The letters, emails and video all state I never spoke to the Board. Allow me to walk you through the steps I took to reach out to the board
As many of you know, I have been vocal AND available at any time on the GroupMe chat. All that was needed was a simple chat message to respond back to my multiple attempts.
While I do understand that Board members are limited in their public responses, all that was needed was a simple message to me on GroupMe to find out what was happening, just as Carlos is reaching out to owners NOW.
To me, the message is clear – when it is just one owner, the Board didn’t care to respond
Implying to owners I just woke up one day and decided to call the Special Meeting because I wanted a change is an untruth and a shining example of the board’s disregard for owners every step of the way.
Prior to December 1st, I attended several owner meetings and was frustrated by hearing the same owner questions being asked because they were not being answered, not by the board via SBB or in meeting after meeting. Every question from the owners was a reasonable one, simply about them wanting to understand how their money was being spent.
RESULT - No answers and complete disregard for owners' concerns.
Interestingly enough, since the petition was delivered on January 15, the core board members have gone on a full court press to provide information. Detailed info on what the problems are, what the costs will be, how contracts were shopped, etc. We are now seeing a wonderful
flow of information, AS IT SHOULD BE.
Carlos and Jeff specifically have reached out to association members directly to ensure they are aware of what they are doing and addressing concerns.
The message is clear – it was a CHOICE to not provide details before, it was a CHOICE to dismiss owners.
I’ve spoken with many of you and I have been clear from the beginning. This isn’t a ME
initiative. Literally, on every street there were upset owners, meeting in groups to discuss the same complaints about the current Board. They were also frustrated by the dismissive attitudes and blatant disrespect to homeowners who were and are fully invested in this community.
Once we found each other, we became the united voice the Board could no longer
ignore.
It is a misrepresentation to say I engaged an attorney, initially, for this matter. To ask my neighbors to sign a petition not vetted by an attorney would have been irresponsible. I did have my attorney review the information and ensure we were complying with the provision of the Bylaws.
Once we were ready to submit the information, my attorney wrote a cover letter to accompany the petition upon delivery to the HOA Board - at SBB’s office, the HOA’s mailing address - the Clubhouse and to Board members - Adam, Carlos and Jeff at their addresses.
The Board’s decision to engage an attorney firm, beyond confirming the validity of the petition we submitted, rests entirely with the Board. Please note that it is customary for HOA’s to have attorneys on retainer for various matters. HOAF is the firm retained by the Bella Casa Owners Association and they were going to receive payment for this or for nothing at all. Any additional fees are the result of the present board’s decisions, not out of necessity.
Once we finally received the notice of the Special Meeting and its inconvenient time and location (at 9 AM in downtown Dallas which is almost 30 miles away), I DID follow up with SBB referencing “our” attorney as I wanted to know our recourse in the face of the Board making partipication impossible for most owners.
Again, the Board continues to assert this is a nothing issue. Of course HOA dues are necessary but to increase dues year over year with the only explanation being “costs are increasing” is not appropriate. I reviewed the budget referenced in the board’s letter to members. Though I have many concerns I will highlight the utility expense line item. There is no scenario where we will pay LESS for any utility in 2026 than we did in 2025 so why do this?
Additionally, to continue to build the reserves and then deplete them for non-critical issues means when the Bella Casa infrastructure (foundations, retaining walls, landscaping) fails the only way to address it will be even larger assessments to owners.
The problem is not the increase. It isn’t pleasant but if it’s necessary, OK. But incremental increases without showing me you have worked out future projections of where we need to be is unacceptable.
The Board continues to lose sight of the insurance issue. Adam’s statement was something to effect of "we can’t get quotes from everyday insurance companies". Owners understand HOA coverage is a complicated matter and is a niche type of coverage.
The Board has been asked year after year - “HOW IS THE COVERAGE BEING SHOPPED?”. Also, no one is arguing that paying in full saves us interest. We want to know why our coverage is with this specific insurance company and what other companies provided quotes. The refusal to give details on how coverage was shopped IS THE PROBLEM.
As I stated when speaking with all of you - I accepted the first assessment - an extraordinary event occurred and we were scrambling with a punitive premium because that’s how the industry works. I accepted the second assessment because we may have needed an extra year to allow for a correction in the market. Year three was iffy but I anticipated a full explanation of what was happening and it never came.
I am not unreasonable in expecting an ANNUAL presentation detailing which insurance companies can cover us and how much each will costs. Again the board’s choice is to continue the assessments, with no presentation of what various insurance companies quoted coverage and the various pricing of each.
The Board has been remarkably transparent since January 15 - after the petition was submitted. The presentation that accompanied the January 29th meeting at 6 PM was extraordinary. It was detailed and full of the information association members deserved to know.
I continue to wonder where has this level of information was prior to that meeting. Meetings held at 9 AM do not encourage participation. The Board’s CHOICE is to bogart information and make it as hard as possible to obtain. The difference is a meeting at 6 PM had over three (3) dozen attendees. A 9 AM Monday morning had less than a dozen and the Board STILL terminated that meeting while owners were speaking. The board has latched on to the transparency argument and has tried to convince us they have been transparent all along while still making your participation in any process as difficult as possible (9 AM SPECIAL MEETING 30 miles away).
I will address one DIRECT assertion from Carlos regarding my information request. I started my digging into HOA matters back in the Summer. I began investigating from my area of expertise, the financials. Yes, we routinely receive financials (quietly, uploaded to the SBB portal) but those financials tell you the spend total (monthly and YTD) for an item but it doesn’t tell you how many vendors were paid; which vendors were paid and how much each vendor was paid. My request was for details behind the accounts.
I SPECIFICALLY stated HO (homeowner) information was to be excluded in the information I wanted. Carlos went to great lengths to paint a picture of me asking for your information. THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN. I preempted that argument from the beginning of my request.
That was a big LIE told for no reason other than to incite.
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