Shared by Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities
California homeowners and consumer advocates – today’s post is a call to action. Contact your Assembly member and tell them to vote NO on AB 1799. Industry trade group Community Associations Institute (CAI) is at it again. This time they want to give Association Governed Development boards the power to take away your right to vote in homeowners, condominium, and other planned community associations – also known as Common Interest Communities, or Common Interest Developments.
If AB1799 were to become the law in California, your Association’s board could decide who can run for election, and whether an election would be held at all. This proposed amendment would essentially void voting and election requirements that currently exist in California statute.
CAI is using their powerful lobby organization and urging their members to contact Assemblymen to support this consumer-hostile legislation. But state legislators need consumer advocates in the state to contact them with the facts: CAI does not represent homeowners at large, and the absolute right to vote for volunteer board leaders is crucial to fair and democratic process – a process which is already compromised by the corporate structure of Association Governed Developments.
If incumbent association boards are given unfettered power to cancel elections and decide who can vote in elections, they guarantee their continued reign – even if that’s against the will of the majority of homeowners. Don’t let that happen.
For more information, and how to contact your Assemblyman, see the announcement below from California Home Law (CCHAL). Please share this post with other California residents.
PLEASE READ, SEE ATTACHED, & CALL YOUR ASSEMBLYPERSON!!!
“NO” on AB1799/ Floor Vote is Thursday/ CALL TO ACTION!
CalHomeLaw.org Information <info@calhomelaw.org>
To
CalHomeLaw.org Contributing Members
Today at 3:34 PM
CAI – the Community Associations Institute – REALLY wants
AB1799 to get voted off the Assembly floor on Thursday.
Today it issued a CALL TO ACTION asking CAI members to
“fight the opponents of AB1799.”Homeowners need to push back on this bill with their own
CALL
TO ACTION.Why does CAI want this bill so much…?
Because the legislation would give boards the power to
decide (1) who can vote and (2) who can run for office and
(3) to cancel elections altogether.CAI and the property managers (CACM) have “framed”
AB1799/Mayes as legislation that will save associations
money.The two trade groups SKIP OVER the fact that the bill
actually gives INCUMBENT boards total control over
elections.This is like giving a city council or county supervisors –
or the California Legislature – the power to decide who
can vote and who can succeed them in office.This is the THIRD ASSAULT that CAI and CACM have made on
the “Fairness and Integrity in HOA Elections Statutes”
(Civil Code §§5100 et seq. The other two assaults were in
20013 and 2014.)Yes, CAI – the same organization whose lawyers fought the
Wittenberg decision all the way to the California Supreme
Court.Homeowners will remember Wittenberg: this was the 2013
California Appeals Court ruling that associations SHALL
give dissenting homeowners equal access to association
media (newsletters, bulletin boards, website, dedicated
cable channel, etc) to present their opposing views.In Wittenberg, the association wouldn’t even let the
homeowners RENT MEETING space to discuss their opinions.
[The election was later invalidated by the lower courts.]CAI’s Adams Kessler and 20 other law firms – who are all
members of CAI — petitioned the California Supreme Court
to overturn the Wittenberg ruling. [The Supreme Court
refused.]The Adams Kessler petition is posted on the CCHAL website
here:The letter signed by the 20 association law firms is
posted here: http://www.calhomelaw.org/doc.asp?id=1593
[Read the list to see if your association’s lawyers
signed the petition to overturn Wittenberg.]AB1799 is a bad bill. So says advocates for homeowner
rights:• the Rutgers Constitutional Law Center;
• the California Alliance for Retired Americans (CARA);
• the Center for California HOA Law (CCHAL.)A homeowner’s RIGHT TO VOTE is created the moment s/he
buys an association home just as a new citizen acquires
voting rights the moment they’re sworn in as a new
American.Don’t let CAI and CACM get this bill off the Assembly
floor.CALL YOUR ASSEMBLY MEMBER AND URGE A ‘NO’ VOTE ON AB1799
WHEN IT IS VOTED ON THURSDAY ON THE ASSEMBLY FLOOR.Don’t know who your Assembly Member is? Go here to find
out http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/PHONE THE SACRAMENTO OFFICE (NOT THE DISTRICT OFFICE) AND
IDENTIFY YOURSELF AS A VOTER IN THE DISTRICT AND URGE A
‘NO’ VOTE ON AB1799.CCHAL NewsBrief
May 10, 2016, c
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http://www.calhomelaw.org
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