The small group that orchestrated the December 2025 board takeover had a simple argument. The prior board did things wrong. Some said illegally. All said secretly. A new board with fresh perspectives would fix what was broken.
Two agenda items into the first full meeting of 2026, that argument was in trouble.
“Everything I’ve seen essentially echoes what you said, that you guys did so many changes that had to happen, which was a lot for anybody.”
— Russell Ziegler, President, February 17, 2026 Board Meeting
Ziegler did not stumble into that statement. He reviewed the prior board’s records in detail, consulted the HOA’s attorney, and said publicly and deliberately that everything he found was consistent with what former president Teri Hochstedler had described. A board that made a large number of required changes under difficult circumstances. That is not diplomatic deflection. That is a finding.
It came after Hochstedler, attending as a community member with no standing to participate in board deliberations, made an observation that deserved more attention than it received in the moment.
“I don’t see anything that you’re doing that we weren’t doing. You know, at all, to be quite honest. Other than on the emails you send out, you simply say you’re going to be transparent. We just were transparent. We didn’t say it.”
— Teri Hochstedler, Former Board President, February 17, 2026 Open Forum
The prior board was transparent without announcing it. The new board announces it. The substance is identical. Ziegler agreed on the record.
That exchange was the second unambiguous finding of the evening. The first happened before the meeting was twenty minutes old.
The new board opened its January meeting by placing homeowner open forum at the beginning of the agenda. It did not work well. Homeowners were asked to comment before the board had presented any information. So at the February meeting, Ziegler announced the format was being moved to the end.
The prior board held open forum at the end.
Two members of the current board attended prior board meetings as community observers before joining the current board. Neither raised a concern when open forum was placed at the beginning in January. The format was corrected a month later, quietly, without acknowledgment.
The bylaw finding is the more significant of the two. The amended bylaws signed in October 2025 and the six new board policies adopted in November 2025 were among the most criticized actions of the prior board. The small group demanded records and answers about both after the takeover. Ziegler reviewed those records, consulted the attorney, and reported back at the February meeting that everything was legally compliant, properly approved, and necessary.
The investigation the small group demanded produced the exoneration they did not want.
The February 17 meeting produced two unambiguous findings. The prior board’s governing document work was legally sound. The new board’s first procedural decision replicated a format the prior board had already established through experience. Neither finding was accidental. Both were delivered on the record by the current board president.
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Related: Read the full February 17. 2026 Board Meeting Summary