Politics

The last couple of months in my HOA have been crazy! To give the readers digest version: several Board members have formed a majority coalition on the Board to make certain changes (management and gate operations) and these changes were initiated with little to no notice or input from the community. Now there is a petition to remove all Board members except for me. Needless to say, it is neighbor against neighbor, and many are in an uproar.

It has caused me a great deal of stress, as I have been the sole Board member opposing the changes, which puts me in contention with the rest of the Board. Now that the community is very active in opposition, I am being put in the middle of the two factions. I have to say that I am categorically opposed to the decisions being made by these Board members and the fact that I believe they are having meetings in violation of state law. (A majority of the Board can not get together and discuss Board business outside of a publicly noticed meeting.)

Normally we have 3-5 visitors to our little Board meetings. Last month, we had over 100!! This Wednesday, we have another meeting and I am very anxious about it. I don't like rudeness and contention and I keep thinking that there will be a lot of it this week.

The other Board members got the opposed gate work started last week. Now the City is involved, as they never got the correct permit to do the work, nor did they get the proper clearances from the police and fire departments, which will now have limited access to the neighborhood. I think they red tagged the job.

As Anya says, this is politics! It is also an interesting example of how politics generally works. First people elect representatives. Then those representatives might drift, form their own agenda, or get out of touch with their constituency. But once a representative is elected, the people voting usually stop paying attention to the details and let the politicians do whatever they are going to do. Minority rule. But once the agenda gets so out of whack with the people's wishes that it comes to their attention and really annoys them, democracy moves again. People get active, they protest and they pull those people out of office (usually a larger minority rule). They put new ones in place and then they go and forget about the details again, until they get so aggravated that they need to once again take action.

I am thankful for the kind words I have received and the vote of confidence by being the only Board member not being considered for removal. I am still stressed by the contention and by trying to keep all parties focused on proper form and proper decorum. Heaven help everyone if I lose proper decorum!!

Wish our neighborhood luck. Neighbor against neighbor is not how anyone should live. Hopefully we will find a way through this and learn to live together respectfully.