Law enforcement at HOA meeting

We are migrating from a Family ran HOA with a financial abuse situation to a Board elected HOA. Tempers have been high since we are cutting of income from the HOA to people who were never elected. Our meetings have been ugly so far. Would it be wise to have someone from law enforcement to sit in or would that cause more trouble?

Depends on how ugly the meetings are - it's one thing for people to sit, sulk and roll their eyes, but another to cuss, throw punches (or threaten to) and worse.,

For now, you should be working from an agenda and everyone should be told at the start this is a business meeting, so adult behavior is mandatory - no cussing, cell phone ringing interrupting the meeting, and no talking unless spoken to, so the board can get through the agenda and everyone can hear what's being said.

You can also consider putting a resident forum (no more than 15 minutes - 10 is better) at the beginning or end of the meeting. Our community used to have them at the beginning and end, but dropped the last one because everyone had left by then and the board wanted to go home!

Put a time limit on each speaker so everyone gets a chance to speak. The board doesn't have to address those issues right away - some may already be on the agenda, while others need research before you follow up. Tell everyone that before the forum starts. Afterwards, state the business portion has begun - stay and watch, but keep quiet and don't interrupt. If you start showing your behind, you'll be asked to stop. If you don't, you'll be asked to leave. If you don't, police will be called to escort you out (if something criminal happens, we will pursue legal action against you.)

Of course you don't have to be this blunt, but you get the idea.

I concur with Shelia's suggestions, except I would recommend the members' forum happen at the end of the regular board meeting. The President should lead the members' forum and call upon people in an orderly fashion. The Board should generally not respond to remarks except for the President stating, "Thank you for your input." I think letting people vent is important. I would not put the members' forum into the Minutes. But it is possible one or more board members will want to put items derived from the members' forum on the next agenda. Where possible, ask the manager to get back to the member with an answer to any question the member may have.

On the other hand, things got so ugly at one former HOA of mine that the Board often had an off-duty police person present. It was a little intimidating, but the police person always knew his or her job was to stay in the deep background and only walk towards someone disrupting the meeting if the board president nodded at him/her. A security guard can also serve this function. Be aware that the off-duty police person or security guard cannot physically touch the person. She or he can speak quietly to him or her, saying something like, 'Please stay calm and civil. If you do not, I will have to escort you out.'

This isn't what I was expecting based on the thread subject.

I live in a small town on the edge of city. Its very much a family oriented town, with bored small town police. The chief of police comes to the annual HOA meeting to talk about community safety, and what they're working on, and stuff like that. We have a designated officer who comes to all of our board meets (and when she is unavailable, her partner comes). The police attendence has nothing to do with the personal conduct of the people present, its just community engagement from the PD.

If your PD does that type of thing, you may be able to get them attending for community engagement. The affect it may have on people's conduct would be pleasant side affect.

Sounds like my HOA, but adding law enforcement to the mix is a bad idea- it just puts everyone on edge and what would the law enforcement person do- tell people that they're out of order when they speak? No- all a law enforcement person could do would be to stop fights and arrest people, and if your meeting is coming to that, there's no hope.