How to Elect Your Three-Person Approving Authority (AA)

1. Get an organizer

Talk to some neighbors and create an organizing committee.  It could be just you, or a few people.  

2. List the lot owners

Make a list of all the lots, lot owners and mailing addresses in your filing or subdivision.  You can find out this information at http://www.land.elpasoco.com, though it can be a lot of work to find it this way.  You can start by looking at your Covenants, and looking at the description of Subdivision which is generally Section 601, the Definitions section of your covenants.  Sometimes, the lots are more specifically listed on the Declaration page of your covenants.   The Plat (or map) of your subdivision should also be attached to your covenants, and it shows which lots are in your subdivision, as well as the addresses, usually.   

It is important to list the lots so that you know how many lots each person owns.  For example, my street address number 5265 could actually consist of three lots, 3, 4, and 5, so I would get three votes in any election or petition concerning the covenants.  Also, the number of lots will determine the number of votes that are needed to elect the AA.  The covenants state you need a majority of the lot owners, so if your subdivision has 19 lots, then you need one more than half to have a majority, or owners of 10 lots, to approve the members of the Approving Authority.  

3. Choose a communication method

Decide on the best way to communicate with the members of your subdivision.  Email may be the most efficient way to do this, but that means you need to find out the email addresses of the lot owners, if they have email, etc.  Going door-to-door once, to get this information, plus phone numbers, is a good use of time, but going door-to-door every time you have information to get or give is not an efficient use of your time.  You may want to hold a few gatherings at someone’s house so everyone can share their input.  

4. Take a pulse

The next step is to take an informal survey to see if over half of your subdivision is of the same mind to take action.  This will vary from subdivision to subdivision.  Some may be ready to immediately elect a three person AA, while others may not.  For this document, we’re going to assume that your subdivision is ready to elect their three person AA. 

5. Create a slate of volunteers

Now you need to solicit volunteers to run for the AA.  They must be lot owners in your subdivision.  Email is a great way to do this, and you can deliver letters to those who don’t have email, either in person, or via the Postal Service.  Set a reasonable time limit for this, like ten days.  Hopefully after 10 days, you have at least three volunteers.  If not, ask again.  The covenants require the AA be comprised of three individuals. The guidelines provided here are taken from Section 501 of the Covenants.  If in doubt, please refer to that section of your covenants.  

6. Distribute Ballot for vote

Once you have your slate, you need to take a vote.  Again, email can be used, or paper letters, phone, in person, whatever.  Each lot owner can vote for three people.  If someone owns more than one lot, they get that number of votes.  So, if I own two lots, I can cast two votes for three people each (a total of six votes).  You can consider asking each candidate to write a paragraph about themselves to be on the ballot, so that folks know a little bit about the person running for AA.  However, this is not mandated in the Covenants—it is just a suggestion.  In some of the larger subdivisions, many neighbors won’t know any of the people running for the AA.  Again, set a reasonable deadline for voting.  If there aren’t enough votes by then, just ask people to vote.  If too many folks aren’t voting because they disapprove of the slate, you’ll need to try to get more volunteers.  However, usually they just aren’t voting because they forgot, they got too busy, etc.  The guidelines provided here are taken from Section 501 of the Covenants.  

When you have three candidates who have received majority votes, you have your AA.  If four people receive majority votes, take the three highest vote getters.   If there is a tie, there are several ways to work it out.  Use your best judgment.   

7. Record the composition of the AA

In accordance with the covenants, the composition of the Approving Authority needs to be notarized and recorded with the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder’s Office.  Most likely, a one page document listing the members of the AA with their mailing addresses, signed (and notarized) by the person who organized the election, meets this requirement.  

8. Inform the MSCA, via our website, of your AA results

Inform all the folks who make up your AA, and also the MSCA.  We will then post this new AA news on our website: http://www.mountainshadows-msca.org.  

After that, the AA is on their own.  The covenants do not guide the AA on how often they should meet, how decisions get made, when a member of the AA should “recuse” themselves, etc.  Each AA will make those decisions for themselves, using the content of the Covenants to guide them as much as possible.  For example, they should note that usually, if the AA doesn’t respond to a request within 30 days, it is considered “approved”, so they should try to meet at least every 30 days if there is a pending request.  

Note that if neighbors are unhappy with the performance of any of the members of the AA, they can remove him/her with a majority vote of the owners of lots in the subdivision.  

Also, if someone wants off of the AA, they simply resign, and the remaining two members get to appoint a new person to the AA.  No election is required.