The manager of the homeowners association that I live in refuses to either take or return my calls.

Of the three complaints that I have put in so far, for the first two I did not receive a response, and when I called to request one, the HOA told me that their computer had crashed, so they had lost their electronic copy of their response to me, they didn't have a hard copy, and they were unable to reproduce their original response, which I had not received.

The response to my third complaint did reach me, but it was an unanimous vote by the Board that I deal directly with the waste management company. So, when I tried to do that, I (so far) have been unable to get a copy of the relevant parts of the HOA's contract with the waste management company, in order to see whether it really is that the waste management company isn't in compliance with the contract, or whether the contract actually doesn't cover my concerns at all. Even the Fairfax County Dept. of Consumer Affairs has been unable to get a copy of the relevant parts of this contract.

My understanding from the receptionist at my HOA is that this contract is up for its five-year rebid this November/December, and that (believe it or not) the HOA manager is processing the request for bids completely all by himself, without any staff help.

That the HOA manager processes all bidding and contracts himself has just been confirmed by telephone with another member of the staff, and he has agreed for me to send him a confirmatory e-mail message to that effect, which I have just done. I haven't received the response back yet - it has only been a few minutes - but it is just amazing to me, although it seems to be true, that no one else other than the director can explain the bidding and contracting process!!!

With this little oversight, there may not be adequate safeguards in place to prevent different forms of corruption.

But the CIC Manager Regulations don't seem to be able to provide an honest and transparent bidding and contracting process.

               Thanks very much for listening, and for anything anyone can do,

                                                                                                             Pat

                                                                                                                 Catalyst

                                                                                                                 the Potting Shed