New Board Member - singled out

You ran for a reason. Giving up so soon? Seems to me you need to do some work. That is if your up for it. If not, then excuse yourself and let them keep running things without you.

Honey you can't lead someone by the nose to get work done. Sorry not going to caudle someone along the way. I can just tell you that your going to have to put the work in. That direction you want that to go in is your own choice. Just don't expect things given to you without clarification of what you want...

Sounds like a HOA...

If you run fro president of the the United States or your local City Council office, what do you need to get elected? A majority of the votes. You may need a few signatures to get your name on the ballot and that is pretty much it. The rest is campaigning. A person cast a ballot at a polling place and they open the ballots that evening, no quorum.

What happens in an HOA. You need a majority of owners to either show up to a meeting, cast a proxy (if they give you one) or vote by absentee ballot. A lot of HOA's, based on experience, never make quorum, somethings after two and three tries.

What do you do, get rid of quorum. Have 5% of the members sign a petition to get a person on the ballot and then send out ballots and the people with the most votes get on the Board. I dealt with a community with 1200 members. They opened ballots ONCE in 8 years. Where I used to live once in 7 years. If you happen to be lucky enough to get appointed to either one of these Boards why waste your time campaigning. You're set.

I think many Presidents of HOAs and condos refuse to do as BillH10 says because they know the only way for the minority director to get what the law requires is to hire an attorney, threaten litigation, and file suit as needed. Boards and Presidents do not have the accountability to the press that City Councils have. To get questions answered, directors do not have access to HOA staff the way City Council members have access to City staff.

I agree with all of what BillH10 wrote. But I am not optimistic any meaningful progress can occur without enormous labor and expense on the part of Tahrim.

Its a condo HOA, meets every month and ton emails (99% from the president- in between and asking for vote on project over the email, mini meeting by the pool, walk though to discuss adding or changing already passed bids
Here is an example of what kind of information I am not getting. I get an agenda for the meeting that has two violation hearing. It has name of two people. I asked the property manager, other board members and the president about the violation letter being contested or the letter requesting hearing so I am prepared. Nobody would reply. Day of the meeting president replies that its about billing and waiver, there is no violation letter involve and I don't need to worry about it. Later I find out residents ( mostly renters ) are given violation letter with "inspected by concerned neighbor" with out any evidence and most of the time for incidence that are not even violation... e.g dog barking at 2am. I talked to the neighbors around that house nobody heard any barking and nobody contacted them to verify if the complain is true.

there are many more these type of violation issued. I have been asking the property manager and he president what is the process when a resident files a complaint. I don't get any answer. Most likely concerned neighbor is the "president".

Also we have 3 security camera at the gate. one pointing to the face of the driver, two points to the gate and they meant for getting license plate number. Just recently I found out that one can watch live stream of these camera from the phone. Guess who has the access to that, president. I emailed the vendor asking how many accounts are there for remote viewing. NO answer. There is nothing in the bylaws about these camera.

I'm going to return to my suggestion you talk privately with the President regarding your concerns. Find our what his/her expectations are of board members and their role. There may be, and probably are, reasons why some of the situations you described are managed the way they are although side meetings outside the structure of a board meeting would trouble me as well, especially when the board meets monthly.

Making non-substantive changes to approved bids without board approval is common, especially if it involves landscaping. As a hypothetical example, if the bid included the use of plant A, and the contractor says A is not looking good this year, we suggest B, no change in price, it is not worth anyone's time to defer approval to a board meeting.

I'm also going to suggest you temper your expectations as well. For example, we would not prepare background documents for the board in the event an owner has asked for a waiver of a late payment charge or waiver of an out of compliance assessment, especially if it is the first time. We would explain the situation in executive session, provide the board with a verbal history of the account or situation if relevant, and ask for approval or denial of the request. If the violation is a compliance matter, we often brief the Board but seek no approval of anything as the associations we manage have documented compliance violation management processes. When the situation reaches the point of imposing out of compliance assessments, we do brief the board we are moving to that step in the process. Again however, it is unlikely we would prepare documents for distribution in advance of the meeting.

Another example is the $12,000 bid. We have a client which approves quotes for work items in the $3,000 to $5,000 range with no discussion or bidding as the work in question involves replacing a limited common element which is failing due to age in a number of units. Is this perhaps the third, or fifth, time the $12,000 item has come up in the last year or two? Is there history involved of which you may not be aware. I grant you, the president should courteously explain the background to you so you are not left wondering what is going on.

Your responsibility is to fulfill the responsibilities of the office to which you were elected and I recommend you do so. I sense you are investigating situations which do not seem 'right' to you, for reasons which are not clear to me. I suggest you sit back, observe, and learn what is taking place for several months.

In my situation hearing was about actual violation with owner getting 3rd violation letter. In the agenda there is no mention of anything but two names under hearing. If the email requesting hearing in front of the board were forwarded to all board members then there wouldn't be any confusion. After this board meeting president is super busy asking for vote over email on various thing, no mention of the hearing. We still haven't provided the owner with any verdict.

another example. I read the bylaws and asked if you have emergency plan for the community, they all said that's a good idea. Then on the meeting agenda I see review and finalize 'immediate contact list'. I emailed all the board members asking what is this about I have never this. I emailed twice and both times no reply. Then I am sitting in the meeting they are pulling that information on their laptop and I am asking again can somebody please forward me that email. THey are acting like are looking and as soon as they find it they will forward it to me. Nobody is saying anything. Then president takes a vote, everybody says yes and I say how can I vote on something when I don't even know what it is. So she says everybody voted yes and I abstained from voting. After the meeting I asked for that contact list nobody would send it to me. This can not be acceptable behavior under any situation. During one of this side meeting I mention we are meeting too many times. President tells me if this is too much for you are welcome to resign in front of other board members

Most of the bid modification adding more price on top of the bid that just passed.

Tahrim

What size (# of owners, % renters, budget, yearly dues, etc.) is your HOA? What style units is your HOA (condo building, townhomes, single family homes, etc.)? What amenities (pools, tennis, etc.) do you have?

President - on the board for 1 year. She is 50+ white lady who for reason has to let other know she is Christian in every meeting. She explains her action with her being Christian.
member # 2 -- 50+ white male who always vote with the president. Not very involve. On the board for a year
sectary - 50+ white female elected same time as me
treasurer - 30+ white male elected same time as me
vice president - me, 50+ Indian immigrant

Dear TahrimC,

Unfortunately, your situation sounds similar to mine. I recently moved and shortly thereafter was elected to the HOA’s board of directors. Within two months of being on the board, I assessed the board’s president and property manager were the ones who were actually running the HOA.

When I consulted with other real estate professionals, I was told my situation was all too familiar and always given the same advice: if you don’t like the way the board is being run, elect like minded people and take over the board.

In my situation, the only advantage of being the “lone wolf” board member was that I had access to information and documents a non-board member would not be entitled to.

In your post, you said you’re on the board for the next few months. I would suggest you do the following:

1. Document, document & document. No matter how trivial it might seem now, document. Save your board packets, emails, pictures, etc.
2. If you really want to make change, ensure you’re re-elected to the board.
3. If you’re able to do so, get like-minded people to get elected to the board to take it over.
4. Educate yourself. There’s a wealth of information online. However, you should really educate yourself on understanding the financial reports. People can say all sorts of things, but at the end of the day, it really comes down to the numbers.
5. Participation. Get other members to attend the meetings. My experience has been the board tends to stray if other members don’t hold them accountable.
6. Network. There’s probably a local real estate resource center/club/organization.
7. Fair Housing. If you’re concerned about the president’s professed religious principles being applied, talk to the local office of Fair Housing.

At times, it may seem like one person isn’t able to effect any meaningful changes. And there were times I was ready to resign. But continue to fight the good fight. The property manager resigned, blaming me. I helped like-minded people get elected to the board and now I’m president.

Good luck!

I heartily endorse YoungP's post. You will not find, in general, better advice than that. Change is possible but keep in mind that Rome wasn't built in a day. It's much better to be on the board than on the outside looking in, even if you must bide your time and gradually gather the support of like-minded homeowners.