Fair Elections

Well, as some of you know I tried to get elected to our board, but really not very hard. Our annual meeting was held last night (second attempt). There were 6 candidates for 5 board seats, and I chose not to solicit proxies as some of you recommended. I knew going in I had no chance, but I had another friend who was stepping up and as long as one of us was elected I was fine with it.

My friend could not come to the meeting last night.

During the meeting, the president invited the candidates to stand and say a word or two about themselves and why they wanted to serve on the board. Each candidate in turn did this, and no one asked any questions until I stood and said my piece.

Immediately, members of the grounds committee started harassing me and questioning why I record meetings and saying how disruptive it was. I replied as honestly as I could saying I believed if the board was so strongly encouraging members of the community to come to a meeting, what would be the harm in simply recording them and making them available to the membership.

One grounds committee member insinuated that I was not making them available to the membership, and I offered to provide the recordings to every single person. I pointed out that the board already records the meetings, and anyone could request the recordings from the board. But I was deliberately badgered by the grounds committee.

Then a board member said, and I quote "I heard a rumor that you tried to sue the association". Of course this rumor is one she herself perpetuates and simply isn't close to true. Every action I've ever taken is to help our inept board members try to avoid litigation. But here was a board member trying to paint me in a terrible light in front of my neighbors, during the election, and as if I had done something wrong. It was surreal. I was then attacked by our president who stood and again painted a terrible picture of me to the membership. It was definitely a coordinated attack and intended to sway the election, but I politely and honestly answered every insinuation with facts and truth.

Then the board president waxed poetic about the next candidate, my friend who could not come to the meeting but was up for election as I was. He reported on his military background, said he probably wasn't there tonight because he had a special needs child he was sure needed his attention, and what a terrific guy he was.

My question: Does any of this seem fair to you? Do any of you experience this degree of bias toward a homeowner during an election...or any other time?

I had a close call too last night at our annual meeting. only 2 board seats available. The only candidates for those two seats were another incumbent and me. Midway into the meeting, ballots and proxies were collected. Votes were tallied (by one of the board members who wasn't up for re-election). Near the end of the meeting, results were finally announced. Til those results got announced, people were biting their fingernails in anticipation (or maybe just elbowing their neighbors to keep them from falling off their chairs). One homeowner got so anxious that he couldn't stand the tension anymore and left early (or maybe he just wanted to get home in time for the Villanova game).

My question: Does any of this seem fair to you? Do any of you experience this degree of laissez faire during an election...or any other time?

I'd say it was cutthroat and dirty politics, but not illegal. Was just trying to get a variety of opinions on the subject and to see if others have experienced this.

At last night's annual meeting, we reviewed our progress over the last 3 years. In those 3 years, we doubled our reserves (27 year old association), avoided having to do a special assessment that our reserve specialist said we needed at the beginning of 2014, showed how we'll have the $220k-$250k we need to pave our streets, reduced our MC costs by 70%, raised fees only slightly ($0 this year), and reduced our water consumption by $8k (over 1 million gallons) per year.

One of the homeowners who attended was unhappy. (A) She didn't like the way her lawn looked. (B) We had removed two trees at her request, but we never replaced them (not our policy and never offered to replace them). (C) We had our landscape designer draw up plans for her row (HOA paid for the plans, but any planting costs were on the homeowners). She said that she attended two meetings with the landscape designer but never got the plans. She wanted to make sure that everyone knew that we wasted HOA money on those plans.

Her clear intent was to put us in a bad light to the community. There's no question that in her mind, she was exposing us for our bad behavior and poor decision making.

When I got home I checked. We emailed the landscape designer's plans and recommendations to her in May 2015.

Do you think what she did was fair? Do you think what we did was fair? How thick a skin do you think is needed? Do you think that a person's temperament and composure should be a factor in deciding who should be encouraged and elected?

Cf - You say that you didn't solicit proxies. You say that someone you share ideas with got on the board. I'd say you're in a lot better position that many of us found ourselves in when we decided to get things turned around. The best way to make a meaningful statement is to put your energy into collecting proxies next year. Would that be fair?

Perhaps you friends who's now on the board can make sure that the minutes are accurate.

You do know, right, that minutes can be amended at any time following their approval??

What you described last night is what you've been enduring for a long time as chronicled here often, including your troubles with the landscape comm. Without making the effort to collect proxies, it seems to me that you must bear some responsibility for the election outcome. Taking the "high road" is one thing; not taking positive action to get votes is another.

We haven't had the experience that you had last night, but at our election in late '14, there were 5 for 3 seats. Three of us sought reelection. One incumbent wrote a vicious letter attacking me, which she stacked in our community mail rooms and placed under the doors of about 1/2 our high rise condos, which is strictly against the rules.

I wrote a rejoinder that was stone-cold factual and requested my reelection AND the election of the two new candidates, which I stacked in the mailroom, and mailed out to about 10 absentee owners. My attacker was defeated. Hard to know for sure why-but nasty campaigning might have played a part. My record, too, is strong.