Legal Affairs publishes article on HOA conflict
Here's the link to this article--thanks to Fred Pilot, because I thought it wasn't online:

http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/LegalAffairs/2004/11/01/636320

"Home Is Where the Heart Is," By Ross Guberman "...provided your dog's weight does not exceed 30 pounds, your shutters are painted a tasteful hue, and your lawn is in accordance with the standards mandated by the architectural-control committee."

Here's a snippet from this long and well-written piece, including a pungent comment from yours truly:

Most HOA board members, who are volunteers, fashion themselves as community representatives or homeowner advocates. But a few board members are hungry for power, their rule subject only to term limits, recall, or rejection at the next ballot box. Corruption can be as unbridled in HOAs as in big-city politics. HOA board members have been caught fixing their own elections, finagling kickbacks for themselves from contractors, and using their newfound authority to settle scores against neighbors. Some residents claim, for example, that after they've protested HOA policies at board meetings, they've been slapped with citations for obscure rule violations, such as putting their trash out on the wrong day or failing to remove weeds around a tree. "The problem with HOAs is that it's a kangaroo court that resolves these conflicts," said Evan McKenzie, a University of Illinois at Chicago political science professor and the author of Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government . "An unaccountable board plays judge and jury."