Election Question

I am the lone resident board member for a community that is still under declarant control. We are going to reach our benchmark for taking over the board within the next couple of weeks, so I instructed our property manager to begin the process of planning the election. Nomination forms have been sent out, but we also will hold a "Meet the Candidates" evening, as well as a meeting some time in late May to hold the election itself. Both of these will also require finding a suitable meeting location, because our clubhouse is quite small.

The property manager has assured me they are working on those details with the developer. However, because they assume I am going to be a candidate they refuse not only to accept any input or suggestions from me, but refuse to even share with me information about dates, locations, etc. Instead, they plan to inform me when they inform the rest of the community. In particular, we are supposed to name an Election Inspector. I earlier suggested that a Notary Public be used, but was basically told by our property manager to stay out of it.

For background, last year I asked the developer to not renew the contract with our property manager, after a panel of residents interviewed several others and picked one who we felt would do a superior job. The developer nearly went along, but in the end decided not to change. Since that date the property manager has been quite hostile towards me, and has actively worked to undermine me to the rest of the residents. They have misappropriated funds in the past (out of incompetence, not malice, and they did correct things) but with all of this I simply do not trust them to organize the election fairly or to count the votes fairly.

So, bottom line, given that our developer (the Board President) is silent on the matter, is the property manager free to shut out the resident board member from all matters relating to the election?

I think you know the following but just need a bit of validation.

You have asked the manager to abide by the covenants and applicable statutes on various other issues. You ask owners to abide by the covenants and applicable statutes. You are stuck with abiding by the law that says a board majority controls matters like this. You can ask the Board as a whole to vote to do xyz for the upcoming elections, and that's it.

If a board majority mishandles such matters (violating bylaws or state law, say), your remedy is to lawyer up.

I am sorry your manager is an idiot. You're a wonderful, intelligent person. I hope you hang in there and will be the President soon.

Do the governing documents say the Declarant all by itself gets to choose the election inspector? If not, then the choice should be put to a board vote. But even then, I am betting the Declarant controls the board, and so you will not be able to get a board majority to see things your way.

Just saying: the above got my attention. I believe some managers do manipulate elections so that the new board has people who will not vote to fire the managers. I am sorry.

Here's to the election being run fairly; your not having to lawyer up; and to you winning a seat on the board.

Can you explain what you mean?

Interesting. I will check into that. However, the Board President (the developer) has no problem with me. It is our property management company with whom I have a bad relationship. The developer has basically "checked out" when it comes to HOA business, which is why the property manager is now pretty much doing whatever it pleases. Which means they are running the election.

I do know the last election - when we were given our one token board representative - the board president did not vote; only residents did.

While under declarant control, without the approval of the declarant and with the inclusion of homeowners who are not on the board or have otherwise been appointed to do so by the declarant, you interviewed other management companies? I’m surprised other companies agreed to meet with you since you had no authority to contract with them. I am not surprised that your manager isn’t brimming with affection for you after you tried to get them fired.

Anyway, you’re going to get your way in a few weeks when you transition so why raise a stink now? Will anything change if you know the election date before the rest of the community?

When you are board president, will you want individual board members to go out and solicit bids without your approval because they think they can find someone to do a better job and aren’t ones to sit quietly? Do you intend to continue acting independently of the rest of the board even when it is a full homeowner board? You may indeed have a terrible manager, but personally I can’t agree with the principle that individual members should solicit bids for the community without board approval outside of say… thwarting criminal behavior.

But of course it doesn’t matter what I think.

If you had that many people involved in wanting the manager fired, it seems unlikely that there is any scenario in which they won’t be fired regardless of who wins the election. Once you know who the other candidates are you might try talking to them and get everyone on the same page as to what the process should look like.