Community rules

I am concerned about a BOD that generates rules based only on their desires. Our community has a by-law stating recalls can be executed by a five percent vote of the members. Our board has its second recall in a year against it and to off set any further recalls a rule was passed very quickly stating if a recall fails the originator and members who signed the petition would have to pay all the costs of conducting the recall. No provision for minimizing costs, the board can run those costs up as high as they like. Needless to say there will not be any recalls due to fear of paying. Is the court system the only countering of this type administration. Any helpful comments will be appreciated.

CharlesI1:

What do your documents state about a recall of a B-member or the entire Board? What 'costs' might be involved in recalling a Board?

Further, any 'rule' which has been imposed is not greater than the official documents which do state that a recall can be executed by 5% of members.

Brad
Our association is in Calif. A new state law effective July 2006 states a specific two envelope system be executed for voting. This postage and printing alone is over 4 thousand dollars as we have 4,762 lots and now we must use Inspectors of Elections which could be free if we used volunteers or the board can outsource this service and recently that election cost over 15 thousand. Again the board as an entity is not motivated to use lowest cost bids for service. Our by-laws have been in effect for 40 years allowing recall without cause, either of individuals or the entire group. This board has had petitions for recall initiated against it twice in one year.

Charles:

First if the Bylaws were never amended then the Bylaws were not done by the board. It is alwyas the Developer (or his attorney) who creates the Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws and CCR's. I would like to know this fact first.

Gloria
Our 40 year old by-laws and cc&rs have been amended three or four times during our existance. They were created by the developer. We were Del Webs first Sun City and the development essentially failed as he envisioned tens of thousands of homes here but he bailed out early and we have been on our own since.
We desperately need to upgrade our governing documents if for no other reason than to comply with new laws passed since 1985 and the passing of the Davis-Sterling act. But we need to have crystal clear documents as well instead of vague statements such as "recalls can be conducted without cause" not mentioning anything about time frames and costs or at least who pays for it. To date the association has incurred all costs for elections , even recalls in the past, but the new rule stipulates the petitioners will pay for them in the future if the recall is a failure. I don't know if you are familiar with Calif law but our elections were pure legal corruption until state law changed in 2006. The big concern is are we getting railroaded by this board with their passing rules pertaing to elections that are governed by the by-laws and cc&rs. It doesn't make sense that we can be made responsible for costs regarding the operation of the incorporated association. Thanks for your response.
Charles

Charles -
I would have to agree with your Board here. Frankly, there will probably always be at least 5% of any neighborhood who isn't happy with their Board. If that small group is allowed to continuously try to force a recall election, then they are wasting the time and money of the remaining 95% of the homeowners in the neighborhood. There should be restrictions in place to prevent a few disgruntled homeowners from bankrupting the HOA.

Since you've already had the neighborhood vote NO on a recall, and you have term limits in place anyway that will eventually remove those Board members for at least a year, your best bet would probably be to wait and watch and run for the Board yourself as these terms expire.

Don't know if this will help you with the rule-making end of things, but read CA CC 1357.100 thru 1357.150 which talks about what a board must do before it can change or adopt new rules. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html
Check civil and type in 1357.100
It might help you if the current board isn't following the law. Unfortunately the only option is to sue.
Sad
Jane