TAKE ACTION! Urge Your State Senator to Vote NO! on Bills Bad for HOA Owners!
Lawmakers return to Sacramento tomorrow after their summer break. Three bills – bad for homeowners – will be voted on by state Senators. ONLY HOMEOWNERS CAN STOP THESE BILLS.
Don’t know which Sacramento senator is VOTING FOR YOU? Go here to find out:
https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/who-are-my-representatives
Key in the address FROM WHICH YOU VOTE and your Sacramento Senator’s name will come up. Click on the name to get the Sacramento phone number, call your Senator’s Sacramento office, identify yourself as a constituent and urge NO ON these bills.. If you own a second home in a different Senate district, call that Senate office too.
CCHAL urges your Senator to vote “NO!” on AB1458/Ta; NO! on AB648/Valencia; NO! on AB572/Haney
- AB1458/Ta that reduces the quorum required for seating board directors AFTER homeowners have voted. ”Quorum” is that pesky rule in governing documents requiring that a minimum percentage of homeowner votes is needed to seat new board directors.
Sponsor of AB1458 is Community Associations Institute (CAI).Its lobbyist Louie Brown testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 11 that the purpose of the bill was to empower associations to reduce quorum to 20% no matter what a HOA’s CC&Rs require.
Since most California HOAs have 25 homes or less, then AB1458 would let as few as three owners with five lots decide who will be on the board.The bill doesn’t stop the current board from re-electing itself HOA boards would reduce the quorum this AFTER homeowners had voted and without giving them any meaningful notice. The HOA industry has long campaigned to get rid of quorum requirements altogether; AB1458 would put them a step closer to reaching their goal.“NO!” ON AB1458/TA
- AB648/Valencia. This is a sneaky bill that gives the APPEARANCE of encouraging homeowners to participate in HOA meetings, but the bill is riddled with contradictions and faulty assumptions. AB648 lets HOAs conduct all meetings – both board and membership – electronically when California is one of the worst states in the country for its “digital divide” meaning (1) huge rural and even urban areas of California lack cell and internet service (2) not everyone has internet equipment or can afford cell phones or (3) knows how to use them. The digital infrastructure is so bad that President Biden has just awarded $1.8 billion to California to fix it.
CCHAL offered several amendments to the bill which the author refused to consider, namely that (1) meetings be recorded so homeowners and absent board directors could access them later, e.g. at a public library (2) that a physical location ACCESSIBLE TO HOMEOWNERS be designated and that one board director be present at that location. (3) that homeowners have access to the background documents that the board is discussing at the meeting. The author did take CCHAL’s amendment that a physical location be established for the counting of ballots but DID NOT take our amendment that the location be in the HOA’s common areas.Right now, homeowners tell us, ballots are often counted in the Inspector of Election’s office, which could be two counties away – and tiny.So homeowners have the right to witness the counting of ballots but are blocked from exercising that right.
The fact sheet on AB648 and the bill itself, says electronic meetings “encourage homeowner participation” yet the author refused to consider making board meeting documents – financial records, for example – available to owners. URGE your senator to vote ‘NO!’ ON AB648/Valencia.
- AB572/Haney. This is the bill that will start civil wars in HOAs by requiring owners who bought homes at market rates – that is, full price with no government assistance – to subsidize the assessments of owners who bought at discounted prices with government help. This bill met with so much opposition – from bankers, realtors, and rational housing advocates like CCHAL – that the author decided to make it apply to future developments only.
However, this strategy — called “kicking the can down the road” — will only start future civil wars in HOAs –so it’s still a bad idea, because it shifts the risk of foreclosure from one group of homeowners to another. Neither the author nor the sponsors could offer proof that “market rate” owners can afford increased assessments any more than can owners of homes bought with government help. ‘NO!’ ON AB572/Haney
PLEASE MAKE THAT PHONE CALL NOW TO YOUR SACRAMENTO SENATOR – AS SOON AS YOU FINISH READING THIS NEWSBRIEF. PHONE LINES WILL BE JAMMED TOMORROW BECAUSE LAWMAKERS WILL BE BACK IN TOWN AND THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF BILLS ON THE FLOOR UP FOR A VOTE.
Please let CCHAL know that you phoned and
THANKS FOR TAKING ACTION!