Some episodes of On the Commons are just too good to leave in the archives. On The Commons with me this week (November 6, 2004)is Tom Skiba. Tom is the Chief Executive Officer of the Alexandria, Virginia based Community Associations Institute, (CAI). Please join us On The Commons. We’ll find out why CAI condones the abuses and has opposed any reforms on the power to foreclose. We’ll talk about why they feel associations would collapse without the ability to wield so much power over their members and whether they have any plans to protect the homeowners they claim to represent.

On The Commons with us this week is Steven Siegel. Steve is a lawyer and a doctoral student at Columbia Law School. He wrote an article titled: “The Public Role in Establishing Private Residential Communities: Towards a New Formulation of Local Government Land Use Policies that Eliminates the Legal Requirements to Privatize New Communities in the United States” that was published in the Fall 2006 edition of The Urban Lawyer. Please join us On The Commons. We’ll talk about the ramifications of these trends and find out what he means by Public Service Exaction.

On The Commons with us this week is Professor Evan McKenzie. Professor McKenzie is a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a practicing attorney, author of Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government, and a national and international authority on homeowner associations. Professor McKenzie maintains an active blog where he posts links to some of the many articles about homeowners associations, spicing them up with his comments that always hit the mark. On March 14, 2007 he posted an analysis of the Community Association Institutes official response to the AARP Bill of Rights. Please join us On The Commons. We’ll talk about the notion of a Homeowner Bill of Rights, whether it is necessary, who should write it up and how to implement it. On the Commons is broadcast live from WEBR Fairfax, Virginia.

On The Commons with us is Pia Trigiani. Pia is a partner in the Virginia offices of Troutman Sanders. She specializes in property association law, is a member of CAI, writes for Common Ground, is a regular on the lecture circuit and is the recipient of many awards. Please join us On The Commons. We’ll talk about “building community” in mandatory membership associations.