Bill would bar banning public from meetings

Stephen Curran

Friday, July 2, 2004 | 11:07 a.m.

A week after leaders of Las Vegas' largest homeowners association voted to bar residents from attending high-level meetings, Assemblyman Bob Beers requested a bill in the next legislature that would make such votes illegal.

The bill requested by Beers, R-Las Vegas, could ultimately subject members of the Summerlin North Community Association to a fine if they continue to bar residents of the community's roughly 15,000 homes from meetings currently limited to the master-planned community's 81 elected delegates.

The Summerlin North Community Association's executive board voted June 23 to keep residents away from the gatherings, in which an elected delegate represents each of the community's planned neighborhoods.

If the bill goes through, it would subject individual members of an association's executive board to a fine if attendance at meetings is restricted, Beers said.

"The larger question is making homeowners associations subject to the open-meeting laws," he said. "This thing of excluding homeowners from delegate meetings is a really bad idea."

It will be introduced during the 2005 legislative session, Beers said.

Hal Bloch, president of the Summerlin North Community Association, said the board will comply with the legislation if it is passed, but said he did not know if the delegate-level meetings would be subject to the proposed laws. The association's delegate-level meetings, for which no agendas are posted, do not require attendance of all delegates.

"One way or another the job has to be done so you work around the laws," he said. "You just work within the constraints."

The move to close the meetings came at the behest of delegates who requested that homeowners be kept away, Bloch said. It limits those who can attend the gatherings to delegates, board members, paid staff for the association and those invited to make a statement, including local police and government agencies.

The board is slated to review that decision at its next meeting July 28 to ensure it reflected the opinions of all 81 delegates, Block added.

Summerlin homeowners currently may speak for a few minutes at the beginning of the executive board meetings, which are held separate from the delegate meetings, to voice concerns, Bloch said.

"I don't have a strong feeling one way or another," he said. "We as a board just responded to something brought up by our delegates."

Bloch also authored a leaflet, mailed to homeowners Thursday, that explains the board's decision and reminds homeowners of the allotted time at the beginning of executive board meetings.

In the leaflet, read by Bloch during an interview with the Sun, the association's president said the delegate meetings were not to be "used as a platform for their (homeowners) individual issues."

Kevin Peltier, a Summerlin resident, said he was not surprised it would take legislation to prompt the executive board to change its ways.

"It doesn't surprise me one bit," Peltier said. "It's unfortunate that these measures have to be taken. They (the board) get it in their head that 'It's my way or the highway.' "

Peltier began attending the meetings in January after he was cited by the association for installing synthetic grass in his yard. Board members in May voted against its use in Summerlin yards.

John Lattie, president of the Nevada chapter of the Community Associations Institute, a nationwide lobbyist for homeowners associations, said in a statement that "rare" instances could require meetings to be closed.

Lattie would not comment on Beers' requested legislation.

"CAI is dedicated to the proper and efficient running of associations and, although rare, there are times that association business can only fully and properly be conducted behind closed doors," he said in the statement.

Norman Rosensteel, president of Associated Management Inc., which oversees 35 homeowners associations in Nevada, said he favored the legislation and that it "couldn't hurt" to clarify existing laws governing homeowners association meetings.

"I suppose the current law could use some clarification," he said. "Obviously with Summerlin North, the residents should have a right to attend the meetings."

Beers said his requested legislation was a necessary step to "rein in" the Summerlin board, which often overlooks the people it's supposed to govern.

"There's no doubt that the Summerlin homeowners association president (Bloch) needs to be reined in," he said. "He does not understand his duties to represent all homeowners."