Colleen Wise was removed from the Board of her neighborhood’s Home Owners’ Association (HOA) by court order after the members in her neighborhood sued to hold a new board election.
Wise was ultimately removed so they could hold a new election to elect a new board, according to court documents uncovered by National File.
According to Mississippi Code § 79-11-131, when an association is unable to convene its own meeting, a chancery court holds the authority to mandate such a gathering.
In Madison, the court’s decision to organize a special meeting directly challenges Colleen Wise’s assertion of her role within the Panther Creek Home Owners Association Board. This action indicates that Wise was not officially a board member, nor its president, contrary to her claims.
Wise had insisted that she was the last standing board member of her neighborhood’s HOA when the legal action commenced.
Sources revealed to National File that just two weeks before the legal filing, the entire board had resigned in protest against Wise’s noncompliance with standard financial requests.
Further complicating matters, Wise’s presidency was deemed illegitimate by other board members, who pointed out a lack of evidence supporting her election to the position.
“There are no minutes verifying her appointment. No records indicate she was officially elected,” an individual with knowledge of the case shared with National File.
Court documents confirm Wise’s term was not legitimate. The court’s ultimate ruling tacitly affirmed the claims of the complainants, which alleged that there was not even one legitimate member of the board remaining after the resignations.
Wise’s illegitimate stint as the lone board member and supreme ruler of Panther Creek Owners’ Association (PCOA) lasted a few short months after her neighbors grew upset with her less-than-above-board financial dealings with HOA funds, according to sources familiar with the matter.
A large group of homeowners in Panther Creek filed the petition on October 15 of 2021, to bring a new election since there was no board in place.
Judge Cynthia Brewer ordered that an entirely new board be selected at an election, tacitly affirming that Colleen Wise was not a member of the Panther Creek Owners’ Association Board.
You can read the entirety of the court proceedings below.
The matter came to a head when one of the homeowners began to ask for minutes and accounting which was not provided, according to sources familiar with the matter.
After Wise put pressure on the board, all the board resigned except Colleen Wise who was attempting to appoint herself President.
Wise was attempting to install a new board that would comport with her plans for the neighborhood, and so, despite never having been elected, Wise attempted to remain on the board after the entire board quit.
Wise’s goal, sources tell National File, was to install new members who would do her bidding.
As a result of the mass resignation, the HOA board no longer had a quorum to do anything, even call an election.
And since Colleen Wise’s own standing on the Panther Creek board was itself in dispute, there was literally no other mechanism by which the board could have reconstituted itself, short of a court order in a court with jurisdiction over the matter.
And that is what would eventually happen.
Despite falsely claiming to be the only member of the board, and its president, Colleen’s efforts to hang on as President to hand pick the new board were on thin ice.
The homeowners filed their petition and asked the court to order that a new election be held at a specific time and place. The board election was held at a church in Gluckstadt on January 13, of 2022.
Cranky, Cantankerous Colleen Wise
Multiple neighbors in Panther Creek have told National File stories about Colleen Wise’s cranky, cantankerous behavior. That behavior spilled over into the court ordered Panther Creek Owners’ Association election in January of 2022.
According to multiple sources in the room, Colleen Wise kept interrupting others. After repeated interruptions, one of the participants — a female — was yelled at by Colleen. Then that woman’s husband then began to argue the man but the Deputy Sheriff intervened.
Colleen and her husband Gordy Wise were both removed from the proceedings. George Malveney objected to Colleen and her husband being removed so the deputy sheriff removed George, too, witnesses tell National File.
The January, 2022 special meeting at Vertical church was fairly contentious, according to at least three people who witnessed the meeting.
Wise’s posse attended, and claimed that they — and not the judge — should be calling the meeting, according to multiple eyewitness accounts.
Wise tried to bring her own group of people to randomly nominate her to her own fake board, according to multiple attendees. Wise also tried to apply the covenants in order to run the meeting herself, sources tell National File.
Given that the proceeding was ordered to happen according to the court’s requirements, Wise’s plans were not going to be adhered to.
At some point another neutral member of the community — a female — began to speak. Colleen stood up and started yelling and spoke over her. The first woman’s husband stood up and confronted Colleen verbally. Then, Colleen’s husband Gordy Wise, who didn’t like the way he was speaking to Colleen, got involved.
What happened next sent the meeting into chaos.
Gordy Wise, Colleen’s husband, was running at the woman’s husband as if to fight him, sources tell National File. The sheriff’s deputy was required to intervene and stop Gordy Wise. At that point, Colleen became unhinged — yelling, and making a general ruckus. Colleen was also asked to leave, which she did.
“Colleen wasn’t being civil, and it was a mess,” one source told National File.
Ultimately, a new board was installed, and Panther Creek has been a very peaceful neighborhood since Wise’s departure.
“Now without Colleen in charge, neighbors feel like they have a more peaceful neighborhood, and they’re not living under the gestapo,” one resident told National File.
“Colleen should not be in any position of authority based on her behavior. She’s always doing things like seeking out people to tell them they’re not allowed on her streets. She’s always acting as if she owns the roads,” the source said.
In another instance of poor behavior, a Madison resident was running for county supervisor, and so someone asked him to look at a drainage issue. When the candidate stopped by to assess the issue, Wise is said to have run him out of the neighborhood.
COLLEEN WISE: APPOINTED BY DEMOCRATS?
Wise found her way from Louisiana into Mississippi politics by helping a local official get elected to office.
Unbelievably, Wise somehow also recently managed to get herself appointed to serve a temporary, interim appointment to the justice court judge for district 2, until the next election could be held.
It is unbelievable she attained this appointment because Colleen Wise does not have a college degree, she has no legal experience, Wise does not have a degree in the law, and she is not an attorney.
Wise was appointed by the Madison County Board of Supervisors. The three members that appointed her are Gerald Steen — widely known to be a RINO — or Republican In Name Only — and the other two members, who are Democrats.
She got appointed under cover of night. Inexplicably, Republican Casey Branning got up and left the room for the vote, so the only people left in the room were RINO Steen and 2 democrats — Karl Banks and Paul Griffin.
In effect, residents tell National File, Colleen Wise was appointed by three Democrats.
“It shows a pattern of behavior — a justice court judge shouldn’t behave like that,” one source familiar with Madison County politics told National File.
“Colleen Wise just doesn’t have the temperament that a judge should have. They’re supposed to be neutral and unbiased. Her lack of control rears its head any time something happens she doesn’t like,” the source told National File.
“Colleen Wise shouldn’t be the damn dog catcher, much less justice court judge. She shouldn’t have any authority over anyone.”
Wise’s LinkedIn biography claims she has two decades of experience in “property management that specializes in low income properties.”
National File reached Colleen Wise by phone for comment for the story. Wise at first told National File she could not comment on the Panther Creek proceedings, and later weakly attempted to dispute the claim that her position on the board was not legitimate.
When asked to provide evidence in the form of meeting notes or minutes that she had, in fact, been elected to the PCOA or as its president, she refused, and ended the call.
National File will update this story if Wise responds further.
You can read the entirety of the court proceedings here.
