Continental Ranch changing management

The new company, HOA Management Solutions, will be paid more than $250,000 a year to manage the nearly 3,500-member association. Board President John Lambert later declined to disclose a specific amount, saying only that it equals what the association paid its current management firm.

Several residents and at least two board members expressed disappointment that the replacement wasn't subject to a bidding process.

Stratford Management, which has worked for Continental Ranch since February 2008, submitted a 30-day notice of resignation Sept. 1 to the Continental Ranch board, saying that it has been a pleasure serving the community for the past year and a half, but that it has become "untenable" to continue working with the board.

The seven-member board held the emergency meeting after posting a short agenda Friday in which the main item was to "discuss a replacement management company due to Stratford's resignation."

Continental Ranch has 3,476 households in southern Marana, on the west side of Interstate 10.

After the agenda was posted Friday, resident Angela Wagner-Gabbard circulated an e-mail to her neighbors and the media, advising them of the meeting and alleging several instances of misconduct by the board and more specifically by Lambert, who was elected in October.

At the meeting, Lambert said he was unable to discuss the e-mail's contents, as state law allows for discussion only of what's on the agenda in an emergency board meeting.

At that, board member Connie DeLarge moved to strike an item from the agenda that listed Stratford Chairman Vincent Braun as an invited guest, saying Lambert had not included that item when he set the agenda, and it was added by someone else.

After about 15 minutes of discussion, the motion passed 5-2, with DeLarge and board member Colin Cordell opposed.

Braun was present and available to answer questions, and much of the discussion for the next hour among the 50 or so residents packed into the standing-room-only meeting space revolved around why he would not be formally permitted to speak.

"If we can't hear why they're leaving, how can we make an intelligent decision as to who to replace them with?" asked resident Janet Kline.

Another resident, Kim Benson, said Stratford is the best management company she's seen in Continental Ranch in her 12 years there.

Cordell asked whether the board had received three bids for the replacement contract.

The board has set a precedent of getting three bids for any contract worth more than $1,000, he said.

Several board members said there wasn't time to get three bids because Stratford had already given its 30 days' notice.

The new company, Tucson's HOA Management Solutions, submitted the second-place bid almost two years ago when a previous Continental Ranch board hired Stratford, Lambert said.

Cordell, board member Chuck Stead and several audience members said there should have been three bids this time.

Braun repeatedly said Stratford would be willing to remain in place on a month-to-month basis until the association had an opportunity to complete the bid process.

"The last thing we want to do is undo everything we've worked so hard to put in place in the last year and a half to two years," he said. "We'll be here as long as you need us."

But Lambert and board member George Erhardt both said they can't trust a company that has already said the situation is "untenable."

"Frankly, that scares the daylights out of us," Erhardt said.

Because the association's annual meeting and elections are next month, board member Grant Winston suggested keeping Stratford for 60 days to get through that period and allow time for the association to solicit three bids.

In the end, the board agreed to accept Stratford's resignation effective at the end of the month and to hire HOA Management Solutions. Cordell and Stead voted against the motion that included both items.