By now, you probably recieved two letters, one from the SAEPOA Board, and another from Mr. Ponto, the lead plaintiff on the lawsuit against SAEPOA to dissolve it. Curiously (or perhaps not curiously), both letters are telling you to do the same thing — to vote in favor of dissolving our HOA. Also, it is striking that they use the same talking points and very similar language, almost as if they were coordinated. In the case of Deborah and me, we got the letters on the same day, this Monday.
Their arguments are paper thin. Since the contents are so similar, we can simply look at the Board’s letter:
- They say: “After exhaustive analysis and the best legal advice, it’s time to dissolve SAEPOA”. In fact, they have not analyzed any options other than dissolution. The “best legal advice” is the attorney retained by SAEPOA without the membership consent (in violation of bylaws) and who only reports to the board vice president. This same vice president has pushed for dissolution for years and has not been open to alternatives.
- They say: “The HOA has failed its core duties”. While it may be true that the HOA could do better, and it even may be true that prior boards could have done better, no board has been worse than this one. This board has now openly stated that it will not perform any HOA duties (such as maintain roads, pay debts owed, or even support the charities it insists we are bound to support).
- They say “former board members sued the town” [to prevent the town from paving Rainbow Road for free]. This is misleading at best. My understanding is second-hand, but I believe the sources to be reliable. First, the town never finalized any agreement or plans to repave our portion of Rainbow Road, although it was discussed and Jerry Powers pushed for this when he was on the town commission. Second, the lawsuit by the “Berg” plaintiffs seeks no damages as I understand it. The lawsuit is merely for “quiet title” to settle who owns the roads. The plaintiffs believe that the roads belong to us. The board believes that “someone” owns the roads, and they claim that this should be the town, even though, as I understand it, the town has not indicated that it owns or even wants to own the roads. I understand that our board responded by countersuing the plaintiffs.
- They say: “The HOA’s foundation is broken. Governing documents are contradictory”. Despite what they say, they can go no further than their own opinion. Neither the Board nor its attorney have presented any statutory law, case law, or judgments that indicate that any of our governing documents were in violation of state law at any time.
- They say: “legal, tax and finacial threats”, referring to the supposed IRS 501(c)(3) problem. Yet this board has refused to contact the IRS to even find out if we have a problem. This is so even after they voted for a board authorization to contact the IRS! (1/27/2025) It was never done! They now claim that because their (supposedly “our”) attorney has an education in tax law that that qualifies him as a tax attorney and therefore they “know” the level of difficulty we find ourselves in, despite other information to the contrary. It’s important to note that skilled tax attorneys hold themselves out (advertise) as having that expertise. The Board’s attorney, however, holds himself out as an expert in intellectual property and nonprofit law. Notably he does not hold himself out as a tax attorney.
- The Board talks up its “volunteers”. We keep noticing that the cracks and gravel are increasingly problematic. How much worse will it get once the Board/Working Group gets its way?
- Finally, the letter claims that we need to dissolve in order to “restore peace, trust, and true community”. This will be difficult after running a rigged process in which the Board has not held any open in-person meetings, held no member votes until this one, restricted feedback, has never had face-to-face contact with the membership, and which responds to members with the hostility that we have regularly seen. Do you really think that giving in to this Board will result in any improvement in relationships? I’m skeptical that the same group (Working Group/board) that has distributed defamatory videos to win elections, and whose leader is or was involved in over 20 lawsuits (!) will restore “peace, trust, and true harmony” if you give in to their demands.
Keep in mind that if the Association is dissolved, this Board will almost certainly take on the role of an executor to determine what happens with SAEPOA’s assets. In addition to the money in the accounts, this will give the current SAEPOA authority over what happens to your roads. It will also leave you open to the same people trying to force organization (whether desired or undesired) by this neighborhood, and you will have a very limited voice in the process. This is if you’re lucky! Most likely, you will find that the same individuals that are forcing this dissolution vote will push their will on you and you will have no representation and no recourse.
Vote NO to dissolution!
This board must resign!
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