Residents
First
Sun City Lincoln Hills
The FMA Slush Fund
This idea is straight out of the Ken Silverman, Marsha Van Wagner, Denny Valentine playbook. Their idea was to extort money from new residents and figure out how to spend it later. Good plan but not legal. And they knew it at the time.
The Association has not been in compliance with Civil Code and SCLH Governing Documents
Civil Code 5600 (b) an association shall not impose or collect an assessment or fee that exceeds the amount necessary to defray the costs for which it is levied. Also see SCLH CC&R’s 4.01(g)
FMA Financial History
The Chart below describes the FMA funds collected and spent over the life of the program. During this period, your dues increased by nearly 20% or $6 million. Put another way the association will have collected over $6 million in dues increases and over $3.28 million in FMA funds, totaling Over $9 million in new funds.
What did you get for the money? A concrete fence, a "new and improved" Sports Plaza, and a contribution to the mismanaged reserves. The board has clearly demonstrated its gross incompetence when managing our money. Don't give them one more penny!
History of SCLHCA, FMA
At the January 28th, 2016, Board of Directors meeting President Ken Silverman brought forth Resolution 2016.02 CEF/FMA , explained to the audience that this item had been in discussion over a year by the Board and staff and included legal and CPA input. There was no discussion with the homeowners before the meeting. There was no vote obtained from the membership.
A Workshop was held April 2016 after the homeowners demanded it. Again, a vote was not obtained from the membership. A replacement Resolution 2016-04 was approved by the Board of Directors, April 28, 2016and signed by The Board Secretary Denny Valentine.
Again, no vote was obtained from the membership.
A Board Resolution in itself does not give the Board the power to collect Assessments, fines, or fees. The Board’s power is limited to what is described in our Governing Documents and CCRs. FMA is not in our CCR’s. There are laws protecting new and existing residents from illegal HOA Assessments.
With the current Association legal counsel’s recommendation, the Board called for a Special Election. The Board undertook extraordinary measures to seek membership approval in passing amendments to the Governing Documents to allow a Fixed Mandatory Assessment to be levied on all new residents. This was an effort (FAILED) to legitimize the tax as it was hoped to have approval by a significant proportion of the homeowners. Yet the Board failed to understand, or realize, that simple changes to our Governing Documents do not supersede established State Laws.
ADDING FMA TO THE GOVERNING DOCUMENTS DOES NOT MAKE IT LEGAL.
According to the SCLHCA legal counsel it makes it more defensible.
Adding FMA to our Governing Documents does not overcome other possible legal challenges.
The additional pickleball courts and the two new tennis courts added to the Sports Pavilion was funded by FMA/CEF collected from the new home buyers. Proportional costs were not placed on existing residents. Existing residents did not contribute to these capital improvements.