Does a bad process void a legal action?

If the BOD passes a motion to do some type of action (raise the assessments, hire a vendor, ???) that they have the authority to do, but do it in an executive session which is declared to be a violation of the state's open meeting laws, does that void the action?

What authority states that no vote is allowed during executive session? Or do you mean no vote is allowed for the examples I gave?

Robert to expand on Roger's comment about "real world action" to your question. I would also add that while the board may void the action (the specific examples you gave were contractual, i.e. landscaper, etc), it does not "void" the contract if signed by the board, with the other party. Their position would be that they entered into the agreement, accepting that those who signed had the appropriate authority to enter into valid contracts on behalf of the HOA.

With that caution, I would further caution attempts to fully void the "real world" committments, and just limit the corrections (as Roger and other poster noted) to addressing, educating, or whatever the board to NOT make such decisions in executive session, but in duly called, open meetings. Hopefully, this was limited to an "oversight" situation where a vote was taken in executive session, and not something which was done without full intelligence with regards to proper selection criteria on the contracts. The latter would be a real headache because then the HOA is contractually obligated to that vendor, until such time you can properly terminate the contract.

To Tracy - this occurs in Arizona and there are similar laws. However, I am talking about doing something that the board should not have done, and should have know it was in violation of the law.

To make it a bit more complicated, let's say that the board voted to raise the assessments in a executive session. Now there is not a vendor that had the expectation that the contract was valid. Could the assessment be declared void since it was done in an illegal method (it is not one of the exceptions in AZ open meeting law)?

Robert, I have mentioned this before, sometimes a grenade works just as well as a nuke....

To stop an "errant board..." first educate them on the mistakes in a respectful manner (put the "respectful" part in because we are dealing with human element/dynamic).

If that fails, bring to attention of membership. If that fails...

Look to "Director and Officer's Liability Insurance" coverage, EXPLAINING to the "errant board" that they have been warned, attempts to educate have been ignored - now if conduct continues, point out that the "DOL" insurance carrier may not deem it appropriate to cover the mistakes made over and over again, and after attempts to properly correct.

Nuke option - recall petition, special election, or whatever method your governing documents allow for removing board-members.