HOA did not notify residents of vote

Hello! I am new to the site and joined because of a situation I just faced. I'm the President of my HOA Board. This past week, the board decided to vote on something that was a significant issue for the resdidents and did so without having notified the residents of the agenda item. I've been told that HOA's are supposed to post an agenda four days prior to a meeting and allow residents to attend the meeting if they have feedback on an agenda item. The item was the removal of the entry gates to the property (people have to be buzzed-in). I voted against the motion because I felt it was wrong to even have the vote without residents being notified. The other three board members, all of whom live in units that are next to the gates and thus bothered by the noise, voted yes. I am getting ready to resign from the board as I cannot be part of a group that so egregiously ignores its responsibility to the residents who voted them into place.
My question is...do the residents have any recourse to change the vote or address the fact that they were not notified when they should have been? I appreciate your help.
BTW...we are in southern california. Thank you!!

I appreciate the feedback, thank you. I don't appreciate the rude comment about my football, but I've learned that people can be thoughtless and make disrespectful comments before understanding a situation. To each his own. I actually had the manager of our management company at the meeting and she said that the HOA could indeed hold this vote despite not having notified the board. Please don't reply with anything snarky. But do know that I am appreciative to you for your feedback.

Hunter I'm sorry if you felt my comment was "snarky" but you are the one who posted: I am getting ready to resign from the board as I cannot be part of a group that so egregiously ignores its responsibility to the residents who voted them into place.

If you are willing to throw in the towel after one vote that didn't go your way, I have to wonder at your level of commitment and wonder how betrayed your fellow homeowners will feel after voting you onto the Board. As they say: "If your not part of the solution, your part of the problem.

Whether you stay on the Board or not, Hunter, you need to know more about its obligations so that you can protect yourself as a homeowner from arbitrary & capricious boards.

Four-day notice of meetings of the Board is a crucial way to protect owners from self-serving directors who aren't looking out for the best interests of your entire community. Are your new on the Board? How did you come to be president?

How many units are in your HOA?

Before we go further, Hunter. Why do you have a Board of only four--most Boards are odd numbers to try to avoid tie votes?

What was the reason given to you for why the notice of the meeting wasn't posted? Who's responsible for posting notices of meetings and posting the required agenda? Does your Property Mgr. (PM) make & post the agendas like ours does?

Hunter, you wrote: "I actually had the manager . . . at the meeting and she said that the HOA could indeed hold this vote despite not having notified the board." Please clarify this for me: are you saying the homeowners (your "HOA") voted? "Not having notified the Board is murky to me--please clarify.

Anyway, your PM is wrong!! You never should have even discussed this item. But your PM might be protected because your contract with the mgmt. company very well may state that the Board is responsible for knowing CA law

As president, do you have the authority to contact your HOA attorney? Are phone calls to him/her free like ours are? Whther free or not, this is a very serious matter in CA so phone the attorney an ask for advice. Tell her/him that you thinks there's a conflict of interest and ask whether the three other directors should recuse themselves from voting.

When the board voted to remove the gate, did they consider any associated costs and how the removal would be paid for? Did you have estimates from contractors? If none of the above, its' another good reason to call a new meeting. If I were you, i'd call a "special Meeting of the Board." Specify that the only agenda item is removal of the gate and related financial implications.

As president, you may call this meeting, makes sure it's posted and publicize it. Now the other three directors may decide not to not attend, in which case you wouldn't have a quorum and would not be able to take any action (vote) on anything. But you still cow get owners' opinions about this topic.

Excuse all of my typos, Hunter. Go to Davis-stirling.com to learn a lot about CA HOAs from HOA attorneys--the Main Index is very useful.

Wow - I have followed this forum for a few years now, and have never seen Glen say anything "snarky" including this one. His comments are always some of the best and I for one have learned so much from him. Hunter - you need to be thankful that we have people like him out there to help us!!

Hey folks. I am a new homeowner of my first home in a brand new development. The HOA is new and I was just elected President. Our management company didn't have formal documentation regarding running an HOA and so I have relied on their feedback as well as Google searches specific to California to understand what my role and responsibilites are. Challenge is, that situations like the one I experienced aren't written anywhere...or at least I was unsuccessful finding anything. And when my management company told me that despite the rules stating that residents be notified, the board could go ahead and have a vote anyway, I felt backed into a corner with no way out. That is when I found this site. I came here legitimately looking for help. And yes, I am very grateful and appreciative for the feedback. I just believe that people can be helpful and make a point, even give feedback to someone that he/she really screwed up, and be kind doing it. Cutting someone down, especially when he/she is looking for help because he has no experience from which to draw upon for something like this is hot helpful and in many ways, just plain mean. And I don't think we join communities like this to give or receive that kind of comment. It's just my opinion as a first-timer to this site. I'm not bashing the guy who made the comment, but as someone new to HOA's, being a homeowner, et al it simply would have been nice if the first response had been help and support without the commentary. Thank you, all again, for your feedback. I've actually gone to the head of our management company who continues to tell me that the board can hold votes without notifying the residents so I find all of this very confusing.

Hunter,

Here is some information that might help you fulfill the duties of being President:

The HOA Presidents Role from the Community Association Management website

Board of Directors Duties from the CA Association of HOAs

There are others. Just do a web search for duties of an HOA president

Say, Hunter below is the wording in the Open Meeting Act of CA Civil Code. I cannot imagine why an experienced property Mgr. AND also the head of the mgmt. firm would tell you that a vote was OK when the topic was not posted on the meeting agenda.

Tim's citation also is useful to help you learn your new role.

Again I'd like to ask you if, as president, you have authority to phone your HOA attorney. S/he can further clarify the agenda issue and also tell you whether those other directors have a conflict of interest re: the gate topic.

In my opinion, this wording is crystal clear!

MEETING AGENDA REQUIRED
(Civ. Code §1363.05(f).) With the following exceptions, boards are not allowed to discuss or take action on any item not on the agenda. As provided for in Civil Code §1363.05(i):

Board members and their agents (including managers) may briefly respond to statements or questions from association members, ask clarifying questions, make brief announcements, or make brief reports on their own activities.

Boards may refer certain informational matters and administrative tasks to its managers, agents and staff--even if these items were not listed on the agenda.

Any subject may be discussed and acted upon if there is an emergency, if immediate action is needed on a matter which arose after the agenda was distributed, or if the item was on a recent agenda and was continued to the current meeting.

Read more: Meeting Agenda Required http://www.davis-stirling.com/MainIndex/MeetingAgendaRequired/tabid/1270/Default.aspx#ixzz2TmgLUqqn
from Davis-Stirling.com by Adams Kessler PLC.

Hi, I also live in California and was a member of a HOA. We moved out due to continued illegal actions and arbitrary enforcement of rules.

From what you've told us, you might need a new management company. When we went to court, the board was acting on faulty advice from the insurance company. They were willing to be in contempt of court. An attorney should NOT have been necessary to insure we could attend meetings or have access to the insurance documents, but because the insurance agent advised the board to refuse us, we did. This cost the insurance company tens of thousands of dollars out of court. So you can imagine how much it could have cost the insurance company if we had gone to court.

Our HOA was so troubled we went through three management agencies in two years.

The HOA board can only discuss issues that are on the agenda. Should this become an issue, this is something that cannot be handled in small claims court. It would have to go to a higher court. Our HOA was fined $600 in small claims court plus fees and that was outside of the award we received from the insurance company.

I think besides looking at the Agenda item codes (which requires at least a 4-day notification), you should look at civil code 4360 (old civil code 1357.130). This requires a 30-day notification for a rule change and material alteration in appearance. Any repair or replacement or alteration in the appearance of the development usually requires membership approval. An exception is made for those alterations required by city, county or state law.

How it should work in my estimation is:
1. The item is announced on the agenda.
2. The item is discussed and wording for the proposal is decided upon.
3. The item is sent out as a proposal to the membership with the exact wording. Pros and cons are listed. A date is set for the next meeting where there will be a forum that the members can give comments.
4. After discussion you may decide to amend the proposal and then start over again.

The feature you are discussing (gates) might make the community a closed community (gated community) and provide security. If this is the case, then you might need to discuss how the security provided by the gates will be maintained without the gates. You may have some families who moved there specifically because it is a gated community.

BTW, our CC&R required 10-day notification except in the case of an emergency so you should check your CC&R. The CC&R also included language related to material alterations and/or capital improvements which could be anything from a change of color scheme to new landscaping to adding awnings.