new board member

I purchased a unit in a 200+ condo complex about 3 years The complex is on a beach, so primarily vacation homes/ seasonal rentals. Some things immediately caught my attention with the HOA management and board. The property manager for the complex is the son of the long time HOA president. I was elected to a 3 year term on the board about 1.5 years ago. Since that time, I have struggled with being able to obtain information from the property manager. The core of the board is very tight and vote together always in alignment with the president. Very little activity actually happens with the board, as the President rules unilaterally. My inquiries and attempts to learn more about operations have not been well received. The president and son are both lawyers and very reluctant to correspond via email. This frustrates me. The property manager acts as a board member, even attending executive sessions.

While I have found no evidence of blatant wrong doing, it is very hard to get info or to change things that need changing. For instance, there is no policy or approval process for expenses. The GM essentially writes checks to himself and his father. The GM also gets paid extra (on top of a well above average base salary) for things such as security and working in a lawyer capacity on overdue account collection. Is this normal?

3 of the old guard board members are up for election later this year, and I am optimistic that we can replace some or all with new owner candidates and that would flip the power and hopefully allow for changes and more active homeowner management. So, I am trying to play nice and bide my time.

Any thoughts, suggestions, etc would be appreciated.

Does the system is place work? Is the current board acting in the property's best interests?

These are the main questions.

Some of the replies to you, Blain, are, um, very interesting.

I need to ask: what is the President getting paid for?? Simple reimbursements? Or?

Re: pay for your GM: what does your contract say? How old is it? Does it include overdue accounts collections ? Does it comply with your governing documents? It does seem like gross conflicts of interest all over the place UNLESS the board has voted for all of these extras payments.

Budgets: does your board vote on your annual budget? What are the requirements in NC for owner participation to approve or ratify budgets? Any?

Why does the prez have unilateral power? Is that in your bylaws? Or are the rest of the Board intimated? Lazy?

Are board meetings in NC open to Owners? How often do you have them? Who writes the meeting minutes? Are they approved at subsequent meetings? How often does the Board meet?

Does NC permit Ownrs to have access to most documents?

If you want new blood on the board, start forming relationships now; find sources of shared interests & work on them.

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