Sage Port #2

 Architectural Control Committee

 

   Larkspur, Colorado  Monday, May 28, 2018

   
  

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Debunking the SP “HOA”s New Calculated Campaign of Disruption and Lies.

   

 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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