Spending Money in the yearly budget allocated to Landscaping

After being on a BOD (Florida) at my last community (Townhouses-HOA) for 6 years we now have moved into a single family home (HOA). I am now on the BOD's and have an issue with one of the board members in spending money allocated to this years budget. In short our 2015 budget was approved by the community, mailed out to each owner and issued again at the annual meeting in Jan. 2015. In the budget $35,000 is set aside for landscaping improvements to keep up Community Wide Standards and common area / homeowner plantings when needed. THe ACC just spent about 10K on the improvement of the complete entrance way and the board member is complaining that this was not discussed / approved at a board meeting and did not have the authority to do this without board consent. It was discussed as the head of the ACC community presented this to the board at a monthly meeting and the board stated that you have the money to do this - go ahead. My understanding is that the ACC can use up this allocated monies either throughout the year or in one shot. If they go over budget they then have to come back to the board to get approval for more money. As long as they do not spend the money foolishly then can do what is necessary to maintain the beauty of the community. Am I correct in this understanding? thank you.

Does this committee have a charter? Ours does and is delineates what the Landscape Comm. (LC) can and cannot do without board approval. It cannot, for instance, remove mature, heathy trees without board approval.

I'm not sure if there are any hard and fast rules about how it "has" to be done, but here is how we do it in my Association.

Money is allocated in the budget for various purposes.
Items that are regular monthly or annual expenses, such as electricity, insurance, and monthly landscaping are paid by the treasurer, with no further board input past approving the budget.
Some very small budget items such as office supplies (annual budget $100) are just spent by board members, receipts submitted to treasurer, and paid.
Any other expenses are approved by the board via motion and voting. If we budget $2000 for sidewalk repair, we get quotes, they are discussed by the board, and the board votes to accept one (or not).
We don't have any committees that spend money, but I imagine the board could vote to allow the committee to spend it's budget as it sees fit, but I couldn't see the current board members doing that.

LouV

I say if the money has been budgeted and is spent appropriately (like budgeted for and spent on landscape improvements) then nothing additional is required.

lou,

Although budgeted, we don't spend without board approval.
We consider ongoing contracts (common area maintenance, utilities, insurance, snow removal) and normal administrative supplies (paper, printing, envelopes, postage) as approved. Any other contract for a budgeted item needs board approval.

You said:


So show the individual the minutes of that meeting which documents that.

Side note: Our Bylaws specify that contracts are to be signed by the President. Therefore, any work being organized or supervised by others (Officer, committees) would still need the President's signature on the actual contract with the contractor. My understanding is that the President's signature requirement is fairly standard. Therefore, you may want to review your Bylaws and see if that may be the reason why this individual is complaining.

Tim

LouV

Them old folks understand. They just figure they will not be there then so why pay now for then.....LOL