JennyG4 (California)
Posts: 2
Posts: 2
Posted:
Hi! I resigned as Pres of our HOA a couple of weeks ago due to ongoing issues with our "Treasurer" and while I'm glad to be relieved of the burden personally, I'm feeling uneasy about the whole thing and am seeking advice on whether anything additional needs to happen on behalf of protecting the homeowners. I suppose I'd also like to feel reassured that my decision makes sense. For reference, I am in CA in a 54 unit condo building with three board members. I apologize for the length - there is a brief summary at the bottom 
Background: In late 2016, an all new board was elected at the same time that (unbeknownst to us) a contract has been signed with a new management co by the old board, who all resigned at once. The transition was rocky and during this time, we discovered that the new Treasurer should not have been allowed to run (per CC&Rs) as he was not on the deed to his unit, which is owned by a trust in his absentee wife's name. This should have been caught by the old management company, but wasn't. He stated that this was "bull$shit" and that he should be allowed to serve if he wanted to. Looking back, I should have chosen to pursue further but we had no other candidates who had run and I figured this was a bit of a grey area. Treasurer is retired 70-80 year old man with a lot of time on his hands, and it seemed that it would be beneficial to have someone who was available to meet with vendors,. etc. It became apparent quickly that I was the only one concerned with complying with the open meeting law and proposed frequent meetings every 1-2 months until we could get things on track but I could get no response from either board member. Secretary has been very checked out through this whole process and rarely participates, to the point he refused to take minutes until I told him I wasn't going to do it again. I was the only board member ever to contribute agenda items for meetings and did a ton of work to prepare.
The Elevator: We had a pesky elevator that has been breaking off and on for years and our contracted repair company was not able to solve. I discovered that Treasurer had been going into the elevator room and "resetting" the elevator. I voiced liability and elevator maintenance contract concerns and asked him not to touch any of the equipment. The property manager agreed with me. Treasurer ignored my request and continued to mess with it on his own until he eventually did work with the elevator company to figure out the problem. This was a huge win and everyone was thrilled. This was very early on so I let it go, though his enthusiasm for working on the building's systems after being asked not to was concerning.
Plumbing and rewiring lights : Building has been having plumbing issues and we had asked the property manager to set up meetings with plumbers to get quotes/advice on how to proceed. Shortly after, Treasurer take me down to the basement and reveals that he has already purchased equipment and scaffolding (on his own dime) to open up all of the pipes in the underground parking garage and snake them himself. He also revealed that he had been rewiring common area lights. This caught me totally off guard and I told him that it was the Board's responsibility to make responsible decisions on behalf of everyone in the building and to use licensed, insured vendors to perform work like this. His response was that liability was not an issue, that he was an owner, and therefore he was entitled to work on the building. I tried again to explain my point and he condescendingly implied that I am young and don't understand (I am probably less than half his age and female, for what it's worth). I stopped the conversation at that point and told him that he needed to call a meeting to discuss anything further. I relayed the info to Secretary (who is an attorney) who was also concerned and also asked Treasurer to stop performing electrical/plumbing common area work. At this point, Treasurer starts refusing to communicate any information about his vendor meetings to anyone. I often didn't know they were happening at all.
Less serious weird stuff: I learned through the grapevine that Treasurer had "given permission" to a resident to park their third car in our Guest parking (which is strictly prohibited) and that he was letting someone store old tires in the building's fan room, "because the people were nice". I find out that he is dropping off lists of questions and requests for quotes at the property manager's office and never bringing them up in meetings.
Actual finances: A bit after the management switchover was complete, I discovered a 100k bank account that had completely "gone missing" during the change. Treasurer had not ever noticed it and declines to give financial update at the meetings.
The last straw: Treasurer constantly wanders the building, sometimes with ladders and I find myself at a loss. I don't want to try to reason with him further after his previous treatment of me. I'm unable get him to communicate with us. I have no support from the other board member. I resigned myself to thinking that as long as it's not electrical work he's doing it's probably not worth the fight. On the morning of our meeting a couple weeks ago, I left for work and Treasurer was in the hallway right outside my unit rewiring a light. I calmly said "hey, what's up?" and he said he was changing a lightbulb. The wires hanging out of the wall said otherwise. At the meeting that evening, when the topic of lighting came up, and I learn that he has rewired 40 lights. I politely asked our property manager if we were ok to be doing this rewiring work ourselves, saying once again that I was concerned about liability and protecting the best interest of the homeowners. Property manager does not want to commit to an answer and says he can ask the insurance company. Treasurer got quite angry and continued to mutter rude comments and roll his eyes at me throughout the rest of the meeting, again reiterating that it was his building to work on. I'm grateful that other residents were present to hear this, but I don't know if they truly understand the extent of the issues that have been happening. After the meeting, I approached Treasurer and asked if I could speak to him. He immediately lashed out at me before I said another word and I told him that his behavior was making me feel disrespected. In addition to the frustration of doing most of the actual board work myself, I am truly worried that something will happen due to this person's actions, whether it's a fall from a ladder, an electrical fire, or consequences from something else I don't even know he's doing and I don't want to be associated with the Board if and when it does. I decided that as much as I wanted to help do good things for my building, it was no longer worth it to me and I sent in my resignation later that night.
It should be noted that I think his constant presence in the building and skills for advisement and small jobs could have been hugely beneficial for us if things were handled in a different manner, but it just didn't work out that way. In my recent interactions with other residents, I've been left feeling like he has been speaking about me to anyone who will listen as he wanders around the building, and I highly doubt that he has anything kind to say. That's neither here nor there, but I am concerned about what will happen with my departure as it often seemed I was the only one trying to play by the rules. I'm even more concerned that he will declare himself President. Our property manager just wants to make sure they give as little advice as possible to stay out of trouble themselves. Knowing what I know, is there anything else I can do to try and protect our residents or should I just lay low and hope nothing bad happens?
TL;DR : I resigned as President after liability concerns (and honestly from negative effects on my health and happiness) stemming from disrespectful Treasurer who wants only to act as a non communicative handyman (including things like plumbing and electrical work), makes up rules as he sees fit, and does nothing with the financials. Is there anything I can do going forward to try to protect my building?
Thank you so much to anyone who made it all the way through that! I appreciate your time.
Background: In late 2016, an all new board was elected at the same time that (unbeknownst to us) a contract has been signed with a new management co by the old board, who all resigned at once. The transition was rocky and during this time, we discovered that the new Treasurer should not have been allowed to run (per CC&Rs) as he was not on the deed to his unit, which is owned by a trust in his absentee wife's name. This should have been caught by the old management company, but wasn't. He stated that this was "bull$shit" and that he should be allowed to serve if he wanted to. Looking back, I should have chosen to pursue further but we had no other candidates who had run and I figured this was a bit of a grey area. Treasurer is retired 70-80 year old man with a lot of time on his hands, and it seemed that it would be beneficial to have someone who was available to meet with vendors,. etc. It became apparent quickly that I was the only one concerned with complying with the open meeting law and proposed frequent meetings every 1-2 months until we could get things on track but I could get no response from either board member. Secretary has been very checked out through this whole process and rarely participates, to the point he refused to take minutes until I told him I wasn't going to do it again. I was the only board member ever to contribute agenda items for meetings and did a ton of work to prepare.
The Elevator: We had a pesky elevator that has been breaking off and on for years and our contracted repair company was not able to solve. I discovered that Treasurer had been going into the elevator room and "resetting" the elevator. I voiced liability and elevator maintenance contract concerns and asked him not to touch any of the equipment. The property manager agreed with me. Treasurer ignored my request and continued to mess with it on his own until he eventually did work with the elevator company to figure out the problem. This was a huge win and everyone was thrilled. This was very early on so I let it go, though his enthusiasm for working on the building's systems after being asked not to was concerning.
Plumbing and rewiring lights : Building has been having plumbing issues and we had asked the property manager to set up meetings with plumbers to get quotes/advice on how to proceed. Shortly after, Treasurer take me down to the basement and reveals that he has already purchased equipment and scaffolding (on his own dime) to open up all of the pipes in the underground parking garage and snake them himself. He also revealed that he had been rewiring common area lights. This caught me totally off guard and I told him that it was the Board's responsibility to make responsible decisions on behalf of everyone in the building and to use licensed, insured vendors to perform work like this. His response was that liability was not an issue, that he was an owner, and therefore he was entitled to work on the building. I tried again to explain my point and he condescendingly implied that I am young and don't understand (I am probably less than half his age and female, for what it's worth). I stopped the conversation at that point and told him that he needed to call a meeting to discuss anything further. I relayed the info to Secretary (who is an attorney) who was also concerned and also asked Treasurer to stop performing electrical/plumbing common area work. At this point, Treasurer starts refusing to communicate any information about his vendor meetings to anyone. I often didn't know they were happening at all.
Less serious weird stuff: I learned through the grapevine that Treasurer had "given permission" to a resident to park their third car in our Guest parking (which is strictly prohibited) and that he was letting someone store old tires in the building's fan room, "because the people were nice". I find out that he is dropping off lists of questions and requests for quotes at the property manager's office and never bringing them up in meetings.
Actual finances: A bit after the management switchover was complete, I discovered a 100k bank account that had completely "gone missing" during the change. Treasurer had not ever noticed it and declines to give financial update at the meetings.
The last straw: Treasurer constantly wanders the building, sometimes with ladders and I find myself at a loss. I don't want to try to reason with him further after his previous treatment of me. I'm unable get him to communicate with us. I have no support from the other board member. I resigned myself to thinking that as long as it's not electrical work he's doing it's probably not worth the fight. On the morning of our meeting a couple weeks ago, I left for work and Treasurer was in the hallway right outside my unit rewiring a light. I calmly said "hey, what's up?" and he said he was changing a lightbulb. The wires hanging out of the wall said otherwise. At the meeting that evening, when the topic of lighting came up, and I learn that he has rewired 40 lights. I politely asked our property manager if we were ok to be doing this rewiring work ourselves, saying once again that I was concerned about liability and protecting the best interest of the homeowners. Property manager does not want to commit to an answer and says he can ask the insurance company. Treasurer got quite angry and continued to mutter rude comments and roll his eyes at me throughout the rest of the meeting, again reiterating that it was his building to work on. I'm grateful that other residents were present to hear this, but I don't know if they truly understand the extent of the issues that have been happening. After the meeting, I approached Treasurer and asked if I could speak to him. He immediately lashed out at me before I said another word and I told him that his behavior was making me feel disrespected. In addition to the frustration of doing most of the actual board work myself, I am truly worried that something will happen due to this person's actions, whether it's a fall from a ladder, an electrical fire, or consequences from something else I don't even know he's doing and I don't want to be associated with the Board if and when it does. I decided that as much as I wanted to help do good things for my building, it was no longer worth it to me and I sent in my resignation later that night.
It should be noted that I think his constant presence in the building and skills for advisement and small jobs could have been hugely beneficial for us if things were handled in a different manner, but it just didn't work out that way. In my recent interactions with other residents, I've been left feeling like he has been speaking about me to anyone who will listen as he wanders around the building, and I highly doubt that he has anything kind to say. That's neither here nor there, but I am concerned about what will happen with my departure as it often seemed I was the only one trying to play by the rules. I'm even more concerned that he will declare himself President. Our property manager just wants to make sure they give as little advice as possible to stay out of trouble themselves. Knowing what I know, is there anything else I can do to try and protect our residents or should I just lay low and hope nothing bad happens?
TL;DR : I resigned as President after liability concerns (and honestly from negative effects on my health and happiness) stemming from disrespectful Treasurer who wants only to act as a non communicative handyman (including things like plumbing and electrical work), makes up rules as he sees fit, and does nothing with the financials. Is there anything I can do going forward to try to protect my building?
Thank you so much to anyone who made it all the way through that! I appreciate your time.