Astroturf® David Vs. Goliath Battles

 Posted by CotoBlogzz

Drew Harwell, St. Petersburg Times Staff Writer in a piece titled Lawsuit over age restriction rules forces Florida homeowner out reports that Regina Eschenfelder lost her job and her dad’s health faltered, so she and 5-year old daughter Nicole began overnighting with her mom, Patricia, in a Pinellas Park age-restricted community - so the the Mainlands of Tamarac by the Gulf homeowners association sued the family.  Is this an isolated instance?  Is this simply a knee-jerk reaction by an abusive homeowners’ association board of directors?   Or perhaps this is a typical manufactured David Vs. Goliath epic as described by the Community Association Institute – a para-governmental entity promoting abusive boards?

Harwell’s article prompted the following  response by  George  K. Starpoli, Author of the  Establishing the New HOA-land America

“Who says HOAs are not controlled by self-serving attorneys?  "The association has a duty to enforce the rules."  That's because the attorney only sees what he wants to see, and he doesn't want the HOA to show compassion by saying that the HOA has a disabilities act issue.  No, no!  This disgraceful attitude seems to be widespread across the country: let the homeowner sue us if they don't like the advice we give our client, the HOA corporation.  All the while knowing that 90% of the time the homeowner will not sue, because he cannot use HOA funds to defend himself.

The objectives of this private, authoritarian government, the HOA, come before the genuine welfare of its members, and reflect a repudiation of the American democratic principles that the people come first. 

When are state legislatures going to remember this objective of the American system of government and hold these "do-good" regimes responsible under the Constitution?  Why are they supporting un-American values?”

From covering HOA/CID stories for close to a decade, our conclusion is that this is not an isolated issue and contrary to CAI’s views, this is not a case of manufactured David Vs. Goliath epics, this is simply a reality of live in a HOA/CID environment.