Residents once thought POA would fade away

I doubt if any of our Founding Fathers ever thought there would come a day when we would have an American city with four layers of bureaucracy. Yet, Bella Vista has a Property Owners Association, Cooper Communities Inc., the Architectural Control Committee and a normal city administration. When a citizen decides to make a change of any kind, it becomes very confusing as to who rules on what.

When the Bella Vista Patriots and the Concerned Citizens of Bella Vista chartered a bus and went to the Capitol in Little Rock in 2005, they were successful in lobbying the state Legislature in making it possible to hold a reasonable election to become a city. The ensuing election was successful and we became a city of the first class and we now have a population of approximately 30,000 people.

Most of the voters of the 2005 election were in the belief that when we became a city in 2006, the influence and rule of the POA, CCI and the ACC would eventually fade away. The Bella Vista Patriot slogan of “Go away, POA” was uttered only in wishful thinking. However, with the possibly immoral and possibly illegal decisions of our current POA board, our “Go away, POA” wish stands a chance of becoming a reality.

The many court battles the Patriots have had with the POA in the past have been complaints filed in civil court. The Patriots lost almost all of those cases because they couldn’t afford an attorney. The legal profession is not going to allow a yahoo (like me) to ride into town on a turnip truck and win in competition with one of their certified and registered members. As Patriots, we understand that, however, we feel we did win almost all of our cases in the court of public opinion.

The Patriots feel the POA’s new administration has stepped way over the line in some of their current decisions. A few of them are as follows:

1. The POA offers more favoritism and privileges to non-members than its members.

2. Pitting the majority vote of the non-residents against the minority residents is probably illegal.

3. Throwing duly elected board members off the board just because they don’t think or agree with the majority of the board is wrong.

4. The act of purchasing our homes falls under “contract law” rather than the POA’s Protective Covenants. Any breach of the signed contract allows the signee an opportunity to opt out of being a POA member.

5. When most of us bought our homes, the words “water shut-off” were not in the contract. According to contract law, as long as we are current in making our water payments, we should not have our water shut off.

6. Voting with the 700 returned lots that are behind in assessment payments of more than 90 days is probably illegal.

7. The POA is now operating more like a for-profit than a nonprofit organization. JIM PARSONS

Bella Vista