California. © 2009 - Just recently, we all learned about the horrific existence of an 11-year old kidnapped victim Jaycee Lee Dugard recently discovered after being “snatched off the street in 1991 as she walked to a bus stop near her home in South Lake Tahoe, California.” In all of the commotion about her recovery, one question popped in my mind today after seeing the tent where the kidnapped victim; and as it turned out, along with her two children fathered by the kidnapper/rapist, Phillip Garrido, a registered sex offender, had lived while in captivity with the kidnapper, where was the homeowner association?

Could something like this happen in Texas, Florida, Arizona or any other state? As it seems now, there was no HOA or was there one? Now a days, homeowners in Texas are being fined for leaving their garbage cans out too long, for leaving their trucks too long in their driveways, for not cutting their lawn, for installing the wrong type fence, and the list goes on. How is it possible that any house surrounded by the debris that all of us saw in these pictures now being taken of the victim’s temporary home, could this scene not come to someone’s attention? Perhaps if the homeowner association community in California were more interested in a community with real problems, maybe they would have also discovered an innocent kidnapped victim being raped to the degree that two kids were borne to her and her captor during her disappearance.

In its own way, has this bizarre situation also shown a side of maintaining the neighborhood that has actually only be geared toward areas already in good shape? If the HOA (short for homeowner association for all you newbie’s) was really doing its job, wouldn’t this kidnapping perhaps been discovered a lot earlier?

I am sure a drive by like the ones done in Texas, would have fed the curious juices of the “HOA inspector” to the degree that a quick letter threatening a fine if the debris was not removed would have started the ball rolling in the right direction.

The fact a HOA did not discover this tragedy during their regular “inspection” tour, also shows that the “inspection” tours are really just focused on already clean, well-maintained neighborhoods and the real purpose of the “inspection” is to drop some change in someone’s already bulging bank account.

This failure to discover this community nightmare is a mark on the record of the usually efficient HOA “inspection” tour. Someone is not doing their HOA job in California. Heads should be together trying to figure out how they missed this house with all the fine potential or was it just not worth it because it looked like they might not have the money to pay the fines? Are only the communities that show a sense of caring the targets? Are our communities being profiled by the ability to pay fines as opposed to maintaining property values?

It looks like this tragedy also uncovered another tragedy and that is the abuse homeowners are enduring in California, Arizona, Florida, Texas and perhaps other states may not be necessary after all because when you cannot do your job properly, you usually get fired. I think it is time to fire the homeowner associations in California—at least that is a good state to start the process.

harvellajones@yahoo.com © 2009. All rights reserved