Neighborhood Councils – They are a Ploy
Posted on Freedom Advocates on May 31st 2006
By [post_author] –
Many of the attorneys and volunteers dedicating time and energy toward neighborhood improvements actually have ulterior motivations.
Here in Arizona it has come to this citizen’s attention that the Cities are sponsoring functions they call “Neighborhood Conferences”. They invite HOA (Homeowner Association)-Free Zone Communities, along with the HOA communities, to discuss how Free-Zones can improve their neighborhoods by incorporating into private communities. They make all of the pretty promises of a Utopian existence, and who are the main speakers at these functions? Predatory HOA Attorneys!
They promise lower crime, more empowerment for the “community”, and use phrases like “promoting harmony in communities”. All in attempt to suck HOA-Free Zones into their foreclosure mills. They never explain that by jumping on this boat, homeowners will be giving up their Freedom, giving up their Constitutional Rights via Contract, and they definitely never mention the fact that these homeowners will give up one of their most sacred legislated protections….. Homestead Exemption Protection! Oh they still have it, the lawyers will sing! But the truth is, they have it from Visa, & Mastercard and other unsecured debt, but the HOA lien has been given special power, privilege and immunity contrary to the Arizona Constitution. Most homeowners cannot even fathom the reality of having their home taken from them over some small sum as $100. So they ignore the warnings by homeowners who know. People have a tendency to believe that if something horrific happens to someone they must have somehow “deserved it”.
This citizen was chatting with a local shopkeeper recently who mentioned he had just bought a brand new home, YES, in an HOA Community. Of course in an HOA, I knew that, there are no NEW homes in the HOA-Free zone! That’s another lure the lawyers use to entice the HOA-Free zoners to join the feeding trough. “You too can make your old neighborhood look new & pretty like the other developments!” As if that is remotely possible in these 40+ year old neighborhoods, ah but it is. Once incorporated the HOA can decide they don’t like my trees, or my roses, or my little angel statutes in my yard. They can decide that everyone’s home should be tan or gray with the appropriate matching shingled roof. They can insist that I not grow my corn, or my eggplant or my okra in my back yard because to them it is unsightly. If someone cannot afford to rip out all of the landscaping or repaint the house, they can lien it, fine them, and eventually foreclose. Meanwhile the City can back out of their responsibility to police the park, water the park, and landscape the park. They can refuse to pick up our trash, and send animal control when there is a stray dog problem. Make no mistake the City and County have all the motivation in the world to sponsor these Neighborhood Conferences, to let these lawyers convince us with their pretty lies and pretty promises to incorporate and become private. They will still get their taxes, they do not care how many people are rendered homeless by the system. They will collect their taxes and be abrogated from providing services! Free Money! They will not have to change the light bulbs in the street-lights anymore, they will not have to pay the electric bill to operate them, they will not have to do anything, except collect their taxes and do God knows what with the money!
The Cities and the Counties use our tax money to sponsor these conferences, they pay the very lawyers who make their living off the blood and sweat of homeowners. They pay them to convince us, that privatizing would create a utopian neighborhood free of government interference. It sounds beautiful doesn’t it? An old neighborhood can be transformed to look as beautiful and conformed as the brand new developments! What the unsuspecting homeowners do not realize, is that “free of government interference” means no police to call for disturbances; they’ll say “call your HOA”, who won’t answer the phone. It means no animal control will be sent when a vicious dog is outside your door and you can’t leave; they’ll say “call your HOA” who won’t answer the phone. They won’t pick up your trash, they won’t change the light-bulbs in the street-lamps, they won’t maintain the park. You will, with your assessments, if the HOA cares enough to maintain them. If the HOA doesn’t, they won’t interfere with that either, “it’s a private contract, we won’t interfere”. The words Government Interference don’t sound so bad when you realize it means the city cleans & maintains the streets, maintains the lights, the park, the animal control. But these conferences don’t talk about the details of non-government interference. They make it sound very much different.
It’s a plot! HOA-Free Zoners Beware! Get out there and educate your neighbors as to what this non-government interference really means! Inform them of the plot of these neighborhood conferences. Remind them if it sounds too good to be true it probably is! Ask them, do you want to live in a single color neighborhood? If they answer yes, direct them to a good realtor that will put them into one of these sardine-living type communities. Pick the nosiest busy-body in your neighborhood and ask them, do you want “Gladdice Cravitz to have the power to foreclose on your home if you fail to live up to her expectations? She will be on the Board you know”. Remind them that if they leave the recycle bin on the sidewalk for more than 2 hours after pickup they will be fined. If they leave their garage door open for longer than is necessary to park the car they will be fined. Do you really want to live in that type of “Utopia”? Do you really feel so injured when the neighbor who works all day leaves his bin out until 6pm when he comes home? Do you really want the police to refuse to come and to tell you to “call the HOA?” Do you really want to pay a monthly fee to cover the expense of the streetlights & watering the park, not to mention the landscapers? Is this what you want? Double taxation?
Neighborhood Councils – They are a Ploy by Rauni Armbruster
Rauni Armbruster of The HOA-Free Zone! can be reached via email at raunstar@cox.net
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