President wants BOD and ARC to follow CC&Rs!

I am an HOA board president, just entering my second year. I and several others, including a long time board member, were elected to oust a "judge/jury/executioner" style Board, who, along with the ARC, preferred to ignore the CC&Rs and FL Statutes and play by their own rules.

Now I am dealing with two longtime ARC members who feel they can continue the ways of the old regime (ignoring CC&Rs when it suits them, and "laying down the law" when it presents an opportunity to victimize someone.)

On top of that I have a Board member who is not adhering to the CC&Rs in the way his property is managed and is now installing a fence without ARC approval because the ARC omitted his application from their agenda because he dropped it off with an ARC member, not the Mgt. Co. Another Board member did the same, but WAS included.

Long story short, it is an ongoing battle of pettiness and vindictiveness among some ARC and Board folks who aren't willing/able to read/follow/understand the CC&Rs and Florida statutes.

I believe in operating by the book; and think by doing so, problems should be eliminated for the most part. However, polite requests to operate in accordance w/the CC&Rs to our offending ARC members and to a lesser extent, one Board member, have been met with personal attacks against me.

I am entirely fed up with a few people constantly creating problems just for the sake of drama. Have any of you dealt with this? I need some advice on how to address this situation, short of standing up at our next meeting and announcing I am tired of dealing with the BS, getting rid of our wayward Board member, and disbanding the ARC!

It's likely that you are required to have an architectural committee (read your documents to be sure). However, members of the committee typically serve at the pleasure of the Board. Make a motion at the next board meeting, take a vote, then (expecting the vote passes) go to the individuals home and thank them for their past service but future service is no longer required. Then ask to be given all the architectural committee files they have in their possession.

When they ask why, simply respond that it was a board decision. There is no need to go into further details.

Thank you for the replies. We have 6 on the Board now, and one vacant seat. That is the problem with getting rid of the ARC members; we will have a hard time finding two folks to replace them. Our CC&Rs require 3, and we do have the power to remove them. However, finding anyone to join the ARC is a problem; which is why I would prefer to work things out with the existing members; and get to a place where everyone can perform their role in compliance w/the Cc&Rs.

I think the majority of the Board would support the removal of the 2 problem ARC members. And for the *most* part, the Board is in agreement on the majority of issues; I am not being attacked by the other BOD members.

However, recently, when e-mailing the ARC at the request of the BOD (sent from me as Pres. and copied to BOD)to operate their committee in accordance with the CC&R and citing the specific CC&Rs, etc. they needed to comply with, one of the ARC members replied only to me with a personal attack that contained accusations, etc. having nothing to do with the issue at hand. This ARC member and another seem to think they can continue to make up the rules as they go along and just seem beyond resentful that the current BOD (i.e. ME as Pres.)has called them out on it.

There is a history here, since the current BOD ousted the old BOD for this exact type of behavior, however these two committee members who were/are in cahoots w/the old BOD remained in place as there was no one willing to take on the ARC roles.

I feel silly having to explain this childish drama, but there it is. I just want it to end. It is starting to feel like there is no way to resolve it as attempts to reach out to them and put personal differences aside have failed. I think they prefer the strife and drama and take every opportunity to stir it up.

That is why I have to get onto the one BOD member about being in compliance, because these folks are looking for any excuse to stir the pot and I feel we need to be beyond reproach in our examples as a Board in order to maintain credibility.

I do believe that it's harder to find volunteers for the Architectural Committee than it is for finding volunteers to serve on the Board. One does have to ask what is best for the Association. Perhaps placing two board members on the Committee until replacements can be found is better than allowing those two committee members to cause issues within the Association.

We hardly had anyone on our ARC. However, whatever decisions they made had to go through the board anyways. So we operated without an ARC and made the decisions ourselves. I'd invite the board members over to the situation and we would discuss it. Our decision was the final one. So just because your HOA allows for a committee and it to have a certain number of volunteers, does not mean it has to have one.

So . . . John46 agrees with earlier suggestions including mine to dump the existing ARC.

Our CC&Rs require an ARC of three, so to not have an ARC isn't an option. Our State's Corp Code does permit directors to serve on committees, so in the best interests of your HOA as a whole, you may need an ARC of directors if permitted by your bylaws or state, Jennifer.

In the meantime, I don't think you've mentioned why your Board isn't fining the director who's in violation of your ARC rules?