ARB - required to recuse?

At a recent ARB meeting, a member offered his application to build a deck. Two members were in favor, two were against. The member who submitted the application did not recuse himself and cast the deciding vote for his deck. Although it may be unethical, is it illegal? We live in Virginia. If it is illegal, what can we do?

Kelly:

Your Board should have intervened and stopped it. I don't think it is illegal, but highly unethical. I would now appeal to them and see what they will do.

This is a case where the President should have stepped in. The president in this case would have been the vetoing or empowering vote for the deck installation. It's complicated but the President's voting power can veto an idea with a single vote. That veto can be overridden by 2/3rd's of the board members if they choose.
The president can still override the any ARB/ACC decision if they want. It would take another 2/3 board vote to override that vote as well. (Not ACC/ARB members).
In the absence of an ARB/ACC, the president and/or board can be the one's in control of normal ARB/ACC rules/regulations.
As President, I have turned down many requests. Especially after investigating the results of what could happen if something is installed. A deck does change the lay out of the land. That could mean a neighbor could have flooding issues or other issues if the deck is installed. We once had someone complain their yard was flooding and wanted us to fix it. Turns out their neighbor had installed some plastic edging in their back yard. The plastic edging had moved the water over to their neighbor's yard each time it rained. The flooding issue was NOT the HOA's issue but a neighbors.
I give you this example so to keep in mind the real impact of what some projects can cause. Make sure the person who's installing the deck, is aware that they may be responsible if it causes damage to a neighbors house. They may also want to check with their insurance company to make sure it's approved through them as well.

I highly doubt the president has the ability to veto anything on their own unless it is in the governing docs. However, the president should have stepped in and called it conflict of interest. The board should oversee this committee.

In my HOA the president does have veto power just like the president of the united states. The HOA also allowed for the President and board to be responsible for any ACC approvals in the absence of a formal ACC/ARB bein in existance.
Most HOA's the president does have final say until a majority vote of homeowners or board gathers enough votes to overrided that decision. Heck, the United States senate can override the president's vote if they get 2/3rd's majority to override.
HOA's government setup up is similar to how the U.S. government is setup except for their may be no house of representative. There is the President (Executive), the Board (Senate), and any committees like the ARB/ACC or board can be considered Judicial. (Supreme court judges). The homeoweners/members of the HOA are the one's who vote these other members into office to represent them. A HOA is setup just like any democratic government is. It's just on a smaller scale and does have more business characteristics.

Melissa, none of the many HOA controlling documents in 3 states which I have read allow the President veto power. Can you post you HOA By-laws which provide this?