Facing pressure from a packed room of over 150 attendees, the Village of Oakcreek Association Board of Directors unanimously moved during its Feb. 28 meeting to withdraw an update to Amendment 8.02 of its Master Declaration that would have gone to a member vote in April.

Following the public outcry, the only items that will be on the VOCA ballot this year will be three seats on the board. The deadline to apply to run for the VOCA board is Monday, March 11.

“The board has approved the following amendment proposal for member consideration and will appear in the ballot package separate from the board of directors candidate election form,” VOCA Board President Kevin O’Connor wrote in the February VOCA newsletter. “If approved by the membership, the board of directors in 2027 will determine the annual assessment within the constraints established by the Arizona State Legislature. The board is recommending passage of this amendment so as to conform to industry standards for HOA’s of this size, to protect and better meet the needs of the membership.”

The association also cited the effects of inflation and the need to preserve the long-term financial health of the association as other reasons for the change. VOCA resident Robert Newburne responded by organizing community opposition through a flier campaign.

“My first thought was, ‘Oh, hell no, you’re not taking my voting rights away for an assessment,’” Newburne said. “I just knew that whatever state statutes allow, you’re still taking my voting rights away [and] giving it to seven people who are making decisions for me. I read it and said, ‘OK. I don’t see anything in 8.02 that gives me the right to appeal’ … I can’t appeal, but I can appeal my property taxes with the Yavapai County property assessors. I have a right to appeal by law, but there was nothing in here that says I can do that.” 

Several other concerned residents subsequently blanketed VOCA with Newburne’s fliers encouraging members to attend the February meeting and to vote down the amendment if it went to the April ballot, referring to it as a “power grab” by the board.

“I was the initiator of the filer [but] not the final editor of it,” Newburne stressed. “Others finished the flyer up, printed it and got it distributed, I was assigned an area to distribute as well so I also did some smaller distribution of them.” 

“The VOCA Board wants to take away your vote on the annual assessment fee,” the flier read. “The VOCA Board would then set the assessment amount. No appeal process. Coming Soon: There is a Reserve Study Executive Summary recommending a $1,000 per year special assessment in 2025 and 2026 per lot, and another $3,400 per lot yet to be addressed. We need to pay attention”

Newburne’s organizing effort was a success, and those in attendance at the meeting commented that it was the largest turnout at a VOCA meeting in decades, with Newburne noting that several dozen people expressed their thanks to him.

“We are going to start the meeting with a brief statement about the amendment proposal, and the key word there was a proposal, that certainly was not clear based on the discussions that were held at the last board meeting,” VOCA Treasurer Earl Svenningsen said during the meeting. “We should have been much better [at] clearly communicating what it says that they were discussing … First and foremost, that particular amendment draft was just that: A draft.”

Initially, the board moved to table the update to 8.02, which was greeted by a chorus of boos from the audience, and the board then approved withdrawing the amendment.

“One of the neighbors was very smart in picking up that the word was ‘tabled,’” Newburne said. “‘Table’ means they could bring it up, it’s not done. It’s not over, they could bring it up again, and don’t necessarily have to go through all the notifications. When it’s withdrawn, they have to start the process again.”

The board agreed during the meeting that communication with the members has been lacking, with DeMars describing improving communication as “one of the top priorities of the board moving forward.”

“The board is going to propose … it’s not in stone yet but putting a committee together for communications, that they focus on the matters at hand, what’s  happening, getting [information] out,” Community Association Manager Laura Malone said. “We do already have a newsletter that we send every month, but it’s funny, because this morning, I was looking at the past history of newsletters and there have been different board presidents that go way into better detail about what’s happening for the month.

“So I think it’s something I’m going to try to implement with the board as we go [forward]. I just took over this association in October, so I’m still kind of getting my feet wet and learning the history.”

The Sedona Red Rock News asked the VOCA president for a follow-up interview.

“I have to decline your request,” O’Connor said. “Though we don’t check or vet people entering the building during board meetings, they are private, member-only meetings.” 

Volunteers Needed 

VOCA is also looking for volunteers for committees, such as an Architectural Review Committee and a Communications Committee

.“[It’s been] very difficult [to get new volunteers], even with this response here, which typically, we see one to five owners maybe come to a meeting during a month,” Malone said. “Unless this hot topic that came up with a little bad information on this one subject, but it was great that everybody came.

“We asked for volunteers, and so far, I might have had one or two respond out of there that they would volunteer. It’s wonderful. Typically we get nobody. That’s why the same people year after year do it, because even with the annual election right now, I’ve only had one new person submit a statement of interest. Otherwise, it’s the same typical board members until probably burnout.”

Newburne does not plan to run for the board, although he considered it briefly, but said that he feels he best serves the community in an outsider watchdog role.

“The reason I’m not running for the board is because this issue is also going to come up again, and I have to be able to fight it, pay attention to get a group of people to watch what’s going on and watch this board.” Newburne said.  

“If you want to volunteer for [roles in VOCA] I’ve seen in the past, they’ve had communications committees, [there are] several different committees that have now disbanded because there’s not enough involvement, so anybody that wants to volunteer for something, please contact me and I’ll get them the information and get it to the board,” Malone said.

VOCA members can contact Malone at (928) 284-1820 or LMalone@ vocaonline.com.