"THE FOUNTAIN OF INFORMATION" - Sunday, March 12, 2006 - IMPORTANT NEWS FROM AROUND FCC

"THE FOUNTAIN OF INFORMATION" - Sunday, March 12, 2006

IMPORTANT NEWS FROM AROUND FCC

"Chet's Board" has been caught LYING once again!!!!!

Definition - "Chet's Board" - Four pathetic individuals who make up the three member Board of FCCA and the lying, cursing, cheating, ignoring so-called Manager, Chester A. Hingle, Jr., a/k/a Chet Hingle, who is employed by the Board of FCCA to supposedly manage FCC for the 94 owners but insteads acts Hitler-esque and treats the owners of FCCA as second-class citizens. The other three pathetic individuals are Sultan Mirza, the NEVER elected President, Donald Gauthreaux, the NEVER elected Vice-President and James Williams, the NEVER elected Secretary and Treasurer and Chet's little puppy dog and old highschool classmate.... hmmmmm... maybe them two have a "Brokeback Fountain" thing going on!!!! :-D

Except for the regular readers of "The Fountain Of Information", WHO KNOW about the HIDDEN 20% and HIDDEN Depreciation payments, the actual financial recap form that "Chet's Board" is giving to owners does not disclose these two large amounts of money as being due to the owners and victims at FCC. I've had a chance to review a couple of these "FINAL RECAP" forms that "Chet's Board" has been giving out to owners who have finished their renovations and repairs. For the "Flood Victims", the financial recap form starts off by lying about the "Total Loss Amount" since it does not include the 20% Contractor Overhead and Profit amount. If you did not know to ask for your 20% Contractors Overhead and Profit and the final Depreciation figure, you would be RIPPED OFF for over $4,000.00 to over $6,000.00.

I had previously reported about the Depreciation figure and how it should have been paid to FCC owners since the buildings were insured for over 80% of the replacement value for Flood Insurance. NFIP's own brochure said that if your home was insured for over 80%, then you should receive the RCV (Replacement Cost Value) instead of the reduced ACV (Actual Cost Value) which is subject to a DEP (Depreciation) figure.

The form that "Chet's Board" is using actually lists the RCV amount at the top but then deducts the DEP figure, Trash Removal expense, FCC Dues owed, etc. Then they deduct the amount that was previously paid as the so-called "1/2 payment" (which was less than 1/3 for ALL of the rear courtyard flood victims). Then they show the total amount due as the final payment. ONCE AGAIN... THIS FINAL PAYMENT AMOUNT DOES NOT REFLECT THE FACT THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE RECEIVED AN ADDITIONAL 20% FOR THE CONTRACTOR OVERHEAD AND PROFIT FIGURE NOR DOES THIS FINAL PAYMENT REFLECT THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE RECEIVED THE DEPRECIATION FIGURE.

In recap of this segment...

For the rear courtyard flood victims, a 1BR unit is now receiving OVER $20,000.00. A 2BR unit is now receiving OVER $25,000.00. A 3BR unit is now receiving OVER $37,000.00... just for the four feet down flood damage. If you also have four feet up storm damage, that is a separate insurance claim amount. I have not been able to develop an inside source at Scottsdale Insurance Company so you have to rely on "Chet's Board" to give you an honest amount of your claim. Good luck!!!!!

Although several owners have demanded and received these additional amounts, there is also at least one owner that has completed their renovations and repairs and asked for their full payment and "Chet's Board" has refused to pay this owner the final payments. I wonder if the victims who do not read "TFOI" will ever know that they were RIPPED OFF BY "CHET'S BOARD"!!!!! PLEASE TELL EVERY ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS AT FCC TO CONTACT ME AT 504-621-1870 or TheFountainOfInformation@Gmail.com so they can begin receiving the newsletter. They can also review past and current editions of "TFOI" at http://thefountainofinformation.blogspot.com/

MORE NEWS FROM AROUND FCC

This was mentioned in a previous "TFOI" but a Total Maintenance (TM) employee recently asked me to remind my customers and readers, who have received new Air Conditioning Units, of the following:

TOTAL MAINTENANCE, INC. - NOTIFICATION

Please give us a call when your sheetrock is up and painted so that we can complete our work in your condo. We need the condo to be painted first so we can hang the thermostat.

Thank you.

TOTAL MAINTENANCE, INC.
Phone 985-764-6181
Fax 985-764-6180
David@tmiac.com

ADVERTISEMENT -

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NEWS FROM AROUND AMERICA THAT AFFECTS OWNERS AT FCC

The following message was posted on the HOAnet Yahoo Group ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HOAnet ) and gives you an idea of what can and will happen around FCC if you do not get more involved with YOUR HOA and put a stop to the abuse and potential fraud that is being perpetrated by "Chet's Board".

Message:
Date: Thu, 09 Mar 2006 18:16:53 -0800
From: "Frederick L. Pilot"
Subject: [Fwd: [CA-HOAs] Daily Journal Article]

DAILY JOURNAL NEWSWIRE ARTICLE

http://www.dailyjournal.com/
© 2006 The Daily Journal Corporation.
All rights reserved.

-------------------------------------------

March 03, 2006

CONDO OWNERS MAY BENEFIT FROM APPEAL FOR FREE-SPEECH RIGHTS
*By Linda Rappattoni*

Daily Journal Staff Writer

SACRAMENTO - A groundbreaking New Jersey court decision if affirmed on appeal would give California homeowners a new tool to assert their constitutional rights in community associations, lawyers say.

"New Jersey is the first to recognize that these private governments are constitutional actors who must respect the fundamental rights of members of their associations," said Frank Askin, a Newark professor who represented the plaintiffs in Committee for a Better Twin Rivers v. Twin Rivers Homeowners' Association, A4047-03t2.

However, Ron Perl, president-elect of Community Associations Institute, which filed an amicus brief in the case on behalf of the association, cautioned the decision applied only to political free-speech rights.

"It's clearly a significant case, but at the moment it is being terribly over-read," Perl said.

Barry Goodman, a partner in Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis, of Woodbridge, N.J., who represented the association, could not be reached for comment. However, wire stories quoted him saying he would appeal the decision. Perl said CAI plans to file an amicus brief in the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Lawyers in California and elsewhere who have watched the New Jersey case closely said it could influence California policy in favor of individual homeowners because the constitutional free-speech guarantees of the two states are very similar. Both are broader than the federal constitution.

"This is potentially a significant case outside of New Jersey, because when other plaintiffs make the same argument in other states they can now cite a published appellate-court opinion in an important state," said Evan McKenzie, a political science professor and lawyer at University of Illinois at Chicago. "Until now there has been nothing, so every case was an invitation to a court to be a pioneer."

Perl said the Community Associations Institute believes the decision is wrong and threatens the governing ability of association boards. He said the institute again would file an amicus brief in favor of Twin Rivers Homeowners' Association when it is appealed.

One in four Californians lives in a common-interest development, in which homeowners abide by a set of covenants and rules that can regulate what colors they paint their houses, where they park their cars and how they must maintain their property.

Failure to abide by the rules can lead to fines, and failure to pay fines can lead to homeowners' loss of their homes through foreclosure by the association.

McKenzie, who in 1994 published "Privatopia," the first comprehensive study of the political and social issues of common-interest developments, testified as an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the Twin Rivers case.

"The fact is that homeowner associations are a form of unregulated privatization of local government, and if our liberties are gong to have any meaning, those liberties must apply to association private governments," he said.

Tensions between individual homeowners and their association governing boards have sparked legislation to ensure boards don't smother individual rights. Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill that placed new restrictions on how and when associations can use foreclosure to collect delinquent assessments.

Groups representing association boards, like the Community Associations Institute, say most homeowners are happy with their governing boards. Consumer groups say there are many fine boards but there are also plenty that are abusive.

In the Twin Rivers case, three plaintiffs sued their association asserting the right to place political signs in their front yards, to use a community room and to obtain access to the community newspaper equal to the association management.

A trial court ruled against them on summary judgment, but an appellate court overturned portions of the ruling. The higher court said the association must allow free-speech rights guaranteed by the New Jersey constitution when public interests outweigh private-property rights.

The defendants argued that only the business-judgment rule and contractual standards, not the constitution, should apply to private entities like them.

The court agreed that when it comes to voting methods and alternative dispute resolution, the business-judgment rule applies, and the court dismissed those challenges by the plaintiffs.

"Yes, it's significant this court said the state constitution provides a right to free speech, but as a practical matter, I don't think the case will result in massive changes that people are predicting," Perl said.

Associations ultimately will not lose editorial control over their newsletters, he said.

McKenzie said he is not surprised the associations are downplaying the significance of the ruling.

"It is threatening to their control over the policy process," he said. "They basically get most of what they want from the California Legislature, and the courts have been pro-association in California since the Nahrstedt ruling."

In Nahrstedt v. Lakeside Village Condominium Association, 8 Cal.4th 361 (1994), the court majority said a condominium association can prohibit an owner from keeping cats inside her unit, even if they did not disturb her neighbors, because it was a reasonable policy.

David Kahne, a Houston, Texas, sole practitioner who has represented individual owners against associations, said New Jersey is a leading state in applying the state constitution to private entities.

"California is one of the states that has considered using the state constitution to cover nongovernmental associations," Kahne said. "This opinion will support people who would like to see that approach expanded."

Public entities like cities and states cannot forbid a citizen from exercising his or her free speech.

"Twin Rivers Homeowners Association said we do, and Community Associations Institute said they can and should be able to," Kahne said. "That battle is critically important."

Principles of constitutional law influence public policy and help determine what is reasonable, Kahne said. California and Texas are among the states that take that approach, he said.

"So this opinion should influence opinions in other states when they use other doctrines to decide what associations can and shouldn't do," he said.

California is "on the cutting edge" of adopting legislation to protect individual homeowners along with Florida, Kahne said. But McKenzie disagreed. California actually is borrowing ideas from Florida and Nevada, he said.

Jim Lingle, a Camarillo lawyer who has drafted nearly a dozen bills in favor of homeowner associations, said the New Jersey opinion likely would have "persuasive" value in California because both states' constitutional statutes on free speech are "very close or identical."

A long line of cases including Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 44 (1980), supports the right to free speech even on private property, Lingle said. In Pruneyard, a group of high-school students were ordered out of a shopping center for distributing political pamphlets and gathering signatures on petitions.

But community associations are not shopping centers, where commerce is conducted, Lingle said.

"I'm not certain as a matter of policy, we want to as a society extend political free-speech rights into people's homes the same way we do in commercial settings," he said. "We do have in California some pretty effective corporate rules of removing the worst of the bad players [in associations]. Because we have all these to redress grievances, I'm a little reluctant to see a whole panoply of constitutional rights imposed on associations. We run the added danger of imposing on associations constitutional guarantees to individuals with no parallel government immunity."

Lingle said the Twin Rivers case is limited to free speech.

"The rest of constitutional guarantees won't be imposed on associations in my life time," Lingle said. "[Covenants, conditions and restrictions] really are contracts. I think the full range of constitutional guarantees can't apply."

MORE NEWS FROM AROUND AMERICA

http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/caiupdir/issues/2006-02-06.html#1

CAI Upward Directions - January/February 2006 online newsletter

State Regulation of Community Association Managers
– A Complex Issue By Molly A. Foley-Healy

Over the past few years, community associations have been front and center in state legislatures. A significant majority of the legislation introduced in state legislatures has been related to governance.

In particular, the legislation seeks to regulate how community association boards are permitted to regulate the collection of assessments, the flying of the American flag and posting of political signs on common elements, access of homeowners to association records and financial information and other governance-related issues. There has also been more focus on the role that community association managers play in advising community association boards on governance issues and in carrying out their managerial functions.

In an additional attempt to "protect" homeowners from perceived abuses allegedly stemming from managers, some states have begun taking a look at whether it is necessary or prudent to regulate community association managers. Interestingly, more and more managers are of the opinion that state regulation is appropriate as a consumer protection and as a way to elevate the profession.

As a result, a few of CAI's state Legislative Action Committees (LACs) have been considering the possibility of introducing manager credentialing legislation at some point in their states. As we enter the 2006 state legislative season, here is a brief synopsis thus far of manager credentialing activity:

Colorado: During 2005, CAI's chapters in Colorado convened the Committee to Investigate Manager Credentialing. This committee has been carefully examining the possibility of introducing manager credentialing legislation during the 2007 or 2008 legislative session. The committee is currently working on soliciting input and building consensus among members relative to state-mandated manager regulation.

Hawaii: During the 2005 legislative session, a resolution was passed to direct the Legislative Auditor to conduct a Sunrise Review of condominium managers for the purpose of determining whether a state-mandated certification scheme for condominium managers should be required. The Legislative Auditor's report, published on December 22, recommended against mandating certification for condominium managers since there was no evidence that the actions of condominium managers had impacted the health, safety and welfare of consumers. The Legislative Auditor also found that "most of the complaints filed at the Regulated Industries Complaints Office related to problems between condominium owners and their boards."

Illinois: The Illinois Legislative Action Committee has been working on crafting a comprehensive bill that would mandate the licensure of community association managers in the state. The LAC is assessing the political environment in Illinois to determine how to proceed. Particulars for introduction of legislation have not yet been finalized.

North Carolina: During 2005, the North Carolina Real Estate Commission formed the Community Association Management Advisory Committee "to determine whether persons or entities engaged in the business of managing community associations should be governmentally regulated; and if so, to describe the demonstrated and/or potential harm to consumers due to a lack of governmental regulation and the most effective means of providing such regulation." The Advisory Committee met during 2005 and filed a recommendation with the commission that a registration scheme for associations should be created. The Real Estate Commission reviewed the recommendations of the committee and directed the committee to reconvene to submit further recommendations for the proposed program, including "authorization for the Commission to investigate alleged violations of the proposed community association accounting standards, and to identify options for enforcing such standards." It is likely that the regulation of community association managers will be discussed by the Committee prior to submitting final recommendations to the Real Estate Commission.

CAI will continue to monitor the significant trend of state legislatures seeking to regulate the governance of community association boards in an effort to protect homeowners from perceived abuses. Additionally, CAI waits to see whether more states legislatures and regulatory bodies will begin to look at the regulation of community association managers as a means of consumer protection. Regardless of how both of these trends develop, CAI will only support state-mandated manager certification or licensure if it is carried out under stringent guidelines that measure the competency of community association managers.

For more information on CAI's position on manager credentialing, download the Public Policies of Community Associations Institute at www.caisecure.net/index.mv?p=1567 and review the Community Association Manager Credentialing policy.

Molly A. Foley-Healy is CAI's Senior Vice President & General Counsel.

REMEMBER... CAI IS THE ENEMY! THEY ARE THE ORGANIZATION THAT PAYS OFF LEGISLATORS TO STOP STATES AND CITIES FROM PASSING LAWS THAT WOULD PROTECT OWNERS IN AN HOA. CAI IS THE REASON IT HAS BEEN SO HARD TO GET A GOVERNMENT AGENCY TO DO SOMETHING TO "CHET'S BOARD" FOR ALL OF THEIR ILLEGAL ACTS AND SHENANIGANS OVER THE PAST SIX MONTHS. I PUBLISH THESE SO-CALLED ARTICLES, WRITTEN BY CAI STAFF JUST TO SHOW YOU THE LENGTHS THEY GO TO MAKE THEMSELVES LOOK GOOD. THEY ARE STRICTLY FOR MAINTAINING POWER FOR OUT-OF-CONTROL BOARDS AND MANAGERS... JUST LIKE CHET HINGLE AND "CHET'S BOARD".

THE LAST WORD!!!!!

Here is a satirical spoof of "The Pledge Of Allegiance" from yet another pro-homeowner web site that provides information to owners who are dealing with people like "Chet's Board".

http://www.hoawatch.org/

HOA PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

"I Pledge Allegiance to the Home Owners Association of the United States of America.
And to the corporation for which it stands, one nation under fraud, indivisible,
with servitudes and assessments for all!"

VISIT THAT SITE AND ALSO LISTEN TO THE ACTUAL LEGISLATIVE HEARINGS TAKING PLACE IN CALIFORNIA.

Until next time... let "The Fountain Of Information" flow!!!!!

Lenny Vasbinder, Editor
TheFountainOfInformation@Gmail.com
http://thefountainofinformation.blogspot.com/

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