Frequently asked questions

No. This site is published independently by owners at Jamacha Greens. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Jamacha Greens Homeowners Association or its Board of Directors. Official association communications come from the board and the managing agent, Pernicano Realty & Management Inc.

Owners who know what is going on, and elections that are actually contested. That is the whole of it.

An association this size runs on a small number of people paying attention. Most owners here do not know that the Bylaws fix the annual meeting date themselves, that silence on an architectural request can count as approval, or that 39 returned ballots can carry a reconvened election meeting. Nothing on this site is secret — it is all in documents every owner is entitled to — but it was scattered across scans and filing cabinets, which amounts to the same thing as unavailable.

So the immediate aim is modest: that owners can find each other and find the documents in one place, without asking anyone's permission. If the site does its job, more owners read the governing documents, more return their ballots, and more put their names forward when nominations open. We are not promoting particular candidates and there is no slate. A contested election is a better outcome than an uncontested one regardless of who wins it.

If you own a unit here, you are the HOA. Not a customer of it — a member of it. Bylaws Art. II § 1 makes every owner a member automatically, with one vote for each unit owned, and says the membership goes with the deed: transferring title "shall automatically transfer the membership in this Association appurtenant thereto." Nobody signed up for it and nobody can resign it.

The board is five of those members. The managing agent is a company the association hires. Neither one is "the HOA" — the association is its members, which is every owner here, and you are one whether you attend anything or not.

Decisions have concentrated in a few hands, and the record shows how that happened. In January 2025 the annual meeting was cancelled outright; the minutes record "no applicants sending in candidacy forms causing the meeting to stop its process." Nobody ran. Two of the five current seats were filled by board appointment later that year rather than by election. Then in December 2025 five owners did run, for all five seats — the one full field in the record — and no document we hold says what came of that meeting. This year four candidates filed for five seats, so one seat goes to appointment again.

That is a thing owners decide, not a thing decided for them — and an election is either running right now or it is not. Returning your ballot so it counts · How elections work here · Putting your own name in.

No, though it affects what you can do. Under Bylaws Article II, Section 1, voting power belongs to the owner of each unit, so only owners vote in association elections. Renters live with every decision the board makes and are welcome to stay informed and involved — as of September 29, 2026, 107 of the 192 units here carried a tenant on the Association's own resident directory.

Directly. Your vote counts the same as an owner-occupant's, your assessments went up 20% for 2026, and the value of your unit depends on how the common areas are maintained and how the reserves are managed. Absentee owners are the largest bloc of voting power in this association and historically the least consulted.

Yes. Signups go to a private database that is not readable by the public and is accessible only to a small number of Coalition organizers. We do not sell, share, or publish contact information, and every email we send includes a way to opt out.

It has not been the same names winning, because there have not been elections to win. At the meeting of February 15, 2024 the Inspector of Elections certified 192 members entitled to vote and 51 ballots returned — but quorum was not reached, so the ballots were never opened, the meeting was adjourned, and the sitting directors remained in place. In January 2025 the annual meeting was cancelled outright because no candidacy forms were submitted. In December 2025 five owners ran for all five seats, and no inspector's report, minutes or notice we hold records what came of that meeting.

The arithmetic is friendlier than it looks. A general owners' meeting needs 98: Bylaws Article II, Section 3 sets quorum at a "majority of owners", and Section 2 defines that term as those holding 51% of the votes — 51% of 192 is 97.92, so it takes 98. But for electing directors, Civil Code § 5115 drops the quorum to 20% at a properly noticed reconvened meeting. 20% of 192 is 38.4, so it takes 39 — and 51 owners returned ballots in 2024 without knowing it would have been enough.

A ballot you leave blank still counts. Quorum turns on ballots arriving, not on what is written inside them: § 5115 says each ballot received "shall be treated as a member present at a meeting for purposes of establishing a quorum." If no candidate appeals to you, returning the ballot unmarked is not a wasted gesture and not an endorsement of anyone — it is the thing that decides whether the ballots get opened at all. Sign the outer envelope, and leave the ballot itself unmarked rather than writing on it.

Cumulative voting makes a small bloc heavier still: under Bylaws Article II, Section 1 you may cast all of your votes for one candidate instead of spreading them. What binds has been both, in different years: in January 2025 nobody ran, and in December 2025 five owners ran for all five seats — a full field — with no document we hold recording whether enough ballots came back to open them. How elections work here · Returning your ballot so it counts.

The board may seat them without mailing ballots at all — by acclamation, under Civil Code § 5103. It is not automatic and it is not always available. The statute permits it only where every one of these has already happened: the association held a regular election of directors within the previous three years; notice of the nomination procedure went out at least 90 days before the nomination deadline, saying that acclamation may follow if nominations do not exceed the vacancies; a reminder went out 7 to 30 days before the deadline listing the qualified candidates; each nomination was acknowledged within 7 business days; each nominee was told whether they qualified within 7 business days; and the board voted to seat them at a public meeting with every candidate named on the agenda.

Acclamation is not improper in itself — it saves the association the real cost of running an election. But an uncontested seat is not really an election, and the only way to force a full secret-ballot vote is for more qualified candidates to run than there are open seats. Any qualified member may nominate themselves. How elections work here · The nomination form.

Often because nothing has started a clock. Several kinds of request carry real deadlines — Civil Code § 5210 gives the Association 10 business days for current-year records and 30 days for older records and minutes, and Bylaws Art. VI § 3 gives it 30 days to answer a written architectural request. Every one of those runs from the day the Association received the request, not the day you sent it.

A phone call starts nothing and cannot be proved afterwards. Certified mail with a return receipt is what fixes the date: the management company signs for the letter, and the Postal Service gives you a dated receipt showing when. That receipt is the start of the countdown, and it is the document that makes a missed deadline mean something. How to send it.

What to do next depends on what you asked for.

An architectural request. Good news, most likely. Bylaws Art. VI § 3 requires an answer within 30 days and states that failing to answer in that time "shall mean that there is no objection" — which is exactly why the receipt proving when the clock started matters. One limit: that clock is the Bylaws', and it covers modifications "in his unit". Where the work touches a bearing wall, floor, pipe, duct or wire, Declaration A.2 makes that common area "wherever located", and common area needs the written approval and plans Declaration H.5 requires — which silence does not supply.

A records request. Send a second written request naming the date of the first and the deadline that passed. Under Civil Code § 5235 a court may order the Association to pay a prevailing member's costs and reasonable attorney's fees, and a civil penalty of up to $500 for each separate written request it wrongly denied. That penalty is charged to the Association per request, which is the reason each one goes in writing separately. Small claims court is available for records enforcement.

Internal Dispute Resolution is open either way, and the Association must take part and cannot charge you for it. Ready-to-send letters · Getting association records.

First rule out the one lawful reason. Under Civil Code § 4925 any member may attend a board meeting and the board "shall permit any member to speak", subject to reasonable time limits — except executive session, which § 4935 confines to five subjects: litigation, forming contracts with third parties, member discipline, personnel matters, and meeting with a member at their own request about assessments. Being held out of that portion is proper. Being held out of the open portion is not.

A board that meets entirely by Zoom takes on extra obligations under Civil Code § 4926. The notice has to carry clear technical instructions for joining, a telephone number and email address for technical assistance during the meeting, and a reminder that you may request individual delivery of notices. Every member must have "the same ability to participate in the meeting that would exist if the meeting were held in person", director votes must be taken by roll call, and anyone entitled to participate must be offered the option of joining by telephone. A notice that gives only a video link, with no dial-in number and no support contact, does not meet that standard.

So, in order: check the notice for the dial-in number and the technical-support contact, and use them — being stuck in a waiting room is exactly what that contact is for. If the notice carried neither, or you were left waiting and never admitted, write down the date, the time, what you tried and what happened, while it is fresh. One member's note is an anecdote; several members' notes of the same meeting are a record.

Then put it in writing and say what you want done. If that goes nowhere, Civil Code § 4955 lets a member sue to enforce the Open Meeting Act — for declaratory or injunctive relief, with reasonable attorney's fees and court costs to a member who wins, and a civil penalty of up to $500 that one failed notice carries once however many owners it reached. Alternative dispute resolution has to be tried first (§ 5930). Asking for the meeting notices and the minutes is usually the first useful step, because they show what access was promised and what the board recorded. Meetings and the Open Meeting Act · Put it in writing.

The association's own documents — the CC&Rs, Bylaws, Rules for Elections and Voting, Rules and Regulations, board meeting minutes, and financial statements, all of which are disclosed to owners under Civil Code § 4525. We cite the specific document and date for each factual claim. If we get something wrong, tell us and we will correct it.

Every owner has an independent right to inspect association records under Civil Code § 5200. You do not need our permission or the board's, and with one narrow exception you do not need to give a reason. See Getting Association Records.