Just the Facts

Tonight the Columbia Association is hosting a meeting:

The Columbia community is invited to learn more about the proposal at an information session on Tuesday, March 5 from 7-8:30pm at Wilde Lake Interfaith Center, 10431 Twin Rivers Road. 

You may remember I first wrote about this in February. I encouraged my readers to learn more. There’s plenty of information available to the public. Take a look.

This week I’ve noticed that I’m not the only one writing about this. Both former County Executive Liz Bobo and former Oakland Mills CA Rep Alex Hekimian have released statements expressing their opinions. Both take an alarmist approach that the Columbia Association has nefarious purposes and must be stopped. 

They are certainly entitled to their own particular point of view. However, I noticed that they are basing their arguments on their own personal memories of past events. As a blogger I thought I should do some digging to find some background on their stories. 

Here’s a bit of what I found:

Ms. Bobo states that CA has been an HOA nearly since its inception. Actually, that is not true. The HOA designation was not enacted until 1987, while Ms. Bobo was County Executive. The Columbia Association was, at its outset in 1965, a private non-stock corporation. (It still is.)

She also says that the first notification CA gave on the current proposal was an ad in last week’s  Flier, thus giving residents only a few days to learn about it. Also, not true. CA  sent out an email to around 30,000 people in February. The ad in the Flier was a part of a multi-pronged communications effort to reach as many people as possible.

Later on in her letter Ms Bobo recounts her recollection of a similar bill proposed by CA:

Six years ago while I was serving in the Maryland Legislature representing West Columbia, a very similar bill was introduced and sent to the committee on which I served. During the public hearing, the committee and I had many questions and took into consideration the “Columbia Flier’s” negative editorial. Subsequently, the bill failed to receive a favorable recommendation and thus died in committee.

But that isn’t what happened. CA’s proposal was never considered by Maryland Legislators in Annapolis because it was tabled by the CA Board. At the time the proposal to become a Community Benefit Association included the ten villages, and they weren’t ready to make the move at that time. The proposed legislation never went to Annapolis. Here’s some information on that.

Since Alex Hekimian was one of those CA Board Members at the time, I expected to see him correct the record on this, but he doesn’t. Instead, he paints a wholly melodramatic picture:

CA tried the very same thing back in 2012-2013, but Columbia's residents rose up and expressed their outrage, and that proposal was emphatically rejected. 

Columbia has approximately 100,000 people. No more than several dozen came out to express an opinion on this at the time.

Mr. Hekimian also assures his readers that he has read the draft for them and they should just trust him that it’s bad. Based on his other factual inaccuracies I think his readers would be better served by reading the legislation themselves.

Why am I guiding you through this today?

Well, it’s important to me that the community is able to make up its own mind on this proposal based on the actual facts. It’s clear to me that Ms. Bobo and Mr. Hekimian are attempting to sway public opinion based on very strong opinion, but hazy recollection. Let’s face it. Our memories aren’t are as clear as they used to be. In the absence of documented facts, strong emotion may dominate the narrative.

I encourage you to look at the available information, attend the public presentation, and do your own assessment. An informed and involved citizenry is at the heart of what makes Columbia special. 

Do your part.