Obstructing committee service

This is in California. I am a past board member of an old, large, 55+, self-managed HOA. After much struggle, I have managed to get the current board to agree to look into the feasibility of changing over to a professional management company. They have formed a committee, but the board member-chairperson has barred me from serving on the committee... saying that "because I brought the issue up... I cannot serve". This runs counter to all my background in the private and public sector. Generally speaking most of the board seems to be against the notion of changing management styles and is supporting my NOT serving on this committee. What to do? How to avoid the "stacked-deck" outcome of this committee? Thank You.

Thanks for your reply. We have a history of the board being driven by the same "retreads" and a very tight relationship with our long time Administrator. As has been said often on these forums, FRIENDSHIPS seem to rule the day more than guidelines, Docs, and even laws -(hard to prove). Much gets done in executive sessions that is not appropriate and there is an air of secrecy and hidden agenda.
- I don't want to push it "my way"... I am solely concerned with openness and honesty. The initial research done indicated that the owners MAY save as much as $100,000/yr. - (probably less). The way things are going... many here think we should operate more like a business vs. the good-old-boy club that gives our administrator 10% raises without good reason or research. As in many places there is a tremendous amount of board-decision history that is questionable. It has gotten so bad that an owners group has formed in order to try and provide referenced, factual information to the community on the boards doings. Anyone not "drinking the cool-aid" is, of course a pariah, scorned and negative rumors often start about them. Just a typical HOA.... I am too old and cannot afford to sell... but will never recommend being in an HOA again.

Is not your "Administrator" in reality not your "Property Manager"?

Does not the BOD/majority seem to like the way things are?

Maybe the answer is changing the BOD.

Michael, Is your "administrator" a certified property manager, or what? Is s/he onsite & full time?

Take Brad's advice. In Cali, if a majority of Board is on the committee, it must hold open meetings, with the agenda posted four days in advance, and an open forum must be included. Do your best to get your neighbors to join you.

What size/type of HOA are you? Saving 100K sounds like a lot!

Melissa is wrong about MC's--unless the board is totally ignorant and lazy!

How is Melissa wrong?

Lets see if I can supply more detail:
- Yes, our Administrator is our associations employee and she is the equivalent of a Management person here 40 hrs/wk. She has one full time employee-assistant and a part-time transcriptionist. There are almost 800 units in our Programed Unit Development. We have a 9 member board that meets every two weeks for at least 3 to 4 hours then typically goes into an Executive Session for an hour or so. It seems that the board is both doing a large part of the administrators job and coincident with this, micro-managing the place. Our administrator spends A LOT of time in meetings as we have a lot of committees. From our last years budget it costs us over $200k per year to run the front office. This does NOT include anything else other than expenses related to operating the Administrative functions. Our annual budget is almost $3 million. The administrator makes almost $80k/yr.
- The bottom line, as always, is money. It is commonly presented by owners at board meetings and any other public forum that many in our 55+ retirement community are having difficulty keeping up with living expenses. While the board laments this... they are plainly trying to stifle/control the outcome this issue of looking into a management company to possibly save money. Regardless of the chance to save some $ it is seen as a threat to the administrators job. As mentioned previously... the administrator has over the years gotten the stature as "a wonderful person" whom we cannot do without. Between the Sacred Friendships with the entrenched retreads on the board and what seems to be the typical senior citizen fear of change... she has endured despite a few large screw-ups.
- We did try a recall of the key problem member of the board. The board retaliated by starting a recall against the two board members that were "troublemakers" It turned out to be a waste of time and money. We learned that next time.... RECALL the ENTIRE board ! Even if there are some reasonable people on the board. All this, of course, makes it hard to get any new people interested in running for the board.
- I hope I answered some questions... Thanks !

Mel

It is a cost item to the OP. He does not like that it costs over $200K for the "front office" people. Like many, his income might not be keeping up with/exceeding his "costs" and he is looking at ways to "control" his costs.

I have no issues with this. My issue is people comong out and asking questions that beat around the bush versus aks outright.

A simple Yes or No question. Do you still beat your spouse?

Salt or no salt.