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Residents who attended the May WHOA meeting were forbidden to speak

Residents who were not board members who attended the May WHOA meeting were forbidden to speak

“Change almost never fails because it’s too early. It almost always fails because it’s too late.” ― Seth Godin

By: Sharon Aron Baron

On Monday evening, residents who sit on the board of the WHOA have an opportunity to elect a new president, as well as appoint new officers to represent our community.

Since 2011, Patti Fox has been the President of the WHOA and after three years of service, it’s time to elect someone new. We need someone who can run our WHOA like a business, and keep personality issues out of the picture. Someone who is good at communicating with others and can keep our residents in the loop.

Or – we can keep the status quo.

But here’s a little reminder of what the status quo is, in case you don’t attend our WHOA meetings:

Just when and where are those WHOA meetings?

Our meetings are still not attended regularly by our residents, because no one outside of our board gets notice of the meetings. There are still no signs up at the entrances telling residents when and where our monthly meetings are.

Even if you remember that our meetings are on the first Monday of every month – or wait – isn’t it the second Monday? Then there’s that pesky issue of the rotating clubhouses to contend with. Yes, your guess is as good as mine as to which out of the six clubhouses the meeting will be held at that month. By the way: Monday night’s meeting will be held at the Section 8 clubhouse, if you are curious.

If you are a lowly resident, forget about speaking at a WHOA meeting

If residents do show up to meetings, as many did in May after our President sent this website a cease and desist letter, our president will not grant them their right to speak. That is because our WHOA doesn’t operate under FS720 which requires HOA’s to allow residents to speak at meetings. Now here’s the interesting part: although Fox is not required to allow residents to speak for three minutes at our meetings, Fox can choose to if she wanted too. That’s right, she could do the kind thing, and choose to let residents who wanted to speak, have the floor if they signed in, just like they do at city commission and WNID meetings. So why would any resident want to go to one of our WHOA meetings when they can’t even sign in and speak on an important matter? Video From Homeowners Association Meeting in May Website Stays: Freedom of Speech Prevails in the Woodlands

Who turns away something that’s free without first checking it out?

Our President turned down an offer from the city to upgrade all of our signs on the outside of the Woodlands! Yes, just like that. She didn’t bother to find out that the city would have worked with us to choose which look we wanted. Here was a chance to update our look – if we chose too, and she flat out turned it down without it going out for a vote to the rest of the board. Democracy at its finest. HOA Looks Gift Horse in the Mouth

Did our President forget that we are a Golf Community?

At our October WHOA meeting, Fox suggested that we ban golf carts from using the bikeway. This would be a terrible idea to our residents who are members of our country club as well as a terrible public relations move towards ClubLink. Even ClubLink’s maintenance carts use the bikeway each day to get around the area to work. With so few bikers on the bikeway at any one time, golf carts that use our bikeway to get from point A to point B, do not disrupt the people that are on there. This idea didn’t go very far thankfully, besides, the bikeway is on city property and our WHOA has no jurisdiction over the bikeway or city streets. The Bikeway in the Woodlands: Rules of the Road

Recall signs were confiscated last year by BSO

When in doubt, call BSO to do your dirty work

During the campaign to Recall City Commissioner Patte Atkins-Grad, our WHOA President and Secretary Bonnie Schultz confiscated all recall signs on homeowners property. These signs were cleared in advance with the city and considered election signs as well as protected under freedom of speech. They contacted BSO who personally walked on homeowner’s property, took them and destroyed them. Lawn Signs are Political and Constitute Free Speech Says Attorney

$3,000 buckaroos later and a lesson in First Amendment Rights

Back to that “cease and desist letter”. Fox never conferred with the board before she went our attorneys to sent this website a letter. This cost our homeowners over $3,000 in legal fees which she refused to address at the Annual Meeting when asked why our legal fees were so excessive. The Bill Is In: HOA President Costs Homeowners a Whopping $3,000

Code will eventually get to it

In July of 2011, when there was lack of action from the city in mowing and cleaning up the corner of NW 64th Avenue and Commercial Blvd next to Section Two, Fox continued to treat it as a code issue. In March of 2012, after months of no action from code, I showed the city commissioners a map which illustrated the land which was being neglected was clearly on city property. They agreed to once again maintain the area after letting it get overgrown for almost a year. We need someone who will approach the city commission and fight to get things done in our community. The City of Tamarac Addresses the Corner of 64th Avenue and Commercial Boulevard

Our next president will be someone who communicates with the rest of the board members and emails matters to bring forward to the sections. Our Board gets little communication at all. Proposed bylaws and overlays have been in the works forever, and its time to move forward.

Our next WHOA is on Monday, March 10, 7:00 pm at the Section 8 Clubhouse. All residents are welcome. A Board member may make a motion to nominate someone to be president of the association. If there are more than one nominee, a ballot vote will be taken.