Removal of board members - question

Is your community under the control of the homeowners (that is, the developer turned it over and is out of the picture?) If so, when did that happen? If it's been 180 days since the turnover, the homeowners can vote to recall them, but before THAT happens, let's slow down a bit.

First of all, these people were elected in December - do you know if any of them have ever served on an HOA board before? What did the developer do (if anything) regarding training? This is not a block club - depending on one's background and willingness to learn, it can take a year to get used to everything - and you should want to ensure they at least try to do it correctly. Remember, these guys and gals have to think about hiring a property manager or working with one, developing processes on rule enforcement (such as how soon should notices be sent, when homeowners should file appeals, etc), setting up reserves if that hasn't already been one, etc. And yes, there needs to be some instruction on fiduciary duty and conflicts of interests and why it's critical for board members to understand what all this means.

Have you expressed your concerns about rules enforcement to the board? Perhaps volunteer for a rules enforcement committee that can determine the more pressing problems and come up with some processes to recommend to the board for approval? What do you mean when you say "unethical decision making?" It's one thing to disagree with a decision, but are you concerned there was some conflict of interest among some board members? Do you have any proof of that? What was the response when you brought that up to the board?

I'm not saying there aren't some board members who really aren't up for the job, but there's also a learning curve you should be aware of, so keep watching and let them know of any concerns. And make an offer to help - if nothing works, then you can campaign for a spot in the next election and see what happens.

As for the association being sued, anyone can sue for anything - the real question is who stands a better chance of winning? Any homeowner can enforce the CCRs against another homeowner, so if you're honked off about something your neighbor is doing and talking to him or her hasn't helped, take him/her to court and see what happens.

RR

My initial blush is this Covenant basically says no matter what else is in the Covenants/Bylaws that only the Declarant can appoint or remove any BOD Member during the 180 days. I say the owners cannot.

The 180 days is up in June so I would be looking at being able to hold a BOD Election at that time.

During our transition the Declarant's appointed BOD was our BOD for the first year (actually 10 months). Come the next Annual Meeting an election was held. Four of the existing 5 won election. The 5th existing member lost by one vote and as he wanted off, he did not ask for a verification/recount. Our PM said he would probably would have won with a verification/recount.

Well, if the homeowners did the voting, why did they vote for people they weren’t happy with? It may be true that the developer could appoint or kick them off within 180 days of turnover, but it would seem if everyone had voted against these people, that would send the developer a message.

(It also makes me wonder why the developer would even put this in the documents – if you have the power to appoint or remove, what’s the point of having an election?)

It may be these folks are still in charge because they go along with whatever the developer is saying – not a good idea because the developer will soon be history and they need to think ahead about what would be best for the community. It may be the developer really wanted a board that would simply rubberstamp whatever it wanted (if that’s the case, why waste time reading documents???) I do understand your concern – if you’re going to serve on the board, you need to know what’s expected of the association and the people making the decisions, lest you wind up with people who join long after the developer’s gone and still don’t read the documents, let alone follow them!

Another possibility to consider - Have YOU sat down and read every word? Maybe they’re doing exactly what they’re supposed to do and the misunderstanding is with you.

If you and a bunch of like-minded neighbors are really unhappy with this bunch or at least some of them, all of you can go to the DEVELOPER and have them removed. If you’re going to do that, you need to cite specific examples regarding your concerns and you should give those board members a chance to explain themselves. Or you can wait until the developer is really gone and hold another election (or recall?), but even then I think you need to be specific about what the problems are. Just remember if you get rid of this bunch, you need to find others willing to step up, get educated and then get to work. If you’re one of them, you know what you need to do – get to it and good luck!

PS. I often recommend people check out the Community Association Institute website because they have a lot of good educational materials on best practices in running a HOA. However this ends, I suggest you have a look at some of them and suggest the board consider purchasing some of them - they could use them to establish a policy and procedure manual that can help streamline their work and make the board more effective.

Agreed, it looks pretty self-explanatory.