In
response to a number of calls we have gotten from upset owners in relation to a new
PR campaign Mark Hesse, Cindy Cole, John Manka and their so called “HOA” group has
started, attacking our Covenants ACC as well as undermining and
attempting to delegalize our Covenants, we want to present the
background and facts on the issues.
This is in two parts, the first is a simple
statement of the current legal status.
The Expanded part – is a bit long but has to
cover some 30 years of history.
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Current
Legal Status:
The
SP”HOA”’s claims that our current Covenants ACC members are not
valid as the appointments made in 2007 were the result of a
combination of Conspiracies, Criminal Impersonation,
Obtaining signatures by deception, Forgery and
finally Offering a false instrument for recording with the
County!
They go
on and on with “proofs” and ‘‘opinions” on the criminality of
the process and declare that the appointments were fraudulent
and have no legal standing!
However, what they don’t point out is that in Aug. 2016
they attempted to address this extensive list of destructive and criminal
activities by filing a formal, 130+ page, criminal
complaint with the Douglas County Sheriff's office. This was
turned over to the Financial Crimes Unit (Case # 016-00093241).
After a
comprehensive investigation the final disposition on
all charges were that they were unfounded (the
charges were found to be false or Bogus
as they like to say)! Yet, their current President Cindy Cole,
who holds an advanced Law Degree either does not understand what
a final disposition of unfounded means - or just does not want
to let you know!
The established fact that no crimes ever took place makes a
total lie of their statements.
So per the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department
final findings and report:
·
The
ACC appointments made by Mr. Sanders and Mr. Wallace 2007 and
their legal status to do so was never challenged at the time and
as such stands as valid.
· The
recording of their resignation and their appointing of ACC
replacements was never challenged at the time and as such stands
as valid.
·
The
documents appointing Lisa Burt and myself to the ACC were determined to be
NOT false. – no Forgery or Deception – they were 100% legal.
·
The
documents were legally filed with the County, recording our
appointments – establishing new Covenant ACC Members – no
recording of a false instrument took place – the appointments
were and are 100% legal.
·
Given
the legal appointments and recording of the new ACC Members our
assuming Covenant ACC duties 2007 was 100% Legal – no Criminal
Impersonation.
This should settle the matter once and for all. The new
ACC appointments in 2007 followed the required process in our
Covenants, were properly recorded with the County and finally
were validated as legal by a formal review by the Sheriff's
Dept.
Mark Hesse, Cindy Cole and John Manka are well aware of these
facts, yet they continue their campaign of disruption and lies!
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Expanded Part:
As for the other items being tossed out just to confuse the matter –
again all these items are calculated distractions which the SP
“HOA” is well aware of as being as Bogus as their Criminal
Complaints but we need to unfortunately cover some 30 years of
history. (which they count on most of you not knowing)
Warning- this is going to get into the “weeds”
but it is the only way to untangle the intentionally convoluted
statements made by the SP “HOA”
Claim:
The people who appointed Lisa Burt and myself back in 2007 had
quit the ACC some 20 years before – so let’s look at some
history.
The
SP”HOA” was established / incorporated Nov. 26th in
1986 by:
John
Scarlett,
Cliff Wallace and W.M. Sanders (they had all been appointed to
the Covenants ACC that same year).
Yes
-
the organization that is now actively attempting to destroy our
Covenants ACC was originally created by our former Covenant ACC
members, two of whom later appointed us in
2007!
The
reason for them setting up this new Private and Voluntary
organization was to provide a vehicle for home owners to get
together to carry out, voluntary, community functions that were
outside of the legal mandated of the Covenants ACC. Setting up
committees such as a welcome wagon to greet new owners, getting
the roads plowed before the County took over, an annual end of
the year party and a voluntary committee to help with ACC
duties.
The
initial members of this HOA-ACC committee were naturally the
current Covenant ACC members, in addition, they were also the
original members of the Board of Directors for this new “HOA”
group – after all at the start of this new organization it was
just the 3 of them!
Once
the organization got going and home owners joined and
volunteered their services the original organizers stepped
aside. If fact, they specifically stated in the original
Incorporation Documents that they would only hold the Board of
Directors positions until successors were selected. They
likewise stepped aside from their initial filling of the HOA’s
ACC committee openings, letting others fill the slots and
authorizing them to carry out the bulk of Covenant ACC work
on
their behalf as the group grew.
This
action is allowed for in the Covenants: “A majority of the
Committee may designate a representative to act for it.”
This is called a delegation of authority. They could have
hired an outside firm to process Building Permits and other
Covenant ACC duties, picked specific individuals, a law firm – anyone –
but in this case they delegated the new SP”HOA” they had just
created with the authority to represent the Covenants ACC on
their behalf.
This
type of delegation of authority is quite common, often large
communities will hire professional Management Firm to carry out
Covenant actions on behalf of the owners – this use of outside
agents or volunteers is quite normal.
A
necessary History lesion,
this was a lot to go through but without this background it is
impossible to understand the distortion being pushed by Mark
Hesse and his group.
Distortion #1:
They point out a note on SP”HOA” letterhead from W. M. Sanders
to the then current President of the SP”HOA”, dated Nov 2, 1987,
stating he is stepping down from the ACC. (their committee not
the Covenants)
His
stepping down from the SP”HOA”’s voluntary group - he created - in no way
impacts his legal status as a Covenants ACC member. The
Covenants ACC appointments (which are for life) are recorded
with the County as a legal addendum to Covenants so there is a
clear legal record as to who holds the regulatory powers in Sage
Port #2. His stepping away from a position in this private group
had no linkage to his Covenants position.
Distortion #2:
What is even more of a stretch is their attack on the
position of Cliff Wallace. Here we do not even have a document
but only a statement in the minutes of the SP"HOA", Sept 17,
1987 saying that Bob Murthaugh would be taking over Cliff
Wallace’s position on the ACC. Again, this is clearly reference
to their internal committee. To replace him as Covenants ACC
member would require a formal document recorded with the County
recording the change - such as the one appointing him just the
year before– yet no such action ever took place - no documents
were ever recorded!
So, to
be clear while they stepped aside from positions on both the
Board of Directors as well as the “HOA”’s ACC Voluntary
Committee they still retained their Covenants status. There was
no change recorded by the County, no changes to the Covenants.
So what
Mark Hesse and his group is now effectively claiming is we have
had NO legally valid Covenants ACC for
some 30 Years! And as such we currently still do not
have one – except naturally for two of his members who
effectively just claim that status – you can’t have it both ways
– this is one of the problems when you just make up absurd
claims like this.
Distortion #3:
The claim that Mr. Erickson and Mr. Manka must be valid Covenant
ACC members because they represented the ACC in some court
actions. Again, more smoke and mirrors.
Currently Mark and his “HOA” group are claiming we have not had
a Covenants ACC for 30 years so they have a bit of a
contradiction here claiming Mr. Erickson and Mr. Manka some how
are valid Covenant ACC members? He also claims that the reason
there is no County records of their Covenants ACC Status is that
only Elected Covenant ACC members need to record their status
(they just make this stuff up when they need a reason) So he
implies they were appointed – but by who? Again, if we have had
no Covenant ACC members since 1987 who could have possibly
appointed them?
We have
47 years of recorded Covenants ACC
Appointments all filed with the County - but no record of
these two.
And
around and around and around it goes – which is the their
whole point – to try to make this so complex that “no one
really knows” – well when you cut through all the
misdirection the explanations are simple and logical – just not
what the SP”HOA” wants you to think!
As
noted above the ACC Committee of the SP"HOA" had been given a
delegation of authority to carry out Covenant ACC duties in
1986. So, members of that Committee they were legally able to
represent the Covenants ACC in court actions – the simple
answer and the only one that makes any logical sense.
However, in 2007 when Lisa Burt and I were appointed as the new
Covenants ACC members one of our first actions was to
retract all previous delegations
of authority for the SP”HOA” or the new SPACC Corp,
setup by Mr. Erickson and others, to represent our Covenants ACC
in way.
It is
important to note that when this took place in 2007 the new
SPACC Corp. had some $20,000 in cash on hand and the active
support of a number of lawyers. Yet they never attempted to
challenge our appointments nor raised the absurd claim that we
had not had any Covenants ACC members for 20 years. They
effectively dropped out of sight, along with some $20,000 of
community moneys which were transferred to their new Corp from
the SP"HOA", to this day Mr. Erickson has yet to provide a public
accounting of whatever happened to these funds in his control.
More
Legal Stuff - and the last item.
While
the Sheriff's Department was quite clear that all their absurd
charges were “Bogus” to use a term Mark, Cindy and
their team might find a bit easer to understand than unfounded. We still have
them pushing the other absurd issue that the former Covenants
ACC members were not able to appoint us because they “QUIT” some
30 years earlier!
Having
lost at their attempts to modify the Covenant in 2016, designed
to give them control of our community, they are now effectively
claiming we have had no valid Covenant authorities for 30 years.
I guess their view is if you can't get control of our community
organizations then the next best action is to just destroy them!
Having
had all their charges rejected we now see them attempting to
reach back some 30+ years in a final desperate move to find some
- any "illegal" activity. When this claim was reviewed
by the Sheriffs Dept they pointed out that from a legal
perspective (again something Cindy's Legal training appears to
have not covered) the law establishes statutes of
limitations that
sets a time limit (usually a few years) for any legal action to
take place.
The simple and short legal
explanation presented by
the Sheriff's Dept. on this point was was that the SPHOA should have
challenged this back in 2007 (that is if they could have proved they had
quit). But at this point the issue is outside the legal window
for the Sheriffs Dept to review.
At this point the statute of limitations has passed on
this challenge of their status to appoint!
Bottom
line - barring a court action to reverse this – and even here
the court would likely not even take the case given it is
outside the legal window:
The
legal status of
Mr. Sanders and Mr. Wallace as still valid Covenant ACC members in
2007 stands.
Their ability to appoint new members
was 100% legal.
Naturally this will never be challenged, plus Mark and crew get
much more PR value ranting about the unfairness of this, but it is still
important to address. No action was taken in 2007 by the SP"HOA"
and their well funded legal teams, and no legal
action since – because once you know the history it is clear
this charge is as Bogus as the rest of the statements that have
been and continue to come out from the SP”HOA” - but then again
that is what we have learned to expect from them.
This should cover
all the items they tossed out - I am sure they will come up with
some new "facts" but the only facts our owners need to be aware
of are:
·
This
so called Sage Port "HOA" is just a private group with
zero
regulatory powers over Sage Port #2
·
The
Sage Port "HOA" does not have the ability to appoint new
Covenant ACC members, that would require a rewrite of our
Covenants - which they tried to do twice last year and failed
both times, being rejected by some 90% of our owners!
·
Mr.
Manka and Mr.Erickson currently have zero regulatory ACC powers
having had any previous delegations of authority they may have
had rescinded in
2007.
·
The
Merger of the private Sage Port HOA Corp. and
the private Sage Port ACC Corp. in 2015 had nothing to do with our
Covenants. This was a merger of two private CO Corps one of
which just called themselves the Sage Port ACC. This is the same
group of former Covenant ACC volunteers we retract all previous
delegations of authority from in 2007.
·
Mr.
Manka and Mr. Erickson were never elected to the Covenants ACC
nor were they appointed they were simply at best part time volunteers
whose services were no longer required or wanted after 2007.
·
As
owners you have no obligation to talk with or interact with this
group or these individuals.
If you still have
a question on who is legally recorded as our Covenant ACC
members - just pull the records yourself from the county.
(or you can go here)
Since being
appointed in 2007 I have recorded 4 modifications to our
Covenants ACC membership, any of which would be
a violation Colorado Statute 18–5–114 "Offering A False
Instrument For Recording" – a Felony
punishable by up to 3 years in prison
if I was not legally authorized to do so.
This is
specifically one of the felony charges the SP"HOA" filed against me -
reviewed and rejected by the DCSD stating that the recordings
were and are 100% legal.
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