Very peaceful, I would dare to suggest. Think about it. No elections. No campaigning. No telling Canadians they can’t vote. No nasty pronouncements on NextDoor with neighbors attacking neighbors.

For many of us, moving here is our very first experience in living in a Homeowners Association. I remember knowing there were rules and while I’m not ordinarily a rules person, my attitude was, I chose to live here, therefore I need to abide by the rules.

In 2013, when I’d lived here a little under two month, I went to my first candidate forum. I knew no one. A guest moderator was at the podium when a man in a gray pony tail in the audience yelled out, “Aw, sit down and shut up, no one wants to hear from you.” I was startled. I’d never heard anyone be quite that rude before. It was my introduction to SCSH HOA Politics. I stayed, listened to the candidates and elected to vote for those who I could hear had the best business experience. I did stay as far away from the man is he gray pony tail.

I then decided that since the Directors were the people responsible for the betterment of our community, I wanted to learn more about what the Board does.

And here is what I learned: Sun City Shadow Hills is a California Corporation and we are its shareholders. The Board is made up of the Directors of our Corporation. We are not a city, nor a county, nor any form of a political entity  — we are a California Corporation.  Each Director is responsible to the betterment of the community as a whole; not any particular constituent or group. 95% of all decisions made by the Board are financial in nature. By law, the Board must make decisions on the basis of facts (not their opinions). Some of the items the Board deals with are:

• Creating a cost-effective operating budget
• Creating a Reserve Budget
• Creating a Capital Expense Budget
• Reviewing the performance of each vendor on an annual basis, and deciding whether to continue or seek another vendor
• Negotiating cost-effective contracts
• Determining where to best invest our $12 million in Reserves
• Overseeing financials of Golf
• Overseeing financials of F&B
• Monitoring contracts for compliance
• Analyzing all of the financial analyses, expert opinions and Advisory Committee input concerning the various issues before the Board
• Ensuring all facilities are well maintained
• Reviewing and approving all invoices and check register
• Hiring/Firing General Manager and Department Heads as needed
• Enforcing governing documents
• Considering requests from residents
• Keeping Residents informed
• Preparing and filing tax returns
• Working with the auditor

On each issue Directors must ask themselves this question: Is this in the best interests of the community collectively? And then they must research the issue on a factual basis.

Given that the job of a director is to act in the best interest of the community collectively, all we, as homeowners and shareholders in this corporation, should really be doing is looking at the qualifications of the candidates as they relate to the job, and then voting.

But each year, since 2012, the vitriol has gotten worse. It seems to have started with an attorney general complaint some homeowners filed. And then the smear tactics began. Until it has grown into what we have today;  a nightmare.  It’s worse than a national campaign because we all live so close. Some of the things some neighbors say hiding behind the internet is just awful. It’s vicious. Certainly not something I want in my community.

And why? What is there to determine other than qualifications and integrity?

If you truly want a kinder, gentler community – it’ll have to start with you.  Here’s some ideas.

1. Ask that all candidates be vetted by an independent, outside firm – so we can all be sure they have the credentials they say they have. No one wants to expose anyone for not telling the truth. But then no one wants an unqualified candidate either. Vetting by an outside firm would prevent that. We will be holding forums as which we will have petitions for your to sign.
   
2. Have all candidates sign an enforceable Code of Conduct. Send this request to [email protected] with Nominating Committee as the subject line.
   
3. Get rid of proxies. We have secret ballots. 2 page Proxies are far too susceptible to fraud. No one checks the signatures for validity. Each fraudulent proxy here takes away the vote of a homeowner who voted by secret ballot. At our forums, we will have petitions asking the Board to put this issue on the ballot.
   
4. Cumulative Voting. Vote to get rid of cumulative voting. This is undemocratic and serves no good purpose except to give the misperception that a group/constituency can be represented, when in fact, they cannot. Vote to eliminate cumulative voting when you receive your governing documents ballot in the mail in mid-March.
   
5. Shorten the time frame for campaigning. Right now it takes up nearly half the season. Send this request to [email protected] with Nominating Committee as the subject line.
   

If we do these things, our elections will be far less political and more businesslike, as they should be.  And our community will be peaceful.

If you like the unnecessary political mayhem, the mean spiritedness, the deceit and dishonesty, then by all means let’s keep the distortion as it is.

But I want to live in a peaceful community where neighbors are kind to each other. If you do too  let’s change our election system. We are the only ones who have the power to change this system.

When we hear some homeowners say things like “They’ve been in charge long enough, it’s our turn now,” we know they don’t yet know that Sun City Shadow Hills is a California Corporation and as such must follow the California Corporate Code. We also aren’t sure who “they” is.

Here are the general duties of a SCSH Corporate Director as specified in the Corporations Code §7231. Duties and Liabilities of Directors:

(a) A director shall perform the duties of a director, including duties as a member of any committee of the board upon which the director may serve, in good faith, in a manner such director believes to be in the best interests of the corporation and with such care, including reasonable inquiry, as an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would use under similar circumstances.

(b) In performing the duties of a director, a director shall be entitled to rely on information, opinions, reports or statements, including financial statements and other financial data, in each case prepared or presented by:

(1) One or more officers or employees of the corporation whom the director believes to be reliable and competent in the matters presented;

(2) Counsel, independent accountants or other persons as to matters which the director believes to be within such person’s professional or expert competence; or

(3) A committee upon which the director does not serve that is composed exclusively of any or any combination of directors, persons described in paragraph (1), or persons described in paragraph (2), as to matters within the committee’s designated authority, which committee the director believes to merit confidence, so long as, in any case, the director acts in good faith, after reasonable inquiry when the need therefor is indicated by the circumstances and without knowledge that would cause such reliance to be unwarranted.

In other words, Board Members are not politicians and cannot make decisions on the basis of their opinions. In fact, they have to put their opinions aside and act in the best interests of the community collectively. This means relying on the opinions of professionals, including independent California Counsel and CPAs, Financial analyses of issues, etc.

 

There is a huge difference.

When we elect someone to the state legislature or to the House of Representatives, we are electing someone we believe will act in the best interests of those of us who live in his or her district. He or she is going to try and get money to come into our district, businesses, hospitals that will benefit the district and more. And the legislators from all the other districts will be working on behalf of their constituency. Even in the Senate, we expect the Senators from our state to represent our the interests of California. They are not required to do any analysis, nor seek the opinion of experts – they can and do most often make decisions based on their opinions or perhaps the generous donations of some SuperPac, rather than on the basis of facts.

In contrast a Corporations’ Board of Directors is required, by law, to make decisions in the best interests of the shareholders collectively, and it is their fiduciary responsibility to make those decisions upon facts. If each Board member has no hidden agenda and has the business skills to make corporate level decisions, after a thorough fact based discussion, all Board members should all come to the same conclusion on any issue.

Politicians don’t need any business skills.

Corporate Directors need nothing but business skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The HOA will be sending out ballots around March 12, listing 4 items that we need to vote on concerning revisions to the Pulte CC&Rs.

With the developer gone, these are now OUR governing documents and we need to vote to revise them in the best interest of the community as a whole. 3 of 4 of these were made at the recommendation of the 5 homeowners who were also either retired or practicing attorneys on the Governing Documents Committee ad hoc; only one – Fera Mostow, Chair, is a California Practicing Attorney.

1. Remove the developers name Pulte and replace with Sun City Shadow Hills Homeowners Association, where appropriate.
2. Remove the two-year time restriction on homeowner Advisory Committee membership to allow committee members to serve longer if they wanted to.
3. Remove the practice of Cumulative Voting from the community elections in which three or more seats are open.
4. Change Minimum Rental to 45 Days and remove the ability of a homeowner to rent his/her property for less than 30 days if a property manager is used.

Revisions to these documents require voting approval by 51% of all SCSH members in good standing.

The one on here that we believe is in the best interests of the community as a whole, is the removal of cumulative voting. Pulte cumulative voting is undemocratic and unrepresented. It can prevent the majority of homeowners who vote, from having their candidate(s) elected.

Essentially, cumulative voting takes away the rights of the majority of homeowners.

 

 

 

For each fraudulent proxy that slips through the count, the vote of a homeowner who used a secret ballot is taken away.

We each receive a secret ballot in the mail. If we don’t, we can call for a replacement. Why do we need proxy votes?

Proxies serve no purpose in our elections, except to open the results up to question. Why?

Fraudulent Signatures. Proxy forms may be signed by using unverifiable signatures. By statute, signatures for proxies now include “typewriting, telegraphic transmission, or otherwise.” There is no way for the HOA Election Company to verify the signature on the proxy and they don’t. Unlike a ballot, no one can be sure if a proxy is valid or not.

Fraudulent Voting. The required two-page format for proxies creates the potential for election fraud. Since there is no way to verify that proxyholders actually vote their ballots according to the owner’s instructions, the proxyholder can change an owner’s vote. The proxyholder could toss the proxy, attach a new one with a different vote.

We think all homeowners should discuss whether or not we want our election results subject to question or not. If enough of us agree, we can ask that the Board to put the issue on the ballot for all homeowners to decide.

The majority of HOA law firms are telling HOAs which have secret ballots to get rid of proxy voting. The reason is simple: Fraud.

Whether or not we keep proxies or rid ourselves of this potential fraud will be up to the homeowners of Sun City Shadow Hills, not the Board and therefore we do believe it is time to start the discussion.