Wednesday, April 15, 1998 | 10:44 a.m.
It clearly illustrated the pompous, high-handed, dictatorial attitude of some of the association board members in their dealings with homeowners. If anyone harbored an iota of doubt that the passage of Senate Bill 314 in the 1997 legislative session was necessary, the statements of Bill Constantine, a board member at El Paseo Homeowners Association, should have removed that doubt.
Do not think that the issue in question here is an attempt by homeowners associations to protect property values. The real issues are the unbridled greed of the associations and the desire to exercise the naked power of financial ruin over the association homeowners. The attitude of some of these penny-ante, tinhorn dictators would be more at home in the totalitarian environment of a Third World dictatorship than it is in the United States.
Constantine then has the unmitigated audacity to presume to chastise those who gave money to the Hopkins family to stop the legalized theft of their home. According to Constantine the Hopkins family made a "poor decision" when they opted to pay cash for their home.
Some will no doubt tell me that if I don't like it here, I am free to move elsewhere. While this is true, my response to those people remains that if my attitude is so upsetting to your sense of order, you may exercise the same option. I do not seek, nor do I require, your permission to live where I choose.
The worst possible course of action to resolve any dispute is to pass a law. Unfortunately, in this case it was necessary to curb the confiscatory policies and abusive enforcement practices of many homeowners associations.
Bob Glover
archive
