Need help with out of control HOA President

I am the Vice President of a BOD in Central Florida. Recently, at our last meeting (11/12/07) our association manager called the meeting to order and the President skipped right ahead of reviewing the previous meetings minutes to scrutinize over every check that had been written in a prior month. He also was scrutinizing over the annual budget that had been approved by himself and the other board members the previous month. As the Vice President, every time I spoke to help him clarify matters, he would rudely ignore me and continue speaking to the association manager only. A member of the audience actually told me to throw my shoe at him to get his attention. I guess that I should also mention that our President is a man and I am about 25+ years younger than him (I'm only 29!) After the third time of him ignoring me, I realized that I was invisible at the meeting and decided that it would not matter if I were even at the meeting. I politely excused myself and left the meeting. He has since then, demanded my resignation (without the other board memeber's approval - we are currently only a board of three!) from the board claiming that he is the President and can do what he wants at a meeting. I denied his demand and told him that I had no intention of resigning. He then proceeded to tell me that I was going to have to "answer to my actions" at our annual meeting - in which I replied to him that I'm an equal member of the board and if I feel that I'm being rudely ignored - I have a right to express that. I also explained to him that I have single-handedly started a monthly newsletter and website, a Yard of the Month reward, a neighborhood watch, an Annual Yard Sale and a summertime Dive-In Movie event at the pool - as of which nobody on the board has offered to help. In addtion, I receive calls from our local sheriff's dept. making sure that it is ok to trespass or arrest people not belonging on our property - at ALL hours of the night, including 1:00 am!! He does not want to receive these phone calls, because he lives in another state full time and only uses his home in Florida as a vacation home.

Well, he now wants to take this issue to the Florida State Board, so says our association manager - who also believes that the President is being unreasonable and needs to get off his "high horse." BTW - his term ends in January and he had no intent of re-running - until now - which he just informed our association manager of this morning. Can anyone please give me suggestions as how to deal with this situation. It has been blown out of proportion and I am the center - all because I stuck up for myself in refusing to be ignored. HELP!!

Amanda,
As Roger said, do not resign. Is the other Board member okay with what you have done? Get members of the community to also get behind you. If he is such a "wack job", others will be seeing his behavior as not acceptable. I would hope that you had an agenda to follow for the meeting. That is how the meeting has to be run, not skipping atround at his will. As a Board member, you have 1/3 of the vote and your opinion and position have merit.

And for your information--he can take this to the highest court in Florida but they won't even respond to him. This is an internal issue and they have MUCH MUCH bigger fish to fry than his pettyness. Unless you have committed a legal crime against your association, you have nothing to worry about so just work around his ignorance and continue to do your job.

Better yet, give him to me because I have dealt with one of his kind before and it takes someone mean like me to put him in his place.

Stand your ground, ride it out till Jan. He can't run you off the board by himself. Wish you well....

BTW - I'm side stepping here, but tell me more about how Movie night at the pool works. What's involved here?

Amanda, my sympathies are with you. I've found that being on a Board for a HOA is a thankless job. Like my husband says, "No good deed goes unpunished." I've done the last 3 walk-around inspections by myself, I've had eyesore mailboxes repaired by contacting the USPS myself, I stop and talk to people who live here when I'm out walking and let them air their concerns. One of our courts hasn't been resurfaced in 14 years, and I brought this to the board and it is now scheduled for repair. I reviewed the minutes for the HOA for the last 20 years to get some sense of when decisions on Architectural issues/allowances were made (I'm the Architectural Approving Chairperson) to update the guidelines for present and future residents, and I know when we move next year that it all won't matter. But, at least in my soul, I know I gave the job my 110%, and that's enough for me. Please don't let this "Dictator" consume your goodness, he'll get his in the end. It sound likes he wouldn't know a diamond from a rock. And I sure would enjoy someone with your enthusiam on our Board. Don't lower yourself to his level, you're better then that. All the best!

Amanda,
I think that I just came across a weak spot in his armor when you stated that he lives out of state and uses the Florida home only as a vacation house.
Is he Homesteaded on his property? Look that up on the web site for your Clerk of Circuit Courts in your County. How often do you have Board meetings and does he attend every meeting? I make a big deal out of this whenever we have had any Director who misses more than 50% of meetings because their lack of presence is a hinderance to having a successful board. Bring this up to others when you are gathering facts for argument against this guy.

Donna - unfortunately, I've done my homework. Already looked at the prop. appraiser's site and he is NOT homesteaded - poo!! He does also unfortunately attend more than 50% of the meetings - he usually only misses two or three a year. Our by-laws say nothing about the President having to be present in order to have a meeting - so now he is throwing a hissy because he does not want a meeting next month because he doesn't want to travel before the holidays. He loses out though, because there are only three of us (pathetic I know!) two of us have agreed to a meeting next month!!

And...our story only gets better. He contacted the management company today and stated that he will be running for the BOD in January and that he is going to get two other people elected so that they can "vote me out." NOT going to happen. He also now wants to fire the management company for not choosing sides. I really think - this week he forgot to take his medication. It's a shame that I have to deal with this now - as funny as I think the situation is - it is really adding stress to my life. My little peanut has had the hiccups for the past three days now - non stop!! Not so much fun dealing with this BS when you are pregnant!! If there is one thing that I could ask - please keep your fingers crossed that I come out of this smelling like a rose!! Thanks again for all of your help and support!!

Amanda, our President is also a snowbird. He also has to be in control of every little thing. We used to have 6 BOD meetings a year, so that he could go up north. We found that our BOD needed to make decisions, even in the summer months (light bulb moment). Recently we voted to have monthly BOD meetings, which he objected to, but it passed. However, in Florida, as long as President can be heard by all BOD members, and they can hear him, he can "preside" at meetings from afar. So we have had one meeting like that, and the chair/President of our meeting was on the speaker phone. I wish that we could enforce a rule that when he is away, the VP can chair the meeting in person, and the Pres could still attend via speakerphone. President will never allow this because he has to be in charge of everything. This meeting was totally a failure with President trying to run the meeting on the telephone with the other BOD members sitting around the table staring at the phone. But wanted you to know that your Pres doesn't have to "travel" for the upcoming BOD meeting. Call for a special BOD meeting in December, and the VP can chair the meeting. If you are lucky, Pres will have other plans, and not be able to attend even via phone. Presidents like ours need to learn that the place will run just fine without them. But don't quit!