Stolen Election: The abuse of proxy ballots to manipulate the Board and Annual Assessment Amounts of the Raven Hills Homeowners Association

Raven Hills Homeowners: 

Your ballots were abused and manipulated last fall by existing Board members. These Board members acted in an attempt to manipulate the Board election and to double your annual assessments. 

Did you want the Board to use your proxy at last October's Annual Meeting to vote to DOUBLE your annual dues to $240? They say you consented to this when you gave them your proxy. 

Did you want the Board to leverage your proxy to take executive action and steal the election from everyone in attendance at the Annual Meeting? They say you should have known that was a risk when you gave your proxy to them. 

The Annual Raven Hills Homeowners Association meeting took place on October 25, 2022. Those of you who attended the 2022 Annual Meeting got a very clear look at how dysfunctional, uninformed, and disengaged our Board of Directors have become. Homeowners were asked to approve a budget that reflected inflated fees to be paid to Diversified for services relating to laws not applicable to the Raven Hills Homeowners Association. The Board had not questioned this budget prior to the meeting and had already mailed the error-riddled budget to the 220 homeowners in Raven Hills for their approval. 

The amount of money being paid to Diversified is equal to the dues of more than half of all homes in Raven Hills combined, and the Board asked us to increase our dues to pay Diversified even more. The Board was content to pay ever-increasing fees to Diversified, and didn’t bother to question if the reasons behind these expenses were valid.

 
27 homes were in represented in person. 27 ballots were cast to vote to elect Darren Murphy - a highly qualified CPA and corporate accountant for a real estate investment trust - to the Board. Yet Barbara Jagrowski - a 89 year old woman who lives in Georgia and only answered one question on the board candidate questionnaire - was elected to the Board instead.

How did this happen?

The members of the Raven Hills HOA Board scratched Darren Murphy's name out off of ballots already cast, and then recast those votes instead for Barbara Jagrowski. The Raven Hills HOA Board also used those ballots to vote to DOUBLE your annual HOA assessments from $120 to $220/yr.  

Click here to view the ballots for yourself. 

When confronted about this at the most recent Board Meeting in March, Board members insisted it is their prerogative to use your proxy votes however they want. 

Click here to listen to this Board Meeting and the Board's flippant disregard for the implications of their actions. 

The Board members present for the Annual Meeting were Kris Anderson, Nate Tassler, Amy Personius - who was acting as Vice President, and held authority over the proxy ballots, Susie Cooper, and Kelly Raffaelli. 

We hope you'll let them know how you feel about their actions. Please remember what they have done the next time you're asked to give your proxy, and remember their names at future elections.