neighborhood watch

Deborah,

Not unless your bylaws say that the Board is responsible to have one and govern how it operates. Ask your local Sheriff how they work theirs. Each County has a slightly different system but basically, the only thing that a Board could control would be where the watch signs get hung. This is a non HOA deal and should be run by the neighbors themselves.

I certainly agree the neighborhood should be involved in the Official Neighborhood Watch program and that group receives direction from the local P.D. But there are associations that aren't located in an area that has a sponsored program. So the neighborhood watch program can become owners monitoring the neighborhood and under direction of the HOA, It amounts to a bunch of concerned owners watching over their property (the association) and in my opinion is beneficial. I don't know if those associations outside city or township jurisdiction could actually form an Official Neighborhood watch.

Mary,
I agree with what you say. Guess I didn't make myself clear.

Let's try this. There are HOA's located outside the reach of the OFFICIAL Neighborhood watch program areas. There are some that can't get the organization together to participate if one is available. I speak to those.

They, the HOA can educate the homeowners of their responsibility to their covenants to watch over and protect their association. To this end, let's call this a "neighborhood that has an active participation of all the owners to monitor the activities in their complex". I am not speaking of enforcement, I am talking of reporting incidents of a suspicious nature. Whether they report to the Manager, a Board member or to a committee formed by the HOA, or call the cops, makes no matter. This goes on all the time anyway when you have large numbers of absentee owners and a small core of full timers. The Board should establish a policy that the Board supports this activity and as Board Members they should actively participate. If the problem don't exist, they don't have to address it.

Thanks for that post Robert. We just had an incident where there was a huge drug bust in one of our units last night.

An owner passed away in February, her grandson moved in and so did all of his druggie friends. This is a quiet 104 unit complex. Another board member and I would contact this resident when ever there was a complaint about a rule infraction (there were a lot).

We would ask the PM to send a letter outlining the complaint and rule infraction. She never followed thru with them so it kept escalating. She berated us at one of the meetings telling us we were getting too involved. So we backed off. It only took one month. A "RENTER" that lives across from the unit and who just happens to be a parole office approached me last night and said he was calling the cops because he had seen illegal activity for a month now, 15-25 kids were going in the house all hours of the day so he knew there was drug activity.

I was able to contact the owner (one of the daughters) who freaked out because she said she had kicked everyone out 2 days prior and changed the locks because of the police being there. I was able to give that information to the police who then asked me to come to the unit to see what they had found. There were about a dozen bottles of Oxycontin and tinfoil/needles that the police office said was determined to be heroin.

So they taped up the unit and said to tell the residents to call 911 if they saw any kids around the unit. So this afternoon the PM berates me again stating that the BODs aren’t drug busters??????? I wonder if she had a drug house next to her if she would have just ignored it. The rest of the residents who then came forward and said they had seen things going on all month asked if we could have another safety meeting with the Police. I think that is in order as is a new PM.

Why Thank you Robert, I'd like to think I am nice.

I know this sounds like it is coming from left field but if you remember I have been fighting this board for 2 years now on several issues, one being the PM not doing her job. The other a board member who loves the PM and is very protective of her to the detriment of the board. No one likes change and so I am just getting the board comfortable with the idea of changing PM's.

I have learned a lot from the forum. One of the things we are doing right now is taking said officer's position away for misconduct. We can't take him off the board, he refuses to resign at the majorities request so we are taking the Treasures position away from him. We are now working on the owners we know will be at the annual meeting to make sure he isn't allowed to volunteer as his directors position is up this year. We never have enough people volunteer for it to go to a vote, but I think if we have enough members at the meeting say they don't want him on the board we will win the day.

I FINALLY have a majority of the board members on the same page. Long hard 2 years. I actually quit 3 times but the BODs kept refusing my resignation LOL.

We are going to have a strong talk with the PM at our next meeting because of many issues that she has screwed up on because of lack of follow through. She has never had a board like us who actually make her accountable. Her remarks to me (and the fact that she hung up on me during our conversation today) is going to be one of the things we address.

WE do feel it is our duty as a board to make sure our community is safe. I did not go in and do the drug bust as she tried to say, I spoke with the officers, gave them the info they needed and backed away. What the PM doens't realize is I have worked with Police officers for over 20 years and know where that line is. Even if I wasn't on the board I would have done what I did last night to make sure that unit was closed up and all the owners in the vicinity knew what was going on.

Thanks again Robert, I take to heart what you tell me and it has served me well.
r

Ruth,

Kudos to you Ruth! Good luck with turning this BOD around. The first order of business, IMO, should be to get a new PM. If she works for a mgmt co you can ask that they assign someone else or you will be terminating their contract. I think you would have good cause to do so since she is not following the instructions of the board. Not sending violation notices when instructed to do so is a big violation, IMO. Apparently she does not understand that the BOD is the boss, not her. I see this happening in far too many HOAs. Too many board members either do not want to be in control or just think they have to let the PM run the show. When I attended the Glendale HOA Academy many years ago I was surprised at how many board members in attendance were absolutely shocked when told they are in control, not the PM.