San Diego Reader:  Big trouble in Eastlake III

If you live on the eastern side of Chula Vista, you likely belong to a homeowners association. The association governing Eastlake III and its 32 neighborhoods, located in the Otay Lakes area, has been a hotbed of political struggles for years.

Conflict began for the EastLake III association in 2012, when large residential developments, which were not in Chula Vista’s master plan, began to be shoehorned into the Otay Lakes area. As quality-of-life issues such as traffic and parking became aggravated and developer’s promises of amenities failed to appear, members of the association began to ask the seated board to take a stand on these issues. The association did not get involved, but 40 or 50 concerned homeowners began going to city-council meetings and speaking out about Lake Pointe and Casa Lago developments.

Then the activists began to focus on HOA issues and vied for board seats.

Association relations became so contentious in the past six months that the association had to hold two elections for board seats. Police have also been called to association meetings.

The first election, on April 8, could not be validated by ACE Inspectors, the company hired to conduct the procedure. The inspectors maintain that interruptions the night of the election and ballot irregularities impeded validation. ACE Inspectors wrote in an email to HOA president Barney Reed: “Most of the ballots/proxies were faxed or hand delivered and were never in envelopes…”  Read more:

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2015/sep/25/stringers-big-trouble-eastlake/#