Is general compliance discussion an executive session or open session topic?

The general rule is that association members have a right to observe your meetings. There are normally only a handful of exceptions, usually having to do with litigation, privacy concerns, and personnel matter.

I don't see any reason why you would not discuss general enforcement in the open. I think the members have every right to hear a discussion on which rules you decide to enforce or not enforce.

Instead of saying "we should enforce this as opposed to that," it might be easier to talk about the rules enforcement process in general. You don't want people to get the wrong idea and think "hey, the board SAID they're not going to enforce Z", so I can do this, that, and the third." Or someone else getting pissed because the board said it would begin emphasizing compliance with certain rules that they're in violation of and begin to scream "selective enforcement!"

Everyone likes compliance as long as THEY aren't the ones being compelled to comply, but that's part of the cost of living in a HOA. It may be some issues are more problematic than others, so start with brainstorming what those could be. Then, do a homeowner's poll to see what they think. In fact, you may want to get their take on issues like:

Do you need a fine schedule (after you discuss the legalities with the association attorney)
What are you doing RIGHT NOW regarding compliance and what seems to be working or crashing and burning?
Do you give people enough time to correct a problem>?
What should be the line between telling homeowners their complaint is really an individual dispute with a neighbor and the two need to work it out vs. something the board should get involved in?
What should you do about anonymous complaints?

And so on.

I agree.

Please clarify, Michel. You're talling about rules? Not covenants (CC&RS)?

Accept the fact you can be sued for anything at anytime. Do not go into prevention mode if you can do action mode. Always worrying about a lawsuit or being sued just gets you no action. There will always be a reaction. Just do not let it consume your decision making.

All,

Our attorney states very clearly it is a board choice on what rules to enforce and what level to enforce them to. The disucssion I mentioned in post #1 is a group discussion about the level of enforcement that we would like to have on the rules that we have.

For example:

- How much clover is too much clover
- How long of grass is too long of grass
- How much junk can one pile in a front yard before it's a problem

etc, etc, etc

Both you and Adam make valid points. On one hand, everyone agreed to comply with the rules when they bought their unit, so they should be doing that anyway, whether the board decides (for whatever reason) to emphasize enforcement of some rules over others. Homeowners can always enforce the CCRs against each other and the board has a number of things to do, so if you come across someone who's really nit-picky, maybe the response is to tell him or her to resolve it with the neighbor because there isn't a pattern of complaints or it's not something that's having an adverse effect on the common area.

Usually that's done because there may have been an increase in certain violations, so before you decide if something's going to be more enforced over other things, you'd better determine what those are, and the best way to do that is poll the homeowners. The ones who have a bee in their bonnet about something or someone will let you know what that is, and if a number of people say they've also noticed a problem, that's when you might do a deeper dive.

Having said that, the board can also be nit-picky, depending on who's on it, so perhaps you should consider problems that have a larger potential than others to impact a large part of the community. For example, instead of obsessing over how long is too long for grass, the real issue is whether the grass grows to the point it attracts vermin. You can take a look at city codes to see what it considers too long and use that as a guide to enforce your own rules.

Same thing with junk in front of a house - it's understandable if there's been a fire and damaged items are being removed and will be picked up by one of those junk removal companies at the end of the day. It's another matter altogether if the junk stays there for a week or two, as that also creates an environment for vermin.

I'm thinking you might be obsessing over this stuff too much. Watch and see what complaints come to the board and look for patterns - then you'll have your answer as to how it can be addressed. But don't give people the impression the board will review X over Y - once you're gone, another board may turn it completely around.

Michael,

Since your in WA State and my referential focus is WA State statutes, I'd like to point out a few things that were not added to this thread.

It is unlikely your community has adopted WUCIOA, but that aside, WUCIOA provides clear expectations for what is allowed in executive session. Regardless of adoption, your community might want to consider WUCIOA as a guide that reveals how a court might rule if a case were brought in this regard.

RCW 64.90.445(2)(b)(I - V) - Meetings
(b) An executive session may be held only to:
(i) Consult with the association's attorney concerning legal matters;
(ii) Discuss existing or potential litigation or mediation, arbitration, or administrative proceedings;
(iii) Discuss labor or personnel matters;
(iv) Discuss contracts, leases, and other commercial transactions to purchase or provide goods or services currently being negotiated, including the review of bids or proposals, if premature general knowledge of those matters would place the association at a disadvantage; or
(v) Prevent public knowledge of the matter to be discussed if the board or committee determines that public knowledge would violate the privacy of any person.

As others have already stated, policy-making is not an executive session topic. As to your enforcement statement quoted above, I hope that what your attorney told you is a bit more precise. The expectation is that enforcement of your governing documents is based on a written policy. Choosing which rules to enforce and how often is a recipe for waiving your right to enforce those rules altogether and also for arbitrary and capricious enforcement that can lead to a lawsuit.

There's way too much to include here, but please feel free to read more if you'd like. Confidentiality page: https://www.(LINK-NOT-ALLOWED-PER-POSTING-RULES)/governance/confidentiality and Enforcement page: https://www.(LINK-NOT-ALLOWED-PER-POSTING-RULES)/governance/enforcement. Notably, there are some fantastic clips from a WA-based law firm for you to watch on the latter page and you can catch Condo Law Group on their YouTube channel anytime you like.

Regards,
Steve