Black Member Speaks about Rosedale Meeting Street Homes HOA

As a long term Board member and past Board President, I needed to get my Homeowner Association story exposed to the masses.  Stories like mine are nothing new.  Homeowner Associations do NOT work.  They are not regulated enough.  They have no checks and balances. Organizations such as www.hoaowners.org have been lobbying for years about the abuses of the homeowner associations.  I hope that our law makers will read my stories and listen to my appeal for fairness and ethics as I address one of the communities in Huntersville, North Carolina US.

Board member Jamie Darche Warren seems to have no problem with holding a conversation in front of my salon nor walking back and forth in front of my salon after unseating me at our last 2014 Annual meeting using an unethical political approach.  Apparently, she still does not feel that my complaints are any concern to her.  However, I hope that the Jamie Darche Warren and her new Board will learn that "Black people do have value!"

Female SuperStar Celebrity Pledge

Picture from the November 2014 publication of Ebony Magazine- 

Article called "Dirty Little Secret."

Female SuperStar Celebrity Pledge

Poem by Benita Blocker

Female Superstar Celebrities 

using the illusion of sex for sale

while remaining untouchable 

behind a computer screen, magazine or a television frame.

Leaving sex slaves ages 12 to 14 to satisfy men 

who were left visually stimulated and erect on a bed frame.

Is there no shame?

Underage sex has always been around.

Yet, in the past, there were more men with integrity 

to stomp sexual violations into the ground.

Children could be children and be safe in their own home.

Yet in this century, safety seems seasonal and home- no where to be found.

Young girls who have yet to finish high school do not know where to run.

Barely finished puberty and sex trafficking is all around.

So Female Celebrity Superstars, it is time to pledge to shut down,

the money-makers,

the goldmines,

the rump-shakers,

the shot-callers, and

show these girls about self-worth and what it takes to be a role model.

Female celebrities of the past banded together - showing a lot of class.

Their dress for success had less to do with self-expression and sex appeal.

But more to do with sisterhood, talent, and smarter deals.

By taking this pledge, you start silent reparations 

to aid our young girls in preparation

to become whole again.

Black Board President Ousted at Secret Rosedale Meeting in 2006

In 2006, I, Benita Blocker, served as President of the Board of Directors for the Rosedale Meeting Street Homes Association until Jamie Darche Warren, Brian Warren (husband) and Jane Ryan met secretly at Jane Ryan's home to oust me from my title for no reason at all except they just didn't like my leadership style. The meeting minutes are pictured above.

Now, it is 2014, and "holding secret meetings" are nothing new for Jamie Darche Warren and Jane Ryan.

I recently called on the Rosedale Association members to remove these two for unethical actions, but I have received no support.  It is humorous at this point because the Board leadership always expect a low turnout because historically the members of the Rosedale Meeting Street Homes Association just do not care to be involved.  I did NOT want to believe that our members don't care, but despite all of my efforts to communicate this long-term dictatorship by the Warren's and Jane Ryan, no one seems to care.

I have been singlehandedly trying to watch over how our Association money is being spent over the decade, but with the last "political play" that Jamie Darche Warren and Jane Ryan made surrounding our 2014 Annual meeting, I can no longer protect our Association nor can I offer a different perspective.

Rosedale Meeting Street Homes Association members, you either stand now for someone with longevity on your Board or just continue to fall for everything that Jamie Darche Warren and Jane Ryan want to feed you.

The choice is yours!!!!

My Response to the Rosedale Association Feedback

According to our Rosedale Association Bylaws Article III Section 2, 

association members can request in writing for a special meeting to be held.

Why should you make a written request for a special meeting?

1. To meet with your current Board of Directors.
2. To find out who are your officers.
3. To find out what happened at the October 2014 Annual meeting.
4. To find out why we did not have an Annual meeting in 2012.
5. To find out why you received a petition to remove select Board of Directors.

Who should you send this written request to?

1. Someone who has served on your Board of Directors for ten years ---> Benita Blocker
2. Someone who actually attended the last Annual meeting in 2014 ------> Benita Blocker
3. Someone who has been passionate about ethics and fairness ----> Benita Blocker
4. Someone who has gone above and beyond to communicate to you -----> Benita Blocker

I understand

1. Some members are uncomfortable with removing members of the Board without a special meeting.
2. Some members feel that I am showing a lot of emotion, but I assure you that it is my passion about doing things in order so that all members feel respected.
3. Some members just hope that everything will just correct itself on its own, but it has been a whole month and the most recent elected Board has not made any announcements to the Association.  
4. Some members have called Key Community Management confused.
5. Some members can not grasp what happened in the October 2014 Annual meeting.
6. Some members can not grasp the unilateral decision making that has been taking place in the name of our Board under select Board leadership and condoned by the property manager for years now.

We, the Association, deserve have professional, ethical leadership.  Let's talk about it.  Let's get a special meeting called.   

Just send Benita Blocker a simple correspondence card with 

• your statement " You request a Special Meeting of our Association."
• your name, 
• your property address,  and
• your signature

Please use the address from your most recent petition to get your request to me.  I will collect these Special Meeting requests and present to our property manager.  As Article III, Section 2 states we only need nine (9) members to request this special meeting.

Let's Find a Resolution Together by Requesting a Special Meeting!

Board President Described as Way too Personal in the Past

History repeats itself again.  As you can see from the picture above in October 2005, Jane Ryan resigned from the Board because Jamie Darche Warren's response to another Association member was "way too personal."  Since 2005, Jamie Darche Warren and Jane Ryan have had a long standing relationship, even a friendship as I would describe it.

Jamie Darche Warren managed to "steal" the election in our 2014 Rosedale Annual meeting last month.  Maybe her historical behavior of becoming "way too personal" was the driving force behind it?  Maybe Jamie Darche Warren has been on a "power trip" for "way too long?"

Our Board attorney states she has to protect our elected Board, but two-thirds of our Association did NOT elect the current Board.  Only about 9 members of this Association elected this current Board.  They continue to hide behind the property management, the Board Attorney, and their Executive Sessions.

We, as an Association, need to have Jamie Darche Warren and Jane Ryan removed from our Rosedale Board of Directors.  If you so choose to vote them back in at a special meeting, then at least, let us do it the right way.

In the latest efforts by your current Board of Directors, they were upset about my postings on what was our Association page on Facebook since my unseating happened during the "runaway" election at the last Annual Meeting. So the Board attorney takes out time to let me know that

 "the Association has an obligation to seek a court order for a temporary restraining order against any person who improperly represents him or herself as acting on behalf of the association by creating a page in the name of the association and including improper, shameful, and untrue content on that page."

As you all know as a long standing past Board Director, I created that page on Facebook and have managed it for over a year.  It has had as many as FIVE followers.  Yes, 1-2-3-4-5 followers.  Did the Current Board of Directors have anything better to do than to waste our Board Attorney's time over a tiny page on Facebook?

In response, to the Board attorney's request, the page on Facebook has been promptly renamed, and I will continue to manage it as I have always done for the last year.

There is one thing that I do agree with the Board Attorney: 

we do not want this gridlock to negatively affect the values of our properties or cause buyers to look to buy elsewhere.  Our neighborhood has seen a lot of turnover in the last ten years.  

With that said, Key Community Management was NOT helpful in providing me the mailing addresses for the other half of the members who no longer occupy their units.  It is a great thing that property ownership is public record.  I have had to put in a lot of overtime to lead this effort to get our Board back.  

Rosedale members: Please mail me your petitions as soon as you can so that we can get this gridlock taken care of before Christmas 2014.  Thanks for your patience and commitment to our Community.  Please feel free to run for the potential Board vacancies.  At the special meeting, if the community wants to vote for a full clean slate of a Board, then it may not be a bad idea.

Historically, we have had the same old problems from the same set of Board members, it is time for fresh, ethical leadership in Rosedale.  Kindly do your part in taking our Board back!

Are Rosedale Board members on a Power Trip?

Over a year ago on November  5, 2013, Jamie Darche Warren made a motion as a part of her hidden agenda, and Jane Ryan seconded that motion.  The motion showcased their ignorance of our Bylaws.

In order to cover up their incompetence, two sets of Meeting minutes were generated as either suggested by Jamie Darche Warren herself or Key Community Management.  I am unclear who originated the idea.

So in summary, there are two sets of Meeting minutes for 11/5/2013, one- that you as an Association member are designated to receive upon request, and then there is a second set of "executive" meeting minutes that reveal additional details of the incompetent motion that was carried.  I also have in my possession the original set of Meeting minutes revealing the true power trip that Jamie Darche Warren and Jane Ryan orchestrated in November 2013.  I did not feel that it was appropriate to post Board meeting minutes online, but I would be happy to share those documents and more at a special meeting.

Also, for the record, I feel that having two sets of meeting minutes is unethical, and who is to stop this current Board from continuing to hide unethical actions?  Certainly not, Key Community Management.  Their duties are to follow orders from one Board member: Jamie Darche Warren or whomever is the designated Board point of contact. This approach is quite disturbing especially when that point of contact is on a power trip.

In further support of my findings, you see in the email above that Jamie Warren implies that Benita Blocker is not respected as an equal member of this Association.  If Jamie Warren does not respect me as a "Board member at Large," then how can I expect her to respect me as a non-Board member.

How can any member of this Association expect to be respected by Jamie Darche Warren, Jane Ryan and the new Board who secretly took over?

 It is time for our Association to take our Board back.

All Rosedale Association members except the current Board members plus three members who refused my last mailing should receive a petition in the mail shortly to remove both Jamie Darche Warren and Jane Ryan from our Board.  If any of the eight members who have been excluded from my mailing want to join my effort to bring back order to our Association, please let me know, I will be happy to mail you a petition.

Note to Jamie Darche Warren:  You have spent over a year trying to get me off of the Rosedale Board.  Congratulations, you succeeded.  I hope that your victory is as sweet as you have ever dreamed it to be.

Note to Rosedale Association members:  Our Association deserves transparency, fairness, and a code of ethics.  Jamie Darche Warren and Jane Ryan have ruled our Association long enough.  It is sincerely time to take our Association back.  Please sign your petitions and send them back to me.  Upon removal of these two Board members, Key Community Management should call for a special meeting to fill the two vacancies.  If you are curious about how transparent our Association is being run, you can ask Key Community Management about the two separate meeting minutes for November 5, 2013, then let me know what they say.

In the meantime, consider joining our Board.  We can use a fresh perspective.  I do not know many of you, and you do not know me.  I assure you that I stand for the greater good of our Community.  Please support me, and thank you in advance for your patience.  We can get our Board back together!

Makeup Artistry Workshop Taught By Benita Blocker

 Model/MUA Instructor: Benita Blocker, MUA/Student: Toniette Green, Lighting: Indoors, Photography: Toniette Green, Photography Cropping: Benita Blocker, 2014

 Model/MUA Instructor: Benita Blocker, MUA/Student: Toniette Green, Lighting: Outdoors (the sun was in my eyes), Photography: Toniette Green, Photography Cropping: Benita Blocker, 2014

My before shot, 2014

Makeup artist and Class Participant Toniette Green completed my final look during an eight hour make-up artistry workshop that I teach for $120 USD.  She was introduced to everything from eyebrow kits to BB creams to fixation sprays.  I wore black attire so that she could feel free to choose whatever color scheme she so desired.

Congratulations  Makeup Artist Toniette Green 

on the successful completion of Applebaum's Hands-on Cosmetics Workshop!

Was a Secret Meeting Held in Rosedale?

On Tuesday, October 14, 2014, Jamie Darche Warren brought in six absentee proxies to the annual meeting.  The names of Kathy Lenze and Nathan Diehl were on all six proxies.

Facts:

1. Both Kathy Lenze and Nathan Diehl were ABSENT at the OFFICIAL Annual Meeting.
2. Association members did NOT receive advance notice that Kathy Lenze and Nathan Diehl were candidates.
3. There were only six members of the Association present at the OFFICIAL Annual Meeting.

Concluding Facts:

• Jamie Darche Warren and six other Association members decided prior to the Annual Meeting that they wanted Kathy Lenze and Nathan Diehl on the Board.
• There were more Association members present at this "secret meeting" than there were present at the official Annual meeting.  At least, 7 members present at secret meeting versus 6 members present at the Official Annual meeting. 
• Those seven Association members secretly conspired to steal the Board election, and they sent Jamie Darche Warren into the Annual meeting with their results in the form of absentee proxies.
• Some may say that Jamie Darche Warren was lobbying to unseat the Board members up for re-election, but Jamie Darche Warren as Board President did NOT inform the existing Board members of her lobbying efforts.  How disrespectful can a Board President be to its existing Board members?

I am lobbying to have both Jamie Darche Warren and Jane Ryan removed from our Board because our Association deserves decent, fair, ethical people on our Board.  I am NOT secretly hiding my efforts to get these two Association members removed.  I am making sure that the current Board is aware of each article that I post.

Many of our units within the Meeting Street Homes Association are NOT owner occupied. Formats such as this one are more effective than trying to knock on everyone's door.  Please join me in making our Board better.

What questions do you have?  Key Community Management is a vendor who pays our bills.  They do not attend Board meetings.  They can only tell you third and fourth party information and  biased history based on the Board President's viewpoint.

Got questions, comments, or opinions?  Please feel free make your comment in writing.  I have served on your Board for several years.  Thank you for your continued attention on this matter.

Backstabbing Behavior is Typical of Board members in Rosedale

 In March 2014, Annie's Salon which offered body massages was in the location of where Applause! Hair Design is now.  As you can see by our Association's Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions Article X Section 2(b), massage parlors are forbidden within our Association.

As a Board member, I had been pushing to get this business relocated within a ten month timeframe to keep our Association in compliance with our rules.  Board member Jane Ryan who admitted to patronizing the legitimate massage business challenged my motion repeatedly. So in March 2014, a massage table box apparently blew into the area behind my salon with the address for Annie's Salon listed on it.

I addressed the lady at Annie's Salon about the box, and she told me that someone (being a Board member) had already mentioned this to her.  So in summary,  I addressed the Board about the massage table box and then someone from the Board goes behind my back and mentions the box before I could talk to her about the debris.  Furthermore, after finally getting a motion approved to set a date of around March 2015 to get the massage business relocated, the massage business moves out within weeks of that Board decision.  How coincidental is that?  Someone on the Board had to have told her and the homeowner about the Board decision.  The next thing I hear is that a Black Beauty Salon is going into that space.  Of course, how coincidental is it that a potential "direct" competitor of my beauty salon business is now going into that space? It felt to me like a "revenge" move by the other homeowner for me trying to bring his unit in compliance with our Association's Covenant, Conditions, and Restrictions.

Anyway,  Applause! Hair Design  takes over the  spot.  You can see in the picture below that it is the same address.

Unfortunately, as I stated in a separate blog article, the new husband/wife team are not hairdressers, and they initiated an aggressive solicitation campaign on our block.  As I was getting more and more annoyed with the solicitation, I addressed my fellow Board members in this letter below asking for feedback.

This would have been the perfect time for Jamie Darche Warren (board President) to discuss with me about her "free enterprise" belief, but she did not.  Instead she went behind my back and addressed the Applause! Hair Design salon owners who are NOT members of the Association and told them about "free enterprise" and they could solicit fliers on the block if they wanted to.

As you can see by the letter below from the female salon owner, Jamie Darche Warren went into their salon representing our Board unilaterally.  Our Board had NOT agreed for Jamie Darche Warren to visit Applause! Hair Design salon. Nor did any Board member give her permission to undermined my request for solicitation to stop.

My request for solicitation to stop as an Association member speaking to non-members was to protect my business of ten years from this new business that was not even 60 days old.  Furthermore, the female salon owner makes false accusations with no supporting documentation in her email.

In addition, if I harassed anyone's children, then I need to see a police report.  I might add that the husband/wife team sometimes go out of town and leave their hairstylists running their salon.

So in a nutshell, Board member(s) Jamie Darche Warren and Jane Ryan have consistently gone behind my back as a fellow Board member to undermine and disrespect me.  Both of these backstabbing acts were centered around a unit that Jamie Darche Warren used to own as detailed in a previous blog article.

I feel that both Jamie Darche Warren and Jane Ryan should be removed from our Meeting Street Homes Board of Directors.  I ask that Association members please join me in my cause.  I want fair treatment for all of our members. Not all of our current Board members embrace equality.  I have not had any Board member nor management company representative to attempt to resolve my grievance at this time.

Huntersville, NC 2014: Who Eggs Anymore?

So someone egged the side of my Huntersville, NC salon within the last month and a half.  Who? Why?  Eggs are too expensive to buy, and then waste a good egg on the side of a building?   Wow!

Huntersville, NC has been in the news lately because another Black homeowner had her Kay Hagan campaign side burned in her front yard. When the news reporter interviewed her, she mentioned that her campaign signs had been stolen from her yard before but never burned.  She has surveillance footage, but she needs the public to help identify the person.

And on a separate note regarding campaign signage:

I saw these campaign signs of two Black candidates on the ground at the library in Huntersville, NC.  It could have been the wind that caused them to fall down.  Who knows?

Race Relations in Huntersville, NC should be monitored for rising tensions.  I have felt victimized in the past.  I feel victimized now, and I will remain optimistic that community relations will get better.

I was asked recently am I considering leaving the area.  My response for now:  I prefer to deal with the "devil" that I do know versus the one that I don't know. My faith continues to stay in God's Hands.

Rosedale Board Members are definitely Facebook Friendly!

As you can see by this public Facebook post entry, that newly elected Board member Nathan Diehl wishes veteran Board member Jane Ryan 

a distinguished birthday wish.  

Then newly elected Board member Kathy Lenze also gets a good laugh out of Jane Ryan's birthday wish from Nathan Diehl.

This birthday greeting seems to imply that the new Board is going to be ran like a tight knit social clique. 

Diversity helps to keep decisions fair across the board.  I am hoping that more members of our Meeting Street Homes Association members will step up and support me to help make some changes in this newly elected Board of Directors.

I have not heard anything from the current Board about keeping the "neighbor" in the term "neighborhood."