Election Rules in General...sorta!

A major blow to our "coup" today! (I live in a neighborhood in TN that the Pres of the HOA is so despised in the community that she hardly gets the quorum needed to elect herself because no one likes her nor shows up for meetings or functions or even participates at all any more! She is a bully!) The lawyer for the HOA ruled that our terms are 2 years, even though my attorney has interpreted them to be 1 year. How is it that 2 opinions come from one set of words???? Anyway, the whole reason I went to him and pushed for this opinion is because the Pres has been in place, voting herself in by proxy every time, for 10 years now! She makes up rules as she goes along to get her way, whether it's what the By-Laws and CCRs say or not! So, I was a member of the Board but resigned when she refused to hand over the accounts and books to the elected Treasurer. Then a couple of months later a neighbor called begging me to run against her in this year's election. I agreed. I pushed the lawyer to opine on the length of terms because the Treasurer had chosen to make his own decisions as well so I felt he didn't need to stay in office either! So, now we have the opinion that yes, he will stay in office and Pres and Sec are up for election. All is well and good but now the election is being forced to run as it should have all these years but hasn't. We have provisions for Directors, some of whom will be Officers but the Pres has been running it as just Officers and no Directors. So, this election has 2 openings and the Board will decide who does what at it's first meeting after the election. If this woman even so much as gets one vote,because no one else has stepped up at this point, she is back in and between the 2 of them she will be voted for Pres again thereby completely negating the intention of me running and putting me right back where I was! I refuse to be part of a dishonest "administration" (for lack of a better word!) and have no intention of staying in the race if that is the case. I'm at a real loss of what to do! The lady that begged me to run refuses to be part of the Board (but is okay with pushing ME to be!). I haven't made attempts to talk anyone into it but will talk to a few people to see...but WHAT A MESS!! I realize that by going to the lawyer to clarify the terms (thinking I already knew the answer!) is what has caused this and I have no one to blame but me, but I had a legal opinion backing me up!

Does anyone have some good advice for me? Is there a simple solution here that I don't see?

Thanks in advance!
Karen

Well, actually that would be the MOST devastating to me...I have built a pool, added a sunroom and made a very nice "compound" for myself in this house! The regret to agree to join the Board 2 years ago is off the charts! I could withdraw and that probably will be what happens but I hate that she has been able to once again manipulate the situation to her advantage! Since when does honesty lose so much??? The pathological, uneducated, power-hungry person is the one that wins! That's just not right!!

The last time I was involved with replacing a BOD we had a hard core group of people working for 6 months. Our overall objective was to be sure the President could not get re-elected to that psition by the BOD.

We had 700 homes so we needed 66% (460) for an election quorum. We had never had a quorum for our annual meeting. We had a hard core group of volunteers who went door to door talking and soliciting proxies. We set up tables around the neighborhood to meet and greet. We had people attend each monthly BOD meeting and raise issues during the open session. We spent $1K on an attorney to guide us. Fortunately the HOA Attorney did not like the President so he stayed neutral.

Our candidates won all 3 of the open positions. With that, we had 4-5 of the BOD on our side. The former President did not even run for President. He knew he could not win. He was still on the BOD for one more year. During that year, he could not get anyone to cooperate with him. In fact people were all over him every time he opened his mouth. The voting was pretty much 4-3 or 5-2. When his term was up, he did not even run for re-election. He knew his time was up. Also his remaining cohort decided not to run.

One cannot sit and wish for changes. One has to get off their a$$ and make it happen. It is not easy but it can be done.

Tough love but if one is unable to rally support to their cause then they may have to accept they are the odd one and at best, they speak only for a few other odd ones.

Lead or follow, but at least get out of the way......

I like JohnC46's reply too, Karen!!

Our HOA also went through such a scenario and took over the board of 7 within one year. Some of us elected yr. 1, still a minority, a year later we had a majority on the Board.

Tim of VA and Jon of NY also have gone through the process. All will agree it takes a lot of work. But it's about your HOME!

Yes, go get 'em, Karen!

I wonder if there's some confusion between the term of office for officers, and the term of office for directors. These each should be spelled out (probably) in your bylaws. If not, as Glen suggested, look at the TN corporations code if you're incorporated.

Generally, directors are elected by the members of your Association. And officers are elected by the new Board of Directors, often immediately following the election. I have not heard of an HOA where the homeowners elect the officers. But there is plenty of confusion around this topic.

CarolR11....yes, for the first time since the inception of this neighborhood/HOA, the election is about filling the 2 open positions on the Board and then at the first Board meeting the officers will be chosen. That is how the By-laws spell it out but that is not how it has been done all these years...12 since the neighborhood was built. It's just more notches on this woman's belt of how incorrectly she is and has been doing things! I'm having to explain this because it's a change and folks are confused. Once I explain it, the understand. Right now there are only 3 slots for BOD, but I plan to up that to 7 in the next few months...more heads + more helpers = better BOD, better neighborhood and happier homeowners! I had 4 ladies show this morning and we discussed the election and the President and the Vice President...it was a good meeting. They left with proxies in hand to go door to door. I saw the VP at the Easter Egg Hunt and he asked if we could talk later, to which I said , "absolutely". He said he wanted to make sure "we're good"....guess he sees the writing on the wall too! LOL I am having another meeting with 3 or 4 more tomorrow afternoon and then will be canvassing the neighborhood Mon, Tues and Wed for proxies. I have received a couple from folks that I never would have though would so maybe we ALL are in for a big surprise Thur night!

I thank you all so much for your encouragement and advice...it has completely changed how I look at this now!! I'm off to look up those statues on the Sec. of State's office web site. We are incorporated and for the first time since we began, there was no annual report filed in 2013 and so far none for 2014 either!! Yeah, she's awesome alright!! /sarc

Happy Easter All!!

OUTSTANDING !!

Karen,

I'm glad it worked out and thank you for the update.

Tim