On June 5, the Arizona Senate unanimously passed HB 2518. The bill originally gave authority for cities and towns to use Approval Voting for their own elections. The Senate amended it to set up a joint legislative committee to study approval voting for local elections. Now the bill goes back to the House.
Approval voting lets voters vote for as many candidates as they wish, even when only one is to be elected.
Thanks for posting this, Richard!
What Senator Gail Griffin is not telling you about this bill and her floor amendment. A large portion of the Griffin floor amendment is nothing more than failed HB 2513 which was vetoed by Governor Brewer in 2012 and the failure of HB 2371 and HB 2135 which did not move this year because of strong opposition.
This bill has nothing to do with homeowner rights, choice or trashcans. The Griffin amendment would prevent future HOA’s from requiring tenant screenings and photo identification on prospective tenants and will disallow HOA’s and Planned Communities from setting restrictions on rental units such as; No sex offenders, convicted felons and drug dealers in rental units.
Further, this bill and the Griffin floor amendment will affect FHA approval for many communities across the state. By allowing all homeowners to rent their units, without restrictions and regardless of the associations rules or rental caps many HOA’s and Planned Communities will fall short of the 51% owner to rental ratio required by FHA/HUD. This will most defiantly disenfranchise first time home buyer and has the potential to turn condominium communities into nothing more than crime-ridden apartment complexes.
Attaching this floor amendment to a seemingly harmless bill is simply another sneaky trick which our legislators are well noted for. Every sponsor of these failed bills are either Realtors and/or have ties to National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM). After the housing market crash many Realtors are now managing rental units to fill in the gaps.
So what is the motive for this bill and the Griffin amendment? Its certainly not about choice or trashcans! Simply put NARPM and the Arizona Association of Realtors are using their friends in the House (Michelle Ugenti) and Senate (Gail Griffin) to make their work easy and profitable at the cost of homeowners across the state. They simply want to rent units to anyone regardless of their criminal history or any association rules.
Myself, and my constituents strongly believe that if this bill and the Griffin amendment passes, it will simply pave the way to include existing HOA’s and Planned Communities next year. This bill will no doubt eliminate crime prevention programs in many existing and future HOA’s and Planned Communities.
Potential homeowners have choices. If you don’t like HOA’s don’t move into one. Senator Griffin would like you to believe that there is some sort of shortage in homes without an HOA attached ( Not true). Potential homeowners have the choice to contact the HOA and ask for their rules and regulations before they purchase. They also have the choice to ask residents in the community how they get along with their HOA.
The Griffin amendment is dangerous and will disenfranchise the potential first time homeowners applying for FHA/HUD Loans for decades. If your are in doubt that any information in this post is incorrect….please match the facts to the bill and the Griffin amendment.
http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/51leg/1r/bills/hb2518s.pdf