HOAs serve as a launching pad for lesser politicians and can do some pretty twisted stuff in my experience -- they frequently serve as platforms for tiny tyrants.

Also, they are often corrupted by corporate influence.

I suspect the fear is "HOA wants a new million dollar pool" and wants to pay for it with "profits" from the energy costs.

I wonder how a fee charged to be on the board of an HOA would change this sort of behavior. I wonder how increasing it would change the nature of of decision making.

A kickback -- maybe getting a $5,000 vacation in exchange for voting for a superfluous service contract -- can easily offset an extra $50/month fee... for the one board member who cast the corrupt vote.

Same as all politics: it's a shared cost, but somehow I benefit more than you do.