Board Harassment by former members

Rick,

Yes, a couple of big mouth crazies can ruin it for a whole community. Every association has them. Unfortunately, this country has free speech laws and all that you can do is hope that they run out of wind sometime soon.

Now if they get into liablis territory, then they can be warned. If you have a newsletter or website, have the Board make a strong, straight forward statement. Include the management company as well as they are also being attacked.

Address this to the community, telling them how the Board policy works, how to deal with issues and complaints. Be aggressive with your stand towards the membership and about cooperation. Include how much the Board appreciates the members, talk about helping and anything positive about your association. It will put some thoughts into the members heads about the positives and hopefully the crazies will die down soon.

Also, make sure that you follow your meeting agenda and do not let them disrupt meetings.

Rick,
Unfortunately these folks do have their right to attend meetings as well. But the Board or meeting leader must control the demeanor of the meeting. Do your bylaws address how members may speak at member or Board meetings? In Florida where I am from and still own rental property, members may ONLY speak at meetings if they have requested the right to do so in writting and this request must be on the agenda so there is the ability to control bad behavior to a point. Good Boards will listen to valid requests and issues. But Boards must also make the meetings comfortable for the other members who attend so that should be your first priority.

I frequently like Donna's advice, and only pick on this to further pick a point:

There are NO first amendment rights in a corporation board room, except what is granted to you by the corporation. (That said, be sure to check your state laws to see if they legislated something that requires an HOA to provide some). In general, if someone is ruining a meeting by being an ass, it's the chairman's fault for allowing those actions to continue.

Donna is dead on with her last line: Follow your meeting agenda (ie, set the rules and follow them) and don't let them disrupt.

You can also try the following:
ask for items being brought before the board to have a written summary statement for easy inclusion in the minutes
after a speaker has had their two minutes, have someone on the board carefully read a fact based statement of summation on the issues brought forth, for inclusion in the minutes, along with a statement of who brought forth the 'facts' and statements (ie, tie the person to the outrageous statements in writing)
ask probing questions, seeking clarifications and facts. play "reporter", and ask for sources of information and claims, evidence, etc. of those bringing them. Turn the spotlight on them to prove their claims.

You'll have to excuse the long posting, but when I first read your topic I thought it was from one of my fellow board members because the scenario is so similar to one we face with the previous president going on 3+ years now. We receive emails 2-5+ pages long that attack practically everything we're required to accomplish. They actually put forth '13 Motions' at the last HOA meeting as if we didn't have enough to cover. The individual is not rational and highly manipulative which wears members down. We're volunteers after all and don't need this on top of our regular day to day lives, but if we don't stand in their way of undermining the board, we're sure that he'll attempt a return to power and the association can't afford a return to their failed fiduciary policies. You can't deal with individuals like these rationally since they're not normal; they thrive on being contrary and combative.

You may want to check out the book by Dr. Simon: "In Sheep's Clothing: Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People" Excellent. It covers a myriad of personality traits and tactics used by manipulators. At least it helps you to understand the kind of individual(s) you're dealing with so you can minimize the affects of these irrational people.

Keep in mind to keep a record of all communications. Be careful not to slander or libel the individual's. Whoever has the association records ought to spend some time doing a review of the past board's actions or inactions since they may just be hiding something that they did and prefer it not to be found out or have the desire to get back into office so they can continue their former activity without prying eyes. The reason I say this is because the former president's continued harassment caused us to do just that and while we didn't find any financial manipulations; not that there wasn't; we did find issues such as taxes not being filed; required meetings not held or recorded though they were referenced; late fees written off; finances not invested as required; allowing a member approx. 2 years behind in their dues and not in good standing to join the board; etc. Suggests collusion. They all point to failure of their fiduciary duties and subject to lawsuit if the membership saw fit to do so.

Get input from your property manager. This past year our property manager really helped to get us through some of this with the following advice:
**********************************************************************************************
Think about what is the worst thing that can happen should you and your board choose not to read all of his "tirades". Then once you identified what that is, ask yourself, "can we live with it". If you can, then don't worry about not reading his stuff. If you can't, then design a game plan to get through it.

Put him on notice: #1 - That the board has received his correspondence and will address it the next time they meet as a "whole". Help him to understand that there will be no immediate response to his emails. #2 - That in the future the board would appreciate it if he only communicated with one member of the board and it will be that member's responsibility to bring the matter before the entire board. You as a board can decide who that person should be. #3 - That at future board meetings, if he would like to discuss anything that there will be time allotted on the timed agenda during the "homeowner's forum" portion of the meeting for him to speak. This means that you will need, as a board, to have a timed agenda that everyone, including the board, sticks with.

As long as the board members are making good business decisions and can document what you have done in overseeing the operations of the community, the individual really won’t have a leg to stand on if you go to court. It’s called the “Business Judgment Rule”. Court usually won’t happen, because they’d have to spend the money to do so. Stick to your policies and procedures, be consistent, and document everything and you should be fine. You, as a board, could seek that same legal advice as to how you could have an attorney respond to all the former members accusations.

****Prior to the HOA meeting the 13 motions were proposed and our property manager stated that we need to up the ante.***

You folks need to talk to an attorney immediately. I would also recommend that you have him/her present at your meeting if possible. You can even have the attorney conduct the meeting. It's my understanding that this individual can not make motions from the floor. However, the attorney could better enlighten you on this.
**************************************************************************************************

While he hasn't stopped meddling, this is an example of how we replied to his messages from that point forward:

****************************************************
The Board of Directors of XYZ Homeowners' Association acknowledges receipt of your email and attachment.

The motions proposed will be addressed during the "other business" section of the annual homeowners' meeting as time permits and not to the exclusion of business discussion or motions presented by other homeowners.
**********************************************************************

Good luck!

Is this person disruptive to Board Meetings?

Do you have an open floor section of the meeting?
Are their state laws requiring the member to ask for time on the agenda to discuss items?

I can totally understand how you all feel. We had 1 previous board member that never did anything and barely showed up for meetings when they were on the board and yet after they were removed they chose to attend meetings and be beligerant to the sitting Board. We had another member who was a previous board member that took it upon herself to do things around the neighborhood when she didnt like a Board response (wripping out plantings etc..)

Our solution. We have a deputy sheriff that we pay off duty to patrol our neighborhood 8 hours per week. On the week of the Board meeting he is present at the meeting and then patrols either before or after.

It is very helpful having a deputy there. People in general are more respectful when he is there and if someone chooses to be horrible to us during the meeting we can adjourn have them removed and reconvene. We have had to do this one to the 1st former board member.

As was said before FL has a law requiring that the member send a request be added to the agenda to be recognized at a board meeting. While we havent had to really enforce this it is nice knowing that its there if it gets bad.

As far as your PM - we have had individuals within our sub that have been rude and harrassing to our PM as well. When she gets one of those emails it generally comes to the Board from her, one of us responds to the individual, copies our PM, and her boss at the management company. In a couple of pretty bad incidents our letters have bluntly told the member that we authorize the PM to not respond to them if they choose to harass further.

They are extremely disruptive at board meetings. When they do not attend, it is a night and day difference (better).

It is true that we need to stick to our mtg rules and it is largely a failure of our pres. to enforce that consist., as he doesn't want to be like them (the former board). I keep saying we are diff. but order at mtgs is a must.

They tend to abuse the talking time and act out angrily when someone tries to tell them thx but yur time is up. They also talk, snicker and make rud comments during the mtgs. They also try to get up and make a scene but most in attendance just look at them and roll their eyes in disgust.

I like the deputy idea. What does that cost roughly?

It is like a 4 hour min and we pay both the deputy and the county. Deputy for his hours and the county for the use of the county vehicle to patrol.

Its like 27-30 per hour or something.

We started out using it as a deterrent from crime. 2 neighboring subs and us each do 8 hours each per week and the deputies patrol all 3 subs for 4 hours at a pop so we get a total of 24 hours of visibility. It works out well and they patrol in both marked and unmarked cars.