Monthly Association Due Purpose??? (CA Condo)

Where does one apply?

Are these "employees" direct employees of your HOA? Or do they work for contractors?

How many are there?

Does your HOA have contracts with them if they're direct employees? What does it/they say about all these perks?

IMO, your CC&Rs don't permit owners dues to be spent in the ways that you list--and so often.

What size is your HOA? Budget?

I should add that the HOA pays for a property management company to do the finances for the HOA only the bookkeeper as light duty. And we pay for an after hours call service as well.

Totally agree but where does the line get drawn.

For instance, an employee used the Debit Card to purchase a birthday card for another employee at the Dollar Tree for $5.

Now my question is this lol. It's only $5 dollars. Was it necessary to use the HOA debit card or should the employee purchasing paid with their own money? I do not believe they they gave the employee the birthday card on behave of the entire 1296 units lol.

The Board should not be permitting this. I consider this unlawful and unacceptable. If you have a lot of backbone, you could submit a complaint and ask for IDR. See davis-stirling.com

If the I-phones are used as part of the job, I could see assessments covering that, and employs bonus are ok, but the rest of it is inappropriate. As others have said you should go to the board to express your concerns.

If the association wants to do "neighborly" things like send flowers to the family of a deceased resident, it may be better to set up some sort of benevolent fund where homeowners can contribute to voluntarily. You can set rules on what the funds are used for and put a limit on the amount spent per incident.

Or just post an announcement on the community website, expressing sympathy, congratulating residents who've graduated from high school, etc. pressing the association's sympathy and be done with it. Let individual homeowners decide if they want to do something special for those residents.

The board members or employees can chip in among themselves for group dinners and such. That said, I wouldn't be too upset at the association paying for small tokens of appreciation like a gift card up to $15 or $20. Just set up rules as to when and how this will be done.

The GM is getting paid 200K annually and just received another pay increase for 2021. The total salary for the rest of the 4-5 employees is 250K. And the admin team just received a 50K annual increase for their department.

When I mention salary, it is to say that they are well paid and getting additional perks. I would totally understand more I guess for the additional perks if they werent getting paid well.

The bonus amounts are not documented in the meetings. (Another matter lol).

I absolutely have no problem with the salaries, its just the additional perks using association funds is what I find odd and its special treatment, especially with the flowers. Whoever is friendly with the GM and board gets the flowers and others dont.

In are cc&r, it also states that board members should not be compensated in any way but they get gift cards for their service and free food at meetings. Totally understand if residents/board members gathered funds separately but not use the association funds.

Clare
$200K annually of a Property Manager (as in one person) is very high. Are you sure this is not alos covering other expenses like staff, printing, mailing, book keeper, etc?

I did run for the board this year but they found a way to unjustly disqualify me this year. That is a separate thread though but I am in the process of taking them to small claims court to reverse the election.

No two HOA's are the same and we know very little to next to nothing about the OP's association. The OP has stated they have about $450K in salaries. We don't know what their monthly assessment amount to, what amenities they have, what part of California they are located in, etc.

The association I lived in had this statement in their CCRs:

Purpose of Assessment; The assessment levied by the Association shall be used exclusively to promote the recreation, health, safety and welfare of the residents in the Property, for the improvement an maintenance of Association Property and such other purposes as set forth in the Declaration and Bylaws.

Based on the number of units, 1296, a management company would charge between $13K-$18K per month for their services, again depending the level of services your homeowners either required or are used to.

I know of a HOA in the Palm Springs area that has a master association and a number of sub associations, totaling over 500 homes. Their monthly assessments are over $1500 per month, their membership in the golf club is $1M, have armed security, etc. I don't think anyone questions how they operate.

"Promote and maintain the interests..." is sufficiently vague and could mean anything that benefits the residents. Staff morale arguably affects the residents so I don't think it violates the purpose.

Whether or not it is a good use of the association's money is a matter of opinion but I think it is well within the board's prerogative.

My CC&R states:

"3.4 Compensation: No Director shall receive compensation for any service rendered to the Association".

Free meals are considered non-monetary compensation. I have no problem with feeding volunteers but its in the CC&R's we must follow. If we ignore one, it sets the wrong tone.

A meal provided during a long meeting is not compensation, it is part of the meeting expense. That's not uncommon.

I agree you shouldn't be ignoring rules from your covenants but you also need to remember the spirit of those rules.

You came to a forum seeking feedback, just providing some to you!

Relax people...simply replying back...you know, having a discussion. Food at meetings is the least of the concerns of what I mentioned.

Friend in LA is the pres in his sub HOA - when the entire committee of presidents meets he says it is always catered.

Doesn't make it right. Assuming "presidents' means directors, this is clearly compensation to directors. I have yet to see a governing document that authorizes compensation to directors in exchange for their usual services (as opposed to, say, out-of-pocket office supply expenses).