Budget Approval Meeting

California statutes require HOAs/COAs/CIDs to have an open forum segment for any non-executive session board meeting. Which this budget approval meeting would be. See https://www.davis-stirling.com/HOME/H/HOA-Board-Meeting-Open-Forum

As Augustin points out, all open board meetings must include an Open Forum in CA.

Our Board just had its '22 budget & reserves discussion & vote last week. Although we offer two open forums--one at the beginning and one at the end of the open meetings, we occasionally permit Owners to speak during our deliberations of other agenda items. We invited them to speak last week and it was very fruitful.

It's worked very well for us to have written guidelines on Owner participation in open forum. We limit remarks to 2 minutes and only permit one topic at a time by a given owner. It also has worked out best for us to, as a Board, reserve our replies or responses until all owners have contributed. One reason is to avoid the time-wasting back & forth that can occur between an owner & a director.

One matter that owners help us director decide was whether to start two really major projects almost simultaneously or sequentially. This does have an effect on the '22 budget & reserves. Everyone know the projects are going to be loud, dirty and expensive. But owners who address the issue said they'd rather have it all at one time rather than storing out all year. There also w are financeial reason to do them together.

It sounds like you already presented the budget to the board alone? that implies an executive session. That's not legal in CA as the budget should only be discussed in an open meeting. Please check Augie's citation for open meeting laws in CA. that website in invaluable especially for new directors.

I'm also curious why it took 1-3 /4 hours? You've written elsewhere your HOA is small. In addition, what is your "agent?"

A recently elected board member needed to see how our HOA arrived at its financial position of today. This required that I show her history from 2008-2017 before I joined the board. I am an original owner, from 2007, and have accumulated and saved lots of old documents. The previous boards took two actions which placed our HOA's finances in peril. One, they reduced contributions to reserves drastically in several budgets in order to maintain dues where they were. Two, they deferred common area maintenance for several years. We've been playing catch up since budget year 2018 relative to dues and updating landscape and other infrastructure. It's been quite dizzying.

I like the format your outlined and will adapt it to our meeting. Thank you.

Bustards.

Have all owners critical of contributing to reserves repeat the following before being allowed to speak:

Champlain Towers South?
Champlain Towers South.
Champlain Towers South!

When in the hell are you going to stop your child like behavior?

When I first a board member our MC would have open forum to essentially silence them, this came from the attorney's email. When I became president we had it moved to the beginning for specific reason. While it is our meeting, it is their association. Our meeting generally ran pretty smoothly. I still continue that practice today.

In reference to the child like behavior, it seems Kerry, out of the blue, has to make some derogatory comment like she knows the law better than i do. If you review qhag I posted, i stated that open forum is a requirement in California, i. Ever said where in the meeting it needed to be placed. She does it at the beginning ans the end. The end is so the audience can praise them for such a fine meeting the board conducted.

Kerry

I was actually typing from my phone and didn't have my glasses, so actually I think I did a damn good job.

The association's attorney at the time, wrote in an email to the PM, to hold open forum at the end, "to silence any critics" from what the board and PM were actually doing. Not my words, theirs.

So Kerry, if you remember, agendas had to be changed to itemize what was being discussed, under old business and new business. The reason was so that owners could see what was actually being discussed an d what actions the board might be taking in order to determine whether or not they wanted to attend.

You hold yours at the beginning and the end. You haven't spoken why you hold them at the beginning. I have held mine in the beginning for two reasons, one, that owners can speak to the items on the agenda prior to a discussion and vote. The other reason is they may want to go home after comment period is over, and many have.

When you post a gaf, I WILL post it.

Of course you wouldn't.

Good for you, and REALLY?

Asked and Answered!

Ok, John, just for you.

Why would an HOA want to "silence" their membership? Good question, wish I had the answer. But they do. Why do you think this forum exists, and what types of questions are being asked? Most of the posters coming here are not on a Board, they're homeowners who are frustrated by the lack of transparency their board or PMC offers.

Some boards will put their open forum at the end, so that owners cannot comment before a board discusses and takes action. That is reality, whether you believe it or not. When I got on my board and got the emails between the board, PM and attorney I was in shock, that this type of behavior was acceptable. We had a $250K, owner to owner dispute that the PM illegally pursued, never board approved, or there were no records. PM using our attorney as their legal counsel and our association flipping for the bill. Owners being denied records and the attorney standing behind that decision. Some boards do not like confrontation.

I know there are well run associations out there, I won't deny that. If Kerry's is one of them, so be it, but it's not the norm, especially being on this forum for 13-14 years. If Kerry thinks she can do a better job than me, I'll be having dinner with my wife up the street from her and I can drop off a job application. Otherwise, I'll have my wife wave or do whatever she feels is appropriate.

Kerry comments how terrible the HOA's I manage must be in. For the record, all 50 have had annual meetings and elections in the past two years, they hold regular meetings, take minutes, have web portals for all owners to view, all escrows are handled same day, document requests same day, phone call and emails from board members or owners handled with 24 hours, delinquencies below industry standards, outside of one association, reserves are over 70%. If a board dances around or ignore the law, I advise them they might be a better suit for another management company. I work for an association, not the board. Outside of the signatures, nowhere is the board mentioned. I am completely transparent with both the board and the members.

I have never said the boards of the HOA's I manage were either stupid or idiots, nor do I complain about them. They pay our salaries and I live off the escrows that the number of doors provide. Sorry, but there are boards that don't like conducting their own meetings. I have no problem with that. In some ways, that is why we were hired. Some boards refuse to do violations, so they hire a management to do the dirty work. That's life. If you feel running associations in a successful is an issue, I'm not here to change your feelings.

My wife doesn't care for the Chilean Sea Bass at either Eddy V's or Morton, way too salty. We have a place in Little Italy we go to all the time.