The President is not following the POA Docs.

I would like to address some major concerns of operating practices of the Townhome HOA Board located in Tampa Florida.

On 5/27/2014 Properties Management Company provided each board member the roles of each position and responsibilities for HOA officers. Currently, the president is performing all functions, creating agendas, sending bulletins from the President only, and stopping contractual projects without entire board approval, assigning HOA officer roles to the Property Management Co.

I have read them and confirm where the HOA Board is not operating in best practices.

Property managers have interesting yet frequently fast-paced jobs. These individuals need to be able to handle issues as they come and deal with them as quickly as possible. Property Management Company has provided outstanding service to the community. By setting rent, collecting rent, adjusting rent, finding tenants, screening tenants, handling leases, handling complaints/emergencies, handling move outs, dealing with evictions, maintenance, repairs, vacant properties, managing budget, maintaining records, pay utilities and host of many other items.

The below responsibility is NOT the Property Manager role.
I am not in agreement with the property management preparing the agenda for discussion year after year. This is the responsibility of the HOA Secretary. This is a board membership of President, Treasurer and Secretary. Each has the role to present. Currently, the president is performing all functions.

All agenda should be forwarded to the Secretary for preparation and approved by the HOA Board.

All financial reports should be reviewed/approved given by the treasurer.

Training is required by Florida Statutes and Department of Business. If I am correct there have been 2 in Tampa Bay areas since March 15, 2014. Currently, the entire board is not in compliance.

All meetings are to be posted 48 hours. 8/19 at 8:03 pm via text from the president is not proper protocol of notification or an 8:30 pm email blast for a meeting 8/22. The meeting scheduled 8/21/201 at a new location at 6pm is not 48 hrs. All meeting are the 2 Thursday (voted on and approved in the minutes) This is not fair to the community. Calling residents and informing them of the meeting is singling out home owners. If all residents are not called and notified; the HOA board should not make any calls to one person. Approaching tenants/home owner as a way of introduction in relation to the HOA Board is neither appropriate nor professional. Tenants wishing to know members of the HOA Board should attend meeting(s) for proper introduction. This will communicate what is the HOA Board purpose and recorded.

All future meeting(s) should be noted and recorded and made publically and commuted well in advance not via a personal decision to have a meeting.

The HOA Board should be respectful of home owner’s time. Meetings should be focused and relevant to agenda. Cover only these areas. And mostly stay on track.

I will be reaching out to the Department of Business Professional Regulation Board and raising an issue along with legal counsel.

Hi- I am on the board and following the POA DOCs. and Florida Law. I have been for 2 yrs. I have been on several HOA and planning committees. When I ask and/or point out, make suggestions, show where we are in violation, there is a "I don't care attitude with anger". I have spoken to several times with the Management Co., they indicate they have continually tried to coach the President, but will not listen. I am continuing to following the POA Docs and will question why those assigned to postions cannot carry them out.

I am the Secretary of the HOA. We are a Corporation, any suggestion you have please share.

Thank you.

Sorry, Sherrill for your troubles. Glen is right, though, get support form other directors to vote the prez out of his office as prez. If you don't have enough support, see if you can at last vote as a board to instruct him to bring appropriate items to you as a board.

I'm sorry to say I got lost in your prose and don't have time to try to disentangle it. Can you try again with clearer shorter sentences with one topic at a time?

How many are on your board?

Your bylaws supersede your MC's description of Board officers' roles, etc. Follow your bylaws. Your PM's job description is in your contract. What does it say about some of yur concerns?

Sounds like you need to make a motion to remove the individual from the Officer position (president). This will require support from other Board members and someone willing to step up and serve as President in the place of this individual.

The person will still be a Director and be able to vote on issues brought before the Board. However, they would not have the authority given to the Office of the President.

Now, if you don't have the support of the Board to do this, then you need to decide if you want to gather support and recall or simply not reelect this one individual and the rest of the Board who is allowing the individual to exceed their authority.

It could be that past board members were letting the President do all the work.
Take the time, as you are doing, to explain that you prefer to do the job yourself and that this should allow the President to work on other issues rather than the administrative duties that should be handled by the Secretary.

Our Board approves the monthly financials at the recommendation of the Finance Comm., chaired by our treasurer.

Again, don't your bylaws specify the duties of each officer?? If so, THEY trump your manager's instructions.

Was your email to the prez to ask her to cancel the Friday meeting, or that you aren't attending?

Our bylaws state that the president or any two directors may call a meeting. I assume yours are similar. So why don't you want her to convene a meeting on Friday.

Sherill

Some thoughts for you:

1. The Governing Documents of many associations specify a "notice" period with respect to holding meetings and specify that the Board must waive the notice period if it is not observed. Is there such language in your documents? If so, it is possible the President may not legally convene the meeting. Your management company should raise this point, if they do not, you should.

2. In the future, designate a contact person to manage a project. Generally, this should be your management company representative. Given the history you have described, it may be necessary to tell the vendor they are to take instructions only from the designated contact person.

You stated the President called a meeting for this Friday, but that you objected (in writing?) and called her. What took place during that conversation? Is this an emergency meeting? What was the response when you spoke with her?

Going back over the messages you have written, I cannot help but think there is an underlying agenda running, perhaps more than one; perhaps on the part of the president and perhaps on the part of others, including yourself. Have you had a private candid discussion with the President regarding your concerns? If so, what came of that discussion. If not, why not? I'm not suggesting you be confrontational, and I certainly do not suggest you raise your concerns in public until it is appropriate to do so.

I also suggest your Board and the management company/property manager agree upon roles and responsibilities. Based upon what you have written, you are a hands on Secretary. In other associations, the Secretary (and often the Treasurer) are not hands on. This can be due to time constraints, lack of understanding of the role, or other reasons. Regardless, I do get the sense role/responsibility clarification is needed.

Hello to all thank you for your fedback. Had to go do homework/research on some of the replies.

The approved minutes of 1/2014 state all meetings will be held the 2nd Thursday of each month at this specified location. I have the next meeting schedule for Sept. the 2nd Thursday since one was not scheduled for August. There where no topics to discuss as there are ongoing projects, that a weather permitting for completion. I have rearranged my schedule to attend the meeting she has called for 8/28/2014 at a new location. I have reached out to her via phone 3X's, and HOA Board Committee email. I have asked for the agenda to prepare for posting to the website for board members review. Our docs. state notification must be given 48 hrs. prior to the meeting date. She has changed the date and it is a 48 hr. notification. This is not an emergancy meeting.

I have asked the Management Co. to no longer act as the Secretary of this HOA Board. I will handle all administrative duties. I will restate again at the meeting. I have prepared a agenda based on her meeting email blast to home the owners and last meeting open issues.

Sherrill, I'd still like to see what your bylaws say about meetings. Normally there are a few kind sand one is called a "special meeting of the board." It sounds like that's what your Prez called and she should be able to do that IF you bylaws say so.

In many HOAs, such as mine, the PM writes the meeting minutes. The entire board, f course, approves them.

The most important secretarial job:

MAINTAINING AN ACCURATE LIST OF MEMBERS (actual owners, not merely residents)

only members / owners are bound by the covenants, e.g. tenants, children, guests are NOT bound but their actions are the responsibility of the member/owner

assessments are owed from members, regardless of who has actually been sending the checks

only actual members/owners may vote even though a non-owner spouse may be a resident

etc

Sherrill, you're paying your mgmt. co./PM to perform certain duties. What does your contract with them say are their duties? Our contract for instance, states that the PM write meeting minutes and, of course, does many other things, some of which a secretary would do if there were no PM.

The contract also may state that the PM may not be instructed to do or not do anything except by Board decision that we voted on at a duly noticed meeting, or, in rare cases, by instruction from the president. What does you contract with your MC say about that?

What do your bylaw say about the board delegating certain tasks to the MC? You do have bylaws, right?

And please read Jon's reply carefully. He makes some good points and asks good questions.

Hi JonD1

I have been a member for 1 yr and on this HOA board for 2 yrs. Previously, I have been on 2 boards for 7 and 7 yrs. I have attended 2 HOA training course provided by the state of Florida and 1 on my job. The President and Treasurer have never attended any training per the President. The board consist of 3 members now. Other 2 have resigned. Many in the community have had conflict and some incidents with the President.

Our current President has be in this position for 8 yrs. Which she has done a great job as being the President. Our roles totally differ and I do not want to walk in her shoes.

I have received a reply today and boy oh boy mannn-was it rough and unprofessional. It stated this is that what has been done as a standard to keep things flowing. MC presents the Treasurer Report, Project Update, Provides Administrative duties and she will continue to ask him to do. There are no checks and balances from no one from the board. Not even the President.

I have tried to communicate my concern thru the HOA Board Only Website. However, I will raise my concerns at the next meeting.

Sherrill

It seems to me the issue you have with the President is one about approach rather than getting her job done which you acknowledge she does well.
She has found a way to make things work using the MC to provide services perhaps in an attempt to spread some of the workload out.

None of the duties you list as those the President wishes the MC to perform raises a red flag for me. And if this works what good will come out of forcing or imposing change?

Any board member can provide oversight without them performing the tasks you have listed. Review the Treasurer's report, double check the project updates, battling over who does what and why serves no one in the end. And it makes any workable relationship going forward between you and the President impossible.

And I would suggest you refrain from making your points on the board website in the future. By now it should be clear how you feel things must be done.
My question are the issues you are raising worth setting this board on a path of conflict and disputes between the remaining 3 members.

No one likes to be told the way they have done things which seems to have worked rather well by your own admission now should be changed and roles altered. And to what end?

Not to me. However, if the Secretary prefers to take the minutes, then the Secretary should be allowed to take the minutes, as it's the Secretaries responsibility that they are taken, regardless of who takes them.


Maybe. By having the MC provide the financial report to the Board instead of the Treasurer, is the Treasurer remaining active in the role of managing the finances? Is the Treasurer doing the checks and balances that should be done when a bookkeeper or MC is employed to keep the books?

I would have more of an issue with this task, not because it may or may not be a violation of the documents, but it could cause the internal checks and balances to erode away.


Typically not. As I would suspect that the MC would be overseeing some projects.


Possibly. Is the MC not allowing the Officers to do their duties (by not releasing them back to the officer when asked) or is the MC assisting the Officers in the performance of their duties.


Perhaps. I'm not sure if these are the only issues or if there are larger issues which we are unaware of.


I agree that it could be the approach used vs. the actual message itself.

Hi all- thank you for your coaching. My concern is the PM has given the entire board what the role of the position. He has given me mine and stated this is what you should be doing.

The Board Secretary
A n association is a business and—like any oth
ler—must preserve its history, maintain its records and protect itself from liability. The asso¬ciation secretary is the officer assigned this re¬sponsibility. In fact, the secretary can be consi¬dered the association's chief information officer.
Naturally, a secretary needs to be good with details, efficient, well organized and have a com¬mitment to the future of the association.
Volunteer-managed associations might find it helpful to spread the secretarial responsibilities among two or three people; professionally ma¬naged associations can delegate some of the secre¬tarial tasks to the manager.
What are some typical dutieS of a community association secretary?
§ Preparing and distributing meeting notices.
§ Recording meeting minutes and resolutions. s Affixing the corporate seal to legal documents.
n Witnessing and verifying signatures.
• Accepting and verifying proxies for elections.
B Maintaining association records. rE Filing forms with government agencies.
• Maintaining a membership list including vot¬ing percentages.
• Maintaining correspondence and documents.
• Keeping documents safe and accessible.
Individual association bylaws may also include other responsibilities for the secretary, and they usually allow boards to appoint assistant secre¬taries if help is needed. While others may assist,

the association secretary must ensure that records are handled properly.
An association's documents or state law usual¬ly let a member vote by proxy—selecting some¬one to vote on his or her behalf. The secretary must verify that the person issuing a proxy is the owner of record and is eligible to vote.
Some records are more important than others. Documents that govern the community, protect it from liability and affect its monetary position re¬quire special attention. The secretary makes cop¬ies of the association's professional contracts, ar¬ticles of incorporation, bylaws, deeds and cov-enants, and stores the originals in a safe deposit box or with the association attorney.
Recording actions, discussions, motions and votes at membership and board meetings for tran¬scription and approval does not have to be a mo¬numental task. While the minutes should reflect all matters brought before the board—whether they're adopted, rejected, deferred, tabled, dis¬missed without discussion or vote or simply pre¬sented as information—the secretary actually has only three objectives when taking minutes:
• Record the association's actions.
§ Record why the actions were taken.
Preserve board members' voting records.
Depending on the demands of the association, the secretary may be called to perform other du¬ties, such as. typing documents, mailing materials, proofreading, letter writing and purging files.

Hello to all - A special thanks to all you who assisted me with my concerns. The meeting was held last night. It was a productive and agennda focused mtg. I provided the agenda and a lot was accomplished. The PM did imform the 2 other board members that he would no longer do the administrative functions as we do have a Secretary and it is not in the contract.

However, this is my next question, the meeting was recorded last night. This has never been done in the 3 yrs. of me being on the board.

Before the recording, No one asked for permission to record/ get approval from all in attendance. It is my understanding that you must ask someone first if you can record them before you record. Am I correct.

I am seeing alot of under handling with in this board members.

Per 720.306(10):

(10) RECORDING.—Any parcel owner may tape record or videotape meetings of the board of directors and meetings of the members. The board of directors of the association may adopt reasonable rules governing the taping of meetings of the board and the membership.

The PM works for the property. They do NOT direct the board.

The PM does not have enforcement role in the operations of the board. You however seem to have put the PM in the middle of your dispute with the board President. Bad for the board and the property.

My guess you have set this board on a path of conflict and dysfunction to have things done YOUR way.

Does this benefit the property? Hardly.

Seems the OP has already alienated the board President with their desire to have things done their way ONLY.

Appears the President is now working around the OP on at least some issues.

This type of dysfunctional back and forth along with the constant debate over who does what and why will never serve the property's best interests.

Seems the OP is hell bent on imposing their will on the President and forcing things to be done as they see fit.

In my view this is neither productive or essential for the board to do their job.

Just a distraction and needless.