Riverside Harbor Residents Suing Association Directors

A dispute between residents in the Riverside Harbor subdivision and their homeowners association has landed in court.

A committee of disgruntled residents is trying to force the association’s board of directors to hold a special meeting so they can oust the board and revise the bylaws.

Several homeowners have complaints about the way the association is governing the neighborhood. They say covenants are not enforced, and neighborhood rules are changed without the approval of homeowners.

The members of the ad hoc committee say they have collected enough signatures to call the meeting.

However, the association’s president, Ben Swartout, said they have failed to submit enough signatures.

“The bylaws are very clear that it requires two-thirds,” Swartout said Thursday. “There are a lot of members who don’t want a special meeting because of the expense.”

He has estimated the cost at $2,000 in the past.

Swartout is a partner in Riverside Development Co., which owns the development. He and builder Kim Riley sit on the association’s board of directors. Ann Beutler, a third board member and wife of the developer’s marketing agent, resigned from the board effective Sept. 30.

The biggest complaint from unhappy homeowners is that they lack proper representation on the board. Beutler was the only board member who actually lives in Riverside Harbor.

The homeowners are suing the association board for refusing to allow the special meeting, which the homeowners requested in June.

About 70 of the original signatures were rejected because they were hand-printed instead of signed.

The suit asks that the court either give legal authority to the ad-hoc committee to call an official meeting or order the association to hold a special meeting.

, DataTimes