Sun Cities' home owners' groups win battle at Capitol

 Home owners groups in Sun City and Sun City West won a close fight Thursday and helped defeat a bill that officials believe would have affected their authority in keeping cars off community streets.

"It was a squeaker. It was much closer than I hoped it would be, but we got it defeated," said Larry Woods, president of the board of directors for the Property Owners and Residents Association in Sun City West.

By a 4-3 vote House Bill 2034, which would have kept home owners associations such as Sun City Home Owners Association and PORA from enforcing CC&Rs related to public streets, failed to make it out of the Senate Government Institutions Committee Thursday afternoon. After a lengthy discussion featuring home owners, home owners associations and lawyers representing both, the committee decided not to send the measure to the full Senate. Supporters of the measure will have to wait until next year to reintroduce the legislation.

Rep. Nancy Barto, the Phoenix Republican who sponsored the bill, opened the discussion with a plea to the committee to protect home owners from overzealous HOAs.

"Justice is not being served for home owners in these HOAs," Barto said. "I understand this issue is very emotional for some people, but let's leave the emotion out of it and give these home owners the justice they deserve."

Sen. Jack Harper of Surprsise, R-District 4, is the co-chairman of the committee who didn't like the bill. Having been instrumental in past years in squashing the legislation, Harper gave Barto some advice on how to move forward.

"I think you are correct on principle with this, but I don't believe it works for all communities," Harper said. "You might get this out of committee, but I don't know if you'll get it passed. Sometimes you have to think about the political reality, and that means making compromises if you want to get something passed late in session."

Bill Hafeman, former member of the PORA board, told the committee he has been following legislation similar to HB2034 for years.

"We breathed a sigh of relief when we thought it was gone, but then in 2009, like a phoenix from the ashes, it was here with us again," Hafeman said. "We feel that if something like this needs to be done it should be done at the city or county level. We do not believe the state should be involved."

Hafeman also reiterated the point that regardless of who owns the streets, the CC&R contract between HOA and home owner is valid. This point was critical to Harper as well, who said so plainly in explaining his ‘no' vote.

"Amendments have been made to this bill that take away much of the reason for objection," Harper said. "But I still believe the validity of the contract has to be recognized, so I will vote no."

Committee Chairman Sen. Jay Tibshraeny of Chandler, R-District 21, who was the target of an e-mail and phone call campaign, also voted against the bill.

One point about the bill that was discussed only briefly was the fact that PORA and possibly SCHOA do not technically fit the state standard of home owners associations, and thus may not be affected by the legislation at all.

Attorney Scott Carpenter, who spoke on behalf of PORA, said the RCSCW falls more under the state's Title 33 definition of an HOA than PORA does.

Melissa Hill, a civil engineer who has been working for three years to get the legislation passed, said she finds it hard to understand why, then, PORA is fighting so hard against it.

"I would like to know why they continue to lobby against these Title 33 bills when they are absolutely not affected," Hill said. "They have a large e-mail pool of their entire community and a large part of their resident population is retired. This lends itself to a very organized group of folks that can attend meetings and get word out. Unfortunately, they are turning the tide for the many folks that do fall under Title 33 and need relief from out-of-control boards."

Hill said she is trying to find more home owners who are having problems with their HOAs and create a "community" on her Web site, www.helptatumhigh.com. She said if she can convince those people to become as vocal as the people from the Sun Cities, the bill may have a chance of passing next year.

"People are far more likely to send an e-mail when they don't agree with a bill than when they do," Hill said. "They figure, ‘hey, it's a bill, they'll pass it if I don't tell them not to.' And when the bill is as simple as this one and based on common sense, they really have that mentality. I need folks to understand why this bill failed, and that sending an e-mail or making a phone call makes a huge difference."

For this year, at least, questions over Title 33 are a moot point.

"I think it's safe to say this bill is going to keep on coming up," Woods said. "What we really want to do is come to some sort of agreement with Maricopa County so that we won't have to think about this bill anymore."