Questions About HOA’s Accounting Practices and Meeting Notes

Trenton J. Stone and Joanne True,

I am inquiring to find out and obtain confirmation from you whether or not the audit feature of the QuickBooks program/s you are using to maintain the records of the Master Homeowners Association for Green Valley Ranch is/are, indeed, on/activated – for any and all computers on which HOA records are being maintained – whether at the HOA office or any private homes.

The possibility that the audit feature is off for QuickBooks programs being used by the HOA is a genuine concern. As both of you must already know, testimony presented during your trial, TJ, was that the audit feature was not on/turned off for the QuickBooks programs used by your firm, Stone Corp, as well as the QuickBooks program that you concurrently used while providing bookkeeping and accounting services at/for John Robert Powers International. Testimony further claimed that because the audit feature was not on/turned off, changes to records could be made but those changes could not be tracked.

Special Assessment FAQ

Q: What is the Special Assessment?

A: If you are a homeowner you should have received a letter in the mail informing you that you must pay a special assessment to the Home Owner’s Association for $174.

Q: Why are we paying another assessment?

A: The HOA was continually denied their budget by the Metro District Board because it was running twice as high as the last year’s budget.  After four mediations, the HOA refused to reduce their budget request.  So, it is now looking to homeowners to foot the bill.

Q: Why is the assessment so high?

A: We wonder the same thing.  Based on past budgets, it should cost approximately $54 a homeowner to fund covenant enforcement.  This assessment fee would give the HOA a budget of $800,000.  It should be noted that this is only for the remaining five months of the year.

Q: Why are people refusing to pay the assessment?

A:  For several reasons: it’s much too high, it was not approved by HOA delegates, and the HOA has severe issues with budget disclosure and dishonest practices.  The president was recently convicted on four counts of felony theft, the Board has refused to release its expenditures from last year and there have been numerous allegations of voter fraud in the recent elections.

Friday July 31- GVR Community Meeting

GVR Community Meeting
Friday, July 31 6pm-8pm
Omar D. Blair Charter School
4905 Cathay St, Denver, CO‎

Update on HOA practices:
-breaking bylaws with assessment fines
-HOA President’s sentencing for felony theft
-questionably inaccurate minutes of past meetings on HOA website
-no independent audit of HOA budget for 1-2 years
-update on legal action against HOA

for more information email
gvr.actioncommittee@yahoo.com

Email List for Concerned GVR Residents

People can stay connected to what is happening to take back community control over Green Valley Ranch by signing up for the GVR Homeowners list.

Simply go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gvrHomeOwners

The list also has archives of important conversations that have taken place between key players as well helpful documents to figure out the straight story with everything that is going on.

Green Valley Ranch residents confront Corrupt HOA Board

Green Valley Ranch Citizens Confront Corrupt HOA Board

On July 22, 2009 approximately 300 members of the Green Valley Ranch community showed up in force to oppose a special assessment being levied against them by their HOA Board. They also took that time to demand the resignation of long-time president T.J. Stone and all his cronies.

The HOA Board banned everyone, including members of the community and journalists, from covering the meeting. One community member however refused and took this footage clandestinely.

Stone has recently been convicted of four counts of felony theft and has also controlled neighborhood politics for far too long, using HOA funds indiscriminately on frivolous lawsuits and community programs that garner little public support.

HOA fees have more than tripled in the past couple years, each raise being met with public outrage. The new “Special Assessment” of $174 ended up being the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. There is now a massive grassroots effort for homeowners to simply refuse to pay the assessment and any future assessments until the Board resigns and new elections are held.

Getting Things Straight- HOA vs. Metro District

Dear All

There still seems to be a lot of confusion between the Metro District and the
HOA. The two organizations do not have anything to do with each other.

Metro District has the function of maintaining all of the common areas in Green
Valley Ranch, constructing new roads and sewers in the developing areas. They
also help fund some of the youth programs, GVR days, and other events around
Green Valley Ranch. All of the money that they spend is taxed dollars and is
collected through the annual property taxes on our houses. They can only collect
taxes they cannot refund taxes.

Home Owners Association (HOA) is a nonprofit organization that was started by
the original home builder in Green Valley Ranch when this community was first
laid out. The money that the HOA collects is normally through assessments that
the Delegates and Board Members deem is necessary to perform the duties and
projects that the board has approved.

AGAIN HOA and METRO DISTRICT have no connection.

5A was passed in 2007 by the voters in GVR and at that time T.J. Stone and two
other board members both set on the Metro District board and the HOA board. T.J.
Stone was the president of both boards and Westwind management group was
performing the covenants enforcement for the HOA and they gave the HOA a 30 day
notice on October 26, 2005 (see letter westwind in files) because of a
$35,000.00 expenditure. In order for the Metro District to convey any tax money
to the HOA an agreement between the HOA and the Metro District must exist by
law. The agreement must define what the Metro District can and cannot do for the
HOA. T.J. Stone also wrote this agreement between the HOA and the Metro District
and remembers at this time he was the president of both boards. Then in early
2008 T.J. Stone and one other board member lost there seats on the Metro
District board. Now remember also that the budget for 2008 had already been
approved by the state so T.J. Stone had his budget in force for all of 2008.
When the budget for 2009 was being developed is when all of the problems
started. The Metro District wanted to keep the tax level if not lower for 2009
because of the comments that had been received from the home owners, but the HOA
budget was 2 times larger than just the year before and they did not want to
compromise on it. That is why the HOA got and injunction to prevent the Metro
District from submitting the budget. This is what started the downhill path we
are on. Please go to http://www.gvrmetrodistrict.com/legal_documents/ and read
all of the legal documents between the HOA and the Metro District.

The Metro District settled the court case over the agreement and all other
matters because the agreement was going to end in December of this year and the
legal cost from this point forward was going to be very large so in order to
save tax money they agreed to a settlement. Please read all of the documents on
the Metro web site and if you like read what the HOA put on their web site
http://www.gvrhoa.com/ .

I hope this helps explain how we got into this mess and I also hope we
understand the differences between the HOA and Metro District.

Welcome to Green Valley Action!

Welcome to Green Valley Action.  This is a blog posting the latest developments on the struggle for community control over Green Valley Ranch.