Beware the HOA's Soon to Come Phony Cry,

"We Have to Increase the Dues Maximum"!

The Union has learned our HOA, with the help of their latest mercenary company (called "Proper") they hired with OUR MONEY, is putting together a strategy and a set of manipulating arguments in the hope of deluding at least 67% of Peachtree Village's homeowners into approving an increase in the maximum amount the HOA is currently limited to charging. There are a lot of things wrong with our founding documents, but one of the few good parts in it are the requirement that no Board can arbitrarily raise dues once they hit the maximum limit, and the only way to increase that maximum is to get 67% or more of us to raise it. [A Board could, of course, all by themselves, LOWER the amount of dues to be paid, but with the exception of what the recent Interim Board had announced as our goal of reducing dues to $25. a month by this fall, there's never otherwise been a Board that was willing to lower dues.]

We don't have the details, not yet anyway, but we've got some information about the current Board/Proper's plan is. First, of course, they wanted to silence everyone who is or might be inclined to oppose them in any way, or to expose what they're up to. Last April, they tried intimidating the Interim Board into silence with a letter from an attorney they hired with OUR MONEY, which was nothing more than an empty threat...but because they worded it to make is seem as if they had the law on their side, which they most certainly did NOT, they were hoping that would do the trick. Then, they tried putting together a special "disciplinary meeting" in which they were going to specifically target the President of the Interim Board, probably with a threat of a law suit...only to cancel the meeting at the last minute. Why? Because it finally dawned on them that, were they to actually initiate a law suit against any homeowner, for any reason, that would grant the homeowner the right to counter sue, not only resulting in a TON of money that would have to be spent on legal fees (again, out of OUR pockets), but also taking the risk of what all might come to light during the course of court-ordered release of HOA documents (the same documents the HOA has been blocking access to for MONTHS, for fear of how it would become evidence in a court of law, not only for the HOA's past illegitimate, but also, criminal behavior), and not to mention, what other evidence would come to the light of day following court-ordered interrogatories (questionnaires any possible witness has to answer truthfully under the penalty of perjury), as well as possible depositions (an out-of-court witness testimony recorded by a certified court reporter or videographer). Wisely, the Board chose not to pursue taking anyone from the Interim Board to court, having realized how badly things would turn out for them!

Of course, they first thought they could just lure us into an alleged "party," which was falsely labeled as a "Meet and Greet," though the real goal was to trick as many of us as possible into giving them our private information (phone numbers, email addresses, etc.) and signing up for Proper's app that would then be used to inundate our community with a constant stream of false and distorted information. But our community of wise adults saw right through the false guise, and stayed away in droves from the lures that gave away their condescending attitude toward as, as if we are nothing more than gullible children!

Then they attempted another tactics--the bribe/threat technique. They thought they could just contact homeowners and residents, especially any whom they either knew or suspected had opposed them in any way, by falsely claiming they've suddenly had a change of heart and are now going to do things "properly." "Just give a chance," has been their most recent refrain...but what they mean be this is, "Just capitulate to our demands to neither oppose nor question us anymore, and we will reward you with something you want (though these "rewards" consist of things they were supposed to have done anyway, for everyone, according to the obligations of our HOA Board, as specified in our founding documents, but not to be parceled out only to a few favorites of theirs! Much as we'd like to see them begin to do what they were supposed to have been taking care of all along (fill pot holes on our streets, get the trash and tree limbs picked up, remove dead trees, thin out trees and other plant growth that's overgrown, remove the black mold along the sound barrier wall on Spring Creek Parkway, just to name of few), for them to come off as if they are doting parents by SELECTIVELY taking care of a FEW of their obligations, as a means to sway people into thinking they've changed is nothing more than DISCRIMINATION! Once more, though, the overwhelming majority of the people of our community have seen right through this manipulative and illegal tactic!

So, what's next? It's hard to predict exactly, but we have learned they still want very badly to raise the maximum allowed to collect dues ("regular assessments"), and the one they'll likely resort to is, "We have to raise the maximum to keep up with rising costs!"

Thing is, the costs that have have been rising are due to their negligence and misappropriation of our funds! They spent TENS of THOUSANDS of OUR dollars to pay for THEIR private worries they've done things against the Law and made US pay for their legal advice to find ways to avoid being held accountable, in not indicted by a criminal court! All that money should have come out of THEIR POCKETS, NOT OURS!

They've also spent TENS of THOUSANDS of our dollars to hire one abusive management company after another. They've wasted TENS of THOUSANDS of our dollars on an over-priced landscaping company which is now hoping to gouge us for even more by replacing, in piecemeal fashion, the cheaply constructed irrigation system for our greenbelt, even though they've been repeatedly warned it's only a matter of a short time before the City of Plano will tell us we can no longer (and we shouldn't) be spraying expensive drinking water on the ground, especially for the purpose of propping up the non-native crabgrass that surrounds our homes, because the entirety of North Texas is running out of water! And even after pleading with the Board (at their June 16th meeting) to, at least, consult with the City of Plano's environmental stability experts for the purpose of developing a low-cost plan to convert our ugly greenbelt crabgrass into fields of beautiful native plants that require no extra watering (like Blue Bonnets), the Board flatly rejected even to become properly educated on the topic!

In other words, were it not for the WASTE, MISMANAGEMENT and MISAPPROPRIATION of all the money the HOA takes from us, there would be PLENTY to take care of what is really important--our COMMON AREAS. But for all their TALK about giving a care about our "home values," it's clear the only thing that matters to them is having enough control over us, they can go right back to what they really care about--keeping the types of people they don't want in our neighborhood or, failing that, to exert the same sort of oligarchical control Antebellum, plantation masters wielded over their "servants" whom they, in their minds, thought us as their "children" who, without their draconian oversight, would naturally go wild and become unruly!

But we're anything but the "unruly children" they perceive us to be. We're all responsible adults who work hard, pay our bills, and saved our hard-earned money in order to buy (or lease) the homes we've made here in Peachtree Village, and we refuse to be mistreated any longer.