Homeowners Angered at Davis Recall Committee Honoring Bill Morrow

July 03, 2003

By AHRC News Services
Copyright AHRC News Services

Homeowners across the state are angry at the Davis Recall Committee for honoring senator Bill Morrow.

In an announcement, the Davis Recall Committee stated that it was having a celebration on July 26 in Sacramento to commemorate the successful completion of the signature drive against Gray Davis, the governor of California, and to kick off the actual recall drive.

Homeowners, however, were incensed to see that the Davis Recall Committee has Bill Morrow named on its honoree list. They claim that Morrow has been one of the leading antihomeowner legislators in California. They cite a string of actions by him.

1. The homeowners say that when he refused to help a distraught homeowner, Jim Troutman, who was being overwhelmed by problems in his homeowner association, he committed suicide. Homeowners blame Morrow's indifference and callousness as significant contributing factors to the suicide.

2. Morrow, a prosecutor from Orange County, worked closely with CAI collection lawyers to help them pass anti-homeowner laws during for over a decade. a, Hal Joeph a San Clemente city planner fined, and referred foreclosure victims to AHRC instead of using his office to help them..

3. When foreclosure victims in homeowner associations called his office for help, he would ironically refer them to the American Homeowners Resource Center (AHRC), who had been asking him for years to reverse his negative stand on homeowner association issues and vote in favor of the homeowner.

4. Morrow is a member of the California Law Revision Commission (CLRC). Homeowners say that he blocks every pro-homeowner proposal and is a voice for the developers, homeowner association lawyers and other service personnel.

5. Morrow represents large portions of South Orange County.While there are about 35,000 homeowner associations in California, more than one third of these are in Orange County - between 13,000 to 15,000. Homeowners claim that Morrow has shown a complete indifference - even hostility - to the many problems that homeowner associations have created for homeowners. They say that his antenna are all tuned to big money interests.

6. Homeowner complaints extend beyond housing issues. They point to the $400,000 that he accepted from convicted politician, Nolan, who was arrested by the FBI for political corruption. They find that very strange and disturbing.

7. They also point to his close association with Hal Joseph, the San Clemente City Planner who was indicted and fined by the District Attorney's Office for accepting a $1 million payment from a large developer(Centex) while he was a planner.

The homeowners assert that they have worked hard to secure signatures for the recall of Gray Davis, because they believe that he is a corrupt politician. They are now very perturbed that the committee that sponsored the recall of Davis is brandishing for public acclaim, politicians equally corrupt such as Morrow.

Ironically, they point out, though Davis is a Democrat and Morrow a Republican, both are anti-homeowner. Davis is the author of the Davis Stirling Act, the central piece of legislation governing homeowner associations in California - the law that authorized the use of non-judicial foreclosure for even the most minute of fines and unpaid assessments.

Homeowners say that the first prerequisite for public office is honesty and integrity - whether Republican or Democrat. They say that there should be no tomorrow for Davis or Morrow - that all corrupt politicians should be recalled.