board of directors malfeasance and misfeasance

First of all, paragraphs are your friend – please use them!

You say you were on the board for four years – if all of this was going on throughout your tenure, you bought it up and no one listened to you, it’s past time to take the issues directly to the homeowners. They’re the ones who elect and re-elect the board (or recall them), so it appears you have neighbors who (a) don’t know what’s going on, (b) don’t care for whatever reason or (c) all of the above. Unless and until you can get them on your side, nothing will change. Change doesn’t happen overnight and can get quite messy, so decide right now what you’re willing to do and how far you’re willing to go, then get to work.

You’ve raised several issues, so set some priorities as to which ones are more problematic (lack of transparency on finances might be a good place to start) and then start walking around the neighbor and talking to people – all 67 homes. You could also send a letter to everyone outlining some of your concerns and follow up with your visits, so people can put a face with a name. They may or may not agree with you – that’s fine, but you can encourage them to attend the meetings so they can see and hear for themselves what’s going on. It’s one thing if the board blows you off, but a different story if several people show up and start demanding answers.

More attendance by more homeowners may persuade the board to change their ways, but if not, hopefully people will see enough to prompt a run against the board – in fact, you may want to consider a return to the board (although I get the feeling there’s some drama behind your departure). Getting rid of this board or some board members won’t be enough – you will need to find others willing to step up and able to do the job. I think Florida has some sort of HOA ombudsman, so you could contact that office and see if it can assist you on the meetings and election stuff.

I’ll end with a few comments on some of your issues:

Regarding the board member who was sued on personal financial matters but also handles large amounts of HOA money – this may not be a conflict of interest. Believe it or not there are people are wonderful with association business, but their personal life is a shit show. Granted it’s not a good look if the person handling association money was sued for not paying his/her ow expenses but your main issues should be: (1) was any association money involved in that lawsuit (2) is this board member authorized to write association checks and if so, is there a paper trail, such as contracts/invoices, board minutes that authorize the payment, etc.

If all of this exists, you need to remember there are many reasons people get sued for unpaid personal finances – he/she may be a deadbeat or got into financial trouble due to job loss. If you don’t know the story, focus on ensuring the transparency of association income and expenses and keep out of his/her personal business. It’s none of yours anyway ( how do you know this person was sued???)

Automatic payments aren’t necessarily a problem – they may be a good idea if it’s for an expense that stays constant throughout the year, and sometimes, the creditor offers a small discount. The main issue is to keep track of the bank account balance to ensure money’s there to make those payments and checks can be cut for other expenses as needed.

Regarding the CDs, can’t you call the bank and get some general information on when dividends or interest is paid? Perhaps the money’s being automatically deposited into the association account. If these CDs were around whenyou were on the board, I would think you and everyone else would have the details on what these CDs are for, when they can be cashed in, their amounts, etc. .

Regarding Robert’s Rules of Order, HOAs aren’t required to use them, although they’re very helpful in keeping people focused and document what was done and why. As long as your meetings aren’t a free for all, and the board is working from some sort of agenda, I’d worry more about possible stonewalling of people who’d like to run against the current board, not providing homeowners copies of income/expense statements, counting ballots in public, etc.

As for the three month vacation – it may be there wasn’t any pressing association business to discuss, although I would agree that’s a little strange because outdoor maintenance of the common area is a big issue during the summer and at least one meeting would be warranted. When I was on the board, we took December off because the upcoming year’s budget was already approved and mailed to homeowners.

Regarding the budget – you were on the board for four years and so you should know it can decide where and how the money should be spent. Depending on the condition of the common areas and what the association’s responsible for, things like roof repair or fixing potholes will take priority over planting flowers.