THE OPPOSITION

SOME CALL THEM OUR ENEMIES

An Opinion By Jan Bergemann 
President, Cyber Citizens For Justice, Inc. 

June 1, 2006

Homeowners and legislators often become confused about the many "organizations" that claim to represent homeowners’ and condo-owners' rights.  A lot of these organizations allegedly work for the betterment of the associations.

Any organization can only represent the people who gave them a mandate to represent them.

We always hear the unfounded claim from certain organizations that they represent tens of thousands of owners. If you really look into it, most of the owners they claim to "represent" don't even know that these organizations exist. Their claim to fame? They founded an organization that allegedly represents all owners within certain areas, belonging to any association within the boundaries. Or the lobbying groups of the law firms who claim to represent the opinion of anybody that is part of the association for whom they are hired to do the legal work. Even if I hire an attorney, he is employed to do what he is told to do.  He is not hired as my spokesperson to tell others what I think and what I want.

Most of the so-called “umbrella organizations” don't really have an actual membership and are comprised of some board members interested in political power. Then this political power is often abused for purposes that have nothing to do with the welfare of owners in associations. 

Let's not make any mistakes!  Most of the organizations are lobbyist groups for specialized interests.  Under the cover-up of protecting associations’ rights, these bogus organizations lobby for financial gain of certain groups -- to the detriment of the owners.

You may have seen and heard that some of these organization officials delight in name-calling, putting down the homeowners’ activists whose goal it is to create fairness for citizens in associations.  You may have noticed that anyone who strives to do good things for the associations and their members is smeared as an “anarchist” or a “disgruntled troublemaker.” 

Making trouble?  No, it is just plain common sense to ask for easy enforcement of laws, accountability of the people in charge, protection of owners against abuse and solutions to decrease the outrageous number of frivolous lawsuits. 

The REAL troublemakers are the people who abuse the existing system, make fortunes at the expense of owners, and like to abuse the power given to them by inadequate laws. 

Here is a list of organizations that claim to represent owners and associations, but instead represent special interests.  Definitely these organizations fail to represent the best interests of Joe and Jane Homeowner, who had hoped to buy a peaceful home surrounded by happy neighbors in a pleasant community.

You may be confused by the many different names of all these organizations that claim to represent tens of thousands -- or actually millions -- of owners. In reality, there are really just a few people hiding behind all these organizations, making it appear like there are bunches of people representing all these different organizations. But if you really look behind the scenes, you will see the names of the same old instigators pop up!

Our associations are turning more and more into battlefields for abuse and litigation, nothing we owners had in mind when we spent our hard-earned money for our family's home!

Click on the blue links below to find out what these organizations are really all about!

CAI (COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS INSTITUTE)

CALL (COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION LEADERSHIP LOBBY)

CAN (COMMUNITY ADVOCACY NETWORK)

COCA (COALITION OF COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS)

OCHA (ORANGE COUNTY HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION)

VARIOUS UMBRELLA ORGANIZATIONS


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