Why are Voting Members Important?

In the Summit's HOA, the homeowners do not elect the Directors.

Directors are elected by Voting Members. A Voting Member represents the Neighborhood in which s/he lives. There are 28 Neighborhoods in the HOA, and there are supposed to be 28 Voting Members.

At least four neighborhoods have no Voting Member - legitimate or not. One Neighborhood (Barony Place) has a legitimate Voting Member.

This means that 27 of the 28 Neighborhoods do not have a legitimate Voting Member. That's 27/28, or 96% of the Neighborhoods are unrepresented.

There is only one way for a Neighborhood to get a legitimate Voting Member. THE one way is to comply with the By-Laws; i.e., to hold a Neighborhood Meeting with a quorum of 1/3 of the homeowners represented in-person or by proxy. Conduct an election of a three-person  Neighborhood Committee, which selects one of the three as the Voting Member for the next 12 months.

Several years ago a board began allowing an alternate, but not legitimate, way of designating a Voting Member. A homeowner could self-nominate and collect signatures. That method is NOT in the By-Laws. From that time on, elections of directors were fraudulent.

In November 2023 the new (and current) President of the HOA disbanded the Neighborhood Committee of the HOA. He had no authority to do so. The Committee is a standing committee. His  authority is to appoint a Chair of the Committee.

The purpose of the HOA's Neighborhood Committee is to help "locate and elect a local neighborhood committee that will represent their community at SCA Board meetings and there by [sic] allow their Voting member (elected by the local neighborhood committee) to vote on vital issues that affect the Summit and their local neighborhood..." (Source: Procedures Reference Manual (PRM), Art. II, B, §8)

The HOA has failed to do that for at least six years, resulting in excessive freedom of the directors and officers and lack of oversight on behalf of the homeowners.

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