Domineering & Aggressive Board Member

We are a small Texas HOA with 3 board members and 145+ homeowners. We have a newly elected board member that has an attitude of "my way or the highway" that is causing a great deal of stress with the president, the other board members and officers. It as if no one else can do right. He is confrontational and wants to run the HOA his way. For every problem his first reaction has been to form a large team of homeowners to go solve the problem even if some one else is successfully working the problem. He has even ruffled feathers of our town's planning manager who we need to work with us to resolve some issues with our common areas. We always have to find some one to run interference. We can't fire him and his term runs another 18 months. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to deal with him?

I am a financial advisor, not a board member or officer. I have only observed his antics.

To clarify: There are 3 Board members/directors. The 3 board members are also officers, 1 as president and 2 as vp's. He is not the president. There are 2 additional people who are Treasurer and Secretary. That makes 5 people who manage the day to day operations of the HOA. Only the 3 board members vote.

I agree that two board members can out vote Mr. Domineering. He does not yet have the support of many homeowners, maybe 10 or so at this point.

To vote him out as an officer, the HOA would need a majority vote of the Homeowners which is difficult to get. The HOA has been around for almost 20 years and the Homeowners, except for 30 or so, have grown apathetic. The president can absolutely stop delegating tasks to him. However he refuses to accept the powers of the president as stated in the bylaws. He does what he wants on committees, including refusing to have the committee file status updates with the other board members. Fortunately he can't freely spend HOA money.

He doesn't see himself as the problem he is becoming. The HOA could let him run with a project and watch the project fail because people will stop responding to his dictates and tantrums. However that might not be good for the HOA.

We are stuck with him for 18 months, so I am more interested in finding ways to work with him but have him see that he is part of a team and was not voted the team leader (i.e. president). How have others worked with people like this?

3 are elected directors and are appointed officers as 1 president and 2 vp's. 2 Homeowners volunteer for treasurer and secretary and are appointed to those positions by the 3 board members. They do not vote.

It is not uncommon for Bylaws to state there shall be three Directors, elected by the Members, and for officers the Association shall have a President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. The President and Vice president must be Directors. That leaves the Secretary and Treasurer, which can be appointed by the Board, but need not be Directors. They also do not have voting rights in decisions or actions brought before the Board.

I actually like the idea of having a Treasurer not as a Director. It allows someone that specializes in finance, but doesn't want the burdens of a Director.

I second Tim ... anyone can be fired from a job, whether it is Executive or Grunt. If anyone does not properly perform their job they should be booted out the door and replaced.

Generally, the most aggressive board members are least willing to do much more than attend meeting. Whatever the complaint, this new member heads up the effort to solve it w/ the request to report back to the board. The more complaints, the more assignments. Never take the bait to engage in verbal sparring at a meeting; it is tempting.