Defeating the Old HOA's "Rumor Control Tower"

News Update: The Old HOA Board has been, once more, circulating false information about leaving handbills on front doors, claiming it is illegal to do so unless the handbill distributor has a "solicitation permit," and wears a "badge" indicating they have this supposed permit. NOT TRUE! What is true is that if a homeowner posts a No Trespassing sign in front of their home, which is clearly visible, or communicates with a handbill distributor, in person, that they do not wish to receive a given handbill, then, and only then, is placing a handbill on the residential property front door, not permitted by the City of Plano. The following is how the City of Plano's ordinance reads:

DIVISION 2. - HANDBILL DISTRIBUTION AND NO TRESPASSING SIGNS

Division 2 Sec. 11-142. - Handbill distribution and No Trespassing Signs

(a) It shall be unlawful for any individual, handbill distributor and/or handbill sponsor, to distribute or cause to be distributed, deposited, placed, thrown, scattered, or cast any handbill upon any residential property except [emphasis added] by handing or transmitting such handbill directly to the owner, occupant, or any other person then present in or upon such private premises or by placing or depositing the same in a manner to secure to prevent such handbill from being blown or drifting about such premises [emphasis added], except that mailboxes may not be used when prohibited by federal postal laws or regulations.

(b) It shall be unlawful for any person to distribute or cause to be distributed, deposited, placed, thrown, scattered or cast any handbill upon any residential property if requested by anyone thereon not to do so, or if there is a no trespass(ing) sign placed on such premises in a conspicuous place upon or near the main entrance to the residence [emphasis added]. A no trespass(ing) sign shall be sufficient if it is weatherproof, not less than three (3) inches by four (4) inches in size, and bears the words "no trespassing" or "no trespass" with letters not less than two-thirds (⅔) of an inch in height.

(Ord. No. 2021-9-23, § II, 9-27-21)

Of course, the reason why the Old HOA Board is circulating this false rumor is in an attempt to suppress our New Board from communicating with the residents of our community about important events and information, such as our recent Referendum. In this way, they're hoping to prevent our residents from finding out what's really going on and, in so doing, they are feebly hoping only their lies and distortions are read and heard! What this tells us, though, is that they know they can't win support in any fair exchange of ideas, so their only teeny, tiny hope of prevailing, is to prevent any other voice, except for theirs, to be heard!

As our new HOA is already moving forward with all the voluntary work needed to lift up, unify and encourage mutual respect for one another, we know the Old HOA Board and their handful of acolytes are, sadly, still spreading all sorts of lies and misinformation in order to impede our efforts. Their gossip and lies have led some of our neighbors to wonder what's really going on, so it's vitally important that we respond with accurate information, knowing that, no matter how many lies are still out there, the TRUTH will win in the end.

Below, is a letter I just wrote to one our neighbors who, wisely, rather than just accepted the gossip and rumors as true, without question, took the time to investigate for himself what was really happening. If you happen to heard or wondered about any of these same issues, perhaps the following response will be of help to you:

Hi [Peachtree Village neighbor's name],

Thank you for your very good questions, and sharing your concerns. The Old Board and their handful of followers have been circulating all sorts of lies and distortions so, while we've already begun to do the much needed work to address the REAL PROBLEMS they neglected and correcting the many wrongs they committed, we're also going to defend ourselves against their attacks.

We've been trying out several changes to the signs that had been labeled as "Visitors Only," for several reasons. One is that the auxiliary parking spaces were never supposed to be used only for visitors, regardless of whether they were people we invited to park their vehicles there or a homeless person "visitor" who felt welcomed to set up camp there...FOR ANY UNDETERMINED LENGTH OF TIME.

Another reason was because the Old Board's signs were designed to look like they were made and installed by the City of Plano, which is against the Law! Texas State Law says no unauthorized signs may be put on or by a public right of way, nor may they RESEMBLE an official sign, especially when they carry the threat of legal punishment which no HOA may do regardless of their numerous attempts to make it FALSELY APPEAR as if they do.

A third reason is because the Old Board's signs were preventing those of us who live here from making good use of the auxiliary parking. Perhaps the smaller ones, such as the ones near your home, are used by residents on a regular basis, but the ones next to Plumtree are rarely used...even though we are already struggling with not enough parking, because Fox and Jacobs, the original builder, didn't place large enough driveways, nor spaces to park in front of many of our homes.

Then, there was the general, THREATENING manner of the old signs. Once again, here was the Old Board threatening to knock people over the head, when all that was really needed was a message that POLITELY INFORMED all the while ENCOURAGED CIVILITY and CONSIDERATION for others! For this reason, we landed on the new wording, "Temporary parking, please share, thank you." As Mr. Rogers taught us, the words "Please" and "Thank you," are so much better than "Gimme"!

The Old Board relied on FEAR, BIGOTRY and SELFISHNESS in order to secure their control over all of us. They constantly spread lies and distortions, such as the notion that, without giving them so much power over ALL of us, then our community would become a "disaster," "full of rats," "vagabonds," "drug dealers," and of course, what they really meant all along, "people from other racial, religious or ethnic groups will take over and replace us Protestant Whites." The idea that the threatening Visitors Only signs kept homeless people away is just one of their many lies, since no such thing has ever happened anywhere.

As a matter of fact, there was a guy who camped on the grass for a day or so, not too long ago, right alongside one of the auxiliary parking lots, and the old sign that said "Visitors Only." He had been kicked out of one of our neighbor's homes but, within a day, some friend of his came and got him and his things. This was BEFORE the Referendum, so it's not clear the Old Board was doing anything about it but, clearly, the Visitors Only sign which was almost right next to where he was camped, DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! (By the way, another one of the issues we will address if, in the future, we were to have homeless people in our area, will be to coordinate with the City of Plano and several other charities to, quickly, find them a decent place to live.)

So, on the Referendum. We had a RECORD TURN OUT of residents, as well as several non-resident home owners, who voted 95% to 5% to pass all 5 Proposals! This was exactly what the Old Board had feared would happen, thus, their many attempts to suppress our voter turn out!

Whenever I hear someone from the Old Board talk about the "CCRs," the 40 year old "Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions," it reminds me of the people who love to quote from the Bible in order to support their church's doctrinal beliefs...by CHERRY PICKING from the parts they like, but COMPLETLY IGNORING all else it has to say! Likewise, the Old Board loves to say, "The CCRs require a 65% to (______)," whether it's to change one rule, elect a new Board or dissolve the HOA altogether. (Actually, they will often use other numbers, 60%, 67%, 70%, whatever seems to suit them.)

But IN REALITY, the last Board, as well as many others before them, have NUMEROUS TIMES, ELECTED THEMSELVES into office, with as few as 7 or 8 people, including themselves, and changed the CCRs to suit their liking (we have documents of when they did this)! For example, the original CCRs said nothing about religious statues on someone's front yard, so when they heard a Church of Satan in Oklahoma had placed a Baphomet statue in a public park (which was their way of getting a city to remove a statue of the 10 Commandments), the Peachtree Village Board (not a 65% of the homeowners) at that time simply changed the CCRs to make it a "violation" to place a statue on a front yard UNLESS it was one THEY approved of in advance!

Therefore, thanks to how the last Board and numerous other Old Boards have acted in the past, we now have the legal PRECEDENT to do the same, though unlike virtually all the previous Boards, we ACTUALLY DID ASK OUR ENTIRE COMMUNITY, FIRST, before simply acting alone! Going forward, we intend to be INCLUSIVE of ALL our residents and non-resident owners, because unlike the Old Boards, we are going to be a DEMOCRATIC body of LEADERSHIP, not a DICTATORIAL body of PUSHERSHIP.

Curiously, the previous HOA Board President did make a good point about the need to stop throwing expensive drinking water on our greenbelt just to keep UN-natural grass alive and, even then, only to see it turn brown and die by August, if not sooner. However, his idea of paying up to $50,000 to pull up the crabgrass and replace it with brown gravel is NOT finding favor, even among the Old Board's handful of supporters! To fund the sort of "xeriscape" he was talking about would only be possible by dramatically raising our monthly dues to has much as $250 a month! And even after all that, the crabgrass would still grow back up through the gravel, requiring a landscaping company (like Southern Style, who was the first company the former President sought out for a bid) to keep having to cut down and poison it.

That said, we are going to have to do something different about our plant areas (the "greenbelt"). I've already been in contact with the City of Plano, especially the department of Environmental Sustainability to discuss economically and environmentally sound solutions. With our old irrigation pipes already falling apart, we just can't keep paying a LOT of money to buy and spray drinking water on the ground in a losing battle to keep the crabgrass alive. Nor is it a good idea to cut whatever sort of plants are growing on our land, down to the nubs, which does nothing other than let our hot summer sun bake the ground, dry it out completely, resulting in large cracks! For these reasons, we're looking at allowing our greenbelt to become a NATIVE PLANT zone.

Native plants, the ones that have been here in North Texas for millions of years, are fully adapted to the dry and hot weather we get every summer (and often before and after). If we allow them to grow, and NOT chop them down, they'll SHADE and take deep root in the ground, preventing it from drying up, cracking and eroding away. These native plants also FLOWER, very beautifully, for many months. Assuming we take this path, we would no longer have to pay 10s of $1000s to a landscaping company (last year, we paid Southern Style almost $30,000)! Nor would we have to pay for City for water and a power company for the electricity needed to operate our failing irrigation system! The most we would have to do if we convert to native plants is organize a voluntary crew to, periodically, cut back any plant growth encroaching on our walkways, or parking/street curbs, or if any plant growth were to make it difficult for drivers to see on-coming traffic from around a corner or any similar, public safety issue.

All that said, our recent Referendum did authorize each home owner to take back control of however much land each one had, previously, "ceded" (gave control over) to the greenbelt. This means, whatever choices we, the new HOA and our community as a whole makes about plant areas (excluding the cemented parking, streets and walkways), each home owner can do what they want with ALL THEIR land! So, for example, if you, as a home owner, want to keep paying the City to water the plants (crabgrass or other types) on YOUR land, you may now do so...that is, as long as you follow the City of Plano's restrictions which, right now (and it's only April) restricts to 2 nights a week, and no daytime watering. On the other hand, if you want, you can xeriscape with gravel and rocks, or place all flowers, or all rocks or artificial turf or even all cement pavers! In other words, by each one of us respecting the choices our neighbors make about THEIR homes and yards, we each get to do as we please (within the limits the City of Plano requires) with our own, individual homes and yards.

As to the Interim Board, it is NOT made up of just one person, though it may seem like that since I am doing most of the public representation. We do, however, want to hold a community-wide election for a permanent (probably for a one year term) Board, most likely, this Autumn. But unlike what the Old Board did to elect themselves into office by using very un-democratic "proxy" votes, we will take nominations IN ADVANCE, and ask all candidates to reach out to EVERYONE in our community to get to KNOW them, and CONVINCE them to vote for them, probably for a period of at least 30 to 60 days. In the past, NO ONE KNEW ANYTHING about who was nominated, because these nominations took place at the same meeting as did the "voting"! It was, by design, a secretive and manipulative process, which is why we've ended it!

Yes, we are still hoping the members of the Old Board will soon accept the results of the Referendum which, by an overwhelming number, removed them from office. It would appear they are, for now, unwilling to accept what our community wants, which is not too surprising. After all, they have, for many years, if not decades, sought to DICTATE what THEY WANT and IMPOSE THEIR DESIRES on all the rest of us! So, it may very well be they will TRY clinging to their self-perceived power, and if they do make such a bad choice, it will be very sad to observe...but even then, IT WILL NOT DETER US!

The only real issue is how long it will take us to recover our money (we estimate it to be around $23,000) from Goodwin & Co. They could drag their feet and fall back on all sorts of delaying tactics in order to block us from having access to it, so we can prevent it from being wasted and, of course, to keep paying Goodwin & Co. close to $7,000 a year (or what would have been substantially far more $$$ had they been allowed to convince the Board to raise our dues)!

We've already sent Goodwin a certified letter, directing them to get all accounts in order. We're giving them a reasonable amount of time to comply with our directions. If so, then we will quickly move to transparent and wise spending, as a self-managed HOA. If not, we will use other legal means available to us in order to compel them to comply, though that would, admittedly, take longer. However, even if Goodwin fails to comply any time soon, we will STILL move forward, to do what our community wants, not what a small handful of would-be dictators want.

Our Referendum already authorized changing the "dues" to voluntary contributions. We may, for example, ASK every resident to donate $20 a month, just as a guideline. But the days of the Old HOA threatening us with "fines" for not paying what THEY DEMANDED (and by the way, did NOT NEED, given the fact they tied up nearly $12,000 in a money market fund) are now over! We've already directed Goodwin & Co. to cease and desist from sending out any more threatening letters, making accusations of "violations" and threatening further "fines." That said, we're asking everyone to report immediately any such communications, should Goodwin unwisely choose to ignore our directions, so we can hold them accountable for any REAL "violations" should THEY commit any!

I hope I answered your very good questions, but please feel free to enquire further should you need or want any other clarifications. If you don't mind, I'd like to post your questions on our website--peachtreevillageplano.com--though without mentioning your name, because I suspect the Old Board's "Rumor Control Tower" is doing all they can to spread false information and distortions to others in our community.

I look forward to working with you and all our neighbors in order to ENCOURAGE one another, get to KNOW each other, build TRUST in each other, and to engage in the VOLUNTARY WORK we need to do, in order to make Peachtree Village the ENVY of Plano, North Texas and beyond.

Your neighbor,

Rick