misuse of HOA

I am concerned that our board of directors are planning to install an 150ft. French drain system on privately owned property to drain into a community pond for our newly elected director's home.
we had an election mid October and after he won his wife stood up and said so when do we get our new French drains. at that point the president said we'll discuss that after the meeting. now February 1st they announced our next project is to put in French drains to help with puddling and that the homeowner would chip in a little and we would pay the rest. Our fund is practically broke and I and I believe it's illegal to use funds to benefit one homeowner which isn't even on community owned property. there was no discussion of this or vote at the meeting It was just stated it will be done. I know for a fact over the past two years two other directors have put in French drains in their yard going down to the pond and I believe we were billed for the expense.
I asked about it once and was told, Buy the board president that he chipped in on the bill the community only paid for the part where it hit the top of the pond hill by the pond which is common area.
We didn't get to see these bills and we did not get to see any proof of his share of the expense paid.
Isn't this misuse, embezzlement of funds or theft or something?

In SC the BOD must inform you of their next meeting upon your request to know.

We have quarterly meetings. we had a meeting in October for the election and were given a balance sheet on the way out. the next day I questioned why we had a negative homeowner equity of -$8700 dollars with liabilities pending of over $16,000. So they called a special meeting a month later and said and said we were in good shape not to worry. We collect funds quarterly so October 1st money would come in but it seemed to be just enough to cover the $16,000 and maybe one month's worth of new debt. I explained this to the board and mgmt company and they and they agreed to discuss personally and then raised the HOA fees $5 A month by mail. they then approved a $7000 contract to put some rocks along one side of a pond in December even though broke and would not be able to pay that bill till January. we have 231 h/o and 49 were in arrears in October but we were not told the total aging arrears or accts receivables....it is secret. They actually left it off the balance sheet which is unbelievable.
So now February 1st meeting comes and they say our next project is going to be putting in 150 feet of drainage... Our next open meeting will be May 2023. This project will be done by then.
and no, the mgmt Company doesn't let me look at their books. I've asked three times since November.
My question is can I call the district attorney in my county if they spend money illegally?

Thank you Melissa. My reply to you is that our homes have been here 17 years. There has been no flooding. That homeowner just purchased the home in 2022 and decided to put a gazebo in his backyard and decking which backs up to the fence. He doesn't want a puddle by his gazebo after rain. We have 6 ponds and all our properties slant towards the retention ponds. only one other homeowners on my pond had put in French drain on "their" property, at their expense. I don't think it should be a community expense to fix the problem of one person.

denying a member access to records is probably illegal. go to thier office after 5 days after you send certified letter return receipt and demand access. show up in person or they will probably just ignore you.
district attorney is probably gonna tell you nothing they can do and tell you to sue them.

basically it boils down to the same thing regardless of state. If the BOD wont' cooperate then you have to sue.

Attending a board meeting after the work has been done wont' help much becuase the money is already pissed away.

Records Inspection
Members of an HOA have a right to inspect or copy the association’s records as stipulated in Section 33-31-1602 of the South Carolina Nonprofit Corporation Act. The member must provide the association with written notice at least five days prior. Records up for inspection include accounting records, membership lists, and more.

Please follow Wendy's advice, Lynne. Request the records as she advises. It's a start. that way, you'll see the contract and that it's on the owner's plat/lot not on the common areas.

(Best to ignore Melissa on this topic.)

Thank you for your advice. I do question Melissa's premise that any of the 230 other homeowners would be responsible for one homeowner's yard that floods. We all have residential homes on individual lots which we purchased. Our homes were built on former swampland in Myrtle Beach. The water level is 12 to 24 inches below our homes. Most of Myrtle Beach is 1 foot above sea level. But it's a beautiful town.
I was at a surveyor's office once and he got a phone call and then he looked at me and said there's always one house in every community that has flooding, and they tend to blame everyone else for it.
And I do have the GIS County maps which you can pull up online to see what the boundaries are for each home and for each lot of common property.
I will attempt to go down to MC and see the books again another day. And I'd like to see the bill that comes in when the job is done. I doubt they would show me the estimate for the work before it's done.

A HOA is ONLY funded by it's members for it's members. In our case we had 2 properties that flooded when it rained due to a failure in a water pipe from the neighborhood above us. The Corp of Engineers was to get involved due it being dumped into a natural stream etc... The natural stream was on the border of our HOA. We tried working with the county and city as well. Long story short... It ended up being on the HOA to pay for the French drain and building a berm. The land was on "Common property" but the cause was not.

So our HOA money had to be spent on 2 owners issues although we have 107 owners. Plus oddly enough we also had to get those two pieces of property put on the "Flood plain" map. That way the owners could qualify for flood insurance. The way insurance works is flood insurance is not required/option unless your on a flood plain map. The owners of those house could not get flood insurance for their homes because the HOA owned the property around it.

As for getting a copy of the records, you do need to write the HOA/Board to request to view them where they are kept. The MC should allow you to view them.

based on what? your experience with one HOA? Probably closer to 33% based on studies on unethical behavior in businesses.
Although I do think type A personalities seem to be attracted to serving on HOA boards. Psychology experiments like the Milgram experiment where people were ordered to shock people to death give a glimpse into why HOA boards can sometimes go overboard. Apparently when given a set of rules many people will obey them even if it means their subject dies.

https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html