HOA President goes ape#$%$ on reporter -- audio posted of rant

That's why the city does the streets. Because the POA was annexed into the city.

Yea, counties can zone if they want, many - I'd dare say most - don't.
My buddy and his wife bought a place outside the city limits in a county with either spot zoning or no zoning. Six months after they moved in they had a HUD apartment complex and construction complex, with floodlights, sandwiching them in.


HOA's are only as good, bad or maniacal as they folks who run them.

 

HOAs are usually tinpot dictatorships with about 1/1000th of the power they think they have.

Usually they run and hide as soon as a real lawyer appears.

 

Worked with the reporter in question years ago and honestly had not thought about him in years. That being said even then when he was a cub reporter (by cub, he was in his 30s, but was new to journalism after doing something else for awhile) he was pretty much deadpan and unflappable. Not surprised that was him on the phone call. His claim to fame back then was he had been the starting quarterback at some military prep school and lost his job to Vinny Testaverde.

 

We had a 3-person HOA Board when we moved here 5 years ago, but after 6 months I was already organizing and going to door to door with a petition to get a special meeting together, whereby we could suggest to the resident quorum that we needed a 5-person board.
(The 3-person board was really just one guy, a silent second, and an always-changing third position)
Money was nonexistent in our accounts and the place was deteriorating.
Many people didn't like what I was doing, but today we've got 5 board members, 12 meeting a year, and $40,000 in the bank.
And I'm smiled upon by the masses here. No shit.
Also, we've also spent $31,000 on improvements and needed big-ticket items.
Residents too often sit back and don't get active, then get pissed when the place goes kaput.
People need to activate and participate and attend meetings or else get swindled.

 

Listened to the call.

Newspaper captures stupid, angry guy on tape. News at 11.

I don't see much benefit in putting the call online. It's better to just pass it around the office for a bit of levity.

 

That's how they teach you to act at Fork Union College of Knowledge.

 

This. Devil makes it sound like everyone not living under the protection of an HOA is residing in the anarchic Wild Fucking West squeezed in between a horde of crack houses, meth labs and rooster factories. Ummm, No, there are other protections against such things. And without ever being forced to pay ever-fluctuating HOA fees, or to maintain a cookie cutter clone home according to someone else's specs, or to put up with irrational dimwitted wannabe tinpot dictators like Mr. Hess.

 

Mr. Hess should have watched some old episodes of "Matlock" or "Perry Mason" before calling the paper. That way he may have learned how to somewhat sound like a lawyer. Plus he might not have been as lividly pissed when making the call.
Something tells me Mr. Hess will be removed as president of the HOA soon, if not already. Kudos to the reporter for sitting through the seven-minute call without busting out laughing as the random not-quite-legal terms were being pulled out of the ass.

 

That was my favorite part, too, though I wish the reporter had cranked up Hess at the end just to really pop his cork. Guys like that are fun to wind up.

 

There no way in hell I could have sat through that whole conversation without throwing out a few smart-ass comments or pointing out his stupidity. Props to the reporter for maintaining his professionalism, I couldn't have done that.

 

I'm sure the reporter got it that acting bored and calm was the best way to drive this nut further out of his tree for the enlightenment of readers.

 

OK, let's start at roof repair. When does the state, county or city step in? What about windows?



What about building on the lot? Are you OK with a trailer or a mobile home parking in the front yard?



How about trash in the yard?



All of these would not be touched by a county or a state, and if this was next to your home when you were trying to sell it, it would cost you tens of thousands of dollars.