February 22, 2010

 

Those of you who have been following these "weekly reports" for the past several years may remember that for the past three years I have introduced legislation that would require home owner associations to provide "reasonable accommodation" to amateur radio antennae.  In each of the three years, my bills have passed out of the House, but have not survived the Senate.  For the first two, the Senate chairman to whose committee the bills were assigned would not even hear them (which is the chairman's perogative in both Houses).  Last year, we got a Senate hearing, but got bogged down trying to work out an amendment and just ran out of time.

So I'm doing it again this year with HB 2615.  Amateur radio operators, also known as "hams," provide a valuable service for communications in times of natural disaster, or simply when covering other events such as the marathons run in Phoenix.  Many hams moved into HOAs without knowing there were restrictions.  Others tried to comply with the rules, but were still told their antenna would not be acceptable.  In the committee hearing last week, one showed a picture of his setup, which is a flagpole in his back yard, flying the U.S. flag, which conceals his antenna.  An accompanying picture showed his neighbors flag pole in the front yard, and the two were indistinguishable.  But his HOA is still saying that his must go.

For the opponents that say we should not try to interfere with contracts, I remind them that it took federal and/or state legislation for many HOAs to permit flagpoles at all, as well as the small satellite TV receivers that many people now use.  The point can also be made that more and more developments have HOAs, and it is getting harder to purchase a new house that does not come with the HOA restrictions.

HB2615 passed out of the Military Affairs and Public Safety committee with votes to spare and now goes to Rules (through which all bills must be deemed constitutional and in proper form), and then on to the full House.  I'll be working with the Senator who insisted on an amendment last year when the bill moves to that chamber.  I'm sure we can work out an agreement this year.  I'm hopeful that the "fourth time will be a charm."

I have two other bills (HB2463 and 2464) that deal with automobile glass.  One defines acts of insurance fraud, which is so prevalent with the folks who hang out at car washes and say that they can replace your windshield at no cost.  The other deals with the "no deductible" mandate for glass replacement under current AZ law.  Both were passed out of the Banking and Insurance committee, but some of the glass dealers are fighting these bills.  We are having meetings with their representatives as well as people from the insurance companies trying to find a compromise, but it's proving very difficult to reconcile the two.  I'll try again on Monday, but we may just have to go with the bills as drafted.  More on this next week.

Until then,

Nancy

Rep. Nancy McLain
602-926-5051
nmclain@azleg.gov

Nancy McLain, District 3, Arizona House of Representatives
nmclain@azleg.gov or
nmclainbhc@aol.com