Wow! Slow news day I guess.

I live in the Crossings and have had no such problems in more than 20 years. Blame the police, blame the postal service. By all means possible don't take personal responsibility or blame yourselves for the spike in crime.

The problem at the Crossings has more to do with residents who don't collect their mail each day, or arrange for some one to collect it for them--hello, that's what neighbors are for! Guess what folks? They keep coming back in the middle of the night because they know there is mail left in the mailboxes to be stolen! Duh!?! And you left it there! We actually have residents who have been complaining for years about their mail being stolen and have done nothing about it. They just let it happen over and over again and set their neighbors up as targets for more thefts. Again, personal responsibility. Neither the police, nor the postal service, is responsible for people who don't collect their mail each day.

But wait... there's more! Packages are also stolen and interiors of cars are ransacked, yet--wait for it-- you guessed it, the same complainers/crime victims/irresponsible residents (I'm not sure of the difference any more) don't track their packages, don't lock their cars, or even their homes and tell everyone on the neighborhood chat forums about it. And... you guessed it... they don't file police reports either!

But wait, there's even more... it's like one of those 1970s info commercials for the Ginsu knives! Bicycles and personal belongings liter the neighborhood sidewalks and people's porches and the neighborhood's micro-parks. Residents might as well just say come on in, everything is free for the taking. Low hanging fruit galore at the Crossings! The word's gotten out. No big surprise there!

MVPD Spokesman Nelson got it right about the Crossings. Only one person has filed a police report. That speaks volumes to the problem. From my experience, it's just a lot of entitlement, squeaky wheels, finger-pointing and grandstanding. It's what makes some people feel important. There is a psychological terms for it (besides being crazy), but it escapes me right now.

But wait, there's more. There's the Crossings association board, which Raschke and Edwards quoted in the article, sit on. The board could do a lot more to clean up the neighborhood, and make it less a target for thieves, by simply enforcing the association's rules, or God forbid, sending out notices to homeowners even just about how securing your belongings is a best practice for neighborhood security. But, you guessed it, no one wants to follow rules or enforce the rules, even though they all agreed to them when they bought their homes, or agreed to serve on the board. Much easier to hound the police and get a story in the paper (which just does wonders for our property values). All mention of the problem, or part of the problem, no mention of the easier self-help solutions that would solve the situation outright.

And then there are those few vigilantes following the supposed suspects at night... and the so called neighborhood watch committee that spends the majority of their time discussing matters that have nothing to do with crime prevention... they are the people that really scare me.

Welcome home. Welcome to the Crossings! If you are looking for a great place to live in Mountain View, it ain't here. Besides the crime wave, there's no parking... ever!

How about investing in secured mail boxes? Seems like a no brainer. If people are stealing your mail, have it delivered to a locked box. Problem solved, don't need 5,000 words of sad story.

Why are you guys blaming the owners and residents? Would you do that with rapes or gun violence and blame the victim or the gun instead of the perpetrator?

@ Scott. It's because residents are attracting crime. I'd have to agree with @Jack Daniels and his provocative comments. A lot of the problems could be mitigated if the Crossings board would take the basic steps that the Mountain View Police have already made clear to them. In spite of months of talk about it, the board will not invest in heavy duty mailboxes or locked mailbox banks. Some owners have even suggested putting in mailbox banks strategically located at corners or under street lights. The townhomes already have a set of banks, positioned right under a street light. A homeowner there tells me they have never experienced mail thefts. Instead, the board is getting ready to install cheap sheet metal boxes with locks that a 5-year old can open. There is even a debate going around about who is actually responsible for paying for the mailboxes. Our governing documents make no mention of them. Some say the board is only responsible for approving the style and model of the mail box. Homeowners are then free to make the switch to a locking model instead of waiting for the board of for thieves to steal their mail.

One Mountain View Police officer I spoke with even suggested that the Crossings might benefit from applying the Broken Windows Theory of crime prevention and proactive policing. It basically involves stepping back and looking at the aesthetic statement and standards of living a community is projecting. We walked around the neighborhood and he pointed out all the personal items mentioned above, like bicycles, left out and in plain view and said it was just inviting petty crime. He then pointed to all the cars illegally parked backwards against traffic, on corners, blocking sidewalks, in front of sidewalk ramps and even in fire lanes. He even pointed to the fact that the private street lights were covered by tree branches that were also hanging down into the sidewalks contributing to dark sidewalks and giving the impression that no one is taking care of the neighborhood. I had to agree with him. The board has allowed the landscaping in many yards and in the common areas to go to ruin. Some lots are overrun with weeds and the houses haven't been painted in years. There is graffiti all along one street which the board refuses to address and clean up after several months. Even the outer perimeter fence on the back side of the Crossings along California Avenue is falling apart with the landscaping beneath it covered with weeds. All this projects a neighborhood inviting problems according to the Broken Window Theory of crime prevention and proactive policing.

Thus, I have to echo with what @Jack Daniels says. The problem with mail theft, and crime in general in the Crossings neighborhood, is more a problem of residents and board members not acting responsibly. The police can't singlehandedly fight crime and help people who won't help themselves.

Also, according to the police chief, the Crossings community and streets are private property. The police are not required to patrol the streets and enforce traffic and parking laws here. They simply don't have the resources. They only come in when called for other types of crime, and even then, because it's private property are allowed to use discretion for any traffic and parking laws they observe being broken because it's the Crossings board that is supposed to be enforcing the parking and traffic laws that the police would normally do in neighborhoods with public streets. But even with parking rules already on the books, the board won't enforce them. It's that kind of logic and inaction by the board that has contributed to both the real and perceived sense of lawlessness and neglect that permeates the community. Hence, the Crossings projects qualities contrary to the Broken Windows Theory of crime prevention.

Lastly, the officer I spoke with said what Neighborhood Watch is really about is proactive measures to prevent crimes and what to do when you see a crime being committed. It's about not letting your neighborhood become a target to begin and definitely NOT about organizing private patrols, as some Crossings members have suggested, or setting up sting operations or following suspects around in hopes of getting a good picture. Again, this is where the Crossings board of directors comes into play. They need to clean up the Crossings and project a well-organized and lawful community that's well lit at night and well maintained all around and well versed in crime PREVENTION best practices.

Sorry for the long-winded comment, but I think readers might find it useful in the context of the article.

With any property security issues, let it be theft or burglary, the issue is simple. Bad guys hate security and if you add enough security, they will go to softer targets --- your neighbors. Sad but true. Just be tough.

So, go buy yourself a heavy gauge steel locked mailbox (Amazon). Get a locksmith to replace the cheesy lock with a secure lock. Mount it on a steel post (Amazon again) embedded in a deep hole of concrete. Make sure that the mounting bolts are secured with welded nuts inside of the mail box where thieves can not reach them. Make sure that no one is sending you mail with secure financial info --- except for SS and the IRS, which stupidly still send out SS, Medicare, and IRS statements to unsecured mailboxes. If you're really paranoid, get a postal box at a real post office.

As for outgoing mail, never put any outgoing mail in your mailbox for collection that contains any sensitive financial or personal info --- period. Checks, credit card info, SS numbers, cash, etc. Save up all of your outgoing mail and drop it in your local post office's INDOOR mail slots. Outdoor mailboxes are vulnerable due to their unprotected curbside drop mail slots, particularly on Sundays and holiday weekends when mail piles up because it is uncollected for one or two days.

As for The Crossings, its problem is that it's a perfect target because it's in a "bad part of town" with lots of criminals. Buyers need to realize that in real estate, it's all about living far enough from bad 'hoods that the thugs will not make the effort to prey upon your neighborhood.

So this happened to me. When I reported it to the non emergency, they told me that the police will deal with it. Since then, 10 incidences also happened around my residential area.

Hey, one can have the Postal Service "Hold Mail" when away. No need to let it languish temptingly in the unlocked boxes there...

If I was expecting two statements from retirement accounts, I would use this service.

@Hold Mail

The article actually explained why this is insufficient: "requests to hold mail when people are out of town often go ignored. "

Sadly this has been my personal experience as well. You can set up hold mail and get the confirmation from USPS about your hold mail, ..., and then USPS still Delivers mails (some, not all) to your mailbox. I have had important documents (that I was expecting) returned to the senders and shredded due to this, and I had to call the senders to find out what happened. As to what other important documents (that I wasn't anticipating) have been delivered to my mailbox during the hold mail period and subsequently lost due to theft, I may never know.

I have made dozens of hold mail requests and they have all been flawlessly executed. Most likely, the silly residents filled out the form incorrectly or even didn't fill it out at all!

I live in one of the Crossings rowhomes along Pacchetti Way, the major thoroughfare mentioned in the article. I've never had a problem with stolen mail, just stolen trust.
It's like feeding stray cats. People don't bring in their mail from their mail boxes for days so crooks come along and steal it. Wash, rinse, repeat. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. The postal carrier used to have to practically beg one of my neighbors to empty out his mailbox each time it became so jammed packed with uncollected mail. BTW, one of my other neighbors poisoned the feral cat I was feeding and gaining the trust of for eventual adoption. That's the type of people we are dealing with here people.
If you ask me, the way people talk and with all the cameras coming out, a few in the neighborhood might even be trying to lure the criminals into a trap with mail as their bait to help catch them so they can cash in on the $10,000 bounty being offered by the postal service. Has any one in the police department given that motive consideration? Hec, I'm even tempted to give the role of bounty hunter a try for an easy 10 Gs since apparently we really do live in the Wild West. Have the police put out any guidelines for bounty hunting in Mountain View?
Rather than reading a story here that casts a negative shadow on the police or on our neighborhood (and our property values), what I'd really like to hear from Paul Edwards of the row homes board, is what he is going to do about the roof that keeps leaking and the below ground level rooms that have water leaking in from the over-irrigated landscaping. And let's not forget about those homeowners who leave their trash cans out in their driveway that are attracting rats, and perhaps even criminals too. Maybe the rats are stealing the mail for their nests? The feral cat I was feeding used to keep the rats away, but he's gone now.
And don't get me started about all the Airbnb's that have moved into the Crossings. Airbnb'ers come and go all the time. It's against our Bylaws, but the village elders won't take the required action to get rid of them. If you go to the city, you're told that the city isn't taking any enforcement action. Isn't there a 10% tax the city could be collecting? Where's the city council in all of this? Hello? Bueller? I only hear echo and crickets. If they want high density housing, they should be tackling the problems that come with it as well. Ultimately, however, you can't fit 10 pounds of guano into a 5 pound bag.

I have a friend who lives in the Crossings; that place is a dump. The landscaping is abysmal. It looked good six months to a year ago but it looks terrible now, I would agree with the earlier posts, I am not surprised the neighborhood is attracting crime because it looks awful. Parking is non-existent – even for people who live there. Clean it up people and you won’t have your mail stolen !!!!

"Other residents have tried installing locking inserts that don't change the look of the mailboxes, which is subject to restrictions by the homeowners' association, but it hasn't done much to deter the thieves."

Good thing the HOA is making sure that there aren't unsightly keyholes on the mailboxes!!

I seriously can't believe what I'm reading in some of these comments.

I am especially appalled that many of the postings are blaming the residents.

- To several of the authors of comments (@Insider, @Duane Dog Chapman) - I have lobbied for locking mailboxes for a long time at the Crossings, and it has fallen on deaf ears. I have actually purchased a locking mailbox; unfortunately, since others in my mailbox pole-bank beat me to it, the heavy duty one does not fit on the poles because the other boxes are taking up that space, so I had to get a "lesser" box. And the entire mailbox pole structure has literally fallen in the past. Explain to me, then, how I can get proper "self-service" when it comes to the mailboxes.
- @BS - I am not a "silly resident," I certainly know how to fill out a "hold mail" form, so I do not appreciate the implication in your comment. And in 80% of cases, the hold is only implemented the day before I return from a trip. Good for you if that has not been the case for you, consider yourself lucky. Thank you @HoldMailUnreliable, our experiences have been the same.
- @Crossings Resident and @Waverly Will - I am happy for you that you have not had to deal with the identify theft that several of us are dealing with, because of stolen mail. But how dare you blame the residents (thank you, @Scott). And some of us work outside our homes, are you telling me that I need to tell my employer that I need to leave work early to pick up my mail before sunset? With daylight savings time about to end and sunset coming during working hours? Seriously?
- I have had 7 incidents of mailbox theft, and have filed a police report for 4 of them. I received a reaction only on 1 of my filings.

I have enjoyed living at The Crossings, let's not start bashing anything and everything. That being said, I do feel that the mailbox issue has remained unaddressed. When I contacted the USPS, they expressed surprise that we don't have locking mailboxes. The HOA has dragged their feet. This is something that needs to be fixed - NOW.

Wow, the Crossings has rental listings for $10,000 per month. This is unbelievable. See Web Link

@StopBlamingResidents

Help me out here.

You admit you filed only 4 police reports for 7 incidents of mail theft? Aren't you defeating your own argument? Why didn't you take more precautions after the first time your mail was stolen? You state the police only responded to 1 of your complaints. Did you have any personal responsibility to follow up with the police on the other three? Are the police responsible or even able to guarantee a 100% crime free community? What role can you play in reducing the likelihood of crime in the community?

The article states that video footage shows the thefts occurring between midnight and 3 a.m. (even though only one theft was reported). The thefts are hardly occurring just after sunset, or during or just after normal work hours, even with daylight savings! If you work late into the night and can't collect your mail, the cost of a P.O. Box at the MV Post Office is $82 a year. It's a lot like if you live in a bad neighborhood and work late at night and have to walk home. You take extra precautions. What extra precautions have you taken?

You admit that the mailbox issue remains unaddressed by your homeowners board. You also admit that the problem has been going on for a long time and that the pole upon which your mailbox sits has literally fallen down in the past. Doesn't this support what I have said in my earlier post that the homeowners board is ultimately responsible for the current state of the community that lends itself, as another poster has suggested, to the downward trend in the community and toward attracting crime? More importantly, have you considered getting on the board and helping to solve the problem yourself? Or are you too busy or not willing to subject yourself to the constant criticism that comes with the volunteer position?

@Rental Rates

The rental listing you provide a link to is also listed as an Airbnb and Homeway rental. The homeowner as been skirting the association rules for years and exposing us all to increased liabilities while the association board twiddles their thumbs rather than taking action as issuing violation notices and fines as they are required to do. Notice a familiar theme here?

Incredible and disappointing. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. The Voice journalists should do a bit more research before being manipulated into writing such fluff pieces on The Crossings of Mountain View--the second negative and extremely biased article to appear in just over a year. All that's been accomplished here is the airing out of dirty laundry at the expense of far more important issues in the neighborhood. Board member Matt Raschke, who is quoted throughout the article, need not look further than the tip of his nose for other city, state and federal laws being broken in the Crossings of Mountain View besides the stealing of mail. But I'm guessing those weren't mentioned to Voice reporters.

If you want to cover a real story and do real journalism, do one on why the Crossings pool and spa keeps failing county public health inspections. It's been found to be in violation 5 times already this year for not being tested as required by law, but the board refuses to tell homeowners and residents (upwards of 700) who have been taking their children all summer to swim in the postage-stamped size pool. Just request the inspection records from the county Department of Environmental Health. It's that easy.

Then there's the issue of the fire lanes not being in compliance for years and all the foot dragging by the fire department in response to solving the issue. Only recently has the fire marshall finally issued the board a compliance order with the threat of a $500-a-day fine if they did not address the problem. And when the board did finally begin to address it, they didn't even do it right and painted grey paint over red curbs on corners that for 20-years protected and kept clear handicap ramps and crosswalks which is required by law. The board's incomprehensible actions have resulted in illegal parking day and night. It's the association board's responsibility to inform and educate all home owners on parking rules and laws, and if necessary fine homeowners or tow their cars for such illegal parking. But they appear to be reluctant to do anything about it. They say it's the Mountain View Police's problem; the police say it's the board's problem. Oh and BTW the fire lane problem is still not even solved! The fire department keeps granting extension after extension to its compliance order. Why? Again, just ask the city for the records on it.

If that's not enough, ask the board about the housing discrimination and civil rights complaint that's been filed by a disabled resident for the board's failure to keep the community's sidewalks clear of vehicles and other obstructions, as required by law. People with walkers or in wheel chairs or people pushing strollers with infants and toddlers can't walk down a sidewalk without being forced into the street and on coming traffic. There's a city ordinance against such parking on private property, but the police chief has determined he does not have the resources to address it (wow, don't Crossings residents pay the same taxes?) and that the association board is ultimately responsible to uphold the laws on private property. We are talking about a public safety issue, but I guess only when some one gets run over will we know who to go for an explanation. Illegal parking in handicap spaces even goes unenforced. The police chief claims the police have discretion to not enforce such illegal parking. But there's a fine line between discretion and discrimination.

For all of the above, all Voice journalists have to do is request the records and talk to the city government officials in charge. But fair warning... it's not a topic they are comfortable talking about and they will all point to each other and then the association board in answering any questions and pinning responsibility.

[Portion removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language]

A couple of points:

I'm seeing a LOT of HOA board bashing going on here. Much of what is being said about the board does NOT reflect what is happening.

Re: the new mailboxes, at the last board meeting the mailbox committee had just received at least one final bid, I want to say that very day. So they needed a little time to make a fiscally responsible decision (seeing as the previous board depleted the funds with a frivolous lawsuit). It is ABSOLUTELY in the works. That said, from the article:
"While unlocked mailboxes grouped up on the edge of the road seem like low-hanging fruit with an obvious answer -- better security -- Fitch said that's hardly a silver bullet. Locked clusters of mailboxes are consistently attacked, he said, and suspects have no qualms about trailing behind mail carriers and grabbing mail right off of porch."

Re: painting curbs (though that was a convenient red herring to this issue), the previous board had painted areas red that were not required to be red. Hence the grey painting over the previous red. They ALSO did not paint it to code and many of us spent many hours correcting the painting that been done. There are many other corrective actions being taken by our board to clean up from the mess left behind by the previous one. It takes time to do it correctly, but it is being done. New landscaping is on the way.

To those of you implying that this is a bad place to live, or in "the bad part of town", could you BE more judgmental? For the most part this is a great community, and as such, like all communities, it goes through rough times. I've lived here for 20 years now and it's been, overall, really great.

Wow, I can't believe these condescending posts (which are likely from the same person) that blame the residents for mail theft. The residents are in a catch-22 situation. They leave town, they fill out the "HOLD MAIL" form with USPS, but USPS delivers anyway. Yes, that's right - they partially hold the mail, or don't hold it at all. This is how mail is getting stolen - not because people don't pick up there mail although I'm sure there are cases of folks out of town for one night, forgetting to hold mail, and the mail getting stolen. The solution is absolutely lockboxes, and the HOA is working on getting those installed. The person who is writing these posts blaming residents is likely a former board member with a grudge - a former board member that was part of a group that nearly bankrupted the HOA while pursuing a frivolous lawsuit against the property management company and former board members - hundreds of thousands spent on a lawyer for NOTHING. These people were removed from the board, but they will not go away - they continue to try to create trouble in the community.

Regarding the statement from Anonymous (from North Whisman... right :-0 ), the reason why all the money was spent "for nothing" is because the new board members bailed out the thieves who had been robbing the HOA for over a decade. Those board members got elected by running a big nasty dishonest smear campaign against the board members who filed a very valid lawsuit, which goal was to recover $400,000 .

**sigh**

The lawsuit was against former board members, who were INDEMNIFIED by our HOA insurance. We were paying both sides of the lawsuit. Whatever else you think about the lawsuit (and it was sketchy is sooooooo many ways), let's not forget that. Further, the suing board was recalled by popular vote, no smearing necessary, and a new board voted in, and the neighborhood is progressing forward now in a transparent and far more neighborly manner.

But this really isn't the time or place for a local neighborhood squabble re-hash. This article is about mail theft - it was brought to the Voice in the hopes of warning other neighborhoods, and raising awareness within our own neighborhood in the hopes of putting an end to it.

I'm actually hopeful that things have improved - we haven't heard about theft in about a week, I believe, if not more, and perhaps the signs we posted with pictures of the (actual) thieves has helped. So the publicity is all to the good.

What kinds of people would blame their neighbors for mail theft and dismiss their neighbors as too stupid to fill out USPS hold requests? How many times does it have to be said that the USPS hold mail service does not work, and many of us must leave town frequently for personal reasons, so over and over again, mail slips through and is stolen? How many times? But of course, you have no empathy because that's the kind of people you are. Uncaring, condescending, and horribly rude.

@BadSideofTown The former board members were indemnified because their buddies got elected to the board and were only interested in getting rid of the lawsuit. The insurance indemnified only 1/2 of the settlement, the other 1/2 was a special assessment imposed on homeowners by a board who had promised to involve homeowners in the decision making process regarding how to handle the lawsuit, but they never did. They had only promised it to get elected and after that, they just told the insurance company that they no longer wanted to sue, and of course, the chances of winning the case when a board doesn't want to sue is practically zero, so the insurance company forked out half the settlement.
Before their buddies got elected, the lawsuit defendants (former board members and former management company) tried several motions to strike and demurrers in order to get rid of the lawsuit, but all failed. Their only hope to get out of this mess and get indemnified by the HOA was to get their allies elected. They ran a huge dishonest smear campaign against the board members who had the courage to file the lawsuit, they set up a web site where people would post made up stories attacking the characters of the board members who had filed the lawsuit, all in an effort to get a recall vote. Lawsuit defendants' allies (mainly close friends in denial, and people who got their car towed by the HOA due to illegal parking blocking fire lanes) went door to door spreading false information about board members. Unfortunately, most people in most HOAs have only very superficial knowledge of what's going on in their HOAs, very few people attend meetings, very few request detailed financials nor review them, and hence, when someone knocks on your door and tells you a bunch of bad scary things about board members, they are likely to believe it. Moreover, the email group that the community has been using for over a decade used to be controlled by the HOA board members who were defendants in the lawsuit and who had passed on the moderation of the group to a friend, and that friend kept kicking people (under false pretenses) who brought in good arguments in favor of the lawsuit. They were in effect controlling the communication channel that many homeowners considered a group of open communication and relied on this for opinions of other homeowners.
So yes, BIG BIG nasty, dishonest smear campaign full of lies, all intended to get people elected who would indemnify the defendants at homeowners' expense. It is very very sad that this type of corruption is happening, it just shows how vulnerable HOAs are to corruption and theft.

The former board started an HOA lawsuit without approval from residents. Residents did not want it! The former board did not care. They had their personal axes to grind, personal vendettas. They wasted our money on an expensive lawyer, pursuing a weak and unsubstantiated lawsuit. We recalled them, and they STILL try to make trouble in the community. There was no smear necessary. Once people were alerted to their shenanigans, they were EASILY recalled. There are no "buddies" on the current board - it's just people who saw through what that lawsuit was really about - board members with personal grudges out for revenge, using our money and bankrupting the HOA in order to get it. They do not care about the community, do not care about neighbors and in fact, express their disdain for us as they are doing here, implying it's our fault that mail is stolen and that we're too "silly" to fill out a USPS hold mail form. Obnoxious.

You know, I'm not even going to go into the documented threats and cursing against homeowners and how terribly the former board conducted themselves in board meetings. There was no smear - we saw what was being said in meetings and on distribution lists. We saw the lawsuit and how horrifyingly weak the case was, like someone dug through papers for months to come up with something and still had NOTHING. The lawsuit was about revenge for a handful of people that felt that they were wronged. It was not about protecting homeowner interests. It was a selfish, self-centered, self-interest motivated lawsuit, pure and simple. That became 100% apparent when the lawyer started propaganda letters to the community - we saw that the whole lawsuit was weak, and that the board was so out of control and hell-bent on revenge, they would surely bankrupt us and cause a huge assessment. That's when people took action. People saw with their own eyes. There was no smear. It's ridiculous to suggest there was a smear. It's like Trump saying he's being smeared because people noted him making fun of a handicapped guy. Well, hello, we all saw him doing that on video. It's the same thing with this board. We all saw what they did. And here we see them still in action - blaming homeowners for being victims of mail theft.

@BlameTheVictim: In this statement "Residents did not want it! " you are obviously referring to the lawsuit defendants and their buddies because the only actual survey done about the lawsuit revealed that people wanted more information about the lawsuit. There is a small group of less than 10% of the membership who think the world revolves around them. They didn't want the lawsuit because it involved their friends, and then they pretend that the whole membership did not want them. Talk about creating your own reality.
No smear campaign needed?? Really??? Then why all the efforts behind the smear web site with a bunch of false stories making personal attacks on board members? In fact, your post is making a LOT of unsubstantiated statements about personal grudges or revenge, there were no such thing, this is another example of made up stories based on absolutely nothing, no proof not even close, it is total fabrication, the new board members hardly knew the previous ones, they just meticulously went through the financials and discovered all the scams, let alone how the defendants had destroyed all records prior to mid 2009 in an effort to destroy evidence. The board members talked to a former HOA attorney who had told the board they were breaking the law by taking over $100,000 out of the reserve fund (one of the scams), it was very clear that the defendants had broken the law in spite of the many warnings from the attorney. The directors felt that they just couldn't sweep such illegal activity under the rug.
Nothing personal, but yet, some people just like to create drama by fabricating stories.

We've been over this a million times. Contrary to your opinion, your neighbors are not stupid. They saw through your unsubstantiated, risky, and really weak lawsuit. They were not friends with those being sued, and plenty of them had issues with the property manager. If you had a good reason to sue and a solid case, everyone would have backed you, but the fact is, you absolutely DID NOT. It became abundantly clear that the lawsuit was about a personal grudge and you went through intense efforts to find some kind of weak gotcha reasons to sue. It was all driven by your personal grudge. People saw through it - this is what happened - not a smear. I went to a couple meetings, and I was floored by the unprofessional and obnoxious behavior of the board - including screaming and cursing at homeowners. There was no need for a smear - you showed us who you were in your conduct.
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” ~Maya Angelou

Dear BlameTheVictim,
Unfortunately for our HOA, many people fell for the smear campaign that was most likely initiated by the management company, given the date that the smear web site was registered on anonymously, in order to avoid a defamation lawsuit. There was no cursing at the meetings, people got so pumped up by fear which was perpetrated by the anti-lawsuit campaign, that they are re-telling the story like those old folks stories, which become completely exaggerated over time because it is tainted by people's anger and fear. Again, your post is yet another example of fabricated stories. The board was actually the most thorough and meticulous about maintenance of our HOA, found many dangerous flaws which were documented with pictures, unlike your stories which are documented with nothing. There were also false declarations to the HOA insurance company (also documented) which would have invalidated the insurance should a fire had happen, and the attorney letters and emails telling the board that what they were about to do was illegal and they did it anyway, all documented. Your grudge and cursing stories are not documented, they are the result of fabrication and people being over emotional, and there were many such emotional homeowners (just look at your post!) at meetings that caused disruption and then, the small group of the lawsuit defendants' supporters took on the email groups and smear site to perpetrate false stories like yours. Many people were totally manipulated by fear and anger, it was clear that the management company had a lot of experience in that type of smear and fear campaign. It is sad that people with college degrees would fall for such tactics, but then it is a great example that IQ and EQ are completely different attributes.

@BlameTheVictim,
Regarding your statement about the case being weak, if the lawsuit had been "unsubstantiated, risky, and really weak" as you claim, the judge would have dismissed it. The defendants filed multiple demurrers (def.: pleading through which a defendant would challenge the legal sufficiency of a complaint in criminal or civil cases) and motions to strike to get rid of the lawsuit, but they were ALL overruled. Once again, claims that the lawsuit was weak were the fabrication of the smear campaign, they just repeated this over and over, and since most people were not attorneys, they believed. Only one homeowner who is an attorney (but not a real estate nor HOA attorney) made a big statement on the email group, but then when the HOA attorney came to a townhall meeting, she went over his statement line by line and explained to him what the issues were. He did not argue at all, he then understood what the lawsuit was about and never made any other statement to the email group about the lawsuit not being weak or substantiated. So if an attorney did not clearly understand the lawsuit, I can just imagine the understanding from the rest of the homeowners, who were just easily manipulated by fear due to their lack of understanding. It is that fear that the defendants capitalized on.
It is very sad that HOAs can be taken advantage of that way, this is corruption at its best. People robbed an HOA for years, and those people who got robbed ended up being manipulated by emotions to the point of bailing the very people who robbed them. It is a big lesson learned for many people about how vulnerable HOAs are, especially large ones where a good portion of people are unaware of what is going on. To all the people out there considering buying a property in an HOA, think about the risk of additional expenses due to corruption, because it is very likely to happen, especially in a large HOA. And trying to do something about it can turn into a big political war that sucks up a lot of time and energy, and considering that board members are volunteers and have a real job, and some have to care for a family, fighting false rumors and stories becomes at the cost of other more important things in their lives, while the lawsuit defendants have a lot to lose in lawsuit and hence a lot more energy to fight. That's the sad reality of HOAs.