Columnist Susan Snyder: Residents must demand a voice

Friday, July 2, 2004 | 3 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

WEEKEND EDITION

July 3 - 4, 2004

"zealot (zel'et) n. 1 a person who is zealous, esp. to an extreme or excessive degree." -- Webster's "New World College Dictionary," fourth edition.

The British considered Benjamin Franklin one.

Samuel Adams too.

Thank goodness for zealots, or we'd still have a king and little reason to shoot off fireworks today.

Wonder what the folks out in Summerlin are going to do? Celebrate like the rest of us, I suppose. Shoot, by the time members of the Summerlin North Community Association are spitting corn flakes all over this column, their neighbors will have been celebrating since Saturday, when the Independence Day Parade Saturday rolled along the community's streets.

Tonight there will be more flag-waving and board-approved patriotic pandemonium at a $20-a-head concert and fireworks show.

It's a veritable facade of freedom. Late last month members of the Summerlin North board decided to restrict attendance at their monthly delegate board meetings.

This means that even if you own one of the homes over which this association lords its enormous power, you may not attend the delegates meeting unless members approve of or invite you. The decisions they make about what kind of rules you have to follow will be made in private.

And it's perfectly -- or rather, imperfectly -- legal.

Hal Bloch, president of the Summerlin North Community Center, told a Las Vegas Sun reporter last week the move was to prevent "zealots" from interrupting the proceedings with annoying questions, such as why kids who live in big, expensive houses don't have to pull in their basketball hoops at night while kids whose parents didn't buy a starter mansion must do so.

Now, residents are still allowed to cry foul at the executive board meetings of their smaller associations, Bloch told the Sun. They simply may not attend the large meeting in which delegates from the smaller groups make decisions for the community as a whole.

This is, of course, where homeowners can see what their delegates actually say. But having regular people at the bigger meeting would only serve to "annoy the delegates," Bloch said.

How much do y'all pay in association dues each month? Can you say, "taxation without representation?" Wait! Better check the CC&R's. You might not be allowed to say it.

Now, King George was annoyed too. And he really got his royal knickers in a knot when the "zealots" in Boston dumped all that tea into the harbor. Why, he sent it to them cheap, too.

Beware the king who acts in your best interests behind a closed door. Liberty doesn't work that way. It happens in the open, where everybody can see.

Summerlin residents don't need a parade and fireworks this weekend. They need a wake-up call.

And Nevada lawmakers need to put a tighter rein on these quasi-governmental bodies that have far-reaching effects on residents' life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

Forget the fireworks. Buy some tea. Find a fountain.

Celebrate the zealots. This land is our land because of them.