Not quite a rouge board member, but....

If it ain't one thing, it's something else...

Wehave a board member who's basically a nice guy, but not very responsible when it comes to his rental unit. for the last three years or so, he's gotten periodic letters from the Association on the appearance of his townhome (ripped window screens, mismatched patio fence {wood fence, vinyl gate}) and lately, it appears the children who live in the unit have been misbehaving. If the lady living across from him is to be believed, these kids play at all hours of the night, bounce balls everywhere (sometimes hitting cars) and when people try to correct them, they get royally cussed out. The parents aren't much better - they have a habit of not paying attention when they park their cars, scratching the ones next to them because they're waytooclose.

Twice in the past year, we've discussed this in board meetings, telling the guy he really needs to take care of his property and get his tenants under control 9how can we, as a board go after people with messed up exteriors when our own house is out of order?) He's mmade promises, kept a few (he did address the fence), but mostly, it appears he has no idea how much he's ticking off the neighbors (or maybe he just doesn't care because he lives across town and doesn't see it every day)..

Last month, the neighbor who's complained the most about him came to a meeting and took up all of the resident forum and a few minues of the regular meeting putting this guy on blast, and frankly, I don't blame her. He said the tenant was leaving in May (the guy was supposed to be leaving in January) - and now, our vice president has told me the man is planning to keep his tenant because...the tenant wants to stay, he's upset that everyone ganged up on him at the last meeting (not true) and his attorney says the Board can't make him get rid of the guy (which, sadly, is true).

Our bylaws state there are only two ways to get rid of someone once they've been appointed and later re-elected to the board if they don't resign (1) the homeowners can prepare a petition to recall him or her, or (2) he or she misses three conscecutive meetings. Incidently, meeting attendence was a problem with this guy at first, but he seems to have gotten that together.

I've seen where other people have discussed censuring board members behaving badly or asking them to resign and wondered if anyone has any suggestions on what we should do next. right now, I'm thinking the best we can do at this point is to go into executive session at our next meeting (two weeks away) and deal with this issue once and for all. If he doesn't quit, could we at least compel him to have a sit down with his tenant and the neighbor so they can resolve their differences once and for all?

By the way, to hear this lady tell it, everyone in the immediate area of this unit feel the same way she does, but unfortunately, she's the only one who's spoken truth to power - somehow, I think if all of them had come to the last meeting, he'd go ahead with sending this tenant on his way.

In case you're wondering how this joker wound up on the board, the sad reality is we were down to three board members (out of seven) three years ago and after a strongly worded article on receivership written by moi, this guy came forward. At that time, I put him on the defensive about the fence, after which he did fix it, but then these people moved in and here's where we are today.

Any ideas and comments are welcome!

Just as serving as Director and serving as an Officer are two different positions that are typically held be the same person, serving as Director and being a member are two different things as well (at least this is a good way to look at things).

As a member, this individual is responsible for the upkeep of his property and the actions of his tenants.

As a Director, this individual has one vote on issues that are before the Board.

If a member is not complying with the governing documents, then follow the procedures outlined in your governing documents to gain compliance. If that member happens to be a Director, so what. An Association must apply the rules equally to all members.