Why would a HOA not want to conform to new Ca Civil code?

ALSO..............

Why would a HOA NOT want to release meeting minutes or committee meeting minutes to the communities they serve.

What is this reasoning???

Thank you very much,
DH

LuciusD, What board or committee are you on in your association? Do you not want to be answerable to anyone for what they do? Do you want power without responsibility?

Unless you're a board or committee member and personally feel this way, I think you're making an unfair statement about the volunteers who serve their communities in those capacities.

As for committees keeping minutes, Let's take the welcoming committee: They visit new residents, take them copies of the association documents and possibly a basket of fruit or coupons. They're going to keep minutes of that?

How about the landscaping committee: They meet Saturday morning and plant flowers at the entrance. Again, they're supposed to keep minutes?

Minutes should be kept for membership meetings and board meetings and any other meeting where money is spent. Not for planting flowers.

Yes it's ALL a "conspiracy". Committee members want to rule the world and your home! Sounds like someone finally made a law that will bring the demise and downfall of committees and put them in their place! Whew!
Sorry...couldn't help myself....
A HOA can have multiple different committees if the members want or need them. Typically, there is a Archectual Control Committee (ACC) that governs the "uniformity" or "Appearance" of the homes/property. A clubhouse committee that handles renting or maintenance of the clubhouse. There can be a committees that involve HOA security. Any time there are areas of the HOA that could use VOLUNTEERS to organize, you can have a committee. (Board may need to agree to it).
Having stated that. Committees can NOT be funded by themselves. The money the HOA has is by the owners FOR the owners. If a committee needs money, they will have to report to the board or general membership. Example: The clubhouse committee finds people smoking in the bathrooms during parties. It's a no smoking facility. The committee can decide "Let's put smoke detectors in the bathrooms". That committee then goes to the board meeting and gives their "report". Requests that the board buy the smoke detectors. The board agrees if the clubhouse committee installs them. Later, whoever purchases the smoke detectors will turn over their receipt to the board (AFTER approval) who will submit it to the bookkeeper to reimburse.
This is how it is supposed to work. That means that ANY decision the committees make have to get approval from the board. Hence, these decisions should be in the meeting minutes per the law. There will also be financial records as well. Nothing is being "hidden". There may NOT be any notes or requests from the committees to the board. NOT all things that need to be done by committees require money or discussion with the board. If the ACC has the power to deny a fence, then why would they submit that to the board? It's usually only when a conflict arises that such issues would even be discussed at board level between the committee and board.

I am specifically referring to our Archetectural Committee where they have responsibilty to decided on view maintanence, tree removal, planning and approving community landscape renovations.

I feel I would like to be kept informed as to the decisions they make seeing as though we are finacially funding these projects. It seems as though this new Civil Code is designed for this purpose.

Why would you feel the community that supports these efforts through monthly dues should not have access to these minutes.

Understandably there would not be minutes to planting flowers.
Our HOA in fact requires that an Archetectural committee memeber enter the homes of the people who feel they need landscaping or tree trimming done in order to protect their view and then ususally finds that your request is not warranted. I feel it important to see how our money is being spent. Don't you agree?

Thank you for this response. From what you state here it appears that the excuse for complying with the civil code is not valid.

In other words it does not matter what relationship the Archetectural Committee has with the board, it just matters that the minutes must be made avaiable. Period.
Next question......

How do I get this enforced?????
Thank you all very much!
DH

How do you get anything enforced in a HOA? Simply by participating and doing the work. If you want to know what is going on in your HOA or other committees then JOIN those committees!
My simple advice is again PARTICIPATE! Your a member of the HOA, so act like one!

Especially thank you to Roger. I may ask for your opinion again. I think you speak straight up and make much sense.

Thank you very much,
DH

This is really a simple matter. Send them, via Certified Return Receipt, your request for the meeting minutes you are interest in. Start your sentence off with: Pursuant to the Sterling Davis Act I hereby request the following........

If they do not comply, go online to the CA Attorney General's office, get your complaint form and send it in. Be sure to mark the box where it's ok for the AG to copy them w/your complaint.

You'll get your meeting minutes soon after that. In California, it's the law.

There is a level of detail below which it doesn't matter. Do the association members need to know if I purchased a $6.00 lock for the sprinkler controls from Lowes or Home Depot? I don't think so and we didn't have a meeting and keep minutes to decide, I just picked it up when I was doing personal shopping and installed it when it was convenient to me. Anyone see a problem with that?

The landscape committee doesn't have to hold a meeting to decide what day and what time they will plant flowers. Suppose it rains that day? Do they call another meeting? Once the decision is made to plant flowers they can call or e-mail each other to pick a good day and time to meet.

Let's try to clarify this - Suppose the landscape committee decided to hire a contractor to plant the flowers - Would the date and time the landscaper is to do this work have to be placed in the minutes?

In a way, our board is also functioning as the MC since we don't have one. An MC would not keep minutes of maintenance items, they would just do them.

Requiring detailed meetings and minutes of everyday decisions could push boards to just hire a MC to handle the details. The association dues would increase significantly. Would this make the members happy?

DH, check what California says is a board meeting. In Florida, it is defined as a gathering of a majority of the board. It doesn't matter what we call it that is a board meeting in the legal definition. I would guess that California has the same legal definition and that every board meeting is open to the Owners; check your States Statutes.

For this reason, we never have more than a few board members on any committee to ensure that they can meet and discuss whatever they must in a timely manner. In Florida, all documents of the Association are available to any Owner that requests them. Check for that as well.