Board Recall Hapening

Perhaps they simply want to make sure that the rules are followed.
Yes, it's expensive but it could be a good thing having the attorney there as it may minimize any talk of the rules not being followed.

My suggestion, ask that the Board approve having the attorney review the procedures and provide them to the recall committee.

Walter raised a good point. You can always use the Board requiring an attorney be in attendance as a rally cry for the owners to actually attend the meeting (vs. sending proxies, as proxies can be challenged which may cause delays).

Probably to invalidate the recall on a technicality. Lawyers are good at this. Its much easier to ask the board to resign than to do a recall.

The attorney would bill travel time at $350 an hour. We had that happened to us.

Richard

Fight fire with fire. You all doing the recall need your own attorney otherwise I can pretty well assure you that the recall will fail if the BOD Attorney is controlled by the BOD.

My experience says using the BOD election process to elect like minded thinkers is usually much easier, less time consuming (especially if legal challenges to the recall are mounted), and less expensive.

Do as you must.

To correct my worst writing error in my first post, in CA the inspector(s) of election may NOT be related to the board members or those seeking election to replace them. We never have any difficulty getting volunteers to be inspectors of election.

Because ballots must be counted where any member of the Association can watch the tabulations, the checking off of those who are voting from a list, etc., cheating is reduced. It's key though, who receives the mail in ballots.

I agree with JohnC46, though. Why not wait till your annual election? Or is it too distant? How many directors are on the board, Robert?

Well, in our HOA Jok, owners send their secret ballots to our PM, who locks them away unopened until the night that the election occurs. She then delivers them to our inspectors of election.

I'm not going to review the CA civil code, but basically, the inspectors of election choose where the ballots must be sent. Obviously it needs to be to a neutral party. We still have some old timers here who bring their ballots to the annual meeting on election night to make sure they aren't tampered with. They hand them to the inspectors and make sure their names (only on the outer envelope) are checked off. And yes, at one time, we had a board who'd have been capable of doing just that!

In CA since mid '06, HOAs must have written election rules that are fairly complex. I presume that Robert's HOA has them.

Hello,

Here are the reasons for the recall:

1) Failure to appoint an Inspector of Elections for the 2013 election per Rules in Davis Sterling and our ByLaws.
2) Falsification of the results from the 2013 election.
3) Appointment of several HOA members to the board of directors in executive session in violation of Davis Sterling Act.
4) Failure to adopt operating rules outlined by Davis Sterling Act.
5) Arbitrary and selective enforcement of CC&Rs and Architectural Rules.

Members just want the BOA to follow the rules. They ignore the membership when any of these items are brought up in letters or open forum.

Robert

Hello Carol,

We have had the recall meeting. The BOD has agreed to hire an inspector of the elections that is a company, a third party. This will cost about $1,000. The ballots will go to them via mail and also people can come to the meeting to cast a ballot.

Since we have an inspector I seems as if the BOD does not trust them or the members.

Those who want the recall are fed up with the current board for the reasons that I posted in another reply.

There are 5 on the Board. We think that 2 or 3 terms of the appointed directors might expire in a few months. However, the PM nor the Board want to respond to when terms are up. The other 2 seats have about 1.4 years left.

In California it seems to just be easier to wipe the whole slate clean.

Robert

We had some turmoil 2 years ago and forced 5 Board members off the Board. Based on the details of what happened then, the management company seems to have a clear policy of supporting whoever is in power, no matter how corrupt, or in which way the wind in the community seems to be blowing.

In a sense you probably can't blame them. Same thing perhaps in the case of the attorneys you reference.

Ed

Our previous PM with the help of the association's attorney and through a couple of homeowners, started a recall campaign against a couple of Board members. The reason for the recall was we were close to uncovering embezzlement and misappropriation of association funds. They knew they were close to being thrown out and they used $18K of our money to fight back. The monies were used without Board approval.

If you don't have someone on the Board that know something about finances and/or association law, they could be in for big trouble.

Richard,

I don't like to speculate but some of the issue that Homeowners want answered would certainly shine a bad light on the Board if they did not put up a fight. I just wish that they could reconcile with how badly the old PM handled the issue that we have and move on.

Carol,

Thanks for the reply. You were no rambling but have provided me with some insight.

My HOA is very new, just about 2 years. We got off to a very rocky start. The developer transition was hard. Out the gate the members were not happy with the PM company the developer had chosen. Several other local HOAs had very quickly dumped them. However, it took us longer. It took a members meeting to get this same BOD to get rid of the PM and find a new one. The new PM just started and I will see how that goes.

It is possible that there is something going on with the Board, the old PM, the lawyers, and possibly the developer. When any member raises any type issue regarding CC&Rs, rules, or governance they are very defensive. I don't want to get in to speculation but it seems that there is some coverup going on. The members who are most upset at what is going on are all former board members at different associations, I would think that their intuitions are correct.

Thanks for the vote of confidence and we members will be vigilant and possibly some day we will see those many Executive Meeting notes.

Carol,

Here is our directors situation. While under developer control there was an election for 2 directors. Next, within a few months the developer had about 3 or 4 employees of the builder take board spots and resign, some within a few weeks. All of a sudden the builder pulls out. The board of directors appoints two directors in executive session. (Could the PM be behind these appointments?) This was not a popular move with members. At that point we were with a total of 4 directors. Next there is an election for 2 director spots. (This election is currently being challenged due to not appointing an inspector of elections by another member. That is separate from the recall issue.) So there is one open spot left on the Board. The BOD decides to appoint the 5th board member in executive session. There were no nominations, no volunteers asked for in open forum, it just happened. This did not sit well with the members. Members though that the PM was behind selecting members, but that is speculation. In summary, I don't think any rules were being followed. That PM is now gone.

I do not know where the attorney has come from. The general ledger show that the association has used the services of a couple firms but will not provide any legal invoices per Davis-Sterling requests.

I know that there is pressure from members to get the builder to take care of some physical things but then there are the CC&Rs that don't make sense for the community. It is like parts of them were taken from a condo complex or something. We are a group of single family homes that have some common areas, but not much. Because of the funky CC&Rs there are lots of disputes that revolve around arbitrary enforcement actions.

What is the statute of limitations regarding the builder? Also, one member has asked the builder to fix the CC&Rs in the form of providing funds for restatement but with no response. I see almost zero chance of that happening.

Robert

Hello,

Just wanted to follow up and let you all know that democracy is alive and well within our HOA.

The recall was a smashing success. We managed to recall all five board members and replace them with five new ones. It was challenging and not easy as the old board tried many tricks. We managed to run a grass roots campaign and blindside them. Votes in favor of the recall were 5 to 1. We had over 50% participation.

Here were some of the obstacles:

1) When you run a recall in California and according to our CC&Rs the board being recalled is the body that runs their own recall. (they will do everything to make it as difficult as possible)

2) It was tough to get candidates because most of the vocal and knowledgeable activists were in litigation with the HOA and hence were prohibited from running for board positions. (that CC&R has to change)

3) the recalled BOD attempted to create the worlds most confusing ballot. The ballot went like this. First you vote yes or no on the recall, then if you vote yes you can distribute your five votes any way among eleven candidates.

4) The recalled BOD placed their own names on the recall ballot. (the 5 who were being recalled were on the ballot!)

5) the recalled BOD decided to hold recall meetings at 2:00pm in the afternoon to discourage homeowner participation.

6) the recalled BOD stuffed the mail in ballot with their own campaign statements and propaganda.

7) they held a social, on the HOA dime, to spread their propaganda. However, they were the only ones who came to it.

What we did to win!

1) We did a grass roots campaign where we went door to door and talked to people. We found that many families were upset.

2) We distributed voting guides to make sense of the confusing ballot.

3) We parked cars with signs on them near the gates to inform homeowners of the issues. (The management company and old BOD did not like that and tried to dig up some CC&R parking prohibitions.)

4) We did research through public records to find out who owned the rentals and where those ballots were mailed to. The Association refused to provide that information. We were able to contact some owners and get votes.

5) We took time off work to show up to their stupid 2:00 pm weekday meetings.

6) We found that we could call the voting company and they would tell us how many votes were mailed in and if we made quorum. (That is what the recalled BOD was doing.) On the vote day over 30 pro-recall ballots were hand delivered, that was unexpected. Many also showed up to cast ballots in person.

In all I hope that something like this never again happens in our community. The recalled BOD and their few supporters were very unhappy about the recall. By then end of the vote count the meeting had degenerated into a Jerry Springer Show type setting. Lot's of yelling and finger pointing. The whole process was estimated to cost about $3k.

Now, I suppose that it was good that the attorney was there because this recall was done by the book!

Congrats on your success. I especially liked your post with your step by step process.

Excellent outcome, Robert, which shows that homeowners CAN take back their HOAs from abusive boards! It takes alliance building and joint action. You know, it might help a lot of readers of this forum to tell them your story via a new thread. Too often, owners in HOAs with abusive, ignorant or vindictive boards few they are stuck in that situation forever. Your success can give them hope, inspiration and maybe get them to collectively act with others!!

Your could start your new post with your most recent one here. And name the Subject: Successful Recall of Entire Board!

Are you on the new Board? Whether or not you are, because of complaints by some H/Os about construction issues, your new Board must look into those possible problems before the statutes of limitations runs out. This is really important. If you trust the attorney, have him recommend a construction defect firm who will give your board a free presentation. Actually, you could get three presentations.

Btw, I think so many ballots came in by hand-carry or last minute was because owners didn't trust that the inspectors of election would be honest.

Also keep a close watch on your new PM. Does the PM have a large enough MC that they could conduct a training session for the new directors??

Very best to your community!