According to the Mesquite Country Club Condominium HOA Operating Budget for 2003, the combined legal fees projected for this year will exceed $90,000.
The information is contained in the 2004 Budget Packet dated November 12, 2003, and sent out to all member/owners.
The report lists the line item "Legal Fees" for the 2003 Annual Budget at $21,600.00, and for "Litigation Fees" at $69,000. The bulk of this money is believed to have been paid to the HOA's law firm of Guralnick & Gilliland.
This is the firm that was involved in the controversial decision to revise and vote on the CC&R's late in the Fall of 2002. These are the documents that govern the Homeowners Association and their owners. Recently 140 owner/members signed and forwarded letters to the Board of Directors and Monarch Management stating that they were "formally requesting that you (the Board) invalidate the results of the prior vote regarding all issues except those directly related to the the 'insurance crisis.' "
The owners claimed that there were "hidden changes" in the text of the bulky CC&R's that were not clearly explained to owners before they voted. A total of 310 owners voted “yes” in that election, only about 4 more then were needed to win approval, according to the figures provided in the September 2002 issue of the "Mosquito".
The matter of legal expenses was also mentioned in owner Mel Covetta's September 22, 2003 letter to all owners regarding that vote. In his letter, Covetta said, "We need a Board that shares with us the fact that our HOA has spent nearly $20,000 in legal fees associated with the CC&R revision and other related work."
In the past, legal expenses were often grouped with administrative fees or other expenses. This made it difficult to obtain a clear breakdown of how much money was spent for legal fees on a yearly basis.
In their response in the Fall 2003 issue of the "Mosquito", the Board and/or its editors took issue with Mr. Covetta's letter, and stated that "the amount spent on legal fees (on CC&R issues) was far less than $20,000. They declined however to state the exact amount spent.
The issue of legal expense is also directly related to the controversial voting of the revised CC&R's in another way. In that vote the Board claims that owners approved revoking their longstanding right to rent out their condos on weekends. Several owners, however, have indicated that they believe their property rights have been violated, and that the rental issue was intentionally left off all summaries indicating what the vote encompassed. This could mean a costly court challenge to the Board's decision to restrict weekend rentals, as well as the potentially expensive legal cost of simply trying to enforce the new rental restrictions.
As of this posting, repeated requests to the HOA office for a breakdown of what this year's $90,000 in legal expenses were spent on has not been provided.
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To voice your opinion on this or any other issue to the Mesquite HOA or to us at MesquiteOwners.com, just click on the email link back on the coverpage/ homepage of the website.
