Petition signatures - public or private ?

I searched the post history and couldn't find a similar question.

What is the best practice for petition signatures? Should they be made public or kept private and only used for signature validate purposes? I have found a few court cases that have ruled on both sides of this issue, some courts say they are private, while others say they are public.

Our HOA has been in existance over 30 years and our practice up until now is to NEVER release the names of the owners that signed a petition. Some owners fear reprisal if their signature was to be release. Fast forward to last month. A group of owners have just submitted a petition calling for a Special Meeting and vote, the petition was signed by 50 owners as required by our by-laws. When the BOD mailed the agenda for this Special Meeting they attached the list of signatures along with the owners site number.

Mailing the signatures and sites to the entire association seems extremely unethical to me and goes against past precedents of ALWAYS keep these names private. Many in the park feel this is unethical and done deliberately by the BOD to shame the owners that signed the petition. I am the petition sponsor and don't really care if my name is made public, but many owners do not feel that way and are very upset that their name and site number have been released.

How do others handle petition signatures?

Thanks
John Cummings

Thanks, my thoughts exactly.

The meeting itself should be of no cost other than peoples time as we are using Zoom electronic meetings. The expense will come with the mail-in vote which will be in the neighborhood of $3500.00 or about $7/owner.

Thanks,

That how I would have expected our BOD to behave.

I agree with John on public disclosure of petitioners. Petitioners should be transparent in their call for action. Fear of reprisal for signing a petition doesn't outweigh the community's need for transparency to the fullest extent reasonable for business affairs.

Also, anonymous petitioning doesn't necessarily reflect each owner's desire for the petitioned change. Petitions are not to be taken lightly and should be elevated in seriousness as petitions seek to circumvent "normal" procedures to achieve a desired business result.