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DorisW (Florida)
Posts: 24
Posted:
To all of you who were following my issues with the women on the "Advisory Committee" that has control over our association, I thought it only polite to tell you I as acting President & another Board Member resigned yesterday. That makes the whole New Board plus one Director from the old Board in 2 months.

I was forced to take the ByLaws to a lawyer to review after I was told that the Board was going to elect new officers first before filling the open position of the former President resigning.

I called Sharon to get a check & she refused to give me one. As acting President I feel I had a right to since when does an advisory board person have checks in her possession but no Board Members do? She refused so I was foced to go to the Bank on a Sunday at 3PM to get one.
Luckily our bank is open on Sunday until 4PM. I also heard that she called Trademark that handles our bills, etc not to give me any checks.

The lawyer reviewed the documents & said we must fill the directr seat first. We we couldn't then take it to an election. Then after the seat was filled to pick new officers. Her intention was to get me out of the President seat as fast as possible so I would not have ANY other control over the meeting. Her plan didn't work so she went actually to Plan C.
To have the two directors she has control of to call a information meeting it was called (no infomation was given) they just ganged up on me & asked me to resign for petty reasons that I annoyed them with e-mails telling them I needed them to do their jobs they signed on to do. One Director in two months NEVER even returned my phone calls & they other one said I harassed her. When I did get her on the phone she said she only had 10 minutes to talk to me. And Sharon had her "member" crowd in th audience supporting her. She just sat there & NEVER even said a work.

I hesitated going to this meeting but someone talked me in to it so if it was to be against me I would be there to defend myself. This woman is scary & untouchable.

I called the Florida License bureau since she is managing the assocation without a license & does not own any property in the association. They told me if she is a volunteer & does NOT get paid a salary then there is very little they can do. She is not stupid. Her & the old President that ran the place for the last 8 years must have a financial gain in all this. She was so desperate to keep control after I was on to her that they (Sharon & Tony) wanted to put a former woman on the Board that almost put the condos in receivership. When Tony took over he had to lien the buildings for over $40,000. to cover the insurance, etc. I spoke up to the audience & let them hear all this but I don't know what effect it had. Sharon signed checks & contracts for Tony & the license board told me Tony would have to swear to it even though I have her matched signature.

I know my positon on the Board is over but what can I do to stop this woman. You are all smart people here & someone must have a suggestion.

Doris

JohnB26 (South Carolina)
Posts: 1,569
Posted:
at this point, since you quit and restored her 'power', you have few options, one being to petition the appropriate court to appoint a 'receiver' for the corporation

however, this will probably require the service(s) of an attorney (at YOUR expense)

if it were me, i'd cut my losses and RUN far far away from ANY property having CCRs or any 'common elements'

CAVEAT EMPTOR
JanetB2 (Colorado)
Posts: 4,219
Posted:
Hi Doris:

I wish you had checked with those of us on this site before resigning. Once you resign you potentially loose majority of control. The only other option depending on who the board appoints/elects to replace the positions will potentially be a recall if the members replacing do not properly perform their positions and if you can get a majority of homeowners to also take the same position.

Your property is the number one major investment you make and yet you chose to allow another individual take front row seat who does not own property in the association.

Sorry … I’m not sure what more to say …

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,062
Posted:
Doris,

I agree with Janet that you had more options being on the board.

As you know, I am not an attorney and I do not work within the legal profession. Based on my experience, I see that every member has the following options:

1) Attend every board meeting to keep informed. Although you will have a right to speak for a limited time, as a member you have no vote in board decisions.

2) Solicit the membership for petitions to start a recall campaign. It is a lot of work and you will need to have others willing to serve.

3) Solicit the membership to call a special meeting to vote on changes to their governing documents.

4) Run for the Board again.

5) As others said you could petition the courts for receivership. HOWEVER if the current board is maintaining the common area, providing required services and paying the bills, you likely won't win. If you did win, the annual assessment would automatically increase to cover the salary of the receiver. The membership would have little if any say until the receiver calls an election and informs the court that receivership is no longer needed. Because of the increase in assessments and membership lack of say in the Association, you would likely not be seen as a hero.

6) The other option is to inform the membership of what is happening within their association. Then, at the next election, hope that an informed membership will make an informed decision when voting for a new board. This is the option I took in my Association and it took me three years before changes occurred.

NOTE: If you choose this option you must fully understand that anything you print or say is subject to legal action against you for libel or slander. If you take this option you may not, I repeat NOT, allow emotions or personal opinion to enter into any communication (verbal, letter, e-mail) or publication (newsletter, flyer). You should only identify the facts. Provide references that can be independently verified (State laws, association minutes, budgets, checks, etc.) and let them speak for themselves as this is the only way to defend yourself in any slander/libel legal challenge (and based on what you have posted you should expect such legal challenges from the current board and/or the advisory committee).

Doris,

I've provided options as I see them. Personally, based on your posts within this forum, I think you are too close to the issues to run an informational campaign without the possibility of legal action being taken against you. If this occurs, you would find your time energy and money being spent defending yourself and life is too short to have that impact your life. Therefore, I do not recommend that you take that approach.

I would recommend that you gather support and offer a whole new slate of nominees at the next election. This way, the membership will have a choice.

I hope this helps,

Tim

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