The CotoBuzz Journal
Community Journalism, Newsletters and Blogs Covering South Orange County, CA
The CotoBuzz Journal is a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and NAHJ
SEPTEMBER 2007 ISSUE
We do not make jokes, we simply watch the LA Times, the Orange County Register and the Coto de Caza Board of directors and report the facts!
SPENDING OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY
by
Donie Vanitzian, JD
(c) 2007 Vanitzian
August
7,
2007
I mean really! How difficult is it to spend
other people’s money? Cheech!! It’s a no brainer,
especially with no statutory accountability. "Hey
man, it ain't difficult" one board member tells
me, he says "no one gives s**t." He proceeds
to point to his new hardwood floors and re-tiled
kitchen, "how the hell do ya think I got
THAT!"
What that arrogant sycophant aptly omitted from
his braggadocio, was that any money taken or
misappropriated from seniors is equivalent to taking
away their lifeline to life itself -- and in some
states THAT is a criminal offense.
It is not at all difficult to spend the money
of other hard working titleholders who are stuck in
godforsaken homeowner associations throughout America
-- without ANY meaningful legislation to help them
protect their assets.
Today in homeowner associations across this
nation, spending money without legislative protections
is so easy, hell, a dog could do it. But a dog
wouldn’t do it, because dogs are caring and
honorable. I can hear the “cat” people purring, so
let me rephrase that. Dogs and cats are honorable,
loving, and caring. What about humans? Are board
directors “human”? Are managers and management
companies human? Is the industry human? Let the
readers answer those questions.
Below, you can register your manager and/or
management company complaints at www.certifymyass.com.
In my article, “Sex, Lies, and Satellites,”
you read how titleholders are seduced into believing
liars, to the extent they sign away their rights by
innocently subscribing to the association’s cable
services.
In my article, “Parasitic Association
Industries Eat Their Kill,” I describe how
industries “will eat you alive and make you pay for
the feast.” I write that community association
industries are parasitic for-profit businesses that
have resulted in an industry that does little more
than LOOK and ACT indispensable. They are adept at
sucking the lifeblood from titleholders who are held
hostage by a defective legal system. That industry
organism has perfected taking advantage of those that
are most vulnerable.
But for the inept albeit, “corrupt”
legislatures across America usurping the residential
deed-restricted common interest development
titleholder’s rights, that industry organism feeding
and growing on OUR MONEY would die. Understand this:
Without your money the industry is otherwise unable to
nourish itself. YOU keep the industry ALIVE.
This so-called industry consisting of
“community association parasites” can be found
wallowing below an association’s bowels eagerly
living off its excess and swallowing whatever morsels
it sucks from its host. IT IS THE HOMEOWNER'S PERSONAL
WEALTH THAT FEEDS THOSE PARASITES WHICH CONTRIBUTE
NOTHING OF CONSEQUENCE TO THE OWNERS' WELL BEING. No
different from traditional hunters, the industry's
survival depends on eating their kill.
In my article, “Homeowner Associations:
Dynasties of Dysfunction,” I state, in the face of
crumbling individual rights, censorship is encouraged
and laws are passed that further prejudice homeowners.
Not unlike feudal systems, boards delegate their
authority to handpicked aiders and abetters who carry
out their demands. Rebels, dissidents, and rivals of
those in control are easily silenced or alienated from
the faithful followers In struggling to fight their
aggressors, owners are peppered with intimidating
salvos delivered by modern day lackeys like lawyers,
managers and industry vendors. The job of aiders and
abettors in the pecking order is to push through the
board's agenda. As those minions become autonomous,
the result is a wholesale disenfranchisement of those
who are not part of the “chosen” few.
In an August 6, 2007 Los Angeles Times article,
by Sharon Bernstein titled, “Southern California is
becoming a tight fit” she describes what Villa
Appalling! discussed over five years ago, “The shift
has implications for infrastructure, congestion,
schools and even the style of neighborhoods, as
apartments encroach on single-family enclaves.”
HIGH-DENSITY MONEY COLLECTION
The industry -- yup-- even the management
industry -- has an interest in high-density zoning,
planning, building and mergers instead of the
quality-of-life of its citizens and homebuyers. It
doesn’t matter that city growth across the country
has accelerated at an alarming pace. [FN1]
“Building small deed-restricted developments does
not suit the needs of the industry’s corporate
business interests in making money. It also doesn’t
matter that such city growth places stress on the
initial design capacities of these municipalities and
the infrastructure as a whole. In keeping with the
industry’s goal of making money off of you, they
must lobby and promote high-density building projects
that include bigger developments, with larger land
requirements.” [FN2]
From Villa Appalling! “We murder to dissect.
(citation omitted) As cities grow and population
density thickens, increased costs and health concerns
are thrust on its residents. Increasing combustion
by-products from vehicular and other sources gradually
exceed dispersal capacity of the local airshed, thus
causing air pollution. [More space is needed for]
roads and other transport facilities, with resulting
costs in terms of dislocation, social disorganization,
noise, aesthetic insult, traffic accidents, and
psychological stress . . . Some of the costs of urban
growth take the form of use of common resources, like
the air.” [FN3] Watch for the
industry charging you to breath next.
Villa Appalling! quotes one author, “One of
the more important factors responsible for this growth
is that many local government officials now view
Planned Urban Developments and condominium
developments as the only viable housing alternative
available because they recognize that [the local
government does] not have the financial resources
available to provide the infrastructure necessary to
make the project feasible.” [FN4] Villa
Appalling! continues, “Yet every one of these
entities failed to anticipate evolution, change, and
demographics. In failing this anticipation, they also
failed the homeowners who would be burdened with the
future problems and debilitating costs.” [FN5]
From Villa Appalling!, “[s]till in the
marketing phase, to fuel (build) their housing scam,
they invented a way to divorce the roads, utilities,
amenities, management, parklands and green belts that
might otherwise fall under the auspices of a city or
county infrastructure, out of their legislative bills.
This was partially accomplished by collectively
deeding these items over to the owners of housing in
common interest developments. The homeowner
association was, by its nature, self-governed,
self-managed and self-financed. By doing this, they
made the homeowners of the common interest development
the responsible parties for the upkeep and financial
stability of the development. This means two things:
1) if the deed-restricted development fails--it’s
YOUR fault because you did not sink enough money into
your homeowner association to keep it viable; and, 2)
the developer and the state are off the hook.
Homeowners of the city property located within the
development pay to upkeep the streets, alleys,
sidewalks and so forth, not city tax dollars. Some
have argued that this amounts to double-taxation. It
does. If you have a Mello-Roos Tax or any other type
of tax or diversion fees (transfer fees included) on
top it, this amounts to triple-taxation.” [FN6]
No surprise, that the “local governments
benefit . . by receiving tax revenues without having
to supply and maintain the infrastructure.” [FN7]
What IS a surprise, are state and local government
complaints about the monster THEY created. Hell-o out
there.
REGISTER YOUR MANAGEMENT COMPLAINTS
AGAINST ANYTHING, ANYBODY, “CERTIFIED” -- EVEN
YOUR DOG, CAT, AND RATS
Nationwide, manager after manager the majority
of which claim to be “certified” (certifiable,
maybe, “certified” in my opinion has lost all
credibility) have appeared in newspapers across the
country. Headlines abound: Embezzlement, jail time,
took money from HOA, etc.
DON’T WAIT
Go to: http://www.certifymyass.com
and register your “certification” complaints. The
complaints go to me -- no one else. I read all the
complaints. I will write about the complaints. If you
have documentation, attach it or if too voluminous,
send it to me at: Post Office Box 11843, Marina del
Rey, California 90295.
-------------------------------
------------------------------
[FN2] Vanitzian & Glassman, Villa Appalling! Destroying the Myth of Affordable Community Living, at 43-45 (2002).
[FN3] Vanitzian & Glassman, Villa Appalling! Destroying the Myth of Affordable Community Living, at 120 (2002) (citations omitted, but are available in the book).
[FN4] Wayne S. Hyatt, Common Interest Development Community: Evolution and Reinvention, 31 J. Marshall L. Rev. 303 (1998).
[FN5] Vanitzian & Glassman, Villa Appalling! Destroying the Myth of Affordable Community Living, at 43-45 (2002).
[FN6] Vanitzian & Glassman, Villa Appalling! Destroying the Myth of Affordable Community Living, at 43-45 (2002).
[FN7] Fred Foldvary, Public Goods and Private Communities, at 103, (1994).
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