Committee Issue with Board Pres

Started by ScottG9 • 7 replies • 1782 views

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ScottG9 (Maryland)
Posts: 9

Posted:

We have a small HOA RV Resort under the condominium regime in MD. 85 units Some of our rules are out dated and in our By-Laws and Declarations were written with campground rules in lieu of RV PARKS in which the county codes are different. We have ownership deeded lots and fee simple with RV USE restriction and not open to the public.

Our Board allowed me to chair a committee for Rule Changes. Rules 1 - 6 are in our By-Laws and Declarations but the other rules 7 -31 are in our Regulation which can be amended from time to time with the Board of Directors vote as long as we follow the MCA 11-111

My issue was that we formed the committee made up of outside Lot owners and from the few meetings and notes that were shared we came up with a recommendation to submit to the board for suggestions. At this point, the President decided to reject our committee recommendation and personally rejected my request to mail the changes of rules 7 - 31 to the membership of 85 Lot owners for a public hearing and then I asked for the Board of Directors to either vote for approval or rejection of the revised rules we recommended.

IS this wrong on the Board's President part? Is there a standard that after a committee has been charged in the minutes to make a recommendation and then the Board's President 5 months later personally rejects our committee suggestion to the new rule changes.

He has flat out said that he does not want to mail out our suggestion before the Board has a pre-approval plan first before it is mailed to ownership. These suggested rules changes came from Lot Owners.

Would love to hear some feed back.

LarryB13 (Arizona)
Posts: 4,099

Posted:

If your committee was authorized by the board of directors then the president should not have the authority to reject your work. You should submit your proposal to the full board. Yes, the president was wrong to intervene.

ScottG9 (Maryland)
Posts: 9

Posted:

LarryB thanks for your input. Being on a Board is a THANK LESS JOB..... But somebody has to do it and from reading this forum from folks like yourself sure does help in guidance.

CharlesB23 (Kentucky)
Posts: 4

Posted:

Executive boards should always-- ALWAYS-- provide a written job description, or charge, when committees are created. Such charge establishes the scope of the committee's responsibility and work, when and to whom the committee will report, etc. When this is done, there can be no dispute about the committee's product, neither from anyone on the committee nor from anyone on the board.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

In most cases Committees serve at the pleasure of the BOD. I say the BOD can vote to disregard your recommendations, disband the committee, call you idiots, etc. but the President alone cannot.

If the BOD decides to do any of the above then you have to decide if you care to fight it and get the suggestions to all owners.

ScottG9 (Maryland)
Posts: 9

Posted:

John. Very reasonable solution and exactly my thoughts but you know there are so many rules or ways to make things work
This is great input and I agree
Thank you for taking the time

GeorgeR8 (Arizona)
Posts: 182

Posted:

It was wrong for the president to reject without consulting the board. It was wrong of you to want to mail the committee suggestions to the owners without board approval.

ScottG9 (Maryland)
Posts: 9

Posted:

agreed George However, the information was given to all the BOD members and a request was sent to ALL BOD members and before the next schedule Board meeting this President REJECTED this plan of the committee before the schedule meeting.

Committee did ask for feedback or input to be added from the BOD but the President put his foot down and did not allow the process to proceed and wanted to take control from the committee.

One thing I might ask of you or anyone in this forum that reads this for input.

When a BOD discovers that their By-Laws and Articles of Declaration and R&R do not comply with County Laws and are more restrictive in USE but were written as a campground when the Documents clearly spell out that we are under county code as a RV PARK with no county Restriction of Time in USE. Our By-Laws say we are closed in the months of December - February. However we are not open to the public because we are Deeded Lot Owners and Fee simply with the only restriction is RV USE.

As a practice in years past we CLOSE our common areas for winter due to outdoor water lines but our RV units are self contained with water and sewage and we have dump station and a service that is contracted to service Lot Owners lots for a fee paid by the Lot Owners directly.

Getting to the part of enforcement is the part where people remain on their Lots through out the year and the Board has not enforced the Time Restriction in many years and when the Board tries to govern on some rules it is always the threat by the Lot Owner that if you are not enforcing Rule 3 ( as example ) then you can not enforce Rule 17 because of the accusation of selective enforcement.

Rules and Regulations can be amended as written in our By-Laws and Regulations but our current Board and past Boards feel they are opening themselves for a lawsuit and so the action of the Board is do nothing table the agenda to another day. It is very frustrating trying to convince the 4 BOD members ( which are the only ones year after year that volunteer) because they do not want a lawsuit and so they do nothing and just want people to go along to get along.

It will be a sad day when something really happens.

I might repost this question to the forum as a new topic. But thanks for your feedback as you seem very knowledgable and strong in your position. I welcome your input.

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