Not one change, of the many The Board forced on us, was in the best interest of the people who own this property, this business, OUR HOA.
Every single change they cheated and schemed to force on us follows the playbook of how predatory management companies take over HOAs.
Running it like any other business would be run should not be up for discussion.
Leaving the door wide open so anyone can walk in and do whatever they want should never have been allowed.
Just because The Board, a minuscule number of the people who own this business, got conned by an investment equity preditor and changed the entire setup here, doesn't mean they can do whatever they feel like.
They were elected to be Board Members, not Property Managers.
And now because they have cheated and schemed to take on the job of Property Manager, they need to be vetted the same way a responsible business vets managers who have access to literally everything at the business.
This is a property where hardworking people each pay for their own properties, collectively worth around $40 million. Letting the same people who violated our rights to start this downward slide take over with absolutely no information about them is a joke.
There was no vetting when they were just Board Members. That made sense. They were just representatives of the rest of us. A liaison between the Manager, who was professionally trained, and hundreds of Owners. Now, instead of a facilitater for communication, available to all Owners as a way to get their voices heard, The Board is completely unavailable to Owners. Everything goes through the predatory management company. And The Board sits shielded away from Owners and does what ever they feel like. They no longer care what hundreds of Owners say. After giving themselves all the power here, this Board thinks they can still withhold everything about themselves from us. That is nonsense.
You want to be a manager, you need to give us your resume. Because it matters if you work at McDonalds, or Google. It matters if you have a criminal background. Everything about your past matters now that you have cheated your way into stripping me and everyone else here of making any decisions about the properties we pay for.
In fact, the decision to just let anyone who got a few more votes on an anemic election where most people miss that it is even happening, because The Board set it up that way, suddenly have access to all our assets with no vetting and no oversight is the worst decision they could make.
You don't get to slide into the power position, while working to keep Owners from communicating, and do whatever you feel like here.
Your judgment and your integrity have already screamed that you are unqualified for the job that you stole. Cheated at an election to steal.
Any reasonable person would be able to see that.
“I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back.”
Tolstoy
It make no sense. To completly expose an HOA, the business owned by 202 unit Owners, to every crime imaginable, indicates someone on The Board or the Management company intends to steal from the business.
It makes zero sense that because The Board made themselves Managers, they don't have to abide by procedures that ALL businesses abide by. No background checks, no oversight, no bonding, no resumes, no audits, are all crimes waiting to happen.
If a management company suggested, developed, or approved any such system, they are announcing they intend to embezzle from that HOA. There is no excuse for a professional company to suggest or approve of an HOA operating any differently than that company operates. I guarantee Utah Management requires resumes, background checks, oversight and bonding of any of their employees handling their finances.
I asked AI:
What year did HOAs start having to worry about management companies taking over their boards?
AI answered instantly:
Concerns regarding Homeowners Association (HOA) management companies taking control or exerting undue influence over boards began to emerge as the industry matured, with significant escalations taking hold around 2010–2015 and increasing dramatically with recent private equity acquisitions in the mid-2020s.
While HOAs became popular in the 1960s, the "corporatization" of management, where massive companies started consolidating local firms and dominating board operations, is a more recent phenomenon.
Key Timeline of Escalating Concerns
2000–2010: Initial Consolidation: Major players like Associa began aggressively acquiring smaller regional firms, starting a decade of consolidation.
2010–2015: Rise of "One-Stop" Management: Larger firms began offering bundled services (landscaping, legal, maintenance), which led to situations where the management company, rather than the homeowner board, held the power, especially when the company's founder had political ties to the state property code, such as in Texas.
2015–2020: Digital Transformation & Power Shift: Following the adoption of sophisticated property software, management companies began acting as the sole source of data and financial management, leading to less transparency and control for volunteer board members.
2020–Present: Private Equity Acquisitions: Massive influxes of capital from private equity firms have accelerated the trend, with management companies shifting to "standardize" communities for profit, often forcing board members to deal with changing service models.
Why Boards Worry About Takeovers
Board members often worry that management companies will take over because the management firm:
Controls Information: The management company holds the records, controls the bank accounts, and dictates the financial data the board sees.
Overrules Volunteers: Professional managers may try to push their own agenda, preferred vendors, or legal counsel over the wishes of the volunteer board.
Creates Dependence: Smaller boards may become entirely dependent on the firm, allowing the manager to run the community (often poorly) without proper oversight.
By the mid-2020s, with over 370,000 HOAs in the U.S. and massive consolidation in the sector, boards are increasingly advised to be cautious and to use strict contracts to ensure the management company works for them, not the other way around.
Frontline is our regular look at HOA news stories making headlines—curated for homeowners who want to understand what’s actually happening beyond the drama.
Every week, we review dozens of articles about HOA disputes, board overreach, policy changes, and homeowner conflicts. We pull out the ones that matter most—not because they’re the most sensational, but because they illustrate patterns that show up in real cases.
For each story, we break down:
- What happened (in plain language)
- How we’d approach it as a homeowner before calling a lawyer
- What warning signs would suggest it’s time for legal help
This isn’t legal advice. These are practical observations from a law firm that’s seen hundreds of these disputes play out. We’re showing you how to think through common HOA problems—so you can recognize when self-help makes sense and when it doesn’t.
Frontline exists because most HOA conflicts follow predictable scripts. The details change, but the structure stays the same. Understanding those patterns helps you make better decisions when your own board starts acting out of line.
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The Marglli Gallego saga continued this week with new sentencing developments out of Miami-Dade. The former Hammocks Community Association president — described by residents as someone they were "terrified" of — and her husband, Jose Antonio Gonzalez, accepted plea arrangements connected to roughly $11 million in misappropriated HOA funds. Gonzalez forfeited a property prosecutors say was purchased with association money and turned over a $50,000 restitution check. The Hammocks case became a national reference point for how badly HOA governance can decay when residents' early complaints are ignored — it took years of pushback, state-level intervention, and an appointed HOA monitor before the full picture came into view.
Our Take: Cases like Hammocks rarely start with eight-figure theft. They start with a board that won't release financials, a management company that won't return calls, and homeowners who give up after the first runaround. Before things ever reach criminal territory, the tools available to a homeowner are mostly procedural: written records requests, attendance at open-session meetings, and a contemporaneous log of every interaction (date, method of contact, response — or silence). If neighbors are getting different answers than you are, write that down too. The clinical paper trail is what eventually changes the dynamic.
Signs this may need a lawyer's eye: legitimate financial document requests get refused without explanation, the same vendors keep getting paid above market with no visible bid history, or you start hearing about properties or assets connected to board members that the association quietly funds. A single odd transaction may have a clean explanation. A pattern the board refuses to discuss in writing is a different situation entirely.
A Honolulu property manager named Doane has been indicted on charges of first-degree computer fraud and first-degree theft, accused of embezzling roughly $647,000 from homeowner associations she managed. Arraignment is set for later this week. Details about the alleged method are still emerging, but the charges suggest direct access to association financial systems was the vector.
Our Take: Worth re-stating the structural point this case illustrates: the relationship between an HOA and its management company is contractual, and the management company answers to the board — not to individual homeowners. That structure works fine when boards are paying attention. It tends to fail when they aren't. As an owner, what you generally do have access to are association records, though whether you can actually compel disclosure depends on your governing documents and the relevant state statute.
Practical moves before anything reaches a crisis: request the most recent reserve study, the year's bank statements, and any audit reports. Ask in writing and keep the request narrow and specific. If those requests get slow-walked or refused, that's a data point you can act on later. When a single management company has stonewalled multiple homeowners on basic financial questions, that's usually when self-help has run its course.
Florida condominium associations facing newly required structural repairs — a downstream consequence of post-Surfside reforms — are increasingly using bank loans to fund work their reserves can't cover. The article walks through how years of underfunded reserves, deferred maintenance, and now mandatory milestone inspections have collided. Special assessments remain the primary funding tool, but financing is now firmly in the mix, and not every building qualifies on the lender side.
Our Take: If you own a unit in an older Florida condo, especially one approaching its 30-year inspection milestone, this affects you directly. The bill for decades of underfunded reserves is being paid right now — through special assessments, through loans that raise monthly dues, or through a lender quietly deciding the building isn't financeable anymore. None of that is hypothetical.
Your governing documents are the starting point. Pull the most recent reserve study, the structural integrity reserve study (SIRS) if your building has completed one, and the minutes from any board meeting where loan options were discussed. Ask whether the loan terms have been put to a unit-owner vote where required, what the interest rate is, and how it changes the assessment timeline. When boards skip procedural requirements on something this consequential, the disputes that follow often turn on whether the vote was properly noticed and conducted — not whether the repair was actually needed.
Fannie Mae announced meaningful changes to its project standards and property eligibility rules — changes that will affect how lenders approve mortgages on units inside condominium projects and HOAs. The practical effect: more buildings could end up on lender blacklists if their reserves, deferred maintenance, financials, or insurance fall short of the new criteria.
Our Take: This is the quieter story this week, but arguably the one with the longest tail. When Fannie Mae decides a project doesn't meet standards, conventional financing dries up, sale prices fall, and current owners can find themselves stuck — unable to refinance, unable to sell at the price they were counting on. Boards that have been deferring on reserves are about to discover the federal mortgage market is paying attention.
If you're an owner, this is a fair moment to ask the board specific questions: What's our current reserve funding ratio? When was our last reserve study completed? Have we heard anything from lenders about project eligibility? Do we carry the insurance limits Fannie now wants to see? Get the answers on paper. If the board can't or won't respond, that itself tells you something — about governance, and about your unit's future marketability.
A useful inversion of the usual HOA-as-villain story: the River's Edge HOA is asking the city to take over the deed to a drainage lot the association has been responsible for. The board's reasoning is straightforward — maintenance costs have outpaced what 24 homeowners can absorb through dues, and the consensus is that raising dues won't close the gap.
Our Take: This is what healthy governance looks like — a small association being honest about a maintenance burden it can't sustain and looking for a real solution. The opposite, which is what we usually see, is the board that doesn't acknowledge the math doesn't work. Maintenance gets deferred, common areas degrade, and eventually someone's basement floods or a retention pond fails. By then, the dispute has become much harder.
If you live in a small HOA that owns real infrastructure — drainage, private roads, retaining walls, shared wells — the questions are worth asking now: Do we have a current reserve study for this asset? What's the projected cost of replacement? What's our funding ratio against that? Most common-area infrastructure disputes don't begin as disputes. They begin as slow-motion failures that nobody acknowledged until the water was already inside someone's house.
It occurred to me that O'leary wants to "mine for bitcoin" which is a harmful ponzi scheme. It hurts people as much as the data centers do. It has no benefit to mankind. So, diminishing the quality of life for millions of people for that is wrong. Ironically, I asked AI about that.
AI said:
The massive 40,000-acre "Stratos" data center project proposed for Box Elder County, Utah, is primarily designed as a high-capacity AI and hyperscale campus, but its immense power generation capacity of up to 9 gigawatts, powered by natural gas, provides the energy flexibility often associated with large-scale bitcoin mining.
While marketed for AI, such enormous energy-focused projects are frequently capable of supporting various computing intensive activities, including cryptocurrency mining.
Project Scope: The project, associated with investor Kevin O'Leary, is massive, spanning 62 square miles near the Great Salt Lake.
Power Source: The facility plans to connect to the Ruby Pipeline to receive natural gas, generating its own power on-site, rather than relying solely on the state’s electrical grid.
Controversy & Usage: Local officials approved the project, with stakeholders arguing it will support technological advancement and energy resilience, while critics raise concerns about the high energy consumption and environmental impact.
Timeline: The project is in early stages, with officials estimating it could be roughly ten years before it is fully operational.
Utah, particularly the Wasatch Front, frequently experiences some of the worst air quality in the U.S. and occasionally the world due to a "perfect storm" of unique winter temperature inversions, bowl-shaped topography, and concentrated pollution from vehicles and industry. These factors trap pollutants near the ground, where roughly 2 million residents live.
Key Factors Driving Poor Air Quality: Temperature Inversions (The "Lid"): In winter, cold, stagnant air becomes trapped under a layer of warm air, acting like a lid on the Salt Lake Valley and surrounding areas. Snow-covered valley floors often make this worse by reflecting heat rather than absorbing it, which prevents the air from mixing and disperses the pollution.
Topography (The "Bowl"): The Wasatch Front is surrounded by mountains, which block wind and prevent polluted air from escaping.
Particulate Pollution PM 2.5: During inversions, PM 2.5 (fine particulate matter) builds up rapidly. Research suggests that up to 70% of this winter PM 2.5 is formed by chemical reactions involving pollutants from industrial sources and motor vehicles.
Emission Sources: Roughly 50% of the air pollution in Salt Lake County is caused by vehicles. Additionally, wood-burning stoves and fireplaces contribute significantly to the smog. Summer Ozone: In warmer months, high elevations, bright sunshine, and emissions from cars and industry lead to high ground-level ozone levels. Dust and Industry: Increased drought conditions have increased airborne dust from dry lake beds.
I love AI. I use it a lot. But I have even asked AI if there is a way to balance AI's usefulness, and the way data centers are destroying whole communities where they have been built, long before Utah got the recent bad news. For example, when I type in a question, purposely making it really long, with multiple questions in it, as soon as I hit send, I have an answer. It's seems like magic. How did it even have time to read the question, let alone search billions of files to find the information and then come up with a well written response? It does all that in a second. It is amazing. I even asked AI if it could somehow read my question as I type. It said no. But, if it does its magic at the expense of millions of humans' quality of life, is it worth it? Could they create AI that takes 30 seconds or longer instead of one, and still have most of the benefits and less of the destruction?
For most people, a 30 second delay, or even longer, would mean nothing. Maybe there could be a few data farms for military use that give the one second response, and they are built in the middle of nowhere. And less destructive farms are built for the internet or academic use.
I am sure Kevin O'leary thinks the Salt Lake Valley is the middle of nowhere. He does not care about the harm. He only cares about his profits. All of our major problems, our already unsolvable problems, will be exacerbated by building a 62 square mile data farm next to the Great Salt Lake. Water prices could skyrocket. Pollution will increase. Lots of unforseen effects will happen, too.
I am just a regular person, and I can see how the financial benefits to Utah are not worth the cost they will come with for Utah's citizens. O'leary does not factor us in. He is racing against other rich guys who don't factor us in. That's why we can't let three people, under O'leary's influence make this decision. Those guys search for vulnerable populations, who have not anticipated anything like what a data center does to communities. Then they exploit the existing laws and systems. Their dream is sleepy county with three guys making decisions for the community who they can flatter, pay them, promise them the moon and manipulate them to vote their way. And the three small town guys are not a match for people like O'leary. And just like that, the entire state of Utah is set to travel down a very dark roard.
I would say the same thing about handing our HOA over to a man who operates on all the same principles as Kevin O'leary. I think the exact same thing happend to Cedar Springs. There is no benefit to Owners in transferring all the power here to the Board. The only person who benefits from that is a penny-ante version of O'leary who does not care about us, but now has the ability to pack The Board with people he pays to do everything he wants. Since all the power resides in The Board, a devious, money grubbing employee now has the ability to gain total control of our property, if he has not already done that. A property that he does not pay one dime to support. His only interest here is enriching himself as much and as often as possible with money we need to keep our properties maintained, updated and safe. There are so many changes happening in the world every day that may make it harder for us to do that. Who could have predicted what would happen with gas prices a few months ago? They are set to skyrocket. That affects the cost of everything. We have to take those kind of hits as they come. We do not have to keep a known danger here. One that will deplete our resources. He is a danger that HOAs have been warned about for more than 15 years. Our Board should have protected us from Utah Management. Even if I had not basically witnessed him stealing insurance money from fire victims, he would still be a danger HOAs are warned to stay away from by experts.
Why would audits be controversial? Why would Owners communicating be a problem? Why would having oversight of a Board comprised of volunteer, unvetted, random strangers need to be done away with? Not one business would hire managers without knowing their work history, education level, experience, or if they have a criminal record. Our Board made themselves Managers here, and they do all that. And more. I don't think any one of them would handle their own business, their own lives, and finances the way they are handling our business. They are not thinking straight.
We need our Board to fill out the industry standard conflict of interest forms.
They think that because they rewrote our Giverning Documents and cheated, breaking Utah Law to force them on us, we are no longer entitled to anything.
They think they have successfully stripped us of everything here except paying ALL the bills.
I say they need to start realizing our HOA is a business, still owned by 202 unit owners. And we have a right to know EVERYTHING they do.
Well, I'm guessing the Mods of that Sub don't want anyone speaking out against the billionaires. They deleted the video of the county meeting from another place I found it. I will look for another video of that meeting and post it. There are videos of the story in the other posts about this story.
The video was raw and riveting. It was the people who live in the community where the new data center was approved, furious that the largest data center ever built is going to be built in their community. They are devastated that their lives, their homes, their community is never going to be the same. And three people made that decision. I can relate to their anger.
This is what happens in Utah. Influential rich people dominate the majority. And the elected officials and boards assist the rich guys.
A micro version of this happened to our HOA. A few easily manipulated Board Members fell prey to a rich guy who has made a business of decimating unsuspecting Homeowners by kissing up to Board Members. We used to be a direct democracy. In actuality, we still are. It was never changed legally and honestly. But our CC&Rs were written so that a rich guy with no ethics could come in and do whatever he wants here. No one runs a business the way this Board has allowed our business, our HOA, to be run. No safeguards. No vetting. No oversight. No audits. Everything favors a management company's ability to act with impunity and no one on The Board is protecting our HOA. They argue for things that make us vulnerable. That make it easy to steal from us. It is truly shocking that The Board, infiltrated by one major traitor working for Joel, was so quick to work AGAINST their own best interest. And against the best interest of hundreds of families.
I want to shake them until they snap out of the trance they have fallen under.
Chris Taylor joind forces with Joel Prince and they had new Governing Documents written that builders use to hold homeowners financial prisoners. It is shameful. And we need to get our Owners as fired up as the citizens in the video are at the atrocity that billionaires are commiting against the people in Utah.
The data center that is going to decimate a whole community in Utah, possibly all of Utah, was approved by a board of three people. People who are supposed to listen to the wishes of the community and act only in their best interest. Ironic. Isn't it. We already have water shortages. Many days, we have the worst air quality in the entire world. Every place that data centers have been built have pollution problems, energy problems, noise problems and people getting mysterious illnesses.
The video of the angry citizens and the comments mirror what has happened to Cedar Springs. Just on a larger scale. Anyone reading about how AI data centers are destroying every community in which they are built, would never approve the largest ever to be built, to be built in their community.
When a miniscule group of people betray the people they are supposed to be serving, and it harms them, it is hard to take.
The comments on the post are worth reading.
The comments on the post are worth reading.
I think Joel Prince played a huge part in getting the new CC&Rs written. He wanted them passed. He told his employees to advise our Board on how to act aggressivly to get them passed. He manipulated an elderly person to act out of character, and work savagely to pass rules that would harm our HOA. That alone is disgusting. But, Joel kept going, and has never stopped harming us.
The current CC&Rs only benefit him. They harm every single Owner here. Even the Board Members who cheated to force them on us.
They hand our HOA over to Joel Prince. He set it up so there are no safeguards. He can access our bank accounts and steal more money, like he stole insurance money meant for fire victims' units. Money for a unit where a woman died in the fire that required it to be rebuilt. My sister's unit. And I had to watch him try to cover it up when the company he made a deal with went bankrupt. He was stuck. He couldn't hire a new restoration company, because his illegal deal would be exposed. So, he dragged a six month rebuild out to two years. And, he sabbataged my efforts to get the job completed after that unbelievable delay, because he could not have the Project Manager from the second restoration company talking to our insurance company. That would expose him. He literally refused to give them the information, and made up a lie so ridiculous he may as well have just confessed his crime outright. Because it was obvious to me and all the people at the restoration company, when a CEO told such a stupid lie that no one in his position would ever say unless they were hiding something. That company, Blue Sky, quickly looked at their records and the records of the bankrupt company they bought and got the $30,000 that Joel Prince stole back. In September of 2024 Cedar Springs paid the bill they sent us five months after they considered the job done and paid in full. I hope that money came out of Joel's pocket. I doubt it did.
I think Joel is the reason Chris Taylor cheated in that election. That is a crime that Chris could spend 15 years in prision for. It has harmed Cedar Springs Owners in incalculable ways. And the harm will continue forever, unless we undo what he did to us.
largest data center was approved to be built last night. for a Utah-based size reference, this data center is 4,165 acres BIGGER than Bryce Canyon National Park
This is what happens in Utah. Influential rich people dominate the majority. And the elected officials and boards assist the rich guys.
A micro version of this happened to our HOA. A few easily manipulated Board Members fell prey to a rich guy who has made a business of decimating unsuspecting Homeowners by kissing up to Board Members. We used to be a direct democracy. In actuality, we still are. It was never changed legally and honestly. But our CC&Rs were written so that a rich guy with no ethics could come in and do whatever he wants here. No one runs a business the way this Board has allowed our business, our HOA, to be run. No safeguards. No vetting. No oversight. No audits. Everything favors a management company's ability to act with impunity and no one on The Board is protecting our HOA. They argue for things that make us vulnerable. That make it easy to steal from us. It is truly shocking that The Board, infiltrated by one major traitor working for Joel, was so quick to work AGAINST their own best interest. And against the best interest of hundreds of families.
I want to shake them until they snap out of the trance they have fallen under.
Chris Taylor joind forces with Joel Prince and they had new Governing Documents written that builders use to hold homeowners financial prisoners. It is shameful. And we need to get our Owners as fired up as the citizens in the video are at the atrocity that billionaires are commiting against the people in Utah.