent NextDoor June 22, 2023 post about Adam Clarkson’s adding his own requirements for residents to serve on the SCA Board. Since I am the poster child of this particular form of homeowner abuse, I thought I’d give you the back story of how it all started and how much, much worse it’s become since 2017.

Backstory

Sun City Anthem was managed from the time it went from developer (Del Webb) control to “self-management” by a contract manager, FirstService Residential (FSR) that also held the Nevada NRS 649 debt collector license and using a wholly owned subsidiary doing business as Red Rock Financial Services was the HOA’s debt collector and foreclosure sale trustee. Remember that all HOA managers are fiduciaries by law even when they are performing debt collection functions. Attorneys are also supposed to be fiduciaries even when they are acting as HOA debt collectors. (You have to remember that because they have forgotten.)

During the transition to “self-management” Sandy Seddon was hired 11/1/15 to overlap with FSR as a shadow manager to transition the systems at a base salary of $250,000, $100,000 more than the Sun City Summerlin full-time manager who was hired at the same time. Many people objected, including me, when six months after she took over after FSR’s departure in late 2016, the Board gave her a $20,000 bonus. I went to the HOA office and found that we actually had a separate Community Association Manager, Lori Martin, besides Sandy Seddon who was called the General Manager at that time. I requested a copy of the HOA’s management performance compensation policies and to see if any market surveys that had been done to set her salary. CAM Martin informed me that there were no policies, that the Board had essentially unfettered discretion to set the pay. When I asked, “so they could pay her a million bucks a year?” The answer was yes.

I ran for the Board in 2017 and was elected on 5/1/17 with 2,001 votes. On the same day I took my elected Board seat, Adam Clarkson’s 1st unethical, improperly obtained contract to be Sun City Anthem’s (SCA’s) debt collector and legal counsel.

NRS 116.31086 requires that an HOA Board selects vendors by an open bid process contract bids. SCA Board put out an RFP for a new debt collector to replace FSR dba Red Rock in 2015 and after a full public evaluation of the competitors, selected Alessi & Koenig, LLC to be SCA’s debt collector.

In January 2017, I sent a recommendation to the SCA Board to fire the debt collector because Alessi & Koenig, LLC had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and they had misled the Board into modifying its contract to a successor entity that had been used to conceal assets from creditors. Instead of putting out a new RFP for a debt collector as required by NRS 116.31086 or even thanking me, Seddon and the Board ignored me.

I filed an application for the Board on 2/5/17, and Lori Martin told me I had to put on my conflict of interest form that I had filed a civil complaint to quiet title of my late fiance’s home that Red Rock had wrongfully foreclosed three years earlier without notice after Red Rock rejected multiple assessment offers that cured the delinquency and had unlawfully kept virtually all the sale proceeds. I told her I wanted the HOA to work with me to settle at no cost without litigation because the HOA shouldn’t cover up the former agents’ wrongdoing. My interest in the Board was to assist SCA become a first-time employer to set up personnel performance, accountability, transparency and compensation policies as that was my professional expertise.

The opinion of SCA’s legal counsel of the time interpreted NRS 116.31034 to allow me to run for the Board so Seddon got the Board to select a new General Legal Counsel for the HOA at the April 2017 meeting before the next Board was seated.

SCA’s litigation attorney in my quiet title/excess proceeds case agreed to settlement negotiations in March 2017 that I had initiated to attempt to achieve a mutually-beneficial resolution of the wrongful foreclosure action at no cost to SCA or to me before the 5/1/17 SCA Board election.

Rather than allow me to have my rights under SCA CC&Rs XVI: ADR & Limitation on Litigation, and for no good purpose, SCA management changed the litigation attorney to one who rejected my 3/22/17 no cost settlement offer unilaterally without taking it to the SCA Board for approval and without consideration of the best interests of the Bound parties.

Seddon, in concert with my competitor for one of the vacant 2017 Board seats, Board President Rex Weddle, orchestrated another unlawful manipulation of NRS 116.31086 before the 2017 election to bring Clarkson in as SCA’s debt collector without an RFP and without agendizing the Board action to do so at the April 2017 meeting before the new Board was seated.

Once Clarkson started at SCA with the power of two highly incompatible roles on the same day as I was seated in my elected position, the relentless campaign to keep information from me, to treat me differently from other Board members ensued.

At my first SCA Board meeting, Clarkson got the Board in closed session (after removing me) to order me to recuse myself from all collection matters regardless of whether there was any relationship whatsoever to the 2014 wrongful foreclose conducted without valid SCA Board approval at an open Board meeting by SCA’s former agents who had unlawfully kept $57,282.32 excess proceeds from the sale that belonged to me.

Even though I knew NRS 116.31084 defines how a Board member recuses herself if there is a conflict, I didn’t argue because I expected the litigation could be quickly settled, not realizing that Clarkson and the new litigation attorney were going to obstruct the litigation.

Clarkson and the litigation attorney not only refused to produce SCA’s enforcement records, SCA Board agendas and minutes, or any of SCA’s official records of probative value to my case, but instead produced the unverified, uncorroborated, incomplete, inaccurate and falsified records of SCA’s former agent Red Rock, misrepresenting them to the Court as if they were SCA’s official records.

Clarkson’s obstruction of my litigation and my Board service conceals a corrupt system he wants to perpetuate

I was forced into litigation, and then my litigation obstructed to cover up that SCA’s former agents, FSR as manager, and FSR dba Red Rock, as debt collector, in 2014, secretly sold, and unlawfully kept nearly all the proceeds from, a dozen SCA homes to a hand full of insider speculators, for a fifth of their value, without approval at an open Board meeting as required by our bylaws 3.15 and 3.15A, for the alleged violation of delinquent assessments, without publishing the quarterly delinquency report required by SCA bylaws 3.21(f)(v), without any without the same notice as the SCA Board is required by CC&Rs 7.4 and bylaws 3.26 to provide when issuing a fine or sanction of any amount.

The core issue is HOA homeowners have rights that are guaranteed to us as the intentional beneficiaries of our HOA’s governing documents, independent of what the state law says. And independent of what Clarkson and the other CAI lobbyist attorneys say.

My problem with all the attorneys against me in the litigation is the attorneys who are supposed to be fiduciaries to the HOA, and to the homeowners as the intentional beneficiaries of the HOA for which it exists, don’t view things that way. They view themselves as representing other interests.

Clarkson’s perspective appears to be that he is a Super-Director above the Board and above the law “I am the attorney. I decide the law. You are required to act solely “on the advice of counsel”. You are prohibited from acting contrary to the attorney’s edicts. He frequently acts in his own self-interest because he has the conflicting role of being a debt collector and a particularly greedy attorney so he makes up rules to decrease transparency. He changes the wording on policies here and there to change so they don’t apply to him or Sedddon, just very sneaky, but blatantly, very non-fiduciary things, as working for the sole and exclusive best interest of the common good of the HOA membershi is the farthest thing from his mind.

The HOA litigation attorney David Ochoa I think actually works for the HOA’s insurance company. He is definitely not working in the interest of the HOA or the HOA homeowner. He was protecting SCA’s former agents because the more liability that can be kept on the backs of the owners the less there is on the insurance company. Just a theory. He’s the one who refused to settle because my claims were similar to the bank’s, but no bank ever filed a claim aginst SCA in this case nor against me for that matter. But somehow without the HOA having any interest in the title and never having filed any claims against me got summary judgment to quiet title by filing an absolutely unnecessary motion for summary judgment against me when there was zero interest of the HOA served by so doing.Further, he did so, after concealing all the HOA’s records of probative value and presenting the Red Rock falsified records as if they were SCA’s. Both HOA attorneys and the Red Rock attorney concealed the applicable 4/27/12 debt collection contract that had an indemnity clause favorable to SCA and the homeowners, and Ochoa disclosed the 2007 contract that shows SCA has to indemnify Red Rock. Since Clarkson refused to discuss why that indemnification provision was not enforced, SCA homeowners were on the hook for $87,000+ legal fees for litigation related to pre 2016 foreclosures that Red Rock should have paid.

Forrest Quinn asked on 1/30/23 if SCA management was trying to discourage residents from running for the SCA Board.

On 1/31/23 Clarkson sent me his 7th notice of my ineligibility to run for SCA Board.

Interpretation of NRS 116

Note that the way Forrest Quinn interprets NRS 116.31034 is the same way anybody who can read English interprets it.

I filed complaints to the State Bar to sanction multiple attorneys for what they have done that damaged both me & SCA by acting in their own self-interest instead of as fiduciaries.

The State Bar rejected the complaint at intake without investigation, telling me only to come back if I had a court order with written findings that established attorney misconduct.

I prepared five draft complaints to file civil actions to request a judge provide written findings, and gave Clarkson and each of the other implicated attorneys, a notice of intent to give them an opportunity to refute the VERY SERIOUS and fully documented accusations against them which they simply ignored.

Since I am still in litigation over the $57,282.32 excess proceeds from the 8/15/14 foreclosure, I filed a motion for an order to show cause to this judge requesting that she consider the five uninvestigated Bar complaints supported by forensically-audited evidence showing that these attorneys knowingly misrepresented both the law and the facts to multiple courts in order to unfairly alter the standing of the parties and to change the outcome of the proceedings and then drafted the orders for the judge to say that the false facts were undisputed and the law was correct.

How Clarkson and attorneys for HOA servicers are stripping my rights to rise above the law

Basically, what happened in my case would be equivalent to a malicious prosecution in the Jim Crow era where a white attorney and a white Sheriff doctor the evidence to frame a black man, and the white judge signs the order to put the black man to death without checking the evidence by simply overruling the black man’s black attorney. Appeals are futile because the order is written that the evidence was corroborated six ways to Sunday and everything the white officers of the court say was beyond a reasonable doubt and the court record showed a vote of 12-0 by a non-existent jury.

I am now fighting a vexatious litigant restrictive order, entered on 3/28/23, that prohibits me from any unrestricted filing of ANY civil complaint in ANY Nevada court against ANY defendant for ANY cause of action unless I pay an attorney to represent me.

Not likely I’m going to hire another attorney after firing three of them, and after I’ve already incurred over $400,000 in litigation expenses over the past seven years, unsuccessfully trying to void the wrongful foreclosure and without getting my $57,282.32 excess proceeds with interest and penalties that’s been unlawfully withheld from me for nearly nine years now simply because I am trying to void the sale and my opponents and trying to cover it up.

In the vexatious litigant restrictive order, the judge’s findings were 100% in favor of the attorneys (big surprise). She “found”, based on no consideration of facts supported by verified evidence in the court record, in an order drafted by one of the implicated attorneys, that my complaints were frivolous and devoid of any legal or factual merit and that my intent for filing them was improper and solely for the purpose of harassing the (presumably innocent) attorneys in the title dispute.

The Governor signed SB 417 on 6/9/23. Boon to HOA management. Woe to owners.

Hardly anybody knows that all Nevada HOA homeowners’ right to control their budgets has been diminished by Clarkson and Seddon keeping their pay a secret from those who pay it.

SB 417 text shows a change to NRS 116.31175, successfully lobbied for by Community Association Institute (CAI) lobbyist and SCA allegedly fiduciary legal counsel/debt collector Clarkson. This states that HOA homeowners no longer have a right, previously guaranteed by state law, to ask HOA management for records that show how much any employee is being paid either per hour or according to the terms of an employment agreement.

There is no benefit to any HOA in the state of Nevada to have a ridiculous provision like this, any more than there would be a benefit to any city in Nevada for the legislature to have passed a rule that said that management could keep half of the budget a secret from the taxpayers.

This opens the door for a massive amount of corruption and stupidity, and there was simply no proper purpose for it except to cover up that Sandy Seddon is still being paid double what her job is worth to the SCA assessment payers, and she and Adam Clarkson are going to “vet” everybody off the Board who says so.

Thanks to Clarkson, SB 417 allows for the Ombudsman to refuse to investigate and allows for people to be kept off the Board for up to 10 years if accused of something

An April 11, 2023 article in the Nevada Current reported Clarkson’s saying some of us just aren’t “good people”

How does this all fit together?

It’s simply a power grab to abridge HOA homeowners’ rights for the unjust enrichment of HOA servicers represented by the CAI lobbyist Clarkson.

I complained in 2017 about HOA agents and managers telling the Board that the Board had to do certain things in closed meetings: 1) the former agents told the HOA Board falsely everything about foreclosure had to be done in closed meetings, but that was false. I said so, and Clarkson kicked me off the Board, obstructed my case from getting the evidence, and conspired with the former agents to lie to the court so I couldn’t win on appeal; 2) Clarkson said the Board could meet in closed meetings every month and pretty much disregard what the law said about the only permissible topics and he was the sole arbiter of what the law was and so by getting a vote of the other six members of the Board at a closed session hen he “declared my seat was IMMEDIATELY vacant by operation of (some unspecified and unknown ) law” given that NRS 116.31036 removal election is the only legal way to remove someone from the Boardhe did so in retaliation to my submitting notices of intent to file complaints against Clarkson to the State Bar and against Seddon for concealing records and working without a proper management contract and against the Board for harassment and bullying because I had complained about their interference in the recall election. It’s been one retaliatory act after another for years, incrementally, a few tiny word changes in an SCA Board policy here, a few false statements in a court order, joined by other attorneys, that describe them as uncontroverted there, then a barely noticed bill through the biennial State legislature masquerading as raising $10 limit on an information request that in really a means to eliminate transparency about HOA management compensation and a means to disenfranchise HOA homeowners for 10 years and eliminate the Ombudsman for Owners in Common Interest Communities’ duty to investigate complaints, as Clarkson says, “even if they are true”. After all, the complainer is obviously not a good person.

Clarkson and Seddon have defamed me by making false claims that I am ineligible to serve on the Board nonsensically because of things I allegedly put before the Board from which I stood to make a profit. The list is longer each year and the reasons are false and frequently use the DARVO technique. Deny – Attack-Reverse -Victim -Offender.

SB 417, vexatious litigant restrictive order, SLAPP, DARVO, Clarkson’s alternative facts version of the law to “vet” me off Board for 7 years, suppression and falsification of HOA evidence that proves predatory practices that Clarkson is perpetuating, lying to court, and defamation are just some of the techniques these attorneys have used to silence me as a whistleblower and to give undue power to HOA servicers who are supposed to be fiduciaries.

What allegations of attorney misconduct were made against Sun City Anthem Attorneys

On 12/19/22, I filed a motion for an order to show cause why written findings of attorney misconduct should not be forwarded to the State Bar against David Ochoa and Adam Clarkson that was accompanied by a Request for Judicial Notice of a complaint filed with the State Bar.

The complaint had not been investigated by the State Bar as shown below. I had to get a court order with written findings before they would investigate these allegations.

Their actions prevented my quiet title case from being resolved fairly in 2017-2019.

They covered up the fraud of the HOA’s former agents by lying to the court and framing me.

David Ochoa, Lipson Neilson P. C., under direction from Adam Clarkson, The Clarkson Law Group, were the lawyers for Sun City Anthem Community Association, Inc., party in the first action who presented the falsified Red Rock foreclosure files to the court and misrepresented them as if they were the HOA’s concealed official records SCA’s attorneys filed a meritless motion for summary judgment to quiet a title in which the HOA held no interest and supported it with the falsified Red Rock records. SCA’s attorneys defamed Tobin and unlawfully removed her from her elected position on the HOA Board for being a party to the quiet title litigation of a house she inherited and have pursued a relentless campaign of harassment and retaliation against her over the past five years both for being a litigant herein and for being a whistleblower about other unrelated HOA matters.
SCA attorneys usurped the statutory authority of the HOA Board to enforce, and to impose fines and sanctions for alleged violations of, the HOA’s governing documents according to the terms of the Act (NRS 116). SCA attorneys obstructed Tobin’s access to Alternate Dispute Resolution (CC&Rs XVI, NRS 38.310) and then used abusive, potentially criminal (NRS 199.480(2)(c), NRS 199.210, NRS 193.130(d), NRS 199.145) litigation tactics to obstruct her ability to fully and fairly litigate her civil claims.
SCA attorneys acted in bad faith and did not serve the interests of the HOA or the common good of the HOA membership at large. The attorneys acted for their own self-interest (Clarkson) or in the interest of other parties (Clarkson and Ochoa), e.g., Sandy Seddon, Red Rock or the HOA’s insurance carrier
Defendant Ochoa made false statements to the court on at least these dates 3/28/17 RTRAN, 4/27/17 RTRAN, 5/23/17 RTRAN, 5/25/17 RTRAN, 3/26/19 RTRAN, 5/29/19 RTRAN, 9/3/19 RTRAN, 9/10/19 video, 9/10/19 minutes, submitted a false document to the court on these dates: 3/22/17, 3/27/17, 3/31/17, 4/18/17, 9/20/17. 4/20/18, 2/5/19, 3/6/19, 4/18/19, 5/2/19, 5/24/19, 5/31/19, 8/8/19, 8/9/19, 8/22/19, 11/22/19, 3/30/20, 7/1/20, or improperly withheld material information from the court on at least these dates: 5/31/18, 2/11/19, 2/26/19, 2/26/19, and caused serious injury to Tobin as an individual, and caused a significant adverse effect on the legal proceeding.
Ochoa knew that this phrase that he wrote into the 4/18/19 order was false,

“The totality of the facts evidence that the HOA properly followed the processes and procedures in foreclosing upon the Property”.

All documentary evidence, including declarations under penalty of perjury and sworn affidavits, put before the court on, inter alia, these dates: 9/23/16, 1/31/17, 3/3/17, 2/9/18, 5/31/18, 7/13/18, 12/5/18, 2/7/19, 2/12/19, 2/20/19, 2/26/19, 2/26/9, 2/27/19, 2/28/19. 2/28/19, 4/10/19, 4/12/19, 4/17/19, 4/24/19, 4/29/19, 5/23/19, 8/20/19, 8/26/19 – support the Tobin/Hansen Trust claims. However, the court relied solely on misrepresentations and false evidence by Ochoa and other opposing counsels, to adopt the erroneous orders entered on 4/18/19, 5/31/19 and 6/24/19.
Despite knowing the order was based on the false evidence Ochoa himself produced or the true evidence that he himself concealed and withheld, Ochoa and/or other attorneys under his direction, repeatedly relied on it in meritless filings and court hearings that succeeded in obstructing a fair adjudication of Tobin’s claims based solely on verified evidence on at least these dates: 4/27/17 RTRAN, 5/23/17 RTRAN, 5/25/17 RTRAN, 3/26/19 RTRAN, 5/29/19 RTRAN, 9/3/19 RTRAN, 9/10/19 video, 9/10/19 minutes, 3/22/17, 3/27/17, 3/31/17, 4/18/17, 9/20/17. 4/20/18, 2/5/19, 5/31/18, 2/11/19, 2/26/19, 2/26/19,
The order, authored by Ochoa, entered on 5/31/19, contains the false statements, completely unsupported by any verified evidence, (See EXHIBIT C of 3/6/22 Bar complaint.) that:

“The substantial exhibits that have been submitted in this case demonstrate that Nona Tobin as Trustee of the Trust was aware of the foreclosure and did nothing to stop the foreclosure. The May 2, 2019 (sic) Order, without addressing superpriority, establishes the HOA had a valid lien and properly noticed the foreclosure sale.”

Pages 48 to 55 of the draft complaint against Ochoa and Clarkson delineate the false evidence they entered into the court record primarily via records obtained from Steven Scow.
Exhibit A: Ochoa Obstructed Settlement
Exhibit C: Misrepresented and Suppressed Evidence
Exhibit D: Concealed Evidence
Exhibit E: Disclosed false & falsified evidence
Exhibit E-1 Disputed facts in Red Rock foreclosure file in SCA 176 – 643
Exhibit E-2 Examples of false evidence
Exhibit E-3 Red Rock Foreclosure file is false, falsified and disclosed as SCA 176-643
Exhibit F: Filed non-meritorious claims
Exhibit G: Concealed there were no Valid Board Actions
Exhibit G-1 Limits on closed HOA Board meetings
EXHIBIT G-2: SCA Board did not comply with HOA meeting laws
EXHIBIT G-3: SCA Board secretly sold a dozen houses in 2014
EXHIBIT G-4 SCA Board did not properly authorize any foreclosures conducted by Red Rock Financial Services in SCA 2012-2014 agendas and minutes excerpted for items related to foreclosure or debt
Exhibit G-5 is 5/23/19 Exhibit 5 “No valid board authorization for the sale” was misrepresented by David Ochoa and ignored by the court
Exhibit H – More disputed facts in the order (NEO 4/18/19) that granted the HOA MSJ and Nationstar joinder

Clarkson unlawfully removed me from my elected seat on the SCA Board in 2017 and has obstructed my running every year since

CAI minuscule minority dominates public policy again by pushing anti HOA owner SB 417

How does CAI convince legislators to take actions that are detrimental to HOA homeowner rights?

CAI uses attorneys as lobbyists pretending to be fiduciaries speaking in the best interest of the HOA.

CAI lobbyist Adam Clarkson pushed through SB 417- Whistleblower Robert Stern called him on it before the SCA May Board vote

Former Board member Forrest Quinn asked if SCA would ever have fair Board elections given Adam Clarkson’s interference

George K. Staropoli’s HOA Constitutional Government blog shows that the tiny CAI trade group has prevailed for years

$50,000 for the removal election and still counting

Last June I did not think passing around recall petitions was a good idea. I thought it was a fool’s errand – disruptive and doomed to fail.

However, I am a strong, some say overly-aggressive, defender of owners’ rights. I just hate it when people with power abuse ANY owner’s rights, but especially if they use dirty tricks or create an uneven playing field and make the little guy pay the price.

That’s what’s happening here now. The opponents of the removal election are making owners pay way more than we should, and they are trying to get us to blame the wrong people.

All the tens of thousands we will be paying for this removal election (above the less than $10,000 cost of an annual election) could have been avoided if the GM hadn’t blown me off by not even acknowledging my July 20 email:

Sandy Seddon didn’t answer me. Why should she? She knew that there was no one on the Board except me that cared one whit about maintaining the independence and neutrality of the Election Committee. Quite the opposite, she knew that she had the votes to approve anything she wanted to do make the removal election process difficult.

Who decided that these actions were in the best interest of owners?

Now, SCA owners are obligated to pay a bungling CPA firm $20,000 for the work done through September 30 no matter how poorly it was done. We will be on the hook for maybe triple that amount because their errors or omissions are significant enough that a second recall ballot may need to go out with Bob Burch’s name added to it.

Who made the decision to take away the Election Committee’s job?

Who decided that it was in the owners’ best interest to use an attorney and a CPA for the removal election when the attorney in five months is already billed $150,000 – FOUR times the $37,500 budget (In just September the attorney billed $43,873 and the CPA who replaced the volunteer Election Committee billed $20,000)?

Did I mention that there was:

no RFP for a CPA,
no approved CPA contract,
no Board approval to change the Election and Voting Manual,
no budget authorization for the CPA, and
the CPA has made so many mistakes that there might have to be a second removal ballot?

Owner concerns should never be ignored

The biggest reason Rex, Aletta, and Tom should be voted off the Board is that they chastise owners who have concerns about GM performance and adamantly refuse to hold the GM accountable for one of the most critical aspects of her job – owner satisfaction. And, they have spent thousands of our assessment dollars misusing the attorney in an attempt to silence criticism of the GM’s management style that many perceive as autocratic, divisive and unfair.

Refusal to listen

When over 800 people complained about how the GM is performing (by signing petitions) and stated that they have no confidence in her ability to lead our organization, the correct response by both the GM and the Board would have been to look at what the customers are complaining about and find a fix. However, the Board’s solution was to silence her detractors by yelling “Enough is enough!” and then give an irrelevant litany of her deferred maintenance accomplishments. I propose that during this recall election, Rex, Aletta, and Tom need to be held accountable for refusing to listen to, or correct, ANY of the extraordinarily high number of owners’ complaints about the GM.

Refusal to accept owner oversight

Before I was elected to the Board, I campaigned on the principle that there should be owner oversight in relation to personnel issues. I ran for the Board because of my expertise in HR and employee contract negotiations and proposed performance standards that would be linked to the GM compensation as well as, customer service ratings as part of the GM’s performance evaluation.

The Board’s reaction to my proposal was not only “NO,” It was “HELL, NO.” The Board refused to design a system that allowed ANY owner input into the GM’s evaluation and compensation. Additionally, President Rex’ strategy for keeping the decision-making overly consolidated and away from owner involvement is to refuse to have owner oversight committees even on an ad hoc basis.

I personally brought several recommendations to the Board to increase owner-involvement in oversight of insurance, investments, legal services and personnel, none of which got approved. The Board is steadily moving away from effective means for using owner expertise in governance and controlling costs. Rex simply uses his authority as President to appoint work groups of two Board members so he can exclude owners and Directors he does not agree with or he wants to punish. This politicizing control is, in my view, a Machiavellian abuse of power, and it prevents the creation of a system that would produce (significantly) better results for the membership.

Refusal to treat owners as customers

That, my fellow neighbors and homeowners, is the way your current HOA Board of Directors is refusing to utilize much-needed owner expertise while simultaneously dismissing your right to complain about the performance of staff that you pay to manage this community responsibly. Pay more. Get less.

How to avoid unnecessary election costs

Some people have told me they are voting no on the removal election because they are under the impression that it will cost between $50,000 and $100,000 to hold another election for replacement Board members.

Cost to replace

This cost estimate is both wrong, and a poor reason for keeping the current ineffective Directors that are costing the community even more money.

First, let’s address the cost. The GM removed the “volunteer” SCA Election Committee (chartered to handle all SCA elections) from the removal election process. Instead, a CPA was hired without any official Board action to take over the EC’s duties at an unbudgeted cost of $10,000. As I have stated before, the CPA’s contract was not approved at any open Board meeting, and therefore the unnecessary cost of his services skews the actual cost of the removal election.

As far as the election for replacement board members; the established “volunteer” Election Committee is experienced and fully capable of handling the same fair election process as we have had in the past, with very little overhead. Our 2017 annual election cost $11,900, and the budget for the 2018 election is $17,500.

Reporting a falsely-inflated cost is a scare tactic and is being used to make owners mad at the petitioners for exercising their legal rights to call for an election to remove Directors that are not serving us well. I read in Dan Folgeron’s message re-posted on AnthemToday.com that the Solera removal election cost $8,000.

Cost to keep

More importantly, the cost of an election is no reason to keep Directors in office who are not protecting the membership. The cost of an election pales in comparison to the cost of abdicating control of the Association policies, owner oversight and budget to the GM and attorney. These Directors have given a blank check to the attorney and are allowing the GM to disregard the budget when she unilaterally decides to make expenditures.

Cost of cheating

Rex, Aletta, and Tom should be removed from office because they didn’t let owners vote and didn’t follow our bylaws 3.6 when they appointed someone to fill my seat one month after they unlawfully removed me:

“Upon removal of a director, a successor shall be elected by the Owners entitled to elect the director so removed to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the term of such director.” – SCA bylaws 3.6 (page 11)

Rex, Aletta, and Tom should be removed from office because they doubled down and compounded problems created by my removal. They shouldn’t have filled my board seat without waiting for my appeal to be adjudicated, and they shouldn’t have filled my seat without letting any owners compete for the position. No one knew they were recruiting so no owner could compete equally for a chance to be appointed to the board. Instead, they just picked a guy (Jim Coleman), decided to appoint him in secret and appointed him to my seat at the very next properly noticed Board meeting. It’s not Jim Coleman’s fault the Board acted unlawfully, both to remove me and to replace me without an owner vote. Why can’t the Board make decisions that fast and decisive when it comes to doing something good for the membership, like opening the restaurant?

Cost avoidance and karma
I have a suggestion that I think would treat everybody fairly. I don’t want to displace Jim if I am reinstated because, in my opinion, Jim will be much better than Rex as a board member, at least he will listen to and respect owners. However, a fair way to avoid the expense of another election would be to put Jim in Rex’ seat when I am reinstated by the Commission and Rex is either voted off during the recall election or removed by the Commission.

Cost of dirty tricks

Note that I was elected to serve until May 2019 for the same two-year term as Rex. Rex got his role as President by using dirty tricks, and he is doing a terrible job for the people. As such, I believe that Rex is the most important one to remove from the Board, and if he were the only director voted off, no election would be needed. Aletta’s and Tom’s terms end in May, 2018, and if they were voted off in the removal election, their seats could remain vacant until the normal election.

By the way, when Jim Coleman was appointed, I told the Board that they made a mistake by appointing him only until 2018 since my term expires in 2019, and the bylaws 3.6 say that the replacement of a director that is removed shall “… fill the vacancy for the remainder of the term of such director”. Rex insisted that appointing Jim only until May 2018 was intentional, but there is no legal authority for the Board to decide that the new director’s term will be a year less than the term of the director being replaced.

Cost of cherry-picking rules and karma

Rex should be removed for cherry-picking which governing documents he choses to comply with. He led the Board in the violation of SCA Bylaws 3.6 by usurping owners exclusive right to vote to determine whether a Director is removed from the Board. He is responsible of Bylaws 3.6 being being violated a second time by not giving owners the right to vote on the replacement of a Director who was removed. Rex insisted on violating SCA bylaws a third time by shortening Jim Coleman’s term again since the new Director is required by our governing documents to fill the remainder of the removed Director’s term. Appointing Jim only until 2018 unfairly gives Rex the benefit of not having to run against Jim (by Rex making their terms not end at the same time. Rex’ act is to the detriment of Jim Coleman who is an innocent owner/volunteer who should have been appointed, if at all, to the end of my term. This act exemplifies Rex’s pattern of cherry-picking which rules he chooses to follow. Rex acts benefit himself by consolidating political power and do not treat all owners, particularly political opponents, equitably. We deserve leadership that is better than that, not self-serving and that acts solely in the best interest of the membership by the consistent enforcement of the rules of the game.

SCA Board & GM cause substantial decrease in happiness factor

This open letter is republished with permission from Favil West, President of the Foundation Assisting Seniors, who formerly served as a SCA Board member for six years as well as for three years on the Commission for Common Interest Communities. Favil describes his view of how much the SCA Board, GM and over-used attorney are causing our community to suffer under their system of mis-management.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Fake news abounds in our community. I’ve seen it produced by this SCA Board, a committee chair, a vice chair, a club president, a blogger and on down the line. Good grief even one of our board members has sent out a plea for you to vote no so she can stay on the board. A move without precedent

Let’s look at the Berman blog. He unabashedly states that the 3 board members, currently to be recalled, have committed “no crimes or malfeasance.” That just is not true. I personally know of 8 infractions of Statute. For starters, the 3 board members to be removed are accused of having violated the following statutes:

NRS 116.31035
NRS 116.31036
NRS 116.31088
NRS 116.31085
NRS 116.3108
NRS 116.31184
NRS 116.31183
NRS 116.31175

At least one of these violations is a misdemeanor and even though it is in the NRS 116 ACT, it falls under other jurisdictions.

Ron Johnson produces an editorial page, usually well documented, the most recent of which has factually debunked most if not all of the claims made by the OSCAR group. Dick Arendt lends his passion to the fray stimulating research and thought while Rana gives us a more even- handed treatment of the facts. Nona Tobin just started a blog. We won’t know its character for a while but I personally look forward to seeing it as I know it will contain significant detail. To top it off, through personal conversations with the Ombudsman, I know that NRED is concerned with what is taking place here at Sun City Anthem.

Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of financial figures knows full well that numbers can be manipulated to show anything you want them to show. I believe all of us have heard the old saw, figures lie and liars figure. I fear that is true in the instant case. Why doesn’t the board lay out the true cost of management in dollars and cents for all the unit owners to see? How much has this self- management debacle truly cost? What was our annual cost of management before self- management and what is it now? They should show consulting fees, the trips, parties, meals, salaries, separation payments, if any, the current salaries of the top 5 highest paid staff, their bonuses, their allowances, and their benefits, as well as the total salary costs including that of Lori, who has since left SCA. Then add in the legal fees which according to the budget are approximately $90,000 over budget, and all the outside contracted work such as IT, and all accounting services. Once all of that is together, we, the unit owners, can actually compare costs. Until this information is released to the unit owners, well, the old saw is still sawing away.

While unit owner’s angst cannot be measured in terms of dollars and cents, there has been a substantial decrease in the happiness factor because of board, GM, and legal actions. In my nearly 18 years living here in Sun City Anthem, six years of which I served on the SCA Board, I have never seen anything that compares with what is now happening on our hill.

This removal election has already turned into a debacle. Words such as voter suppression, stupidity, mismanagement, failure of the board and its gm to do its fiduciary duty, and probably a few I cannot repeat are being bantered around while board members are pleading for you to vote no so they can continue this sordid behavior. Even those who do not support the recall agree that the ballot mailing and instructions show a high degree of incompetence.

In my opinion, these ballots should be thrown out and new ones issued. These new ballots should be color coded to eliminate confusion, a simple explanation included, and, finally, the outside envelope should say ballot enclosed. That’s not too hard is it. It’s what we done in the previous 17 elections. That is really not too hard if you know what you are doing.

Notwithstanding the impact this will have on the reputation of our Sun City, win, lose, or draw this removal election and the reasons for it remain an everlasting stigma on the 3 to be recalled, the rest of the board and its GM. Frankly, in my opinion, Weddle, Burch, Nissen, and Waterhouse should all resign as they will have no respect in the future.

Folks, at the hands of this board board we are no longer the class active living community we once were. Our reputation has been sullied by incompetence, prevarication, and dereliction . How sad.

Favil

A House Divided – the spin doctor at work.

On June 16, 1858, Abraham Lincoln, while running as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, made his famous statement, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Of course, here we are, 159 years later and we as a country are perhaps as much divided now as we were then, but still standing.

I point this out because Sun City Anthem, our little community, a microcosm in the scheme of things, is at this time, greatly divided. At the root of this division is the performance of the current HOA Board of Directors, the General Manager, and the HOA Attorney.

There are those in this community that believe the Board, GM, and Attorney are doing a wonderful job. However, there are over 800 residents who feel that “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

First let me address the fact that the NRS and the Sun City Anthem HOA By-Laws addresses in detail, the process by which the homeowners of this community can file a complaint against management and the Board, including the allowance for a petition to be filed for the recall of Board Members. These 800+ homeowners of Sun City Anthem have followed the rules and filed their legal petition. However, the Board, the General Manager, and the Attorney, in an effort to preserve their gravy train have done everything possible to prevent a fair recall election. I have pointed out one example of many in my blog article “How to Lose Control of Who Represents You on the SCA Board.”

One way that the Board is fighting the recall is through the use of a Spin Doctor in the form of longtime blogger David Berman. Mr. Berman has characterized this removal election as an ‘evil and traumatic injury to the body politic that is tearing the community apart.’ To that end, Mr. Berman formed an organization called OSCAR (Opposition to Sun City Anthem Recall) and has been publishing slanted half-truths to his readership on behalf of the Board and management. While the Board is certainly not paying Mr. Berman for his service, they are feeding his ego by making him an insider and feeding (or leaking if you prefer), key management and Board information for his nearly daily blog posts. Information, I might add, that is not posted in the Board Books or available to others in the community.

In fact, Mr. Berman uses this inside information to form hyperbole supposition and theories of doom and destruction as scare tactics to con his sheeple into believing that everything he states is gospel. But Mr. Berman’s rants don’t stop there; he personally calls out the names of people he feels are against his puppet board to ostracize them and calls for them to be banished from his kingdom.

In a piece published on October 9th, Mr. Berman used a thread posted by homeowner Bobbi Senneke on the NextDoor social app to prove that he is not the only person supporting the current Board, GM, and attorney. Apparently, there has been a growing conversation about the performance of the Board, GM, and the current state of the community that has frustrated Mrs. Senneke to the point of writing to Mr. Berman:

“I have finally had enough. The comments appearing on NextDoor from SCA residents, (names omittedby Berman) tipped me over the edge. What follows is my posted response, with my husband’s blessing. I cannot muster the most meager kind thought for this gang.”

“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!” stated Senneke. Then, in fear that she may also become the target of those displeased with the current administration, Senneke continued by admonishing everyone to,

“…bring it on, or you can do a kindness for yourselves and for those of us who appreciate and cherish what we are blessed with here in Anthem, and JUST MOVE!”

Instead of accepting each individual’s right to their opinion and to publicly state their concerns over what they feel is an injustice to the community, as well as their right to a recall vote; Mrs. Senneke and, through his publication, Mr. Berman, are encouraging a degree of hate talk and separatist thinking that is dividing the community.

With this one post, Mr. Berman causes further division in the community. He deflects attention from his hand by blaming the community unrest, not on the precipitating problems, but on the petitioners for exercising their legal right to call for a vote. Mr. Berman uses the quote to continue the fantasy that there are no issues of mismanagement and malfeasance and to legitimizes the false claim that the directors facing recall are innocent of any wrongdoing. He does not acknowledge that the concerns the petitioners raised could have been avoided, or at least, that some attempt at solution or mitigation would have been appropriate. Mr. Berman simply discredits the unhappy owners who are exercising their legal right to call for an owner vote to remove Directors for mismanagement and malfeasance.

If you read the entirety of Ms. Senneke post online, the extent of Mr. Berman’s spin doctor mind-controlling influence becomes clear, as most of her comments are merely a regurgitation of his past posts.

In all actuality, recall elections must overcome huge hurdles and are rarely successful. You can read about the challenges faced in this article that addresses a number of state recall elections. Nonetheless, as I stated above, the ability of the homeowners of this community to ask for a recall is well within their right.

So what is it that the members of the community are complaining about? I have put “11 Reasons Why We Need To Recall The Board Members” on this blog site. In addition to the 11 reasons, the over 800 homeowners also submitted a petition to call for a vote of no confidence to the Board complaining about the performance of Sandy Seddon as the General Manager. The petitioners requested that the issues be addressed and that the document be placed in her personnel file. However, rather than addressing any of homeowner complaints, the Board chose to File 13 the petition against the GM for the next garbage pickup. Mr. Berman published a blog about how worthless it was so he obviously had access to it, but the document was never made available to the membership or even to all of the members of the Board who requested it.

We are not going to convince the sheeple that are under Mr. Berman’s hypnotic trance that anything is rotten in Denmark. However, there are still those independent thinkers out there who might not live in the community full time or simply have not kept up with all of the facts. It will be a tough battle these next few days, and I urge everyone to have civility. But if someone that you know is on the fence and looking for answers, lead them to this document and the other documents on SCA Strong, where I firmly believe that Owners should ALWAYS come first!

Action: Put your Complaints on the Record

Contact the HOA Investigator Christina Pitch, assigned to SCA complaints, including election interference, if you want your concerns on the record.

I have submitted several complaints to the Ombudsman, including several related to removal election interference. They have all been referred to the HOA Investigations Unit. On September 29, Section Chief Darik Ferguson instructed me to address all communications to Christina Pitch.

Christina Pitch’s email address is [email protected].

Darik L. Ferguson Chief, Compliance/Audit Section
Nevada Real Estate Division
Common-Interest Communities/Condominium Hotels
3300 W. Sahara Avenue, Ste 350, Las Vegas,NV 89102
Office (702) 486-4480 / Fax (702) 486-4520
[email protected]
Website: www.red.nv.gov

Two of my complaints are provided here as examples.

Email to Investigator forwarded an email of the GM’s refusal to put a written report updating the community about the removal election process in the Sept. 28 Board Book:

“Nona,
The Update was provided for reliance in relation to an oral summary of the status of the review of the petitions/removal election to be given at the meeting, and the update was drafted in a manner to be read aloud, not conveyed in writing. Written documentation will not be provided as part of the board book.
-Sandy Seddon, CCAM, CMCA, AMS, PCAM | Sun City Anthem General Manager/COO”

From: Nona Tobin<[email protected]>
Wed, Oct 4, 2017
To: “[email protected]” <[email protected]>

This is an example of the many dirty tricks management is using to prevent the Sun City Anthem owners from knowing about the recall election which could remove the directors who are protecting her instead of the homeowners and who are abdicating too much policy authority.

After I submitted my complaint about how management and the attorney and board President interfered with the collection of names for the petitions, interfered with the neutral election committee, they continued to escalate by removing the election committee from the entire process in violation of SCA Election and Voting Manual, contracted with a CPA without any public adoption of such a contract or it being approved as it was not in the budget.

Now, the attorney (also paid over $73,000 over the budget so far) put out information about the dates the ballots will be sent out, and new restrictions, e.g.,that there will be no ballot boxes, and this information in written form will be withheld. Note that they have continued to withhold from me the audio file of the last two board meetings even though I have requested them in writing multiple times. (Note – GM finally gave me the audio recording of the Aug. 24 and the Sept. 28 Board meetings on Oct. 5, the day after I wrote this complaint to Investigator Pitch)

Thank you for your consideration of this additional information. I hope you understand the urgency because the ballots will be mailed on October 9, and owners’ completed ballots must be received by mail only by 5 pm (October 26) at the address of the CPA.

Voters are being forced to jump through hoops that have never existed in prior elections and which they will not be told about until it might be too late.

It is extraordinary chutzpah to kick me off the Board by a secret vote of six board members on unproven false charges and without a removal election just two weeks after petitions calling for an election to remove four of them were filed.

Please don’t let them get away with it.

Thank you.
Nona Tobin (702) 465-2199

My notarized & filed election interference complaint was referred to the Investigations Unit on Sept. 18 after the Board refused to respond AT ALL to the complaint on its merits (given to them on Sept. 2) or take any action whatsoever.

Action: Report Election Issues to the Ombudsman

Let the Ombudsman hear from you.
Lots of people grouse to their friends or post complaints on blog sites, but it’s more effective to let the authorities know if your right to have a fair removal election process is being infringed.

Here is the contact information for the Ombudsman and a sample letter that the author encourages you to copy or adapt NOW to let your voice be heard:

Charvez Foger, Ombudsman
The Ombudsman’s Office
Nevada Real Estate Division
3300 W. Sahara Ave., Suite 325
Las Vegas, Nevada 89102
702-486-4480
[email protected]

Dear Mr. Foger,
I am a resident of Sun City Anthem, Henderson, Nevada. We moved here over five years ago and spend our winters here. I have watched the constant disregard for the Laws of Nevada by the Board of Directors and the General Manager of our Homeowners Association. Yet, the NRED does not appear to be acting on this situation. I do now know what to do and need your help.
I know that you have various official complaints regarding the Board, the recall election malfeasance, the illegal firing of an elected Board member, and so forth.I do not know how to file a formal complaint so my email to you is the best that I can do. I simply want you to know that I am completely supportive of the recall, the need for oversight by the NRED on the illegality of the Boards actions, and a the need for the Ombudsman to step in and stop the continued illegal actions of the Board of Sun City Anthem.
Please get involved. Time is fleeting.  I beg you to help this community.
The recall ballots are now out and since the SCA board and administration does not support the recall, the process has been tainted. Ballots have been mailed out without any identification and most people think these are just an advertisement from a CPA firm and will not be opened. Unfair. Please step in and help.

Allen Weintraub
SCA resident

This is Allen’s call for you to take action to protect your right to vote on removal of Board members.

Subject: We need your help
I encourage everyone to send a similar letter to the Ombudsman’s office NOW. If you support the recall…..the time to act is now.
The ombudsman has the information but seems to be slow to act. If we all put pressure on the office, they may be more encouraged to step in.
With the bullxxxx of an envelope with the ballot that is unmarked as to content, many will just toss out as they do not know it is a ballot.
Also if the return address is not EXACTLY as the originally is written, it will be tossed. The board made no formal announcement of the ballot being mailed so many are unaware of it. The past presidents and opponents of the recall have used the clubs at SCA to try to kill the recall.
I say that everyone should just copy my email or revise and sent it to the ombudsman to encourage oversight. It could help as there are now numerous formal complaints filed.
Act, copy, now
Allen