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VOCA Ballot: Vote No to Everything Asks Organized Neighbors

Sedona AZ (March 19, 2017) – VOTE NO to everything, asks Fairway Oaks Neighbors civic organization after examining the Village of Oak Creek (Homeowners) Association Board proposal for selling a narrow, but valuable strip of land in the heart of the Village of Oak Creek in Sedona, Arizona.

In an email sent to VOCA membership and the SedonaEye.com editor, FairwayOaksNeighbors@yahoo.com writes:

Mar 15 at 9:47 PM

Message body

Here we go:

VOTE NO to this sale, Do not let this board sell our investment. This is much more than a narrow strip. It is prime real estate and now that the VOCA Board has merged the homeowners associations and golf course reserves, we have no idea where this money will be spent.

Please see the attached map then reread what they proposed…….VOTE NO to this and all other requests on the absentee ballot.

Pay attention. Attend the April meeting. (end email)

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5 Comments

  1. Chatham says:

    Will look at this closely & appreciate the heads up.

  2. VOCA at it again... says:

    Further to our last email outlining our concerns about many of the ballot initiatives presented by the VOCA Board for a vote, we wanted to inform you that in an attempt to stifle dissemination of dissenting views to the Board’s agenda, the Board sent a cease & desist order to the email service provider we used to share our concerns with you. We are all members of the same association with shared interests in the common good of our community. Sometime in 2015, the provision for the board to provide opposing or alternative view on initiatives was removed as a requirement, so we felt compelled to provide an additional point of view on the measures presented by the Board. We felt that it was critically important for you, the VOCA membership, to be provided with additional context so that you could draw more informed conclusions about how to vote on these important initiatives.
    Subsequent to the cease & desist order, the President of the VOCA Board, Earl Svenningsen, sent out another statement to VOCA residents stating, “The facts stated as true by this group are misleading, misinformed, and in many cases are outright lies.” Although the President may disagree with our points of view, his characterization of our point of view as “outright lies” is incredibly disingenuous for someone responsible for representing all VOCA residents. We can only speculate why the Board has not set up open forums, in person or online, to engage in reasoned debate with concerned residents. We are shocked the response the Board chose to pursue stifles our rights to free speech with our fellow residents and community members.

    We want you to know that since our email, we have had a flood of support and thanks for our willingness to stand up and share an alternate point of view on issues that may fundamentally alter the power structure and our own property rights within our community. We did receive a couple of requests to opt out of further communications which we have graciously honored. To those that replied with constructive questions to the initial email, we did respond, so be assured this is not a one-way communication. If you sent a question after the account was shut down, we encourage you to respond now or ask the questions of the Board directly. The email also was effective because members who had not received ballots knew to contact VOCA for one! We do apologize for the error on directing you to request a new ballot from VOCA if you had already sent yours in as we were under the impression this process would be similar to voting in AZ public elections.

    To Mr. Svenningsen’s point about this “group could be as small as one person,” we want you to know that we are a group of several dozen homeowners (and rapidly growing) that are deeply troubled by the lack of transparency of the Board and their attempts to push through an agenda without proper debate in the community given the significant potential to limit our rights as property owners. Our anonymity in the initial communication stemmed from a fear of retribution from the Board to target residents who speak out against them. We believe the cease & desist order is evidence of a bias for retribution over dialogue and debate.

    Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter. If you support our stance and are concerned about the recent actions of this Board, please reach out to us through this email or our website at https://www.vocahomeownersrightsalliance.org/ and share our email with your neighbors. Please be aware that if you wish to change your vote, but cannot, we strongly suggest you send an email to VOCA outlining your intentions and perhaps we can have open debate on it during the April 15th meeting. Should you wish to opt out of further emails, please let us know. Now is the time for action!
    Sincerely,
    Concerned Citizens of the Village of Oak Creek
    https://www.vocahomeownersrightsalliance.org

  3. VOCA Meeting Reminder says:

    A quick reminder of the VOCA Board Meeting on Saturday, April 14 at 2:00 pm.

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