How to Build Vibrant Communities

In contrast to the Community Associations Institute Rights and Responsibilities statement, I offer the guidelines taken from a communitarian point of view¹. Please note that the communitarian philosophy, unlike CAI's, addresses the broader social and political environment and not just planned communities. An environment under the laws and protection of the US Constitution, and not under private contractual governments designed by profit motivated real estate business interests.

The communitarian philosophy attempts to balance individual rights with the requirements for a healthy, vibrant and productive community. The philosophy reflects an awareness, like contained in the Social Contract (1762 ) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, that individuals must surrender certain of their rights in order to produce desirable societies and communities, and that certain police powers must be in place to make this happen in an orderly manner.

In my prior post, CAI's Rights and Responsibilities Ignore Legality of the HOA Model, I presented aspects of CAI's guidelines for a better community. Compare the tone and language of the following communitarian views with that of CAI in my prior post, and understand the failure of CAI to advance a workable policy.

From the author:

Nor can any community long survive unless its members dedicate some of their attention, energy, and resources to shared projects. That communities have obligations -- including the duty to be responsive to their members . . .

The preservation of individual liberty depends on the active maintenance of the institutions of civil society where citizens learn respect for others . . .

The success of the democratic experiment in ordered liberty . . . depends not on fiat or force, but on building shared values . . .

We seek to curb the role of private money, special interests and corruption in government. We ask how "private governments", whether corporations or voluntary associations, can become more responsive to their members and to the community.

Nor do we hold "that any set of group values is ipso facto [by its very nature] good merely because such values originate in the community" and "that communal values must be judged by external overriding criteria, based on shared human experience"

Americans should foster a spirit of reconciliation. When conflicts do arise, we should seek the least destructive means of resolving them. Adversarial litigation is often not the optimal way.

The community is responsible for protecting each of us from catastrophe . . . for ensuring the basic needs of all who genuinely cannot provide for themselves.

If communities are to function well, most members must discharge their responsibilities because they are committed to do so, not because they fear lawsuits, penalties, or jails.

Notes:
1. The Spirit of Community, Amatai Etzioni, The Responsive Communitarian Platform (Touchstone 1993).

CAI's Rights & Responsibilities Ignores Legality of HOA Model

The CAI Rights & Responsibilities statement, offered as a guide to build better communities, reads in part,

Homeowners Have the Right To:
1. A responsive and competent community association.
2. Honest, fair and respectful treatment by community leaders and
managers.
6. Live in a community where the property is maintained according
to established standards.
7. Fair treatment . . . .
8. Receive all documents that address rules and regulations governing
the community association . . . .
9. Appeal to appropriate community leaders those decisions affecting
non-routine financial responsibilities or property rights.

Comment: These so-called rights have never been reduced to a bill of rights and made part of the legal contract between homeowner and HOA. As it stands, these are just statements of policy without any legal obligations placed on the HOA.

Homeowners Have the Responsibility To:
1. Read and comply with the governing documents of the community.
2. Maintain their property according to established standards.
6. Contact association leaders or managers, if necessary, to discuss
financial obligations and alternative payment arrangements.
7. Request reconsideration of material decisions that personally
affect them.
9. Ensure that those who reside on their property (e.g., tenants,
relatives, friends) adhere to all rules and regulations.

Comment: These obligations imposed upon the homeowners quickly become exercises in futility when the HOA ignores and is non-responsive to homeowner communications. Some of these responsibilities are actually state laws relating to HOA conduct, and not homeowner conduct. Some of these responsibilities assume that the "laws" of the community have been openly and fairly debated and voted upon by all homeowners, when such is not the case and where many CC&Rs do not permit homeowner participation in the drafting of the standards, and rules and regulations or even amendments to the bylaws.

Rather shockingly, CAI fosters a police state where it is a responsibility of the homeowner to inform the authorities of violations of "state" laws (see 9).

And, under "Community Leaders Have a Right To", we see many of these so-called rights as really obligations of the board, not a right of a homeowner, or as mandated homeowner behavior and attitudes equivalent to "politically correct" behavior denying the homeowner his right to display dissatisfaction with board actions and behavior. For example,

"2. Expect residents to know and comply with the rules and regulations
4. Conduct meetings in a positive and constructive atmosphere.
5. Receive support and constructive input from owners and nonowner residents."

Furthermore, under "Community Leaders Have the Responsibility To", we once again see no legal responsibility by the HOA to act according to these "ought to" statements. In fact, the punitive aspects in these statements are the only responsibilities put into law, but they are meaningless laws without penalties against the boards for violating the laws, or as a deterrent against future acts by the board in violation of state laws and the governing documents.


Summary

While CAI's R & R policy may make good reading, it fails to make any of these "suggestions" part of the governing documents and state laws, or part of a homeowner's bill of rights, or to seek accountability and penalties against HOA that currently violate state laws and the governing documents with impunity. CAI ignores the reality of the HOA model and its legally binding Declarations, and ignores the conduct of it members who continually seek the enforcement against "letter of the law" violations, in contrast to R & R appeals for fairness and just treatment. CAI's Rights and Responsibilities does not deal with reality, nor has CAI lobbied for the legalization of its "ought to" recommendations.

The HOA model: How Not to Build a Community

Amitai Etzioni writes about ideals for a better community¹.

WE hold that law and order can be restored without turning this country into a police state, as long as we grant public authorities some carefully crafted and circumscribed new powers.

WE hold that people can live in communities without turning into vigilantes or becoming hostile to one another.

WE hold that our call for increased social responsibilities is not a call for curbing rights.

WE hold that powerful special-interest groups in the nation's capitol, and in many statehouses and city halls, can be curbed without limiting the constitutional right of the people to lobby and petition those who govern.

The author summarizes:

"We suggest that free individuals require community, which backs them up against encroachment by the state and sustains morality by drawing on the gentle prodding of kin, friends, neighbors, and other community, members, rather than on building government controls or fear of authorities."²

In the above, we can replace "public government" and "government" with "private, contractual government" and "HOA government" and the statements will be equally applicable, and more so since HOA governance lacks "some carefully crafted and circumscribed new powers", as stated in the first paragraph above.

If you read the Community Associations Institute's "Rights and Responsibilities"³, a term borrowed from the communitarian philosophy, we immediately come away with another view of community, one that solely focuses on and emphasizes the responsibilities of homeowners within their community. This document even fails to call for a homeowner's Bill of Rights (see AARP Homeowner's Bill of Rights, http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/consume/2006_15_homeowner.pdf), leaving some 275,000 Americans subject to highly restrictive and oppressive contractual documents that give the homeowner very few rights -- the right to vote and to enjoy the amenities, if any, provided he does not fall behind in his payments to the HOA. Otherwise, the homeowner is subject to covenants, conditions, and other restrictions on his fundamental freedoms, quite contrary to the communitarian statement above, "WE hold that our call for increased social responsibilities is not a call for curbing rights."

The special interest HOA propaganda has made public government interference in your life the targeted enemy, in order to avoid any focus on the "built-in" tyranny of the local community government, the HOA. This propaganda implies that tyranny and interference by local government is what the homeowner had signed-up for, wants, and has voluntarily accepted.

The planned community model with its authoritarian government, the HOA, and supported by special-interest lobbyists for the profiteering of their members, while attempting to justify the oppression by co-opting the ideals and tenants of respectable, socially beneficial philosophies, must come to an end. The planned community model must be radically revised so it can coexist within the democratic form of government so cherished here in the United States. If not, it must be subject to "muni-zation", or the equivalent of municipal government nationalization.


NOTES
1. The Spirit of Community, Amitai Etzioni, p. 1 - 2 (Touchtone 1993). (Communitarian philosophy).

2. Id, p.13.

3. Rights and Responsibilities, CAI (http://www.caionline.org/rightsandresponsibilities/index.cfm (Dec. 11, 2006).