Is this a rogue board member? What would you do?

I just went through a rather interesting experience that I thought I would share with the group. I am the President of a 3 member HOA Board for 313 homes.

Like many HOAs, we've been having some problems at our community swimming pool with parents bringing their young children into the pool wearing regular diapers instead of the swim diapers that our rules require. When the resultant floaters have been discovered (typically after the child is long gone and the parents didn't bother to notify us) we immediately get everybody out of the pool and shut the pool down for at least 24 hours while the water is treated. There were recently several kids in the area who got sick after swimming in a different neighborhood's pool, so we are being hyper-sensitive about this issue right now. However we recently had a rash of 3 shutdowns within 2 weeks. Nobody has gotten sick from our pool though.

One of our Board members decided that this was too much, so he posted some signs at the pool stating that anyone caught bringing a child into the pool area without a swim diaper would lose their pool privileges for the rest of the season. This was done without approval from the rest of the Board, and without input from the Pool Committee. After complaints from the committee and the homeowners, the signs were removed over his objections. Different signs that were designed by the pool committee were installed instead.

Yesterday out of the blue I received a message from our state health department asking if we had received any reports of illnesses with the pool as the cause. During the course of communicating with them, it was mentioned that they had received a call from this Board member. They didn't say why he had called, and in fact at the time asked me if I knew what the call was about.

At about the same time one of the local news stations sent out a crew to take some shots of the signs that we do have posted at our pool. The crew wouldn't say why they were interested in our pool, only that they were "Reporting the news".

So given this sequence of events and with no other info from that Board member, what would your thoughts and actions be?

BTW: I've been contacted by that news station asking for an interview. Any suggestions there?

Dwight:

Sounds like someone has sour grapes. I am assuming you keep a log of when you check your pool..if the news media has requested an interview I would ask what about and then proceed at your comfort level. I would tell them what you do and say that you have heard about other illnesses in the area and want to be cautious with the health of the residents. I would mention nothing of the board member.

We all know he contacted them and the health department to stir up trouble. As far as dealing with him I would put him on the spot at the next meeting and say that the health department contacted you at his request and ask what the purpose was. I would also try to vote him out, you don't need people like that.

I'd be interested to know what the rogue's sign said and what the new sign now says.

First and foremost, based on my experience as a communications and PR professional, you would be wise to talk with the news people and whatever you do, do NOT say "no comment" or "we have no comment at this time" or do NOT give the impression you are trying to avoid an interview.

It would also be a good idea to have a list of 2 or 3 SPECIFIC talking points that you can continue to refer back to.

For example,

1) We are very concerned about potential contamination and have taken responsible steps to ensure, to the best of our ability, that our pool is safe.

2) Our residents are aware of specific requirements for swimming attire for toddlers and infants.

3) Our governing documents require that all toddlers and infants swim in diapers knowns as swim diapers.

Do not try to use too many talking points. Three is fine.

You do NOT have to offer any information ad hoc.

I would simply answer whatever questions they ask and only with specific responses, ALWAYS ending with one of your pre-determined talking points.

Do not offer any conjecture.

Do not try to "fill" silence gaps. (Media will often pause at length to give you an opportunity to "expand" on your answer as most people are "uncomfortable" with silence.)

If they ask you a question you are not comfortable answering or that you truly do not have the answer to, state simply, "I do not know the answer to that. I will research and get back to you." It's OKAY to say you don't know and it's a thousand times better than saying "no comment."

If they ask you why the health department was contacted, you simply reply, "I do not know." If they ask you if you know who contacted them, you can only say, "I do not know. -- then go into a talking point: We take issues of contamination very seriously and have taken responsible steps to ensure to the best of our ability (or industry standard) that our pool is safe."

NOT a good idea about the media situation. NEVER EVER involve the media to resolve a HOA issue. Do you want the whole world to know about the conditions of your HOA? How are your houses going to sell if people know that there could be health issues living there? The HOA is supposed to maintain home values by making the appearance of beautiful unified peaceful environment in which to raise your kids.

I think before you respond the media should acknowledge what the report is about. Be frank and address their questions with short direct answers. The details of the situation should be handled at the board meeting. This is an owner issue and NOT up for scrutiny of the media.

Now I am not telling you to tell this board member to "be quiet". This will only encourage the situation. Instead, address it as a workable issue with solutions. Don't put blame on any one individual. This person obvisously wants attention. Don't give it to them, GIVE THE ISSUE THE ATTENTION!!!

I've dealt with quite a few "floaties" myself. All we did is shut down the pool, shock it, and reopen within 24 hours. I didn't make it a "secret" about what had happened. It was actually the "peer" pressure that made the issue go away on it's own. I did post a sign up during the treatment period about the situation. The sign included the issue, what was being done, and requesting information about who was involved. The sign was removed after the treatment was over with. However, if I wanted a "warning sign" similar to what your board member did. I got the ENTIRE boards approval. I then put the sign in other areas about gathering information if any.

I would mention that the health department hasn't had any negative reports about the pool and request the media to direct the attention onto them. Let them do a "puff piece" on the entire issue focusing on MULTIPLE locations. I recently got ill (Got "Crypto") from a public swimming park. It's going to happen. Can't really avoid it. Just realize this is going to be another one of those "flash in the pans" situations over time. It will be faced again. Just realize this issue really isn't just yours. It's everybody's in the long run.

Well, it looks like the stars where just completely misaligned for us. This is starting to look like much ado about nothing.

I called a Board meeting to discuss this issue and find out what is going on. Technically, because of the notification requirements in our bylaws the meeting should not have been able to happen until this coming Monday. However I sent an email message to all Board members (with paper notification to follow) stating that I was calling a meeting and why.

The Board member in question finally responded and stated that he had merely contacted the health department to find out what the recommended procedure really is for these floater incidents. The problem was that he said that he was from our HOA. Turns out that earlier in the day the guy at the health department had received a call from the TV station asking if they had heard anything about our pool. Since the health dept. guy had received two calls in one day mentioning the same neighborhood, he thought that there must be something going on and he needed to get to the bottom of it, so he contacted me.

The TV station has apparently been working on this story for over a month. I don't think that the story is necessarily about us, but about community pools in general. However, since the pool that did have some illness problems recently is so close to us and because we just went through a rash of closures because of the floaters, we popped up on their radar. I still haven't heard back from the person who initially called our management company asking for an interview, but I'm hoping that they are only interested in us because we are handling the situation properly.

So this mostly looks like a case of extremely bad timing on the part of that Board member. He is miffed that I would even think that he would do such a thing, and that I called a meeting without simply talking to him first. But as I told him I didn't think that I could take the chance. All the circumstantial evidence pointed to him trying to be a "whistle blower", and I felt that I needed to handle it at the Board level rather than a personal one. Frankly, I think that if he would have told me first that he was going to check with the health department, or at least avoided mentioning the HOA name when he did call, none of this would have happened.

I may still have to deal with the TV crew though. I greatly appreciate the advice on that line. The talking points will be a big help, as well as the reminder not to volunteer information. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Michele -
Nothing wrong with being a "whistleblower" per-se, but first there really has to be something to blow the whistle about (we really have been doing everything possible to deal with the problem) and second, before blowing the whistle the "culprits" should at least be notified about the concerns and given the opportunity to correct the problems. As I noted in the original post, this particular Board member originally took unilateral action and posted the signs without any other input or approval. Unfortunately he has a history of doing that.

As to using the BOD role when looking for information, I agree that there is nothing wrong with that. But since I am the person who will probably have to answer questions later, it would have been nice if he would have at least let me know that he was going to go looking. Nothing worse than an organization's spokesman who can only sit there and say "um, er, uh" while the camera is rolling. If you want to use an organization's name, just let the orgs spokesman know in advance.

I don't really remember the exact verbiage of the original sign, but it was over the top. Basically it stated that the family of any child under a certain age (3?) caught without a swim diaper would lose their pool privileges for the rest of the year. The current sign (flyer actually - a copy was delivered to each home and posted on the gate) explains the situation, states the rule (swim diapers required, standard diapers not allowed), and the consequences for non-compliance (loss of access, but no time frame specified. That will be up to the Board and depend on the circumstances). It also has information on what to do and who to contact if an accident does occur. Our biggest gripe isn't so much that kids have accidents, it's that a parent will realize what has happened, pull their own kids out of the pool, and leave without letting anybody know about it. If we find somebody doing that, I have no problem with turning off their access for the season. If the parent will just let us know, then we'll take care of the problem and that will be the end of it.

I thought that what Dwight posted was a "good spin". In addition to taking safety very seriously the Board confirmed with the health dept. that they are following proper cleaning protocols.