Flying the flag

[Tom@CarterRanchHomeowners.com]

I find this to be unbelievable. Since Snow Property Management came on board and since our national debt has hit $20 TRILLION, I have felt severe distress for the future of our country and our HOA under similar reckless fiduciary responsibility. Today I got this:

Tom, since you quote regulations so well. Please note that we put this information out at the last meeting that you attended. We also read it out loud. We also stated that copies were available on the table at the back of the room.

Please note that your flag appears to still be displayed upside down in violation of federal law. Heads up: you will be receiving yet another violation letter soon in the mail. Thank you for your cooperation.

The United States Flag:

Relating to Display and Associated Questions

§ 8. Respect for Flag.

No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, state flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.

(a) The flag should never be displayed with union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.

Doug Stewart
Carter Ranch Board of Directors

There is no person in this entire country that has more respect for the Flag of the United States than me. Mr Stewart has a bug up his butt because I won't ask his permission to fly the flag on the front of my home (Right side up I might add). I want the whole Homeowners Association to understand that a lot of my friends and family have died for that Flag and I will NEVER ask anyone's permission to fly it. I am also proud to fly the one in the back yard upside down to show my complete and total distress over the power hungry that are trying to destroy both our country and our HOA. Can you believe that the HOA would even think they had a right to fine someone for flying the Flag upside down????

Please note, the basketball hoop is not mine.

[Tom@CarterRanchHomeowners.com]

To understand this exchange completely, let me go back to the beginning. Last year starting when Snow Property Management took over, I was sent notice of a violation for my board (already discussed elsewhere) to allow cats access to my roof to get rid of the pigeons. I repeatedly requested a hearing on the subject to see if we couldn't come to a compromise. At the same time I tried to educate the HOA Board by way of Snow Property, that it is illegal under Arizona law to fine a homeowner for a violation BEFORE having a hearing. Snow Property ignored this and fined me. I responded with a request for a hearing and again gave notice that this was illegal under Arizona law. I received a second $25 fine. To which I requested a hearing and again gave notice that this was illegal under Arizona law. I received a letter from Maxwell and Morgan attorney Jonathan Ebertshauser along with a third $25 fine. To which I requested a hearing and again gave notice that this was illegal under Arizona law. Later I received another letter from the attorney and a fourth $25 fine. To which I requested a hearing and again gave notice that this was illegal under Arizona law. This all ended on January 26th of 2016 when I finally had my hearing and explained that I had removed the board in question and replaced it with a flagpole months earlier. As they understood that I was willing to go to court over the illegal fines, they dropped the whole thing. Keep in mind that the law firm, at the behest of the HOA Board, had racked up thousands of dollars in bills that, because it was all illegal, the HOA (you and me through our dues) had to pay. This showed complete fiscal irresponsibility on the part of the HOA Board of Directors and was solely out of power hungry spite mainly on the part of Mr. John Weber and Mr. Doug Stewart. To continue the spite and out of humiliation for losing what I tried to explain all along was an illegal battle, they (Mr. Weber and Mr. Stewart) decided to try again and sent me a letter demanding that I submit an architectural review for my flagpole within 14 days or face a fine of $25. With that background, the following will pick up from there.

On April 14th, in response to the letter, I sent the following:
14 April, 2016

Carter Ranch Homeowners Association
c/o Snow Property Services
4135 S. Power Rd, Suite 122
Mesa, AZ 85212

Re: ARS 33-1805 Request for documents

Dear Mary Chaira,

Pursuant to A.R.S. 33-1805 of the Arizona revised statutes, I am requesting the following documents:

1. Copies of all Carter Ranch homeowner architectural requests for flags.
   
   [FONT="]Attached is a copy of ARS 33-1805 for your records[/FONT]
   
   [FONT="]Please advise total cost of these records at $0.15/page[/FONT]

I received the following in response:

April 19, 2016
Hi Tom,

I am in receipt of you request for copies of the architectural request pertaining to flag pole installs.

I have looked through the few files I was given when Snow took over as Manager and there are no records for these on file with us.

I have a meeting with the Board of Directors on April 25, 2016 and will discuss with them.

In the past when it was questioned I was told it was a previous Board as well as previous management company that approved those.


Respectfully,

Mary Chaira

On April 28th, I sent the following (22 days had passed):

Hi Mary,

My 14 day grace period has come and gone and I have not received my $25 fine. Please advise.

Tom

Her reply on April 29th:

Tom,

I will wait for a reply from the Board of Directors as you know from the last meeting all they are asking right now is that you submit a form for the flag pole.

Thank you
Mary

My response was another reminder for the existing architectural reviews May 2, 2016:

At the meeting, it was said that there had been one flag pole request for architectural review. Please send a copy of that.

Thanks

Tom

On May 4, 2016 I sent:

Hi Mary,

It has been 21 days since I sent you the formal request for copies of the architectural reviews for flag poles. As you have confirmed, there has been at least one. As you know, Arizona law requires that you provide these within 10 days. Please advise if you are going to comply with Arizona law or defy Arizona law.

Thanks

Tom

Her response on May 5th was:

Tom, as previously stated that is from prior manager and board, I cannot send you what I do not have. Therefore compliance has been met. I replied to you letting you know that. Also Paul let you know at previous meeting it was his and it was done with previous board.

My May 5th response:

Actually, that does not meet Arizona law. I will send a request directly to the Board. Not sure how to contact the board though. I will send a letter to the PO Box, I guess? Or does that still automatically redirect to you?

Feel free to forward my last couple emails that you are unable to comply with directly to the board.

So, I looked and the board does have an email now so I sent the following to that email address. There is no other way to contact the board or any of the members. I do, however, have their home addresses now. Mary was kind enough to send them to me. Maybe in the future we can simply send mail directly to their home addresses. It is somewhat unconscionable that we have no way to discuss problems with our HOA except through Snow Property Management.

The response I received from the HOA email was:

Tom, since you quote regulations so well. Please note that we put this information out at the last meeting that you attended. We also read it out loud. We also stated that copies were available on the table at the back of the room.

Please note that your flag appears to still be displayed upside down in violation of federal law. Heads up: you will be receiving yet another violation letter soon in the mail. Thank you for your cooperation.

The United States Flag:

Relating to Display and Associated Questions

§ 8. Respect for Flag.

No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, state flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.

(a) The flag should never be displayed with union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.

Doug Stewart
Carter Ranch Board of Directors

The saga continues. Here is the rest of the exchange.
On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 2:11 PM, Tom wrote:

How soon can you get me the violation for flying the flag as a sign of deep distress? Can you send it today yet? PLEASE.

Response from Doug Stewart:

You poor poor man. May God bless you.

My response:

I have you on record saying that there is one architectural review request for a flagpole. However, nobody can find it. You are just as much a liar as Weber was about the audit. He's gone. You will be too. Keep a close eye on your mailbox next week.

I followed that with :

I know it is impossible to teach this ignorant board the difference between law and thought but here is law:

http://isthatlegal.org/question-is-it-legal-to-fly-the-flag-upside-down

To which I received:

Notice: Due the insults and threats I have recorded on our email account from you. Your contact through emails are terminated. Please make any further response by mail.

This is what your Board does? For the record, my reference to "Keep a close eye on your mailbox next week" was in reference to the letter dated May 12 that I sent out inviting everyone to this website. We cannot allow the HOA Board to control our lives in matters of insignificance that end up costing us thousands of dollars in dues that would be better spent putting flowers in the flower box at our sign. I had to photoshop them into the header picture for this website as the box is empty. We don't have the $$ to do that but we do have $5500 to give to lawyers to ignore Arizona law. Just so you all understand, Doug Stewart has sent me the first $25 fine for the flagpole without a hearing. It is, by Arizona law, illegal. Once again, I hope Doug sends the lawyers to my door soon. Why wait for the fines to get to $50 to spend HOA money ($$thousands) to try and collect when you have already learned that it is futile. There should be a way for us as dues paying homeowners to hold Doug and the legally clueless Mr. Weber responsible for these costs. I am also in the process of trying to get a reprimand against Maxwell and Morgan, Mr Ebertshauser by the Arizona Bar Association as they were legally responsible to inform the HOA Board that they had no hope of recovering the cost that they, Maxwell and Morgan, were racking up on behalf of Doug and Mr. Weber. Instead, Maxwell and Morgan just kept continuing along as it was money in their pockets no matter how it turned out.

[Tom@CarterRanchHomeowners.com]

Please note that the Carter Ranch CC&Rs and the Bylaws only have one reference to flags and that reference was copied from decades old templates. That HOA piece reads that the restriction is that the mast is limited to 6 feet. Some have interpreted that to mean that the flagpole is restricted to 6 feet. Arizona does have a more extensive and OVERRIDING law about flags. It limits the flagpole to the height of the roofline PERIOD. It also protects a lot of flags along with the US flag. You can read about it here. http://www.carterranchhomeowners.com...cal-activities . Then there is the "Freedom to display the flag act of 2005" signed into law by then president George W. Bush and it says "A condominium association, cooperative association, or residential real estate management association may not adopt or enforce any policy, or enter into any agreement, that would restrict or prevent a member of the association from displaying the flag of the United States on residential property within the association with respect to which such member has a separate ownership interest or a right to exclusive possession or use."

Don't ever ask anyone permission to fly the flag of the United States.

[Tom@CarterRanchHomeowners.com]

Just attended the retirement of a friend on the US Navy. At the ceremony of presenting him with his flag, this was read:

http://www.ausa.org/resources/nco/tr...AmtheFlag.aspx

[Tom@CarterRanchHomeowners.com]

Today we temember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice on D-Day so that we can fly our flags in their honor without the need to ask permission from ANYONE.