Nominating Committee

Our Board recently appointed on of its directors to be the chairperson of the Nominating Committee. I thought that it was either illegal or inappropriate for a board director to be on the nminating committee. If so, where in the law is it stated so that I can refer to it, as well as refer the board to it.

Generally. only a person whose seat is up for election/re-election and who intends to run for re-election should not serve on a nominating committee.

Richard as far as I can tell there is nothing in the law prohibiting a Board member from serving on the election committee.

720.306 Meetings of members; voting and election procedures; amendments.—
(9)(a)  ELECTIONS AND BOARD VACANCIES.—Elections of directors must be conducted in accordance with the procedures set forth in the governing documents of the association. All members of the association are eligible to serve on the board of directors, and a member may nominate himself or herself as a candidate for the board at a meeting where the election is to be held or, if the election process allows voting by absentee ballot, in advance of the balloting. Except as otherwise provided in the governing documents, boards of directors must be elected by a plurality of the votes cast by eligible voters.
(b) A person who is delinquent in the payment of any fee, fine, or other monetary obligation to the association for more than 90 days is not eligible for board membership. A person who has been convicted of any felony in this state or in a United States District or Territorial Court, or has been convicted of any offense in another jurisdiction which would be considered a felony if committed in this state, is not eligible for board membership unless such felon’s civil rights have been restored for at least 5 years as of the date on which such person seeks election to the board. The validity of any action by the board is not affected if it is later determined that a member of the board is ineligible for board membership.

You can see all of the HOA statutes here: http://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2011/Chapter720

I may have missed something, Richard. Are you saying that no one can seek election by HOA members unless they'r selected by the nominating committee?

Or are you saying, that the director/nominating committee member picks his buddies and then the HOA membership votes them onto the board?

Or, are you talking about vacancies on the board (due to resignation, for example) which the board generally has the authority to fill?

Glen: Thanks for your response but please note my question . . . . . . the election committee is not our problem Its the NOMINATING Committee.
The Board Member who is chairing this committee only picks residents who are friends of the (very controlling) board.

I thought that the Nomination Committee was supposed to be unrelated residents who seek out qualified applicants with relevant experience.

Our Bylaws say:

The Nominating Committee shall consists of a Chairman, who shall be a member of the Board of Directors, and three or more Members of the Association.

No Carol . . . others can apply but the Nominating Committee goes door-to-door collecting proxies assigned to the President, who then casts these votes for his "pals". We have only 101 homes and the committee solicits proxies from our older residents who never attend meetings, are too old to care, tells untruths about the qualifications of "their" candidate, etc. At the last election, a very qualified woman received only 23 votes, while the president (with the proxies) and the rest of the board cast 38 votes for one of their (unqualified) friends. And yes, nominations from the floor at the Annual Meeting can qualify, but by then, it is too late for that person to get few, if any, votes.

All

I am of the belief that one can also override/cancel a proxy with a later proxy.

Meaning on June 12 I give A my proxy to vote for B (or for whatever) then on June 13 I change my mind and give B my proxy. Thus if omeone says well I lready gave my proxy, you can get them to change their mind.

First of all, if you want to know what is or isn’t legal, you need to talk to an attorney since most people here aren’t lawyers. Or you can check the homeowner association statutes in Florida – they should be online somewhere. Having said that, not everything in HOA land will be addressed in your documents or by state or local statute, nor should they be (sometimes the issue can be resolved by simply applying some common sense.)

In this case, I agree with those who say if a board member is also up for re-election, he/she shouldn’t serve on this nominating committee – there may not be a law or anything in your documents addressing this, but the optics are really bad. Not to mention you can end up with a situation like yours, where only the board members’ cronies have a chance of getting elected.

Personally, I think HOA nominating committees are completely unnecessary. Usually, the primary requirement to run for a board seat is (1) you have to be an owner (but if you’re a co-owner and the other one is already a board member, you’re ineligible unless he/she steps down) and (2) be current in all assessments. After that, qualified candidates” is subjective – ask five or 15 people what they’d like to see in an HOA board member and you’ll get five or 15 different opinions.

I think it’s easier to (1) set a deadline when people should indicate their interest in running, (2) n publish something in the community newsletter or the website providing basic information about the candidates, such as their name, how long he/she’s been in the community, job occupation, hobbies, etc. (3) sponsor a “meet the candidates” event where homeowners could come out, hear brief statements by each candidate on why he/she wants to be elected and then a Q and A session. After all that, have the election and may the best person win.

Back to your documents – do they require all candidates be approved by this committee before they can run? Do they state exactly what the committee supposed to? If it appears the committee members are only approving their friends and that’s contrary to your documents, you and like-minded homeowners need to get together and call out them AND the board. If they ignore you, go back to your documents and see what it’ll take to hold a special meeting to dump the board.

From there, you can change the makeup of the committee, as most committees work at the pleasure of the board, who charter them. Or consider urging homeowners to consider amending the documents to dump nominating committees altogether – the problems you mention would be a great reason to do this.

I concur with your advice, Carol.

The practice is sleazy, but it's not illegal unless it runs afoul of your docs.

Hahahaha - you are a jewel, Richie!!!

Thanks for bringing to remembrance a saying my former mentor liked to share periodically: "Some people are born with a bellyache, and they'll die with a bellyache..."