The Oak Knoll HOA Board of Directors is OUT OF CONTROL.

The Oak Knoll HOA Board of Directors is OUT OF CONTROL.

They have LIED to the homeowners -and- CHEATED the homeowners out of our collective right to VOTE to AMEND the CCRS by an ILLEGAL "Recital" (i.e. Resolution) called "STREET TREE MAINTENANCE" in order to put the long standing contentious issue of the street trees ONLY on Foothills Drive BACK ON THE HOA BUDGET, $ out of our pockets that benefits ONLY those living on Foothills Drive, and NOT the entire association. Meanwhile, every other homeowner with street trees has to pay for their own tree maintenance, removal and replanting.

Here are the FACTS:

Section 7.1 of the CCRs states as follows:

“Oak Knoll has or will have certain improvements which are for the benefit of all Lots. These improvements include: Sign monuments to be installed on Lot 29, Oak Knoll; traffic circle at intersection of Foothills Drive and Center Street; planter strips along Foothills Drive; and street trees on each Lot. In addition, Declarant and Adjoining Owners may dedicate common areas to the Association for the use of all Owners. All of the common areas and improvements are collectively called “Common Improvements.””

However, the Board of Directors through its collective ignorance and denial of the obvious error of their “historic practice” would have all us homeowners actually take their word that the CCRs say something entirely different.

 Within their Resolution of the Board of Directors STREET TREE MAINTENANCE, they want us to believe that their tunnel vision interpretation is far more accurate, and in our collective best interests.

“J. Section 7.1 of the Declaration identifies street trees and the planter strip along Foothills Drive as improvements benefiting all Lots.”

Really? We all have a copy of the CCRs and can read, and I would challenge any Board Member, the Management Company and especially the attorney who drafted this poorly written resolution to show me (all us homeowners) exactly where in Section 7.1 does it specifically state, word for word, “…street trees and planter strips along Foothills Drive as improvements benefiting all Lots.” Good luck!
Then the Board, via the attorney who wrote this resolution, makes the same assertion in different wording.

“It further identifies the street trees, the planter strips along Foothills Drive, and well as (sic) other improvements that benefit all Lots as “Common Improvements.””

Again, I challenge the attorney who wrote this tripe, the Board and anyone at the new Management Company to point out EXACTLY where in Section 7.1 does it SPECIFICALLY STATE, “…the street trees, planter strips along Foothills Drive…that benefit all Lots as “Common Improvements.”” Good luck!

The Board of Directors, the management company, and every attorney at Vial Fotheringham know full well that an amendment is REQUIRED to make any fundamental change or modification to the CCRs. The Board tried it in September 2011 in order to “memorialize its historic practice” of ignorance in its gross misinterpretation of the CCRs regarding this matter, and they suffered an EPIC FAIL! Yet through the illicit (bad) legal advice of Christopher Tingey, the Board continued to status quo of their ignorance “historical practice.”

In October 2014, this matter came to a head with a Town Hall meeting with several homeowners present voicing their concern that the Board has been misinterpreting the CCRs and funding an item that does NOT benefit all Lots, but rather only those Lots on Foothills Drive while everyone else has to take care of their own street trees. Emails and phone calls poured in, as admitted by Tony Roos, the President in the November 2014 Newsletter, and it was decided there and then that with the approval of the 2015 budget going forward, that the trees along Foothills Drive would be the owners responsibility, not the HOA’s.

Now in 2016 comes former board member (who resigned from his position), James Gregory Meenahan, a disgruntled individual who simply does not like the fact that another homeowner, me, has fought the HOA on several other matters and won each and every time forcing the HOA to do what they did not want to do. He is back on the Board of Directors by UNANIMOUS vote and first item on his agenda, get the street trees on Foothills Drive BACK on the HOA budget! And so we have the STREET TREE MAINTENANCE resolution doing just that, and illegally so.

The most disappointing fact about this entire issue is that the President of the HOA can no longer be trusted. He lied to us all and did a 180 when his cohort rejoined their motley crew. A clear breach of his fiduciary duty, and this is not the first time either.

Fact: The Board of Directors of the Oak Knoll Homeowners Association is out of control and operating in its own self-perceived best interests with illicit advice from Vial and Fotheringham and illicit direction from the new management company.

Fact: The HOA has failed to properly maintain records of association business since 1999, with records even being destroyed that should have been kept, and between each transfer of management company to the next, records were not transferred, which is in direct violation of state statute, as well as other association controlling documents.

Homeowners, this is ONLY the first of several posts that I will be making about the true “historical practice” of the Board of Directors of our Association.

Each week I will attempt to post a new factoid about our disingenuous Board of Directors, management company (past and present), and attorneys at Vial Fotheringham I have had interactions with.

Bottom line, when my complaint for declaratory judgment is complete, polished off ready to file, once received they will eventually realize they will not have a legal foot to stand on. Through poor record keeping, incorrect interpretation of the CCRs and statutory law, this Board of Directors will see the error of their ways. Just as they have in the past over the other legal battles I won, thereby forcing the HOA to do what they should have done from day one (e.g. reserve account, reserve study, etc.).

It is only a matter of time, patience, and perseverance and once again I will force the HOA to do what it is supposed to do under the CCRs, but most of all, under the LAW!