Board Member making Accusations against another Board Member

Need advice.
We are a three member board, Pres, Treasurer and Secretary. We are a 17 unit townhome association in Illinois. I am the treasurer. We held a Board Meeting last November 2018 where the Secretary 'announced' that he had found $9,000 in discrepancies in the Financial reports I have shared at prior annual meeting and Board meetings. The President and I asked him to share the detail of how he came to this finding. He was vague and also noted that he wouldn't meet with me but only with the President to share his detail. After the Board Meeting, a week later he sent "Highlights of the Board Meeting" to all members - these were not minutes but a summary of the meeting - which he pointed out there is a $9,000 discrepancy in the finances. The President continued to ask him to meet and then he said it would be illegal to meet only with her.

Fast forward now - I submitted receipts of expenses I paid for: USB stick, Christmas street lights which were placed at front entrance, ream of paper and book of stamps -- $55.02. (We do not have any rules on submitting expenses). Purchases were made Nov 2018 through April 2019. the President reviewed the receipts and approved, I asked the Secretary to review and asked if he could sign my check. He erupted that the receipts were very late in submittal - he is fighting on the reimbursement of the xmas lights (I have email he approved the purchase last Dec. but now he says the purchase was not warranted due to President throwing in her own lights) ... the lights were $20. The latest email to Board, he asked if I was "so in dire poor finances that I may have purchased the lights and then claimed them on my taxes as a donation.' He is questioning if the lights were actually used for the front entrance.

AS I write this you probably are thinking I'm making this up...
Question -- what can we share with other members in regard to his irrational emails and accusations? this is such a dysfunctional group that has had many issues going back many years...I should write a book.
I think his accusations can be brought to an attorney - I think he is unhinged and that this needs to be shared with members and we vote him off the board. (he actually does have some supporters though they don't know this recent issue).

Thanks.

Get with other homeowners and vote him off the board.

We have EXACTLY the same problem here with a complete nutjob board member. This idiot claims another board member is stealing money yet ignores the past three years of audits that show no such thing. This insane moron demands an audit to be done then literally in the next breath refuses to sign the engagement letter with the CPA firm to begin an audit... this unreasonable waste of human debris is the treasurer.

You want to set than imbecile up? Solicit a board member vote to perform a full audit of the financial records. I guarantee their answer will either be "No" to the audit or they simply won't vote at all.

Thanks- I have all receipts - I think he is trying to get me to quit. Last Nov. he suggested a full audit and we all agreed to investigate it.
I started to contact CPA firms and inquire about audits, their expense, etc.
I shared with the Board my findings and then he said I needed to recuse myself from finding the acctg firm.
At minimum it will cost $5,000 and we have about $13,000 in reserves. What a waste of money! WE use quickbooks and the financial reports are provided with a click of a button. We do not provide 'manual' reports which can be manipulated.
Our financials are intact. I think he saw the waste of going down the path of an audit due to the expense. AND if I'm stealing why is he letting me continue as Treasurer?

I agree we need to get smart and show the members his irrational divisive ways.

Suggestion - Ask the Prez to call a Special Board Meeting on the $9,000 discrepancy. At the meeting, accept and consider all evidence presented on the existence of a discrepancy. If no evidence is presented, then make a Board decision that the matter is closed. Publish minutes of the Special Meeting stating that no evidence of a discrepancy was presented for consideration.

If the Sec refuses to publish those minutes, then the Pres should do it. There is nothing to prevent the Prez from publishing the minutes to a legitimate Board meeting if the Sec refuses to publish them.

If the Sec refuses to attend the Special Meeting, then hold the meeting anyway. At the meeting, go through the motions of requesting all evidence on the existence of a discrepancy. If no evidence is presented, then the same results as above.

The notice to the Homeowners can include a statement that the prior highlights were never approved by the Board, and were found to be false. - Whether they were called highlights or whatever, it makes no difference. Anything coming from the Sec without Board approval is a flagrant violation of normal procedures. Nothing gets sent to the community that hasn't been approved by a vote of the Board.


Same thing. Hold a Special Meeting. Make the decision. Cut the check. Period. You can do the 2 meetings back to back in less than 20 minutes.

Don't get bogged down by the disruptor. Do your business. Move on.

I agree with the other posts. Play hardball. Get all of the facts out in front of the membership. Also, you're being accused of malfeasance and your reputation is at stake. In Illinois, there are two types; one of which does not require demonstration of financial harm. I would make sure all of my ducks are in a row and then contact an attorney. I doubt if this continues once the person gets a letter from an attorney.

May want to point out the rationale of donating and taking off your taxes. I would mention at a meeting that your HOA is NOT a charitable non-profit. That one can't donate money, items, or have a bake sale to raise monies for the HOA. So comments that one can make a purchase and claim it on their taxes are not accurate. You don't want to say "untrue" to indicate he is a liar. You don't want to be on their level or give them reason to spit out more lies.

Raise above this and look about getting them off the board. Find out the process. Your an officer of the board. There are steps to remove you as well. So make sure it's known how that is done. Don't be sneaky about it. Keep it above board. I think that revelation will shock them into inaction. Sounds counter-intuitive but if you have someone who is doing things "behind scenes" it's time to make your own props to the stage.

I went through something similar with a person. He was a complete liar. It was like in his DNA. I knew it and those who experienced it knew it too. However, there was no way I could go around saying "Liar Liar pants of fire" and be a decent believed person. No one believes a person who goes around calling someone a "liar" until they get suckered into that lie.

What did I do? Anything he did that was sneaky and behind my back I'd bring it to the forefront. It was like I was almost 1 step ahead of him. He went around stating I was hiding HOA records. Next meeting guess who shows up with the box full of records and puts them on the board's table. (Mind you they were in the closet in the meeting room). That shut him up and his followers...

So I would bring the budget to the table. We always discussed the expenditures report at every meeting and provided copies. (Collections were for BOARD ONLY). If your open with your information, then one can't hide in the shadows of it...

Suggest:

Draft some rules on submitting expenses & have the Board approve paid expenses & amount by motions. Must have a invoice for each expense (not coupled together). It just keeps everyone now & later safe & covered. Spending funds that are outside the ream of budgeted item/reserves can be an issue. Mark (original)receipts paid/date & who it was paid to. These items become property of the association since they were purchased for the association.