El Mirador Homeowners Association Elections 2023
The El Mirador Homeowners Association elections for 2023, like most nonprofits, have multiple candidates vying for multiple positions. Or, at least, that's what everyone thinks.
This page and all its contents, links, attachments, references, statements, opinions and conclusions constitute a political broadcast by Homeowner X.
I want to first make a bold, but true, statement. The El Mirador Homeowner Association elections in 2023 are being held in an unlawful and improper way. The same can be said for 2022 and 2021. Members are being improperly denied voting rights consistent with disenfranchisement, either by design or through incompetence of the Board; maybe both.
In the following paragraphs and images I provide evidence which brings into question the validity of every act by the Association's Board of Directors for the several years of which I have witnessed. Not a single election of the Association in the last 5 years has been lawful or even appropriate as according to state law and the community documents.
The current Board of Directors needs to be replaced for the sake of the Association and its members.
David Chavez, Jr., Association Treasurer, has "served" continuously for more than two decades as President, Treasurer or Secretary; sometimes as the combined Treasurer/Secretary. He also does not pay dues and lies about why he doesn't pay them.
Chavez clearly manipulates Association meetings, to the point that his influence leads me to believe he is actually in charge of the Association, despite Richard Doyle being named President.
In the most recent meeting of the Association occurring February 23, 2023, Chavez can be heard in the background orchestrating virtually every aspect of the meeting; telling Doyle what to do and when to do it.
The Association did not provide proper notice for the meeting. That and other reasons caused the votes in the meeting to fail. It was a waste of everyone's time.
The money goes to Henry Trost, his friend who, for years, saved Doyle and the Association Vice President Joaquin Tadeo money through a trash-disposal scheme that has been ongoing for several years.
Doyle only recently purchased disposal services for his residence after being asked by a member why he did not have a trash can. Trost and Tadeo still do not pay for trash disposal, while Trost disposes of personal and commercial trash using member trashcans.
This trash scheme has been ongoing for years and benefits only Trost, Doyle and Tadeo.
Henry Trost Placing his Commercial Trash into a Member's Trashcan June 28, 2019
Henry Trost Collecting Personal Trash for Disposal into Members' Trashcans September 1, 2022
Henry Trost Disposing of Personal Trash Into Members' Trashcans March 26, 2021
The Articles of Incorporation very specifically says that members are to elect both Directors and Officers. Members are also to determine the number of Directors each year. These are not choices afforded to members by the Association's Board of Directors.
El Mirador Homeowners Association Articles of Incorporation art. X §§ A, C;
X
Directors.
A. Number, Term and Election of Directors. The
Association shall have not less than three (3) nor more
than seven (7) directors who shall serve as the directors
of the Association. The actual number of directors for the
next year (between 3 and 7) shall be determined by the
members of the Association at a meeting of the same which
shall occur immediately subsequent to the issuance of the
Articles of Incorporation.C. Officers: The officers of the Association
shall be President, Vice President, Secretary and
Treasurer. The President and Secretary shall not be the
same individual, other offices may be held by the same
individuals. Each officer shall serve a term of one (1)
year or until his or her successor is elected and has
qualified. The officers for the year shall be elected by
the membership of the Association.
Essentially, the Association Board of Directors structures elections in such a way that, no matter how members vote the Board still decides who goes where, who controls the money, etc. They make no distinction between Directors and Officers for members to vote on, and they choose some publicly after the election and others later in secret and not in a meeting. Almost all committee "assignments" occur in secret, also not in actual meetings.
The Board wrongfully makes these choices, denying members substantial voting rights and the freedom to choose Officers and Directors.
Fictitious positions should not be treated as real ones. Common Area Oversight Committee Chair is a fabricated position that has not been adopted by any act of Board in the history of the Association. The same goes for the bogus Neighborhood Watch Committee Chair. The confusingly named Fines Review Appeal Committee Chair is a false position, and so is the Proposed Fines Review Committee Chair. All of these are fake committees with fake Chair positions.
You cannot elect or appoint someone for a position that does not actually exist.
Requiring that ballots be mailed to a post office box is ridiculously slow and unreliable. Its almost as if they are attempting to create a "credible" way to deny ballots in a way no one will be able to dispute. This wrongfully denies members of voting rights; casting ballots up to and including the day of election; the right to observe voting and vote counting.
I'm disputing it right now, before it happens.
To verify the main premise of my claim we need to go no further than the New Mexico Homeowner Association Act statute regarding association voting, NMSA § 47-16-9 A (2021). (emphasis added)
47-16-9. Proxy and absentee voting; ballot counting.
A. The association shall provide for votes to be cast in person, by absentee ballot or by proxy and may provide for voting by some other form of delivery.
B. Vote by proxy is allowed for lot owner meetings. The proxy vote shall:
(1) be dated and executed by a lot owner, but if a lot is owned by more than one person, each owner of the lot may vote or register protest to the casting of votes by the other owners of the lot through a duly executed proxy, but in no case shall the total vote cast be more than that allocated to the lot under the declaration;
(2) allow for revocation if notice of revocation is provided to the person presiding over a lot owner meeting; and
(3) be valid only for the meeting at which it is cast.
C. If proxy voting is utilized at a lot owner meeting, a person shall not pay a company or person to collect proxy votes.
D. Where directors or officers are to be elected by members, the bylaws may provide that such elections may be conducted by mail.
E. Votes cast by proxy and by absentee ballot are valid for the purpose of establishing a quorum.
F. Ballots, if used, shall be counted by a neutral third party or by a committee of volunteers. The volunteers shall be selected or appointed at an open meeting, in a fair manner, by the chair of the board or another person presiding during that portion of the meeting. The volunteers shall not be board members and, in the case of a contested election for a board position, shall not be candidates.
G. Nothing in this section shall be considered in conflict with or a replacement of voting member councils or representative voting systems created by the community documents.
There is also this statute from the New Mexico Nonprofit Corporation Act regarding member voting, NMSA § 53-8-15 A, B (2021). (emphasis added)
53-8-15. Voting.
A. The right of the members, or any class or classes of members, to vote may be limited, enlarged or denied to the extent specified in the articles of incorporation or the bylaws. Unless so limited, enlarged or denied, each member, regardless of class, shall be entitled to one vote on each matter submitted to a vote of members.
B. A member entitled to vote may vote in person or, unless the articles of incorporation or the bylaws otherwise provide, may vote by proxy executed in writing by the member or by his duly authorized attorney-in-fact. No proxy shall be valid after eleven months from the date of its execution, unless otherwise provided in the proxy. Where directors or officers are to be elected by members, the bylaws may provide that such elections may be conducted by mail.
C. The articles of incorporation or the bylaws may provide that in all elections for directors every member entitled to vote shall have the right to cumulate his vote and to give one candidate a number of votes equal to his vote multiplied by the number of directors to be elected, or by distributing such votes on the same principle among any number of candidates.
D. If a corporation has no members or its members have no right to vote, the directors shall have the sole voting power.
The short version of that is each member may decide how they want to vote and not be restricted by the Association to only voting using mail-in ballot. Each member may vote depending on restrictions set forth in the community documents. Any person who can vote can do so in person.
Nothing in the community documents restrict members to only mail-in voting or allows the Association to restrict voting in any way, such as not allowing in-person voting for elections.
The Association has elected to use electronic meetings for elections in recent years without offering members any way to vote during these meetings, a clear violation of both NMSA § 47-16-9 A (2021) and NMSA § 53-8-15 A, B (2021). But that isn't the only suspicious thing about how the Association handles elections. There's more.
Corporate elections are not a particularly complicated undertaking, but the current Board seems to either not understand how elections are supposed to work, they don't care or they are stacking the deck in their favor.
If that isn't enough for you, there is also this statute regarding member voting, NMSA § 53-11-33 A, F (2021). (emphasis added)
53-11-33. Voting of shares.
A. Each outstanding share, regardless of class, shall be entitled to one vote on each matter submitted to a vote at a meeting of shareholders, except as otherwise provided in the articles of incorporation. If the articles of incorporation provide for more or less than one vote for any share, on any matter, every reference in the Business Corporation Act to a majority or other proportion of shares shall refer to such a majority or other proportion of votes entitled to be cast. The articles of incorporation may grant, either absolutely or conditionally to the holders of bonds, debentures or other obligations of the corporation the power to vote on specified matters, including the election of directors, and this right shall not be terminated except upon written assent of the holders of a majority in aggregate face amount of the bonds or debentures.
F. A shareholder may vote either in person or by proxy executed in writing by the shareholder or by his duly authorized attorney in fact. No proxy shall be valid after eleven months from the date of its execution, unless otherwise provided in the proxy.
Put another way, for the 2023 El Mirador subdivision elections, some things are very wrong. Denying member's votes is just one issue of many.
To illustrate my point, I direct you to look at the ballot provided by the Association. You'll notice that it simply lists names in what appears to be an alphabetical order. "What's wrong with that?" you might ask. There's plenty wrong with that, read the explanation below.
- For one thing, the Association makes no effort to inform members about what positions are being voted on, such as Directors or Officers of the Association.
- For another, members have no choice regarding which of the available positions get filled or by which persons.
- This gives the Board with all the power of choice in elections; no matter who is elected the Board can allocate the money (Treasurer) and decision-making positions (President, Vice President) for themselves and give any newcomers all the work (Secretary) or positions that have no real description, i.e. Director.
- The Association makes no effort to provide anyone even the barest amount of information on the candidates. They could easily allow each candidate to write a summary and provide contact information so members could contact them to determine why they might vote for them
Essentially all you get to do is vote and the existing Board will decide all the important things. According to Association filings with the New Mexico Secretary of State, the Board is choosing Directors and Officers of the Association, while you think that's what you are choosing through your vote. This Behavior of the Board is improper, either through lack of knowledge or by conscious and deliberate decision to maintain power and control of the funds and authority of the Association.
The way they word the ballot, every elected person would be a Director, and so there should be seven Directors listed in its annual report to the state. If they chose Officers from amongst themselves, which they did, there should be seven Directors and four Officers listed. This is a false record.
Just who will be Directors and who will be Officers is not clear. This is a serious issue. We should know what we are voting for and not be guessing. We should also have a say in the Association's Officers as well.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
Marcellus; Hamlet Act 1 Scene 4