IS NOTICE OF LANDSCAPE COMMITTEE MEETING REQUIRED IN AZ

I am familiar with the open meeting law but I am struggling with a directive from a manager that all committee meetings must be noticed 48 hours in advance. As I recall, the OPERATIVE word in the AZ statute is "REGULARLY SCHEDULED" and the meetings we have are random because of the members schedules. Thanks for any help upon this. This power drunk management administrator wants ALL committee members to sign a there page "committee charter". I feel that a committee can write their own charter especially when the administrator does not interpret state law or governing documents correctly! Thanks!

I do not think you can evade the open meeting requirement with an argument that the meetings are not regularly scheduled:

"E. It is the policy of this state as reflected in this section that all meetings of a planned community, whether meetings of the members' association or meetings of the board of directors of the association, be conducted openly and that notices and agendas be provided for those meetings that contain the information that is reasonably necessary to inform the members of the matters to be discussed or decided and to ensure that members have the ability to speak after discussion of agenda items, but before a vote of the board of directors is taken. Toward this end, any person or entity that is charged with the interpretation of these provisions shall take into account this declaration of policy and shall construe any provision of this section in favor of open meetings." ARS 33-1804

Seems like you need a stronger Chair of the Committee. One where they inform the observers that they will have an opportunity to speak at a specified time. When someone interrupts, they get one warning. The second time they interrupt, they are asked to leave the meeting. If they refuse, the meeting is recessed and police are called.


All the more reason for open meetings.

Perhaps, the Committee should set up a point of contact (other than the PM) to field suggestions by the membership. It may simply be that that members want to be involved.


This is called delegation and absolutely should be used. In fact, when we delegate we also empower the individual(s) to make a recommendation based on what they discovered. Anyone who has a concern on that specific item/issue should be in the group delegated to look into it.


That's the way it is in most Associations.


However, the impression given to others is that you are trying to be secretive.
To get over that impression, the best advice I can offer is to be as public as you can.

Utilize surveys and asking for volunteers to help with the information gathering phase. This can go a long way to gain membership support. In fact, many who are vocal at meetings, shut down when you offer them the task of looking into things for the committee. Basically, you called their bluff that they wanted to be involved. If they weren't bluffing, you may have found a great resource for the committee - someone who is passionate enough about the issue that they will devote the time needed to do the research.

Tim's advice is good, Joanne. During the LC meetings, hand out an agenda to guests. On it you need to state that there'll be an open forum at the beginning (or end, or both) for audience participation.

But, oh, oh, wait. It may be that in AZ, H/Os are permitted to discuss every agenda item. Larry and/or Fred will know. Ot Tim might look it up!

Re: your charter. Your LC should be able to submit a draft charter to the Board for its approval. Your property mgr. (your "administrator?") may advise the Board to include x, y, or z from your state statutes. it's up to you committee members to correct the PM if s/he's wrong! this is especially so if your Board is ignorant of state statutes.

Joanne

Keep in mind that committees serve at the pleasure of the BOD and they can be disbanded/replaced when the BOD so desires to do so.

BOD Members were elected and when push comes to shove they are ultimately responsible, not some "appointed" committee.

Can you tell us a little bit more about your HOA and your Board? How many directors? How many units in your HOA? Detached, homes or?

Next, does your PM sword for a mgmt. company (MC), or is she a direct employee of your HOA. If she is employed by a MC, it's very possible the MC has a bunch of boilerplate committee charters. Ours did when we first hire the MC and we used all of their "charter," but as a board, with input from the committees, they all have been revised to some extent. The MC also has another document called "Summary of All Committees' Duties." It follows state statutes to a large extent. It says that the PM and the board prez are ex officio members of all committees, but do not have voting rights (vs. Robert's Rules).

Our previous PM did attend certain Committee's meetings and was indeed a "control freak." Hope our new PM will let our committees flourish!

Luckily, CA's corporate codes do not require Committees to have open meetings. I say luckily because Finance Comm. meetings discuss our financials before the Board approves them. We have a particular ad hoc comm. at the moment and our HOA would not benefit if all homeowners could attend its meetings. We (the Board) invited all H/Os to one meeting and it was a gawdawful nightmare.

So we sent out a survey on the topic and paid good attention to the results.

But it's your Board's job to make sure the PM posts board meeting minutes in a timely fashion (30 days following the relevant meeting, when approved by the Board [we meet monthly] in CA. So sometimes 30+ days).

I don't seem to be hearing enough about your Board. Are directors reasonably knowledgeable and open to committees' recs? How many Committees does your HOA have and what are they?