2004: The Privatization of Government Exposed

The voice of homeowner rights advocates is growing

The year 2004 saw the major exposure of the issues regarding the loss of constitutional and civil rights; the widespread problems and abuses with planned association management across the country; the growing realization that they have the legal protection, support and creation by state governments that benefit from these undemocratic private governments that lack a bill of rights; and the increasing shock and surprise to discover that it is indeed public policy to support the privatization of government by means of homeowners associations.

Not only in the major problem states of California, Florida, Arizona and Texas, but the media is helping to expose these problems in Idaho, Nevada, Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and New Jersey. Legislation has been introduced in many of these states and have met with varying degrees of limited success. Most notorious is the veto of the foreclosure reform bill by Gov. Schwarzenneger, while Arizona managed to pass a good segment of its foreclosure reform bill. Nevada has an Ombudsman and so does Florida.

Opposition to these reforms remains strong, especially by the national lobbyist trade group, Community Associations Institute (CAI) that mounted very strong lobbying efforts in California and Arizona in order to keep the status quo and to keep its quiet innovation in housing and in the privatization of government still quiet. These lobbyists continue to mislead the public with respect to those who seek to remove this un-American form of government with the real estate package of amenities that define the planned community. The planned community can exist as is today, except that the HOA governing body must be replaced with a body subject to the laws of the land as any other municipal form of government that rules over the people within a territory, whatever its size. Existing legal mechanisms and laws allow for this today and can be found in the statutes of almost every state. (See the August editorial on "Muni-zation".)

Standing up against the entrenched industry lobbyists is a small band of homeowner rights advocates and activists, as they call themselves, who continue to grow in number and support as more homeowners across the country begin to realize that "something's wrong in Denmark." Groups like American Homeowners Resource Center in California, Cyber Citizens for Justice in Florida, Citizens for Constitutional Local Government in Arizona and The Texas Homeowners Advocacy Group to name a few.

More and more information is being made available to the public by means of the Internet, where the money influence of the well-heeled industry lobbyists cannot penetrate. By numerous email lists, live Internet radio like On The Commons in Virginia, web sites and the new BLOG sites. These sources have flourished because the media, in the past, and governmental sites have avoided any negative portrayal of homeowners associations as a result of years of unopposed lobbying by the industry.

But, the year 2004 has demonstrated a strong change in the winds of progress. Soon, homeowner advocates believe that these undemocratic private governments will be gone with the wind because they are constitutionally indefensible. Next year, 2005, will bring continued petitions for reforms to protect average homeowners living in homeowners associations. This growing demand for change will occur -- as it is written in the winds.

Failure in the courts

Why do we see so many court decisions that support the actions of association boards that borders on the absurd and highly unreasonable? For example, the Desert Crest Case in California where retired people in a mobile home association were made to pay for a golf club not owned by the association, that was open to the public and operated as a for-profit club.

My readings of numerous cases at all levels across the country is very depressing. I've concluded that it is indeed public policy to encourage, promote and create homeowner associations without any oversight protections of our civil liberties. All this 1) in the name of benefiting the community as a whole through a privatization of government, the HOA itself and not the planned community package; 2) to maintain property "standards" without constitutional protections; 3) the reduction of services to be provided by the municipality ,and 4) the double-taxation benefits to the municipality. All accomplished at the disregard of our constitutional rights and freedoms.

I believe we are failing in the courts because those who are filing these law suits still possess an underlying belief in planned communities and they support the oppressive HOA form of government. The law suits are filed with respect to some particular action by the board and not against the basic principles and legal foundations of the HOA. It should be obvious that the "deck" is stacked against us with these onerous Declarations of CC&Rs.

Filing such law suits is much like a "reform" approach rather than a redo effort, and it should be clear to everyone by now that reforms will not work. The establishment has strongly resisted any infringement on the rights and privileges granted HOAs by our government's lack of oversight and it will continue to do so.

It's time homeowners become realistic and face the obstacles before us as the Founding Fathers did at the Constitutional Convention in 1776. Convened to make reforms to the Articles of Confederation, then governing the 13 colonies, they choose to scrap it as unworkable and created the US Constitution in its place. We must do likewise with the planned community concept with its mandatory, private organization government that contains no protections for our civil liberties.