個人資料
正文

You've got to follow the by-law and follow the procedures

(2006-12-07 18:07:26) 下一個
As you may know, No Worry is a member of board of the three directors for our community and the vice president of our home owner association. And this is his second term as a BOD member. A term is three years. He is so active in our community that almost every one knows him. And every neighbor loves to talk to him and share him wither their concerns and interests over our community, because No Worry is very honest, straightforward, considerate, responsible, accountable as well as diplomatic.
Like you friends here, they just love No Worry.
Last night, our community had a serious petition hearing meeting over a landscaping project, which I would love to share with you, my friends. I believe that it is very educational and interesting because most of you may own a house and live in a community. I also believe that it would be great if we can be more involved in community, great to our kids, great to ourselves, and great to our community as well.
Last summer, we were so happy to see a new neighbor Mr. S moving into our community. He loves his new house very much. One day after he moved in a couple months later, the Architecture Control Committee (ACC) chair Mr. G stopped me in the early morning while I was ready to go to work. He said to me, “Mr. No Worry, do you know what is happening over Mr. S’ front yard with so many huge rocks?” I said, “I don’t know. Let’s go and have a look.”
We went to Mr. S’ home, where Mr. S was unloading huge rocks from a truck. And we asked, “What are you trying to do, Mr. S?” Mr. S said, “I want to build a Japanese garden. It is very beautiful.” And Mr. G, the ACC chair, said, “Oh no, you’ve got to get an approval from the ACC with such large scale of project.” I said, “Well. Mr. S, you’ve got to stop your project and fill in an application. Wait and see whether the ACC approves or not.”
After a month, ACC rejected Mr. S’ project and required him to recover his front yard to original appearance due to his landscaping project huge scale and safety issue.
Mr. S was not happy with ACC’s decision and he required having special meeting with BOD. (ACC is work for the BOD, and BOD appoints ACC members though it is voluntary)
And the BOD with ACC chair did hold a meeting with Mr. S at his home. During the meeting, Mr. S said that it was not fair to him for ACC to reject his project. He had spent a couple of ten thousands dollars for his almost a hundred thousand dollar project. He wanted to sue Mr. G, the ACC chair who went to his old neighborhood to see what Mr. S did at his old house and badmouth him so that his reputation was damaged in the old neighbor as well as in the new community. He also would like to go to court to get a fair answer from judge if the BOD could not handle this fairly. At the same time, he was willing to work with BOD to make a necessary adjustment of his projects if BOD would like to give him a chance.
BOD agreed to work with Mr. S and required him to hire a professional landscaping company and make a better drawing of his project so that BOD could see exactly what he was going to do. BOD also asked him to call county to be sure that his project followed the county codes and regulations.
Because Mr. S’ project was so huge and it was there for a quite while. Neighbors were beginning wondering what was going on. Some like it, some don’t ,and some don’t care at all. So many came to No Worry and complained his project or concerned about kids safety because the project has a small fishing pool. I said to them, “Please write to the BOD if you like it very much or don’t like it very much.
Mr. S did what the BOD required him to do and presented BOD with a beautiful and professional landscaping plan. And BOD approved without ACC involvement because ACC chair and Mr. S at this time were already kind of enemies. BOD members did not believe that ACC can handle this case properly.
Mr. S was happy and started his project. However ACC members, especially the chair were upset and they believed that their voluntary were not appreciated by the BOD. They thought that BOD disrespected them with such decision. They even challenged that the BOD might break HOA’s by-law. So ACC chair made a petition of a special hearing with over 25% homeowner’s signatures.
And the special hearing was held at Mr. R’s home. Mr. R is the president of HOA. The meeting started 7:30 p.m.
You may not believe it, but it is true that Americans fight hard when we really and truly care and concern, especially about our own interests. Neighbors exchanged their concerns and opinions very aggressively, even feriously though we know each other and say hi daily. Five minutes ago before the meeting, we still shaked hands and said hello to each other, and Mr. R even offered some drinks and fruits. The meeting was very hot.
After Mr. R, the president explained the entire case and why the BOD approved the project. The ACC chair asked,” Why did ACC has not a chance to see the modified project plan? Do you BOD members respect ACC members?” A lady asked, “Why did you BOD approve this project with a fishing pool? Do you BOD ever think of kid safety? I guess that we selected wrong persons to be BOD members.” Mr. S said, “It is my yard. I can do whatever landscaping I want. Parents should supervise their kids if they are not old enough.”
Another neighbor challenged” Did you BOD members try to hide something from us? Come on, this is a democracy country. You guys simply can not do it. It is wrong. It is against law.” Another lady stood up and complained, “How about other projects such like this one in the future if you BOD approved and handled like this way? People would simply start whatever they want and then work around later. You guys are simply not responsible.”, then other gentlemen, and then another lady agreed or disagreed with the landscaping projects and BOD’s approval decision.
The meeting place was kind of chaos. It seemed that Mr., R, the HOA president, had a difficulty to handle. He is pretty young and a very nice guy.
No Worry steps in. “Listen, ladies and gentlemen, ACC has a done a pretty good job. And BOD truly appreciates it. This is a special case and this is the first time and the only time that BOD has to step in and make decision over the ACC. As you may see we have some many different opinions over this landscaping project among our neighbors. As BOD, we do have the authority and responsibility to handle the issues like this project on behalf of the entire community. Personally, I don’t want to see our community is divided into two or many different groups and neighbors sue each other over this project. According to the by-law, Mr. S has his right to build his landscaping project with a small fishing pool. BOD has to follow the by-law. And BOD did.”
No Worry continued,” at the some time, Mr. S, it is not excusable that you don’t’ know that you need to apply for your project. You spent million dollars to buy your house and you had to know there is HOA in the community and you pay fee every quarter. You should know that there are some regulations and procedures that you’ve got to follow. You are wrong by going ahead of your project without an approval from ACC though I said YES to your modified project. And you’ve got to think of the possibility that a kid may be drawn in the fishing pool though you make sense too that parents should supervise their kids and take care of their safety. Believe me that you will be responsible if any kid is drawn in your fishing pool.”
As a conclusion, No Worry said,” As a neighbor, we got to take care of our community. Please don’t think this is a personal issue that is against each other. It is our comment interests and benefits. Any thing that you want to do to your house exteriorly, please apply for it first. I know you don’t want to damage your house or our community for sure. However, your beauty might be ugly to others. Besides, your additions to your house must be consistent with the entire community. And most of all, you’ve got to follow the by-law, county code and certain procedures. We love our community. We want our community more decent, more elegant, more charming and more attractive to live. And I appreciation your ladies and gentlemen’s coming.”
And the meeting was adjourned at 11:45p.m. Every one shaked hands again though some were still not happy. And we bye-byed and went to home.
Mr. R, white, the president of HOA
Mr. No Worry, Chinese American, the vice president of HOA
Mr. A, Iraqi American, the treasury, was out of town
Mr. G, Jewish, the ACC chair
Mr. S, Korean American, landscaping project homeowner
Lady A, white
Another gentleman, Jewish
Another neighbor, Hispanic
Another lady, white
And many other homeowners of white, Indian, Chinese, Hispanic, etc.
I hope that you love this message , and I hope that it is helpful to you. Thanks.
[ 打印 ]
閱讀 ()評論 (2)
評論
目前還沒有任何評論
登錄後才可評論.