Hi folks 8/6/2012
Watching the almost daily bad news reported that affects all of us wanting to return this community to the luster it had before the HOA Board (elected by us residents no less) chose to replace the property management company. Yes, it is the Board that the residents elected, that replaced AAM and we must not lose sight of that fact. Everybody can highlight any and all failures and shortcomings of our AAM representatives but for as long as the BOD does not take any action that the resident's voices are being taken seriously both, the BOD and AAM will continue their happy symbiosis, the BOD needs AAM to cover the Board's incompetence, while AAM needs the Board to continue their continue to do as little as possible but receive a handsome compensation for services rendered? really?
What we all too often forget is that it was the residents that elected the Board, and that the Board thereby has been in put in charge of using the HOA fees to pay for a lot of incompetence and failure and neglect, AAM's motto being: "If the Board let us get away with it, we care less about the noise, we only report to the board, not the residents". Folks, you've got to realize that it is unfortunately as simple as that. Consequently I personally continue to see all these "Wayne and the Board should go" comments but there is no detectable organization so far as I can see or hear of the rightfully concerned residents of this community to bring the required processes to a start and eventually to bear to formally and successfully recall or remove one or more Board members. Noise and snapping will not make any board member resign, legal processes must be invoked - otherwise we all just make a lot of noise. Nevertheless, much of this noise eventually may become valuable evidence when a formal recall/removal process gets underway. The blog master will continue to archive all notes he receives as I recall.
In the meantime, please consider that there is a vast amount of relevant, valuable information on the internet that we can learn from and use to pursue a formal process to start the recall/removal processes.
The following link for instance is a thread of a forum discussion that touches on the "Removing Board of Directors". Just to give you a feeling for the Arizona relevance I quote the first entry :
How to Remove the Board of Directors
My question involves a condominium located in the State of: AZ
We have been having issues in our community and our board of directors is letting our management company make all the decisions. We want to replace the board of directors as soon as possible.
Can we do this at the next meeting if we have 51% percent of the home owners/proxi there to vote on it or do we need to wait to the next annual meeting.
Also, can we replace them with a petition?
Follow this link http://www.expertlaw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83254 to read the comments that follow. An there is a lot more on the internet that can be used to productively channel the emotions of the concerned residents into serious actions.
MI #11
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I can imagine that because of possibly limited concern the following letter to the blog master did not make it to the letter tab on the blog. The same note was also sent to members of the Board and the AAM team - obviously no one seems to care as usual.
I repeat this letter nevertheless because it is quite possible that many residents have refrigerator ice maker and reverse osmosis hook-ups that at first glance make you call your plumber of choice, our gold old friend Dan being on top of the list, to fix what actually may not be a problem, unless your refrigerator-icemaker connection is made with the old, traditional 1/4" copper tubing subject to easy kinking and resulting leakage. Others have an under-sink reverse osmosis system that can only be connected to the water system by plastic tubing - nothing to worry about, the plumbing guidelines supplied at the last BOD meeting do not even cover this vital system, Anasazi must be considered a stone age community by some.
As some of the BOD members still fancy dial-up for their internet connection, the same members must be still be very satisfied with the tap water quality.
Considering that at my ripe age I keep having trouble remembering which building or pool is where, I prepared myself a little map of this community.
You may find helpful and I hope it print sufficiently. Otherwise please contact me. This is how it looks like and the same is added to this letter as an attachment.
PLUMBING UPDDATE NOTES:
Mandatory Plumbing Updates - there are a few clarifications needed regarding Refrigerator and Reverse Osmosis System hook-ups - Wayne, AAM and the Board members, this is an opportunity for either one of you to shine!
Note: This message has been sent in its entirety to a limited number of members of the board and the front office, not expecting any response, of course. While the subject matter is covered to the extent possible and necessary, the added commentary that follows may stretch your attention span, for which I apologize.
Having personally experienced more than my fair share of tap and sewer water plumbing component failures together with the consequential imaginable and unimaginable damages and inconveniences, I have been and remain to be a firm supporter of any enforceable rules or regulations that are being made by the Association of this condo complex.
The items that were not, or just vaguely touched upon with some imagination are:
1. Reverse Osmosis Systems with sink spigot and icemaker hook-up, or
2. In-line water filter to ice maker hook-up
Both of these applications are in most cases today facilitated by plastic hoses (1/4" and 3/8") that are rated to withstand water pressures above 150 and up to 200psi. The water supply in this community has been regulated to a pressure not to exceed 100psi. The unregulated water pressure entering this community is approx. 125psi.
Icemaker hook-up - directly to the tap or with an in-line water purification filter
Many of the refrigerators that include an icemaker and are sold these days or have been sold in the recent past have come prepackaged with plastic supply lines. One of the biggest benefits of plastic icemaker lines is flexibility when compared to the previously used copper lines - because copper is less flexible than plastic, and moving the refrigerator back and forth --- for instance, to clean behind it--- can lead to kinks in the copper line that can either stop water flow or eventually weaken the copper line to the point of breakage. Plastic lines widely used today do not have that inherent problem.
Refrigerators with icemakers these days most commonly are furnished with plastic fittings at the back of the refrigerator, and once one removes the bottom drawers of the refrigerator and takes a peek to the back wall inside one in many instances will see a plastic tubing coiled up that serves to cool the water that is dispensed next to the ice dispenser.
As a result, prescribing a steel flex hose to connect to the icemaker/cold water supply of a refrigerator does not make a lot of sense - there is the plastic fitting of the refrigerator that the steel flex hose is connected to, and there is that coiled-up bundle of plastic, 1/4" tubing at the bottom and inside the refrigerator, so where is common sense applied. All this is aggravated by the common use of an in-line water purification filter. So where does one stop and where does one end? Can we only purchase certain refrigerators now?
Under Counter Reverse Osmosis Systems
Due to the sometimes questionable quality of tap water in general, the use of under counter reverse osmosis systems has become very popular for many years, almost decades. All of us using these systems know that they all connections are made using plastic quick-connect fittings and 1/4" and 3/8" plastic flexible tubing, to the spigot mounted to the kitchen sink, and to the refrigerator for the icemaker and cold water supply. Unless a very expensive and elaborate industrial grade osmosis system is purchased for home use together with steel flex hoses, the "Mandatory Plumbing Updates" do not contain any reference to the use of today's state of the art and common use of flexible plastic tubing. In fact, steel flex hoses are unnecessary connecting a washing machine provided the washing machine supplied hoses are connected such that the connections to the water cut-off valves and the washing machine do not create kinks where the rubber hoses and metal fittings meet.
I must and do admit that the HOA Board and the local AAM Property Management Office representative together with the AAM home office staff the HOA Board is helpless on these matters, have to cover all bases, and common sense considerations have to take a back seat. Rather than being at the mercy of the AAM team, local and home office, I recommend to the Board to implement a committee represented by unit owners that by education and experience are capable of becoming a "second opinion" such that the BOD is not entirely subject to any and all opinions made by the representatives of AAM, for better or worse of this community as it is now - for convenience I may ask?
The unfortunate truth associated with the Mandatory Plumbing Updates is that while most of the owners will endorse and follow the rules and regulations and instructions recently published, there are several known owners that are not only negligent and blatantly ignorant but will in person insult anybody questioning their non-compliant behavior. America, freedom of speech? Freedom to allow damage and harm to thy neighbors? How far does it have to go? Do we have to pack weapons to be prepared when verbal disputes escalate into more serious exchanges of opinions - the community equivalent of road rage?
MI #11
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WEBMASTER NOTE
My plumbing is all up to date, Every thing on checklist has been done or replaced in my unit and all other residents should do the same
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Hi Mike,
Looks like a slow couple of days for the juicy kind of blog entries - maybe the weekend gives us more fence jumpers to report on.
In the meantime, let's add some focus to the discussion of the replacement of members of the board, or the entire BOD for that matter. It does, in fact, require a bit more than just "yelling" or "bullying" in order to remove, replace the BOD. All that yelling and bullying does is nothing, no leg to stand on. Recalling Board members or the entire BOD requires a not insignificant knowledge of the laws, regulations and procedures that need to be followed to ensure a successful recall or replacement of the BOD. There are a lot of laws, rules, regulations and procedures that have to be followed to be anywhere close to be able to remove/replace members of the BOD or the entire BOD. Point in time, do you have any people in mind that could jump in on short notice to replace the BOD?
If we do not follow the correct path properly, you and everybody following your bugle horn is in a no-win position before starting to be taken serious about any change or recall.
Remembering your motto about leaders and followers, I'd like to suggest this:
Don't walk behind me
I may not lead
Don't walk in front of me
I may not follow
Walk beside me that we may be as one
I do not claim having invented the very important piece of wisdom above, somebody else did. And I am not the or any leader to follow, just a flag in the wind that hopes to aid in judgment before jumping off an imaginary cliff without a safety net. What is needed to successfully conduct any recall or removal of the BOD or any member thereof takes a lawyer, clear and simple. And I have not made the Arizona bar to be able to jump in, or any bar for that matter. All that I believe to have is common sense.
If we are lucky we'll find a lawyer that takes our case pro bono, otherwise we need to hire one and here comes the "who is willing to pay for it", just what the Board and Management company know is not going to happen unless a miracles appears out of nowhere. Miracles are rare and we may need to call upon the Pope for help.
Here are some worthwhile document to study before sounding the recall horn, and there are many more in case present proponents of a recall or removal of the BOD are getting serious about this issue, because nobody of us looks serious. All of us, I presume are internet savvy - there are many more documents and other sources to learn from. The list below is in no way conclusive or exhaustive, but is merely suggestive for directing a search for what to do before taking the stage :
AZ HOA Recall cases and documents:
THE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONBOARD MEMBER MANUAL
Condos' HOA recalls 4 board members:
articles/2009/04/28/Arizona Homeowners
Legal Information Services.
ARIZONA REVISED STATUTES (2011)
Planned Community and Homeowner Associations:
Other HOA BOD recall related documents, and there are many more:
have-free-speech-rights-09/what-does-it-take-to-
Articles/Homeowner-Legal-
neighborhoods/
recallboard.html
Another interesting piece:
estate/hoa-needs-petition-to-I hope this will help stimulating the residents to organize and direct their frustrations into the right direction and more foundation to pull a recall or removal off. In the meantime, we all hope you had a great dinner at the Roma Garden Ristorante and can share your experience in the fashion and way shown on the "Check Please" PBS show (KAET channel 8, http://www.azpbs.org/
checkplease/ ). Their reviews of local eateries is fantastic and mouthwatering, and is something to blog about.MI , #11
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Unless sending you an email, the blog comment entry point does not allow for any picture attachment and you and your readers miss out on a lot of pictorial evidence substantiating their observations - picture say more than a thousand words as you know.
The problem is that folks do not wish or are afraid to be identified and therefore refrain from using you email messages and attaching pictures they have taken, such as the individual that took similar pool jumper pictures and personally presented them to Wayne without results - exposure: 1 person, Wayne.
You are verifying both, emails and blog commentaries before posting, so what is the point foregoing the opportunity for a great documentation of a case by not allowing attachments for blog comment entries. There are canned/free blog products that can do that. For what the Anasazi blogosphere is trying to accomplish pictures would do wonders, not only for a portrait of the HOA members, most entries would come to life!Take the muddy dirt walkway for instance - I send you pictures that document the story form an "anonymous" on that subject.
Just for kicks, I used the blog comment opportunity to add a bit of nothing to the "drain fly" subject, the wiki entry comment. Aside the lack of attaching files/pictures for that matter (one can limit things to formats), I found that the captcha algorithm you or the blog software using is way too hard for the limited eyesight of the seniors living here, I am one of them. This is not the NSA, CIA or NASA, this is the Anasazi Village Condo Blogosphere.
Let me give you a more drastic, pictorial example related to the "drain fly" subject. You may remember the message with embedded pictures that I emailed to you about a serious (broken) sewer pipe system in one of my bathrooms and as you may not recall that story, I attached a few pics to trigger your memory. The drain fly connection is easy but the effect is serious. Drain flies and their larvae, respectively, breed and live in drain and sewer muck. When waste and/or sewer pipes brake, waste and sewer liquids follow gravity and accumulate at the bottom of the hollow spaces between the walls eventually oozing out through the drywall, baseboards and grout, expanding the drywall, opening the miter joints of the baseboards, decolorizing the grout due the moisture. Drain flies love this, breed and multiply. To fix the problem is finding the cause for their existence, not shooting from the hip with boiling water or bleach - there are more serious problems lurking somewhere close by. Fly swatters do not do the trick.The attached pictures illustrate sewer pipe failures that I experienced, 1 in September 2011, and one in April this year, precisely on Easter Sunday. Softened drywall, discolored grout etc. gave the cause away.
Another thing drain flies love is murky muck that accumulates in dried out P-traps as a part of bathroom vanities, showers, bathtubs and toilets in vacant houses, apartments and condos, such as those that we have here, some not maintained for almost a year or longer. So what are we surprised of?
Picture convey any message better than words, while words convey the basic message. A blog without file attachment (JPG as an example) creates just a lot of noise. So let's see what you can do about making it more efficient while keeping the "anonymous" status.
M.Ibing
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Hi all, I am a new resident here at Anasazi and was just told about this blog. This is a great idea !!
It looks like everyone is having a bit of fun yet getting their gripes out in the open.
On another note, Who is having a problem with these tiny little things flying around that look like fruit flies?? Well guess what ?? they are NOT fruit flies. You did not bring them in on the fruit that you just bought. I work for an exterminating company and I can tell you that these pests are "DRAIN FLIES".
They are attracted to and live off the build up of organic matter in all your drains. I am not going to try to sell you exterminating services. What I would like to do is educate you in how to rid your condo in a safe and inexpensive way using items that are normally already in your household.
Let me see a show of hands !! If there is enough response, I will post on this blog as to how to rid your home of these critters.
JJ
On another note, Who is having a problem with these tiny little things flying around that look like fruit flies?? Well guess what ?? they are NOT fruit flies. You did not bring them in on the fruit that you just bought. I work for an exterminating company and I can tell you that these pests are "DRAIN FLIES".
They are attracted to and live off the build up of organic matter in all your drains. I am not going to try to sell you exterminating services. What I would like to do is educate you in how to rid your condo in a safe and inexpensive way using items that are normally already in your household.
Let me see a show of hands !! If there is enough response, I will post on this blog as to how to rid your home of these critters.
JJ
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Unless sending you an email, the blog comment entry point does not allow for any picture attachment and you and your readers miss out on a lot of pictorial evidence substantiating their observations - picture say more than a thousand words as you know.
The problem is that folks do not wish or are afraid to be identified and therefore refrain from using you email messages and attaching pictures they have taken, such as the individual that took similar pool jumper pictures and personally presented them to Wayne without results - exposure: 1 person, Wayne.
You are verifying both, emails and blog commentaries before posting, so what is the point foregoing the opportunity for a great documentation of a case by not allowing attachments for blog comment entries. There are canned/free blog products that can do that. For what the Anasazi blogosphere is trying to accomplish pictures would do wonders, not only for a portrait of the HOA members, most entries would come to life!
Take the muddy dirt walkway for instance - I send you pictures that document the story form an "anonymous" on that subject.
Just for kicks, I used the blog comment opportunity to add a bit of nothing to the "drain fly" subject, the wiki entry comment. Aside the lack of attaching files/pictures for that matter (one can limit things to formats), I found that the captcha algorithm you or the blog software using is way too hard for the limited eyesight of the seniors living here, I am one of them. This is not the NSA, CIA or NASA, this is the Anasazi Village Condo Blogosphere.
Let me give you a more drastic, pictorial example related to the "drain fly" subject. You may remember the message with embedded pictures that I emailed to you about a serious (broken) sewer pipe system in one of my bathrooms and as you may not recall that story, I attached a few pics to trigger your memory. The drain fly connection is easy but the effect is serious. Drain flies and their larvae, respectively, breed and live in drain and sewer muck. When waste and/or sewer pipes brake, waste and sewer liquids follow gravity and accumulate at the bottom of the hollow spaces between the walls eventually oozing out through the drywall, baseboards and grout, expanding the drywall, opening the miter joints of the baseboards, decolorizing the grout due the moisture. Drain flies love this, breed and multiply. To fix the problem is finding the cause for their existence, not shooting from the hip with boiling water or bleach - there are more serious problems lurking somewhere close by. Fly swatters do not do the trick.
The attached pictures illustrate sewer pipe failures that I experienced, 1 in September 2011, and one in April this year, precisely on Easter Sunday. Softened drywall, discolored grout etc. gave the cause away.
Another thing drain flies love is murky muck that accumulates in dried out P-traps as a part of bathroom vanities, showers, bathtubs and toilets in vacant houses, apartments and condos, such as those that we have here, some not maintained for almost a year or longer. So what are we surprised of?
Picture convey any message better than words, while words convey the basic message. A blog without file attachment (JPG as an example) creates just a lot of noise. So let's see what you can do about making it more efficient while keeping the "anonymous" status.
M.Ibing
M.Ibing
