Discrimination in housing

Frank,

Completely step away from any morality issues on this. As the President, your job is to lead the Board to compliance with all Federal, State, local and the governing documents for your association.

Enter the Federal laws. The Fair Housing Act says that no one may refuse housing to anyone based on color of their skin. That is plain and simple. Okay, so deny this guy his right to purchase in the Coop and see how fast a lawsuit is brought upon the association. It won't come from the prospective buyer but from the big guns in the NAACP and so on. This is the 21st century. What are these other Directors thinking?

Run a copy of the FHA and make everyone who is being ignorant about this, read it. Do the right thing and insure that the laws are being followed. Even in Florida, you are required to follow the FHA laws.

That's all your HOA would need - to be slapped with a Civil Rights violation!!

PS - I hope that your board's overt statements are not in the minutes!!

Frank,

Are you following State Statutes 718?

Frank,

Here is another thing to consider. Since you, and your fellow board members are aware of the fair housing requirement of non-discrimination (it would be hard to prove otherwise) disregard of the law in your decision making will nullify your D&O insurance coverage for this issue if the people want to bring legal action. Therefore, each member of the Board will have to pay for legal expenses out of their own pocket and would be personally responsible for any damages awarded by the court.

Once the issue is known to the members, I suspect that the Association would refuse to cover any legal expenses associated with the case as well.

Additionally, as the executive body of the corporation, the Board could be held responsible for any Federal and State criminal charges that may be associated with the issue (I don't know if there are any, as I have never checked into the possibility).

Ask the board members if they are willing to lose everything they have when they make that decision.

Tim

Donna, we are governed by Florida statutes 719 and 723, primarily. The First right of refusal is in our prospectus defined as 81.64 pg.289 and it refers to "lesee" and "membership certificate". Redefined, in the document "lesee" is the unit owner and Membership certificate is defined as a share in the corporation. Tim, In other incidents, where the board did not act on by laws, in the past, our attorney said it is as if the
Board gave license to not complying with the rules. One such incident involved the "no pets" restriction which existed from the organization of the park, to present. People were refused entry, based on that rule, yet every board member had a 4 legged pet or two. The attorney said, by their own inexcusable behavior, the Board reversed the first decision, by action, rather than by decree. Also, I vote, only in case of a tie. We establish a quorum, which is not based on the president's attendance. I follow in the footsteps of a president, who was solely" running the place" and he never asked the board's opinion on anything. He was an officer out of control. I, on the other hand, give most responsibility to the Board members, except when I believe they are wrong. I try to instill a sense of civility and conduct the meetings rigidly. Frank L 4

As Donna answered my question as I intended it, I called an emergency board meeting, at Noon, today. I asked the board members, again, what their thoughts were. They all attended a coffee social, which we hold every Tuesday morning in the Rec. Hall and asked folks, who were there, what they thought of having blacks in the park. Only one person had a negative comment. It may have softened their view point, but I asked again for a vote. 2 of the members changed their votes and I declared the acceptance of our new neighbors. Had it come to locking horns with them, I would have iterated what Donna said. I did tell them, their ignorance causes them to vote according to prejudices which will not exist on this board, as long as I remain president. I thank HOA for giving us a venue to learn from each other.Frank L4

Thanks, Tim! As you and others have said, to break civil rights laws is suicide. That was not the basis for my decision to confirm our prospective neighbors. Yes, the other directors were influenced by that harsh reality and by the positive feedback, they were surprised to hear, earlier this morning. Our former president told a Mexican American he couldn't live amongst us because " We can't understand a word you're sayhing". Yeah, ignorance runs rampant, even in God's Waiting Room! Again, thanks for being here! Frank L4