February 21, 2011 by admin.

The SCA members attending the open Republican Special Interest Group meeting Monday tonight heard Henderson City Council Candidate Thomas Wagner (currently serving as a  supervisory METRO Police Detective) respond to questions about the recent $1.3 Million settlement for improper termination of the former Henderson City Manager.

He also revealed critical evidence about the innocence of Bob Frank and Tim Stebbins who have been charged by the Henderson Police Department with filing a false police report in November 2009.

Candidate Wagner explained how, if elected, he would stay involved in the details of important issues and avoid the kind of Henderson City Management mistakes that have been so prevalent, and have cost the City millions in law suit settlements in recent years.

During the statement Officer Wagner gave an example of the kind of action he felt he could prevent if serving on the Henderson City Council.  He confirmed (the written statements given to HPD) that he was one of the two METRO law enforcement detectives that former SCA Director Bob Frank and Tim Stebbins consulted prior to submitting a police report to Henderson in November 2009.

Detective Wagner said the document he had been asked to review was for the Henderson Police Department to investigate suspected criminal statute violations by two Sun City Anthem Directors (President Roz Berman and Secretary Roger Cooper).   Officer Wagner said  the evidence shown to him by Bob Frank (and Tim Stebbins) was good and he advised them they were obligated to ask for an investigation by Henderson Police. 

Detective Wagner said the charging and arrest of Frank (and Stebbins) for allegedly “filing a false police report” by the City of Henderson was wrong, and that such a mistake is an example of why the Henderson City Council and staff had been wasting so much of the taxpayers money when paying out large settlements for their mismanagement. 

Overall, Officer Wagner’s extensive comments made it clear that if the Henderson Police had bothered to ask him, he would have readily confirmed his meeting with Frank and Stebbins and thereby saved the City and the two individuals much time, money and inconvenience.

Posted in Ann_Small, 2011 Campaign, Truth Squad, SCA Board, Community Affairs, News! | Print | No Comments »

February 19, 2011 by kayfrank.

If you had listened to the SCA directors (past and present) and the board’s contracted auditor/tax preparer, CPA Gary Lein, you might conclude the dispute with the IRS Revenue Agent is just about whether the board had the “authority” to DECIDE on befalf of members to:
(1)  immediately REFUND the surplus assessment income to members, or
(2)  RETURN all of the surplus funds by cutting the annual assessment rate the NEXT year.

But, accepting that misdirection would be a huge MISTAKE!  The REAL issue TODAY is that the boards NEVER RETURNED the surpluses as the Treasurers CLAIMED UNDER OATH!  It is no wonder certain individuals want to stall as long as possible (at any cost to us) before having to face the music!  And, certain directors have been deceiving us for years.  See this document for some hard evidence of that:  Cover-Up

The hard evidence shows the board has filed knowingly FALSE tax returns, lied to the Henderson Police Department, and deceived the membership into believing ALL assessment surpluses have been returned.  Look at this last page of SCA’s 2007 Income Tax Return for some CLEAR evidence.
2007 Tax Return Page & Board Resolution Showing False Claims

Past and current boards have gone so far to falsely claim they had spent some of the assessment surpluses from prior years to “keep dues from going up”.  Outrageous political deceptions!  IRS specifically prohibits the board from doing that under 70-604!

It is now shown that all past SCA dues have been GROSSLY over-charged since 2005!  The boards have been rolling in surplus assessments and wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars while claiming to be managing “prudently”.  Shame on all of us for buying such trash!

Certain individuals have even falsely claimed to use prior year surpluses to enable the “dues holidays” in the 4th quarters of 2008 and 2009.  But, the income tax reports, the IRS audit, and the annual budget reports PROVE those statements were false.

For example, look at the attached budget chart the board FINALLY revealed in 2009.  It clearly reports there were millions of dollars of UNTAXED surpluses rolled over, year-by-year, since 2002.  Never were the annual assessment rates reduced to allow member refunds from prior year surpluses–as mandated by the IRS to AVOID income taxes .

A review of the 2008 and 2009 budgets submitted for approval by the board and members FAILED to refund the millions of accumulated surpluses. And, while the budget planning charts showed the accumulated surpluses, the actual budgets did not show the surpluses.  If they had, the obvious questions would have been, why are the assessments not CUT–instead of increased?  This indicates DECEPTIVE accounting–if not violations of generally accepted accounting standards.

We now know the so-called “dues holidays” had NOTHING to do with the prior year assessment surpluses.  They had to do with the CURRENT year EXCESS assessments AFTER the boards discovered they had failed to find ways to spend all of the gross overcharges, and when there was no room in the BLOATED reserve accounts to park any more surplus money.

The board’s own records show there were millions of accumulated assessment surpluses AFTER the 2008 and 2009 dues holidays.  IF the boards had been telling the truth to the IRS, Henderson Police, and our homeowners, the annual assessment rates would have been REDUCED BY MORE THAN FIFTY PERCENT (50%) in both 2008 and 2009, and there would have been ZERO accumulated surpluses at the start of 2010.

Look up the names of all those on the SCA board and finance committees since 2005, and see if you can find more than one board member who voted to reduce the annual assessments and voted consistently against raising them.  One director was ridiculed and harassed when he tried to get the board to understand and apply the tax code correctly. Two SCA members were arrested in 2010 when they were merely seeking justice for fellow homeowners.

Now we know that, contrary to the deceptions by those self-serving directors and friends on the finance committees, our annual dues should have been set at least twenty-five percent (25%) lower than it was.   If we had had honest and ethical directors, we could have enjoyed the extra cash, our property values would have been significantly enhanced over today’s levels, and our lifestyles would not be dragged down by the endless disputes over the board’s financial misconduct.

So, in the future when the SCA income tax issue come up, tell the board members, candidates, and everyone you know that you DEMAND YOUR MONEY BACK!  You want the board to STOP wasting your hard-earned money on their egos and their lawyers.  Instead of paying income taxes on surplus income, YOU INSIST THE SURPLUSES BE REFUNDED TO YOUR SCA ACCOUNT–as the law requires!!  And, you know that there is NO REASON to pay income taxes if they RETURN ALL of the accumulated surplus assessments!

Tell the directors (in writing and in person–every chance you get) that you will hold them personally responsible if they don’t immediately stop wasting your money by trying to bluff, bully or finesse the IRS.  Tell them that saving the director’s egos is not worth a penny of your money.  Assure the directors you consider it GROSS NEGLIGENCE to be wasting your money appealing the tax ruling and that you will be working with the whole community to demand they personally make up the losses from their bad judgments.

Kay Frank
SCA Resident
————
If you are not conversant with Revenue Rule 70-604, see this link for easy to understand details:

————

Kay Frank
SCA Resident

References:

• Bogus Dues Holidays 
• Dues Overcharged
• 2010 Dues Should Be $800
• Why Is There A Dues Holiday?
• Dixon & Roz Berman Fail to Explain Taxes
• Briggs Reports Income Tax Return Errors

(Note: to find more postings on taxes and related matters, use our Search Box at the bottom–left of the home page.)

Posted in 2011 Campaign, Ann_Small, SCA Board, Community Affairs, Operations | Print | 1 Comment »

February 19, 2011 by admin.

As reported by email today, the following candidates (alphabetical order) have filed for the 2011 election:

Michael L. Carey
Robert E. Frank
James J. Long
Bella L. Meese
Wade E. Terry
Michael Dalton Waterhouse
Carl Weinstein

Posted in 2011 Campaign, Removal Election, Ann_Small, SCA Board, News! | Print | No Comments »

February 18, 2011 by admin.

Former SCA Director Bob Frank has entered the 2011 Board Campaign. 

His campaign platform and positions will be posted under his name when released.

Posted in 2011 Campaign, SCA Board, Community Affairs, Clubs & SIGs, News! | Print | No Comments »

February 17, 2011 by admin.

This is a revised outline of Anthem VOICE’s proposed “Contract with SCA Shareholders” for Directors and Board Candidates with the best way to resolve the IRS dispute.

1.    SCA CAI will replace its discredited law firm and audit/tax preparing firm with competent ones.

2.    SCA CAI will notify the IRS Revenue Agent by March 1, 2011 it accepts the findings and that it is proceeding immediately with implementing full and complete compliance with IRS Revenue Ruling 70-604.  Amended tax returns to be submitted for 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 before June 1, 2011.

3.    SCA CAI will notify all SCA Members/Shareholders by March 1, 2011 that all accumulated surplus member assessments will be electronically deposited to member accounts by the end of April, 2011.  At that point, members can elect to withdraw the cash balances or let the deposits ride until exhausted.

4.    SCA CAI will identify a highly qualified, independent professional to approach the IRS to negotiate a low penalty fee that recognizes the Association has returned all accumulated member surpluses, accepts full responsibility for its previous errors, filed amended returns for all years since 2007, certifies it will not happen again, and requests compassion on behalf of the senior members of SCA—most of whom are living on very modest retirement incomes and facing the impacts of rapidly growing inflation.

A retired Senior IRS Revenue Agent has suggested that such a professional  approach could save SCA homeowners millions of dollars of income taxes, avoid wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on a discredited tax preparer and law firm, and wind up only paying a modest penalty of around $50,000.

Accordingly, Anthem VOICE asks current Directors and Board Candidates to sign a formal pledge to follow this settlement plan and to abandon the current plan.

——————————

Here are some details for those who are not aware of the situation:

1.  The SCA Board of Directors notified SCA Shareholders on February 10, 2011 that the Internal Revenue Service has completed its audit of the 2007 Sun City Anthem Income Tax Return.  The IRS found SCA in violation of IRS Revenue Ruling 70-604 where it had claimed to be exempt from income taxes on $3.8 Million of surplus annual member assessments. The Board had claimed to intend to credit the entire surplus by reducing the subsequent year’s assessment rate by that amount.  But, IRS found the board had failed to comply with its tax return, and assessed SCA to pay $1.345 Million in back income taxes, fines and penalties.

2.  There are two main elements of the IRS notification:  (1) assessment of back income taxes because of a falsely-declared exemption in 2007, and (2) fines and penalties for filing a false income tax return.

3.  The Board has indicated its intention to challenge the ruling through the IRS appeal process.  This often can take up to a year to complete, and the costs of using the association attorney, tax preparer, RMI Executives and other expert witnesses for such time-consuming appeals could amount to well over $300,000.

4.  IRS Revenue Ruling 70-604 has been in place since 1970.  Based on the history of appeals in other States, the Board’s chance of winning its appeal is near zero.  Meanwhile, the initial IRS fines and penalties will be growing.  In addition, back taxes, fines and penalties could be levied on 2008/2009/2010 tax returns.

5.  Membership costs for following the Board’s current path could amount to well over $5 million and take over 1 year to complete the process.  If the Directors failed during appeals, and continued on to fight in tax court, they would almost certainly be facing more failures, and the costs could be many millions more.

In the end, all of the involved directors could be held personally liable for failing their fiduciary duties to shareholders. It will be obvious that personal interests caused the unjustifiable behavior that drove them through the IRS appeal process in disregard of the severe financial impacts to shareholders.

——————

PDF File of This Posting:     contract-with-sca-shareholders.pdf

Posted in Truth Squad, Ann_Small, 2011 Campaign, SCA Board, Community Affairs, Operations, Laws & Rules, News! | Print | 1 Comment »

February 12, 2011 by admin.

The following is quoted from the “NV Clean Up The Vote” site.

“The one thing that Americans have that they completely take for granted is their right to vote.  Ask anyone who has immigrated legally to this country, our voting process is what distinguishes us from the countries run by dictators.  It allows us to sleep at night because we believe that with each vote that we make, we retain control of our lives from corrupt politicians.

In order to protect that  privilege, each one of us has a duty to ensure that the integrity of the process is maintained.  Without that integrity, our country is no longer distinguishable from other countries with corrupt elections.  We MUST rise above the fray.”

As a resident of a homeowner association in Nevada, you signed a contract and agreed to live in a corporate dictatorship. Sure, we elect our directors every year; but, as seen in other world dictatorships that “elect” their leaders, the governing people pretend to be “resident-friendly” during the election, but reverse themselves after they have the power they seek.

But, we do not have to put up with dictatorial boards.  All we have to do is educate our residents on what is really going on with the so-called “unity” or “harmony” or whatever bogus party name they pick this year.   Tell them how their annual dues will be going up by hundreds of dollars the near future to pay for the boards income tax gross negligence or possible fraud.   Tell them about the board’s failures to collect the millions owed by the developer that we have to make up for.  Add to those major issues the growing impacts on inflation in food, transportation and other living expenses.  And, suddenly we re talking about REAL money losses to every member in Sun City Anthem!

Will that wake up the electorate this year?  Only if the members know the truth about what is going on.  Only if dozens of concerned members turn out and knock on EVERY SCA door and ask for votes for proven trustworthy candidates.  Some will also be asking for the unit owners to sign recall petitions for the leftover directors from 2010.  We need to clean house to minimize the chances of turncoats getting elected and once again ruining our abilities to implement smart and compassionate management policies.

Will you volunteer to help?  Teams are already being formed to work in every SCA village.  Voting starts in early April.  There is no time to lose.   Contact us by email (anthemvoice@cox.net) and we will put you in touch with someone in your vilage area who will work with you on your schedule.

Posted in Truth Squad, 2011 Campaign, SCA Board, Community Affairs, Clubs & SIGs, Operations | Print | No Comments »

February 11, 2011 by admin.

Sun City Anthem (SCA) Board President Jack Troia, CPA, announced during the February 10th SCA Board Meeting that the IRS Revenue Agent had found the Sun City Anthem Community Association, Inc. guilty of violating tax laws and owing $1.345 Million in back federal income taxes for 2007.

He also stated that the IRS had not yet reviewed the previous or subsequent tax years.  So, the total amounts owed to the IRS could wind up being significantly more than $1.345 Million.

This appears to be the first IRS corporate audit of a Nevada HOA.  The major area of error appeared to be where the SCA boards had overcharged annual member assessments and (1) failed to refund the surplus to members, and (2) failed to pay income taxes on the retained surpluses.

The IRS finding means that Sun City Anthem homeowners may wind up paying twice for the board’s and tax preparer’s mistakes:

(1) for the excessive annual assessments not refunded or credited to future assessments as required by law, and

(2) for the board having to pay the high corporate income taxes on monies that should have been given back to members.

SCA Board Presidents responsible for the 2007-2008 year income tax returns were Mike Dixon and Roz Berman.  Roz Berman was also the 2007 Treasurer.  SCA Tax Preparer for the past decade has been Mr.Gary Lein.  Association attorney for the past decade was Mr. John Leach.  Mr. Ed Song has also provide legal services to SCA after joining Leach’s firm in 2008.

Current Board President/CPA Jack Troia was the SCA Finance Committee’s expert on tax matters in 2007 and 2008.

The serious problems with the SCA Income Tax returns was initially reported on in early 2008 by Anthem VOICE founder and 2008 board candidate, retired CA Senator John V. Briggs.  Board President Mike Dixon and Treasurer Roz Berman summarily rejected all of the well-researched facts presented to them at that time.

See this link for some details.
http://www.anthemvoice.org/taxes_issue.html

See this link for some more history:
http://blog.anthemvoice.org/2008/04/01/dixon-fails-to-answer-key-question/

Unfortunately, it is clear that IF the SCA directors in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 had paid attention to the facts presented to them, our community could have easily avoided the $1.345 Million tax bill for 2007, and the years since then.

We have some serious questions to ask of the Del Webb/Pulte-appointed auditor and attorney who have guided the association along this disastrous path.  It appears we have not been well-served by them.

And, SCA members may be considering demanding restitution of the lost funds through a class-action suit against the responsible individuals.

Posted in Truth Squad, 2011 Campaign, SCA Board, Community Affairs, Laws & Rules, News! | Print | 1 Comment »

February 11, 2011 by admin.

An ancient saying is: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
SCA members are at risk of learning the meaning of that saying with regards to the 2011 board election.

The 2010 SCA Board election and related FBI investigation was most recently reported on at this link.
hoa-fraud-investigation-looks-at-rigged-board-elections

But, most members are unaware there were over 27 alleged violations of the Nevada Statutes
submitted for action in May 2010 by the Real Estate Division and case number IS-10-2182 was assigned.
Over 600 pages of evidence of the allegations were submitted.  Since May 2010, one statute violation
has been validated and the SCA Board was sanctioned by a formal Letter of Instruction issued with a
warning of severe penalties should the violation occur again.  The other 26 alleged violations are still
being investigated.

Please review the 5-page overview of the 2010 election allegations enclosed below.  We are asking SCA
members to use this summary to help monitor the activities of the 2011 election.  Members are planning
to notify the Board, Election Committee and the Real Estate Division Investigator on a daily basis when
apparent violations are detected.  This approach should help deter the kinds of flagrant violations seen
in 2010 and help the investigator come to quicker conclusions about the integrity of those in charge.

Of course, we hope to detect no statute violations in 2011.  We know the board, committees and CAM
know how to comply with the statutes.  But, in doing so, they will lose control of the election outcome.

Meanwhile we are greatly concerned over the failure of the Nevada authorities, the Real Estate Division
and Commission for Common Interest Communities (CIC), to respond in a timely basis to the massive list
of statute violations in April 2010.  SCA members deserve open and fair board elections.  And, if all or most
of the reported violations are not valid, we should be told where we went wrong in interpreting the laws.

Otherwise, the allegations must be validated and the Directors, CAM, attorneys, and Election Committee
appropriately punished and/or removed by the CIC Commission for committing flagrant violations.

Some have asked, so what is the problem?  We will save the details until a later article; but, for now, we
will mention there are apparently serious conflicts of interest within the Real Estate Division and by 4 out
of 7 of the Commission members.  Such conflicts appear to insulate the SCA directors from punishment.

For example, one Commission member is 7-year SCA director and former SCA President/Treasurer,
Favil West.  And, SCA auditor for the past decade, Gary Lein, is a CIC Commission founding member.
So is Randy Watkins, VP of Del Webb Community Property Management (who manages the Anthem
Council operations and serves as the executive community manager for many Las Vegas area Pulte
developments).   The fourth CIC Commission member (out of seven) with apparently serious conflicts
of interest is the Chairman, attorney Michael Buckley.  He is a member of the Jones-Vargus firm that
has been involved with various construction defects matters affecting Del Webb/Pulte developments.

All four of those CIC Commission members are founders and/or leading members of the Nevada CAI
organization that effectively controls how HOAs boards are trained and how HOAs are governed.
Such CAI leaders appear to have strong business interests in protecting the SCA Boards from being
convicted of statute violations. While this information alone may not prove unacceptable conflicts of
interest, the outrageously poor results from the Commision’s work in recent years is an indictment
on the ethics of the whole system.  Those details will be provided in a later article.

So, with such influential friends in that high Commission, it is not surprising that NONE of the over 100
well-written and well researched allegations of statute violations filed against SCA Boards since 2007
have ever been scheduled for CIC Commission Hearings.  For unexplainable reasons, ALL allegations
against SCA Directors in the past 5 years have been dismissed for “insufficient evidence” or,  they have
been “hung up” in the “investigative system” for many years while they (allegedly) gather dust in the
office of the Division Administrator.  We believe it is just using common sense to consider that such
bad results reflects corruption of some sort or another.

Bottom Line?  Members are stuck with ensuring we get open and fair board elections.  As long as we
tolerate election corruption, and continue to elect poorly performing directors, we will continue to get
more of the same.  Hopefully, 2011 will be the year that our membership puts a stop to election fraud.

Summary of the 2010 alleged election violations:
Alledged 2010 SCA Election Violations

Posted in 2011 Campaign, Truth Squad, SCA Board, Community Affairs, Laws & Rules | Print | No Comments »

February 8, 2011 by admin.

This is a first-person, opinion article from Victor Davis Hansen, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.  Some have described what has been described by Mr. Hansen as “Californication”.  Since NV has so many former residents of California, this opinion is published as a public service and to stimulate comments.  Please consider posting your opinion (pro and con).  How CA deals with its issues will affect everyone in this Nation.

                “The last three weeks I have traveled about, taking the pulse of the more  forgotten areas of central California. I wanted to witness, even if  superficially, what is happening to a state that has the highest sales and  income taxes, the most lavish entitlements, the near-worst public schools (based  on federal test scores), and the largest number of illegal aliens in the nation,  along with an overregulated private sector, a stagnant and shrinking  manufacturing base, and an elite environmental ethos that restricts commerce and  productivity without curbing consumption.

              During  this unscientific experiment, three times a week I rode a bike on a 20-mile trip  over various rural roads in southwestern Fresno County . I also drove my car  over to the coast to work, on various routes through towns like San Joaquin ,  Mendota, and Firebaugh. And near my home I have been driving, shopping, and  touring by intent the rather segregated and impoverished areas of Caruthers,  Fowler, Laton, Orange Cove, Parlier, and Selma . My own farmhouse is now in an  area of abject poverty and almost no ethnic diversity; the closest elementary  school (my alma mater, two miles away) is 94 percent Hispanic and 1 percent  white, and well below federal testing norms in math and English.

              Here  are some general observations about what I saw (other than that the rural roads  of California are fast turning into rubble, poorly maintained and reverting to  what I remember seeing long ago in the rural South). First, remember that these  areas are the ground zero, so to speak, of 20 years of illegal immigration.  There has been a general depression in farming - to such an extent that the 20-  to-100-acre tree and vine farmer, the erstwhile backbone of the old rural  California , for all practical purposes has ceased to exist.

              On the  western side of the Central Valley , the effects of arbitrary cutoffs in federal  irrigation water have idled tens of thousands of acres of prime agricultural  land, leaving thousands unemployed. Manufacturing plants in the towns in these  areas - which used to make harvesters, hydraulic lifts, trailers,  food-processing equipment - have largely shut down; their production has been  shipped off overseas or south of the border. Agriculture itself - from almonds  to raisins - has increasingly become corporatized and mechanized, cutting by  half the number of farm workers needed. So unemployment runs somewhere between  15 and 20 percent. 

              Many of  the rural trailer-house compounds I saw appear to the naked eye no different  from what I have seen in the Third World . There is a Caribbean look to the  junked cars, electric wires crisscrossing between various outbuildings, plastic  tarps substituting for replacement shingles, lean-tos cobbled together as  auxiliary housing, pit bulls unleashed, and geese, goats, and chickens roaming  around the yards. The public hears about all sorts of tough California  regulations that stymie business - rigid zoning laws, strict building codes,  constant inspections - but apparently none of that applies out here.

              It is  almost as if the more California regulates, the more it does not regulate. Its  public employees prefer to go after misdemeanors in the upscale areas to justify  our expensive oversight industry, while ignoring the felonies in the downtrodden  areas, which are becoming feral and beyond the ability of any inspector to do  anything but feel irrelevant. But in the regulators’ defense, where would one  get the money to redo an ad hoc trailer park with a spider web of illegal bare  wires?

              Many of  the rented-out rural shacks and stationary Winnebagos are on former small farms  - the vineyards overgrown with weeds, or torn out with the ground lying fallow.  I pass on the cultural consequences to communities from  the loss of  thousands of small farming families. I don’t think I can remember another time  when so many acres in the eastern part of the valley have gone out of  production, even though farm prices have recently rebounded. Apparently it is  simply not worth the gamble of investing $7,000 to $10,000 an acre in a new  orchard or vineyard. What an anomaly - with suddenly soaring farm prices, still  we have thousands of acres in the world’s richest agricultural belt, with  available water on the east side of the valley and plentiful labor, gone idle or  in disuse. Is credit frozen? Are there simply no more farmers? Are the schools  so bad as to scare away potential agricultural entrepreneurs? Or are we all  terrified by the national debt and uncertain future?

               California coastal elites may worry about the oxygen content of water available  to a three-inch smelt in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, but they seem  to have no interest in the epidemic dumping of trash, furniture, and often toxic  substances throughout California ’s rural hinterland. Yesterday, for example, I  rode my bike by a stopped van just as the occupants tossed seven plastic bags of  raw refuse onto the side of the road. I rode up near their bumper and said in my  broken Spanish not to throw garbage onto the public road. But there were three  of them, and one of me. So I was lucky to be sworn at only. I note in passing  that I would not drive into Mexico and, as a guest, dare to pull over and throw  seven bags of trash into the environment of my host.

              In  fact, trash piles are commonplace out here - composed of everything from  half-empty paint cans and children’s plastic toys to diapers and moldy food. I  have never seen a rural sheriff cite a litterer, or witnessed state EPA workers  cleaning up these unauthorized wastelands. So I would suggest to Bay Area  scientists that the environment is taking a much harder beating down here in  central California than it is in the Delta. Perhaps before we cut off more  irrigation water to the west side of the valley, we might invest some green  dollars into cleaning up the unsightly and sometimes dangerous garbage that now  litters the outskirts of our rural communities.

              We hear  about the tough small-business regulations that have driven residents out of the  state, at the rate of 2,000 to 3,000 a week. But from my unscientific  observations these past weeks, it seems rather easy to open a small business in  California without any oversight at all, or at least what I might call a  “counter business.” I counted eleven mobile hot-kitchen trucks that simply park  by the side of the road, spread about some plastic chairs, pull down a tarp  canopy, and, presto, become mini-restaurants. There are no “facilities” such as  toilets or washrooms. But I do frequently see lard trails on the isolated roads  I bike on, where trucks apparently have simply opened their draining tanks and  sped on, leaving a slick of cooking fats and oils. Crows and ground squirrels  love them; they can be seen from a distance mysteriously occupied in the middle  of the road.

              At  crossroads, peddlers in a counter-California economy sell almost anything. Here  is what I noticed at an intersection on the west side last week: shovels, rakes,  hoes, gas pumps, lawnmowers, edgers, blowers, jackets, gloves, and caps. The  merchandise was all new. I doubt whether in high-tax California sales taxes or  income taxes were paid on any of these stop-and-go transactions.

              In two  supermarkets 50 miles apart, I was the only one in line who did not pay with a  social-service plastic card (gone are the days when “food stamps” were  embarrassing bulky coupons). But I did not see any relationship between the use  of the card and poverty as we once knew it: The electrical appurtenances owned  by the user and the car into which the groceries were loaded were  indistinguishable from those of the upper middle class.

              By that  I mean that most consumers drove late-model Camrys, Accords, or Tauruses, had  iPhones, Bluetooths, or BlackBerries, and bought everything in the store with  public-assistance credit. This seemed a world apart from the trailers I had just  ridden by the day before. I don’t editorialize here on the logic or morality of  any of this, but I note only that there are vast numbers of people who  apparently are not working, are on public food assistance, and enjoy the  technological veneer of the middle class. California has a consumer market  surely, but often no apparent source of income. Does the $40 million a day  supplement to unemployment benefits from Washington explain some of this?

              Do  diversity concerns, as in lack of diversity, work both ways? Over a hundred-mile  stretch, when I stopped in San Joaquin for a bottled water, or drove through  Orange Cove, or got gas in Parlier, or went to a corner market in southwestern  Selma, my home town, I was the only non-Hispanic - there were no Asians, no  blacks, no other whites. We may speak of the richness of “diversity,” but those  who cherish that ideal simply have no idea that there are now countless inland  communities that have become near-apartheid societies, where Spanish is the  first language, the schools are not at all diverse, and the federal and state  governments are either the main employers or at least the chief sources of  income - whether through emergency rooms, rural health clinics, public schools,  or social-service offices. An observer from Mars might conclude that our elites  and masses have given up on the ideal of integration and assimilation, perhaps  in the wake of the arrival of 11 to 15 million illegal aliens.

              Again,  I do not editorialize, but I note these vast transformations over the last 20  years that are the paradoxical wages of unchecked illegal immigration from  Mexico, a vast expansion of California’s entitlements and taxes, the flight of  the upper middle class out of state, the deliberate effort not to tap natural  resources, the downsizing in manufacturing and agriculture, and the departure of  whites, blacks, and Asians from many of these small towns to more racially  diverse and upscale areas of California.

              Fresno  ’s California State University campus is embroiled in controversy over the  student body president’s announcing that he is an illegal alien, with all the  requisite protests in favor of the DREAM Act. I won’t comment on the legislation  per se, but again only note the anomaly. I taught at CSUF for 21 years. I think  it fair to say that the predominant theme of the Chicano and Latin American  Studies program’s sizable curriculum was a fuzzy American culpability. By that I  mean that students in those classes heard of the sins of America more often than  its attractions. In my home town, Mexican flag decals on car windows are far  more common than their American counterparts.

              I note  this because hundreds of students here illegally are now terrified of being  deported to Mexico . I can understand that, given the chaos in Mexico and their  own long residency in the United States . But here is what still confuses me: If  one were to consider the classes that deal with Mexico at the university, or the  visible displays of national chauvinism, then one might conclude that Mexico is  a far more attractive and moral place than the United States..

              So  there is a surreal nature to these protests: something like, “Please do not send  me back to the culture I nostalgically praise; please let me stay in the culture  that I ignore or deprecate.” I think the DREAM Act protesters might have been  far more successful in winning public opinion had they stopped blaming the U.S.  for suggesting that they might have to leave at some point, and instead  explained why, in fact, they want to stay. What it is about America that makes a  youth of 21 go on a hunger strike or demonstrate to be allowed to remain in this  country rather than return to the place of his birth? 

              I think  I know the answer to this paradox. Missing entirely in the above description is  the attitude of the host, which by any historical standard can only be termed  “indifferent.” California does not care whether one broke the law to arrive here  or continues to break it by staying. It asks nothing of the illegal immigrant - no proficiency in English, no acquaintance with American history and values, no  proof of income, no record of education or skills. It does provide all the  public assistance that it can afford (and more that it borrows for), and  apparently waives enforcement of most of California ’s burdensome regulations  and civic statutes that increasingly have plagued productive citizens to the  point of driving them out.. How odd that we overregulate those who are citizens  and have capital to the point of banishing them from the state, but do not  regulate those who are aliens and without capital to the point of encouraging  millions more to follow in their footsteps. How odd - to paraphrase what Critias once said of ancient Sparta - that California is at once both the nation’s most unfree and most free state, the most repressed and the wildest.

               Hundreds of thousands sense all that and vote accordingly with their feet, both  into and out of California - and the result is a sort of social, cultural,  economic, and political time-bomb, whose ticks are getting louder.”

————–
Author Victor Davis Hanson is  a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, the editor of Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome, and the author of “The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern”.

Posted in Outside Politics, Community Affairs | Print | 1 Comment »

February 2, 2011 by admin.

Ron Johnson’s SCA View-Journal has suggested the Board may be accused of committing election fraud by withholding the results of the IRS Audit learned during a December 2010 meeting with IRS.

Here is the link to the January 31, 2011 article by Ron Johnson.
http://www.scaview.org/PossibleElectionFraud.html

He makes a good argument that if the Board had learned the IRS had reported that the association had previously submitted its income tax returns properly, and it owed no back taxes, the board and its political party consortium would be bragging about it from every rooftop.

But, the board’s secretive behavior about what they recently learned suggests the news from the IRS was very bad.  And, such bad news from the IRS could be very damaging to the board’s annual programs to control SCA elections to suit its agenda of ensuring only board-sponsored/endorsed members get elected.

Withholding bad IRS audit results from the members could be considered a type of election fraud, and Ron Johnson’s suppositions about the Board’s behavior could be justified.

Posted in Ann_Small, 2011 Campaign, Truth Squad, SCA Board, Laws & Rules, Community Affairs, Operations | Print | 1 Comment »