Article
and Video Courtesy of Channel 13, Las Vegas
By
Darcy Spears
Published
December 6, 2010
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Watch
VIDEO
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President of the HOA Hall of
Shame is too kind a title for the man profiled in last week's Contact 13
Investigation.
That's what you're saying about
Joe Bitsky.
And you've flooded our website,
Facebook page and e-mail inbox with comments about him.
Chief Investigator Darcy Spears
has some of those comments and a new discovery about how Bitsky's HOA
board has been breaking the law.
You may remember
Joe Bitsky.
"You're
sticking your tongue out at me!" Spears says to him
in disbelief.
The president of
the Autumn Chase HOA in North Las Vegas is hard to
forget.
"You see,
you want to make it controversial!" Bitsky accuses
Spears. |
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Joe, we can't make you any more
controversial than you've made yourself.
"You come here to degrade
me," he again says accusingly.
"I just came here to ask
questions," Spears responds.
Since our story first aired, many
of you have sent us comments calling Bitsky a "bully," a
"train wreck," "borderline postal" and a
"megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur."
One even said
"he shouldn't just be president of the hall of shame,
he should be crowned emperor for life of the hall of
shame."
"Wait a
minute it's not how I deal with the homeowners..."
Bitsky says, defending himself.
"You're
dealing with me the same way," Spears tells him.
"Look, it's
how I deal with jerks," he says by way of
explanation. |
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"Are you calling me a
jerk?" Spears asks.
"Yes, ma'am because you
won't listen! Alright? I deal with jerks in that manner. Alright?
Alright!"
The other people he's calling
jerks are the group of homeowners who filed a complaint against him with
the Nevada Real Estate Division.
In the complaint, homeowners
question Bitsky's use of a credit card in the association's name.
And, according to an email from
viewer Lisa, "there has never been an audit of the books."
Nevada law requires all HOAs to
do annual audits.
Contact 13 just called
Bitsky about that and he admitted there'd never been an audit at Autumn
Chase.
Then he contradicted himself by
sending a fax saying the "books were done in the beginning of
2008 by a CPA."
But he didn't provide any proof
of that.
Either way, Autumn Chase is in
violation of state law.
After our story aired, the
president-elect of Community Associations Institute Nevada sent us an
email.
That's the industry group
representing HOAs across the country.
Pat Taylor wrote,
"Unfortunately, Mr. Bitsky's 'performance' is the exact polar
opposite of what we are trying to accomplish with CAI. He is so wrong and
incorrect on so many levels with what he was saying, and his demeanor was
beyond embarrassing for our industry."
Autumn Chase homeowner Joe
Salvatore says they've tried to boot Bitsky from the board, but can't get
enough help from other homeowners because so many are scared.
"The main thing is he picks
and chooses people who he wants to fine or make out to be bad
people," Salvatore says.
An anonymous Autumn Chase
homeowner agrees with Salvatore and directed this comment to Bitsky,
saying "The homeowners that have not come out and told you that they
don't like what you are doing are afraid that you will start to attack
them and put them on your list of people to harass for your own personal
gain."
The State has a message for those
who have been willing to take Bitsky on.
"Be patient," says
Sharon Jackson, supervisory compliance investigator for the Common
Interest Communities section of the Nevada Real Estate Division.
"Understand that we have a huge number of complaints that are coming
in and we are working very actively at trying to resolve those as quickly
as we possibly can."
Jackson says the HOA
caseload is up 40-percent over last year, with only five investigators for
the entire state.
"There's just only so much
that we can do."
Viewer Tammy
wrote, "I am happy this is being brought
into the public light. These kinds of HOA board abusive
antics are going on more often than one thinks. I hope
this a catalyst for new laws to reform those controlling
and egotistical HOA Boards."
In our
original investigation, one of the homeowners talked about
how Bitsky wouldn't let her and others leave his home
during an October HOA meeting after he learned they were
recording the meeting. |
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North
Las Vegas Police have been investigating and late Thursday afternoon,
we learned they've passed the case on to the City Attorney for prosecution
on two misdemeanor counts of coercion stemming from that incident.
PART
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