Open/closed meetings

Hang in there a minute, this is not something that has been covered. Just a personal experience.
I live in a condo in SC. For a long time I have been searching to find out if "open" meeting are required in our regular meetings.
I could not tell you how many people I have contacted in the State and County
Offices. It is always. the same answer whether I get a reply in a day or two weeks. You have to hire a lawyer for an opinion.
I keep a thread on all this then when I get back to the begining I go to a higher office.
I am now at the States Attorneys office. They have concluded they can not tell me if these kind of meetings should be closed or open. And I quote, "To answer my question would be giving me legal advice and they are not allowed to do this." However, if I can get an elected offical in the state to request the information, they will tell him the answer.

Can you believe this? I am now back to the low level elected official in the county and have enclosed the thread and made a formal request that this elected
offical get me the answer.

Of course I question why I have to pay an Attorney for his Opinion. If they would just tell me no or yes would be nice. I don't want an opinion, I have enough of them myself.

Comments? I will post and tell you how this ends up.

South Carolina's Open Meeting Law covers only Public bodies, not homeowner or condo associations.

Link: http://www.scstatehouse.net/code/t30c004.htm

See Section 30-4-20 for who it covers

See ections 30-4-60 through 30-4 90 for the Open Meetings portion

I'm not a lawyer, but unless you have a condo act, HOA act, or your documents that says diffferent, your state is very much like mine and the law doesn't force or require open meetings of community associations.

Joe

I, too, would search the HOA documents as often they discuss the issue. However, it must be that many don't, otherwise why would the state HOA acts, etc. address it?

Do you have a consumer affairs type of department? In Fairfax, they are the ones that worry about, and give advice to HOAs. Perhaps even the state level consumer affairs would consider your question. I would tend to stay away from attorneys.

I think it is unbelievable that these people won't answer such a simple question. Of course they can't speak to your documents, but they should know the state law. Of course saying they will answer the question if asked by an elected official is just bizarre, IMO.

If your docs allow access to HOA records then technically all meetings in which you have access to the minutes can be considered open.

To all:
Thanks to all for your input. Let me # some points#
1. The FIO law in this state and I assume all states does not cover HOA's, only public supported entities.

2. I suspect when the developer chartered our documents he (like most developers) did not want open meetings and so it was never put in documents.
Time passes, no one minds and now 17 years have gone by. Hard to believe but...

3. Absentee Board members have no desire to change the rules, it would be just a bother for them.

4. The Manager has no vested interest so he avoids the subject. If in documents then he has to notify everyone of meetings and open up teleconference to more people.

5. You are right about the associations having an attorney and if the board would be concerned they would ask him. For 17 years they haven't, I guess.
The attorney does not work for the Homeowners, he works for the Board.

6. For years this was not a problem because there was always enough folks that lived full time in Associationj and they could attend meetings by walking in the door, and I suspect that is still the case in some places.

7. The demographics of HOA and Condo is changing fast. Example the HOA here is fast becoming an association of majority absentee home owners that rent their homes and our condo is already there with at least 80% absentee owners.
This will hold true for most resort areas, I believe.

8. I now believe this change is going to cause tremendous problems on some Regimes.

9. I am also of the opinion that the states are not going to get involved. Why should they. The more investor second homes they have in state/county, the more revenue they have coming in with taxes, and the less demand they have on the school system.

10. Who cares? The resort lobby and big money lobby don't want change, they just want more development, the lawyer lobby don't want to change, in fact they were the ones that wrote our and yours original documents, and as long as the lawyer is judged to be some kind of authoritative end all, they will do what is best for them. Our documents were written by the same lawyer we have on retension (I think he is considered "our" lawyer.)

11. The fact that a fundemental right that open meeting should be held, and this is not addressed in the Act or our documents was not an act of "Oh, I forgot.".

12. But, the Board can and does retain the lawyer to come to our annual meeting and answer questions about specific acts of the board, e.g., last time, making a change in our documents. Our manager apparently has open access to the lawyer, I assume, under board s direction.

13. The question of why me or any individual, can't write the Board and ask the obvious questions is complicated. The deeper the Board is entrenched the greater the effort will be made to not rock the boat and my experience seems to be the more the Owners/board are involved in a profit making enterprize like renting second homes, the stronger the resistence to change.
There is and will always be a different preception between full timers and absentee owners. It is there and no matter what you believe personally, it is an active force. I have lived under it for 17 years and am pretty well comfortable with it's existence, and can feel comfortable talking about the pros and cons. The reason is certainly not because of the clearness or directions in our documents but just habit over the years.

14. Don't think for a minute I haven't tried to get the Board to declare "Open meetings". Everyway I can think of and that is why I am investigating why the State and County won't step in. I have had NO encouragement that any of my efforts will be effective.

RobertR1: Welcome to the frustrated homeowner club. Maryland law requires all decisions be made at an open meeting but my condo ignores this law. Maryland (except for Montgomery County) has no real enforcement or complaint mechanisms but many of us are hoping to get the Maryland legislature to change that.