Rules and Reg question

also owner behaviors

Our Bylaws do not state anything about how a member or board member may be present at the meeting. They also do not say anything about how many meetings a board member is allowed to miss without excuse.

We are an HOA that is governed by TPC 209.

This is in regards to my fruitless attempt to get our board to abide by the new statutes in 209 from 2021. Only one board member, the outgoing president, understands the gravity of the situation they now face and asked me to assist by setting up a website as per state law. I then offered to run for the BOD as they have difficulty filling positions. I and several homeowners here have second homes and either rent or split time here. A fellow seasonal resident wished to attend our monthly meeting last week by me dialing him in via FaceTime. I had permission to do this from the president. One of the board members (who was appointed in a closed session meeting along with 3 others this year(which is also not allowed by 209 apparently) called me to the front table and shouted at me to remove the IPad I had set up for our neighbor.

That set off the tone of the entire meeting as at every turn, they were giving examples of how part time residents could not be an effective board member, while appealing to the membership to volunteer as nobody ever does. I was then called on in the town hall segment by the president and told all present that I HAD requested in writing to be put on the ballot. I also took that moment to point out how they were not following texas law. Shouting board member said they don't have to follow state law because they follow HUD as a 55+ community. The shouting board member now was saying they had to meet and decide whether they would allow telephonic presence AND if I was allowed to run. Mumbles about putting them in the rules and regs which according to our bylaws, they can add to without notice.

For that matter, the bylaws also say they can hold any meeting without any notice to anyone so this is why I am asking for clarification. Honestly, I do not want to be on this hostile board but see no other way to force transparency.

So here I am.

What is your role in this HOA, Barbara? Are you on any kind of a committee appointed by the Board? How is it you know a fair amount about TX statutes?

How in the world is it that the president can appoint you to do anything related to board meetings? Don't get me wrong, I very much like your spirit of volunteerism.
Only a Board at an open meeting may appoint a person to do the tasks that you did (unless your docs or the board itself voted for the prez to have such powers)

I believe I've seen in another massive TX exchange that Rules cannot be made on the spot--that there's some kind of owner input?? Do double check. At any rate Mr. Nasty director was not authorized to pose such a rule because it was not (I assume) on the open meeting's posted agenda.

IF your Bylaws state that any owners (perhaps in good standing) may serve on the Board, then they override any so-called "rule" made by Mr.Nasty to keep part-time or absentee owners out of service on the Board.

It's unfortunate TX does not require HOA boards to permit Owners to attend telephonically as many cannot attend in person -- surely I don't have to name all such cases! But our HOA too has a large % of absentee & part-time-occupant owners & a hand full do attend by Zoom.

Mr. Nasty was board president in the past. In 2019 I suggested a private FB group to help disseminate neighborhood information for part time and full time residents. He was all for it but it never got more than 18 members. I revisited that group to find he was and a second "nasty" who was also yelling are both admins there and that I had been removed. I have been trying to get more transparency for years. This time last year, we asked him what the annual dues were as we hadn't gotten a notice and he said the board hadn't decided yet, but the annual meeting was scheduled to be held in 3 weeks. We asked if meeting notices had gone out and he said the notices had been hand delivered the end of November. (We checked our ring doorbell and saw it was stuck in our front door while we were away and we watched footage as it blew away the next day.
Then we saw him again after new years and he said the annual meeting was cancelled due to Covid and lack of quorum. We still didn't get any bill for the annual dues, nor had my brother who lives in the next town and rents the home he owns here. Seems they were handing any notices to his tenant.

THAT and him calling me to scream that we hadn't paid our HOA dues and were 26 days delinquent and they were going to start charging interest blah blah-

THAT is when I started doing a deep dive into Texas HOA statutes. And found all the transparency SB 1588 enacted the year before. Started talking privately to individual board members. One, the outgoing president went looking and when I offered to find low or no cost solutions to the website requirement he gave me the go ahead.

I asked to be on the ballot for January. This board is extremely hostile towards me now as I have now made the board and the membership aware they are not following state law during an open board meeting town hall segment. Four years, and the past year sharing this knowledge privately with them has brought me to this.