Article Contributed on: 8/29/2008 5:52:36 AM
The powers-that-be in a Colorado lady's homeowners association (HOA) are probably going to change, forever, a small rural community's "footprint" on its little corner of this earth. Gone forever will be everything that made that little community naturally beautiful and peaceful.
How did that ever happen in a small, nondescript town in Colorado? It seems to have happened because a very wealthy California developer-builder came to that small town and brought his California political "talents" with him.
In retrospect, it probably took him a while to get the political "lay of the land" in that small town. But soon after he had accomplished that, it appears that he began to methodically plan how to transform Nature's unique handiwork there into just another one of his California-style commercial developments. Now, it appears, he is on the cusp of making his latest destructive assault on all things good and natural and beautiful.
On Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008, the money-hungry group of HOA people he appears to have so carefully brought together may have given him the go-ahead to do the infrastructure work for the construction of large rental buildings and RV "barns" all over that once-rural paradise (one of those RV "barns" -- actually a small rental house with an RV garage attached -- has already been built). In the very near future, it appears that this small, quiet, out-of-the-way, lovely rural community will be a bustling commercial enterprise.
If the Colorado lady's HOA presidentAKA the California developer-builder succeeds in destroying that little corner of Colorado paradise, what will he destroy next?
Well, apparently with the help of his own little power-and-money-seeking group, and some other like-minded people who have business connections in a certain Colorado city, he managed to get himself elected (by an extremely small margin) as a public official in a small city near his and the Colorado lady's HOA. There, or so it appears, he is working toward doing it all again ... and again ... and again, in and around that city, ad infinitum -- or until someone or some group finally gets sick and tired of his meddling in their daily lives and finances and runs him out of town. By then, though, it will be way too late to restore their community to any semblance of what it used to be. And the wealthy California developer-builder, with a ton of the people's money in his personal bank account, will have simply moved on to his next "target" of people and things to destroy.
What is the name of that wealthy California developer-builder? And who are the members of his money-loving group of HOA followers? And what is the name of their HOA? And where is that HOA located?? And in what Colorado city is the California developer-builder a public official?
Right now, the Colorado lady cannot make that information publicly available. Why? She and her attorney both believe that which is keeping her silent, i.e., a court "gag" order, is a violation of her Constitutional right to free speech, and they have written just that in their brief to the Colorado Appeals Court. They are now awaiting that Court's judgment on that and other legal questions concerning the lower court's rulings.
It would seem reasonable to believe that any American who asks their lawyer to ask any judge in any American court to permanently deprive an American citizen of their Constitutional right to free speech -- and that judge actually does it -- that American, that lawyer, and that judge would have perpetrated a very serious Constitutional and judicial wrong against their victim -- in this case, the Colorado lady. No intelligent, rational American citizen (or lawyer) of good conscience would ever dream of doing such a thing, I would hope.
However, the Colorado lady's HOA Community Associations Institute (CAI) lawyer and its HOA president, with the blessing of her HOA's board of directors, did exactly that. And the judge in the Colorado lady's case who wrote the Order that permanently deprived her of her right to freedom of speech (as it pertains to her HOA, its president, or any of its officers) is still a Colorado judge who sits at the Bench in his court every day, albeit now -- since the Colorado lady's trial ended in his court -- he does what he does in a nearby city.
To add insult to injury, the Colorado lady's HOA lawyer and president, again with the blessing of the rest of the board of directors, filed liens against the Colorado lady's home and another piece of property she and her husband own, claiming she owes a debt to her HOA of approximately $50,000 (the "debt" being the HOA's CAI lawyer's legal fees which he has recently jacked up to approximately $73,000. (Sound like his plan is the typical Community Associations Institute (CAI) "strategy" -- used all over the state of California -- to run the Colorado HOA lady out of money so that she can no longer defend herself, and he can foreclose on her and her husband's home?It does to me, too). That claim is also on appeal. But, so that the HOA cannot foreclose on their home, she and her husband must also post a bond (take $50,000 (or perhaps, now, $73,000) out of their life's savings for that amount and give it to the lower court as "security" to assure the payment of the so-called "debt" she owes -- plus 10% interest-- which the court will hold for the next year or so while her case wends it way through the Appeals Court process).
This is what the Colorado lady's HOA lawyer and its developer-builder president have done recently to the Colorado lady, and there surely will be more of such awful things to come for her and her husband.
Why is all of this bad stuff happening to that elderly couple? Because, or so it appears,the Colorado lady's attorney filed a simple legal question about her HOA two years ago for a lower court in her district to answer. A question that could have, and should have, been answered by the lower court in one quick and simple court ruling. However, the Colorado lady's HOA's CAI lawyer, president, board of directors, and all of their power-and-money-hungry followers, appear to be determined to keep her from telling the general public about anything that goes on in her HOA. And they're doing that by trying to bank bankrupt her and her husband.
Why would they care if the general public knew about what they are doing in their HOA now?And have done in the past? Do they want the general public to only hear and read what they themselves tell thepublic? That's an interesting question in and of itself, isn't it? But how they succeeded in stopping the Colorado HOA lady from telling thepublic about what's going on in their HOA is even more interesting.
What they seem to be doing is what all money-and-power-crazed HOA presidents and their CAI lawyers all over Colorado and this nation are doing these days. That is, they hire a Community Associations Institute (CAI) lawyer (if they don't already have one) who will set about running anyHOA homeowner they choose, for whatever reason, out of money by filing continuous false claims against the disliked-by-them homeowner which eventually bankrupts the homeowner. Then, the HOA CAI lawyer and the HOA president foreclose on the home of the disliked homeowner who can no longer defend him- or herself because he or she doesn't have the money to do so. Then the HOA CAI lawyer and its president sell the homeowner's home and everything in it, and share the (usually) large amount of money they get from that sale among themselves and their supporters (or keep it and rent it for a continuous stream of revenue for their waiting pockets).
Sound like some kind of a new, very frightening, HOA scam? It certainly does. But that appears to be exactly what's in the process of happening to the Colorado lady in her own HOA, as well as to thousands and thousands of other hapless and helpless HOA homeowners throughout this country. And here in Colorado, our state legislators turn a blind eye to it all through their (and the CAI lawyers-lobbyists) Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act ("CCIOA"), as do other states through their own legislative -- government-mandated -- homeowners associations Acts.
But wait !! What if the Colorado lady has been tracking some ... shall we call them "interesting"? ... things in her HOA? What if she doesn't have to wait a whole year for the Appeals Court to decide her freedom of speech fate. What if she can do something, right now, to prevent her HOA from taking her (and her husband's) home and other real and personal property that they worked hard for all of their adult lives, as well as bankrupt both of them in the process? Does the Colorado lady already know some things that her HOA's president, board of directors, and everyone else in the Colorado lady's HOA who is associated with them, want to hide? Something that they all believe the Colorado lady might tell the public if she wasn't silenced by that court Order against her?
On Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008, an Annual Meeting of the Colorado lady's HOA took place in her HOA beside what once was an illegal HOA lake; a lake which the powers-that-be in the Colorado lady's HOA denied was illegal for many years -- even after documents attesting to its illegality were show to them and the Colorado Division of Water Resources warned them to drain that illegal lake or be sued by that Colorado agency.
On Saturday, by that illegal, now drained, lake, her HOA's obsessed-with-money President and board of directors and their money-loving supporters voted on several of the things they may have been trying to hide for quite a long while. Improper things that they, and many past boards of directors in her HOA seem to have done over a period of 30 years. All of which led to last Saturday's meeting.
Improper things which may go back to the basic reason why the Colorado lady's current HOA developer-builder president came to that naturally beautiful, small rural Colorado community on its little corner of this earth in the first place. And why that California developer-builder and his followers may finally have succeeded in the implementation of their well-guarded secret of turning a quiet and beautiful rural community into just another money-making rental complex for money-obsessed people.
By the way, that basic reason-for-living, i.e., money, that may exist in the HOA's developer-builder-president and his cohorts is called "the love of MONEY." And, as we all know, "the love of POWER to control others" always goes along with the love of money.
Will the Colorado lady get her "voice" (freedom of speech) back in time to save her naturally beautiful little community from the greed-ridden ravages of her HOA's wealthy California developer-builder president and his do-and-say-anything-for-money followers? If she does, will she tell the entire state of Colorado and the nation the name of her HOA developer-builder president, the names of her HOA's board of directors, and the names of all of the rest of the HOA president's cohorts, as well as the name of her HOA and its Colorado location? And will the Colorado lady reveal all of the things that her HOA's powers-that-be don't want revealed to the public?
Or will somebody else, not the Colorado lady, whose freedom of speech has not been taken away from them by a very questionable court order which is now on appeal, tell Coloradans and the nation those names, as well as other facts about the Colorado lady's HOA that her HOA's power-and-money-seekers may all be trying to hide?
Stay tuned...