Summerlin officials urged to open homeowners meetings

Stephen Curran

Thursday, July 15, 2004 | 9:11 a.m.

A majority of delegates representing Summerlin subdivisions on Wednesday urged the planned community's board to revisit a June 23 decision to close meetings of the delegates and elected members of the Summerlin North Community Association to homeowners.

Board member Bob Sidell urged the informal vote, taken by a show of hands at an open delegate meeting at the Trails Community Center in Summerlin, after homeowners upset with the decision urged the board to reconsider allowing residents of the 15,000-home community to attend.

Homeowners are already allocated a time to speak at board meetings but were barred from the delegate meetings -- at which representatives from each of Summerlin's individual neighborhoods address the association's five-member executive board -- after concerns from members that homeowners and non-residents were monopolizing the gatherings.

"I come here to discuss issues, not to hear from a turf salesman," said delegate Desiree Kicker, who represents the Monterrey subdivision, referring to a recent controversy about whether fake grass would be allowed in the upscale community.

Kicker was among those who asked the board to re-examine its policy toward the meetings with the understanding that the board implement rules dictating how long and on what topics homeowners could speak.

Sidell defended the board's decision and was reluctant to call the gathering of delegate "meetings," saying that because they don't have agendas and do not introduce formal action, they are not subject to state open meeting laws.

Eldon Hardy, a state-appointed ombudsman who watches Nevada's 3,000 homeowners associations, criticized the board's decision in a previous Sun article but said it was legal because homeowners associations are not covered by the state open-meeting law at all.

Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, has since requested a bill in the next state Legislature that would subject homeowners associations to the open-meeting laws, saying excluding homeowners from the meetings is "a really bad idea."

David Dean, who serves as both a board member and a delegate representing the Willow Tree subdivision, was the lone vote against the June decision to bar homeowners from the gatherings.

"If a homeowner can't attend these meetings, where else can they ask questions (of delegates)," he told the crowd of roughly 40 delegates and homeowners on Wednesday.

Association President Hal Bloch, who was not present at Wednesday's meeting, previously told the Sun that the original vote was requested by delegates who complained that "zealots" dominated the monthly meetings.

Dean said he did not know of any delegates who had complained about unruly homeowners.

"I don't remember any delegate asking for a closed meeting," he said. "I don't really think that it was rowdy. I've never heard anyone yell or curse."

Kevin Peltier, a Summerlin homeowner who has been at odds with the board over his use of synthetic grass in his yard, said he was pleased with Wednesday's informal vote.

Peltier was ordered to remove the grass after some members called it an eyesore. The board in May voted to uphold its previous ruling and struck down its use in Summerlin yards.

"It (the meeting) wasn't sunny but they came to the right decision," Peltier said. "I think it will change things."