new board member

Im a new board member, the old board is dragging their feet on giving me access to financials etc. I have heard they have done this before with other board members, but now wondering how too I get their attention. There are so many complaints from homeowners etc, and I dont know where to start.

When you write "old board, Nita, do you mean former board members who no longer are ON the Board? Or do you mean current directors who've been on the Board and have been reelected?

How many directors are there? What is the size of your HOA?

When you wrote about so many owners complaints, what is the relationship between those complaints and the financial records you seek?? Are the owners complaining about fines? or late fees?? Or something else that's "financial?"

Agreed letter to the Board and manager (if you have one) is, of course, what you need to do. Do make your latter as friendly & pleasant as possible so that you don't set up a situation where the rest of the board will ignore you or worse.

I remember an earlier thread about a board that created a paid position for a former board member. Is this the same community?

If so, then I think them not providing financial records to a newly elected board member is the tip of the iceberg. Maybe the paid position was created to help the board get a handle on financial issues. Maybe the paid position is part of the financial mismanagement. Based on the little info I have, I suspect both.

I agree with starting with a polite letter. Even if it doesn't produce anything, it's the first step in documenting issues. When this fails to produce the records, there are some other options:

* One, if there are enough upset homeowners, you can try for a "recall and replace" election to remove the board members who were part of creating these paid positions and replace them with board members who will get a handle on things.

* Two, once the board has received the written records request, a clock is ticking. If the board fails to respond, I believe that Florida provides avenues for resolving disputes like this short of actually filing a lawsuit.

* Three, lawyer up.

Which of these options will work best depends on the players involved. Are you dealing with incompetence or deliberate malfeasance? From the outside these two things can look the same, so we need more info. The board's response (or lack of) to the written request for records will tell us something.

I am afraid Im on the same page as you. We have a board meeting set for two days from now, I intend to bring up a questions regarding the paid positions, and I hope to have enough support from the other newly elected board members to get somewhere.

The two paid positions are owners, They had been on the board for more than 9 years. Both recently resigned to take on these positions. Something fishy??

I will let you know what happens at the board meeting.
Nita

CathyA3, good memory. I now see this other thread where NitaD reports on a former director now being paid to be a liaison. Sounds like corruption-city all-around. I am betting the OP has a tough fight.

JackieB4, thank you for your kind words. I recently returned to the great West. I have a fantastic rental house in a great neighborhood (with a HOA). I have already heard of a recent doozy of a decision by the HOA board (violating a federal wildlife protection law). Fortunately the board admitted their mistake. The directors supposedly begged the complainant not to pursue this. Everyone has settled down (for now).

Homeowners' associations are not boring.

I remember well the rogue majority of your board. I hope you are still President and hanging in there until the coming election in May. Your kids must be proud. Joyous winter solstice to you and yours.

I niw remember asking Nita about the 9 directors, w him she insisted are required by her bylaws. I can't recall if there might have been some confusion between officers & directors?

Wow, wow, wow! No Florida Board Members are allowed to be paid for ANYTHING or for any POSITIONS.

By my reading, this is not true for Florida condos subject to FS 718. It looks like it might be true for HOAs subject to FS 720. More on this in another thread.

The bylaws state that the association will be managed by a Board consisting of an odd number of directors consisting of not less than (5) FIVE NOR MORE THAN NINE (9) DIRECTORS. The number of members of the BOD shall be as provided from time to time by the ByLaws of the Assoc.

For almost 3 years, they have only had the three members who were also officers. So you see what we are dealing with

For reference, my 74-unit condo association has a 3-person board whose members serve staggered 3-year terms. We have 3 officer positions (pres, secy, and treasurer) that are always filled by the board members. Our bylaws allow the board to create ad hoc officer positions that may be filled by non-director homeowners, but they rarely make use of this. We employ a professional, non-resident manager who handles the books, among other things. This professional is not a full time employee of the association, they're a portfolio manager employed by a management company who manages communities besides ours - which means their annual compensation is more along the lines of $15,000. Board members do not cut checks or deal with the day-to-day money matters, although they do have signing authority on our accounts. The board's main duties are reviewing the financials and changing signing authorities after every election (the latter is a time-consuming pain in the keister).

I agree with others that 9 board members are too many - even 5 can be a lot. Condos often have problems filling all of the board seats, even on small 3-person boards. Finding that many willing bodies is unusual, so right away I'm curious about what the incentive is. Being paid would do it. I bet the amendment to the bylaws was enacted around the same time that the paid positions were created, yes?

I also agree that board members shouldn't be paid even if it's not illegal per the bylaws or state statutes. For one thing, they lose the protections volunteers enjoy under the various Volunteer Protection Acts, and that's kinda a big deal. In addition, being paid means a likely conflict of interest since their decisions can affect their compensation. It's less of an issue if they're being paid a pittance, but it sounds like that's not the case here.

Good luck tackling this. I hope other homeowners are up in arms about this, since it sounds like a small group has figured out how to use the condo association to benefit themselves financially. This group needs to be ousted from power.

Ellen: There are three board members 1 serving as president 1 serving as vice president and 1 serving as secretary/treasurer. They just appointed 6 new board members last night, by my count that is 9. Am I looking at this wrong? Are officers not considered board members?

Nationwide HOA officers are not necessarily also directors.

-- Officers do not have to be directors unless the bylaws require that officers be selected from among the directors. There is so much variation from one HOA to the next that anyone posting here must not assume that everyone reading the thread has the OP's bylaws in front of them, AFAIC. Readers here most certainly do not.

-- The people who "appointed 6 new board members" are doing so in their capacity as directors, not officers.

Board votes are done by directors, not officers. Officers might provide input to help directors make a decision.

The distinction is often important. For example, the treasurer is often not a director. So the treasurer does not get a vote when a board decision is made. But of course the treasurer will have information that will help the directors make financial decisions.

Sometimes to be clear when I am writing, when the president (or say treasurer) is also a director, I sometimes use the phrase "President-director" (or "treasurer-director").

Nita

You have 9 directors 3 of are also Officers, Pres, VP, Sec/Treasurer. Typical the BOB, and the BOD alone, elects their Officers from among themselves.

ok I will try to get this straight in everyone's mind. after last night's meeting, we now have four directors who are officers, and we also have an additional 4 directors. The officer positions were already decided and announced at the beginning of the meeting. No input from any other board members. Three of the newly elected board members were not present due to covid. So that is how that went. I plan to have a meeeting with the treasure to see if I can go over the financials and find out about the paid positions, that were never created in the light of day.

If perhaps you need a bit of "validation," then I will say it: The contingent of directors who voted for officers without input or a vote from nearly half the board are swine.

Also it appears to me that FS 718 requires that the vote for officers take place in an open meeting.

These jerks need to be busted. The only reasons for not busting them are the labor it takes and the high probability of severe retaliation.

Ellen: thank you I needed that validation, now lets see if I can do something about it. I don't run from fights, and these people are beyond belief.