Clear and unrestrained board bullying

Harassment has been a frequent discussion... this is blatant. Yesterday our board president sent an email to every owner in the community regarding a Facebook post referencing the person's HOA... it was a funny meme and then this owner typed some comments below. This post was on the owner's PERSONAL facebook page (this isn't a privacy issue since understandably it isn't private) and not our community facebook page where owners could view. This person is also one of several plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the HOA.

In the email from the board, the president hounds on inappropriate facebook posts, how it divides the community and how it makes those who post it feel better and actually quotes psychiatric research regarding people who post such things. He states that haters will be haters and explains how board intimidation is unacceptable. He continues to defend the board and describe how these tactics are being used to defame the board etc. etc. It was nasty and completely inappropriate, then he ends the email with happy 4th of july! and then he attaches a screenshot the owner's facebook comment WITH HER NAME ON IT! Homeowners I spoke to were disgusted. I cannot attach the screenshot here for some reason, but I have quoted the post...notice no identification of board members, no name of the community, just simple opinion of her HOA to her friends from all over the world. One of the board member's wives was a friend on her page which is how this must have transpired. I removed her name from the screenshot, but here is all that was said.

After the email my husbnd wrote some comments regarding the email on our community page since he runs the page. He expressed his disdain for the email and this tactic and expressed his opinion about the board's actions. One of the board members then private messaged my husband and started to attack him calling my husband despicable, delusional, scary, and calls him an asshole! This board member then reaches out to two other homeowners with aggressive messages as well. It is time for a recall! this is out of control.

Facebook comment:

"In our hood if you oppose the HOA watch out (no kidding!). It is so obvious-every time you vote against the will of our board members it is almost a guarantee you will be fined or in violation of something (it happened to us-what a laugh). They try to intimidate-they are just wannabe important persons. Pathetic"

I was thinking along the same lines. It seems like it would be easy for residents to bait this guy via emails.

Sheila is correct (as are the other responses that others gave in this thread).

When I sued my HOA, the board had violated various laws and the HOA's governing documents; the HOA's lawyer had admitted to violating state law; the HOA's other lawyer acknowledged that actions that the HOA's lawyer did violated lawyers' ethical rules; etc.

But to the HOA and its counsel, I was an absolute devil. Never mind that they never mentioned ANYTHING wrong that I had done, and they admitted the various misconduct that I sued about. To them, they were, of course, absolute angels, and I was inherently evil.

Expect more from your HOA, unfortunately. But your HOA's behavior will be great when its emails are attached to court complaints.

Well, fortunately for you, they are (what do you expect from a HOA board that has a HOA lawyer?).

I hope that you've already planned your victory party.

I read JenniferB14's post carefully. I do not see the President's sending a copy of the person's public Facebook page to all HOA members as harassment. I do not think it is particularly foolish. I do not think it disadvantages the HOA in any meaningful way in the lawsuit. The part about psychiatric research into those who post xyz flavor of whatever on Facebook is not all that consequential. I have seen far far worse, with boards responding to social media posts with blatant lies about what the social media posts said.

The HOA president may have squandered HOA resources, especially if management was involved. Also simply by sending out emails with information that no one cares about can tend to result in members ignoring HOA emails. The latter is not good.

Otherwise, this is fifth grade behavior that I think cannot be controlled, with an attorney or any resource, short of removing the President. There are no signs that the board will replace the President. There are no signs that the HOA membership will remove this director. I think the only suggestion I have is for all HOA members everywhere to realize that the board (or sometimes, a rogue president) has the power to abuse HOA resources. If a HOA member posts to social media, expect to be attacked by the HOA president or board in a public way. When an entity or person is attacked, I believe retaliation is far more likely than otherwise.

Same here. Highschool BS is what I see in all that. Some people are obsessed with what people are saying about them on Facebook. It's juvenile. You can see the same behavior watching Judge Judy once in a while.
BUT THEY WERE MEAN TO ME! THEY'RE BULLYING ME! NO, I'M RIGHT! YOU'RE NOT LISTENING TO ME! I'M BEING BULLIED!
I think there's a high correlation between people who use Facebook a lot and people who use the word "bully" more than once a week. Facebook is exactly where that garbage belongs.

CathyA3.... I really like this. It is a perfect statement.