Board Meeting with Prospective Management Companies

We are considering a new management company. We wish to interview three prospective companies and three of us wish to meet as we all have individual questions and concerns. Our last company has been a nightmare and we do not want the same mistake - we want to be sure it's a good fit.

In California is it permissible for three (or four) directors to interview the management companies? No decisions will be made until the bids are submitted and voted upon in Executive Session and Open Meeting.

Yes, I had thought of that. Perhaps that's the way to go although it's very difficult when you are looking for a new management company and need to exclude the current manager from any involvement.

Yes, as a "contract in formation, the compete Board has every right in CA to meet in executive session to conduct interviews with these firms.

Over the years I was on our board, retired 12/21, we conducted many, many such interviews for big projects. to hire a new HOA legal firm, to hire construction defect attorneys, and to hire various contractors for big projects.

A few months ago the current Board interviewed 3 MCs. As in the above examples, each firm came with 3 firm members, generally it'd be the CEO or COO, a financial person and, in our case a certified high rise specialist. Each interview takes about an hour with all directors contributing if they wish. Our Board already had met in ex. sess. to narrow the field to 3 firms as they received a lot of response to their RFP (Request for Proposals). They met again in ex. sess.to consider the pro & cons of each firm. In our HOA, contracts are approved in an open meeting so that's what happened with the reasons why they felt Firm A should be approved. They voted approval with a few contingencies and the contract was executed a few days later.

In a less complex HOA such as your LmT, probably th interviews wouldn't last as long and they wouldn't bring so many team members.

Noe that you need to disclose each ex sess. in the subsequent open meeting. See roundly Davis-stilring.ocm for many good tips on forming contracts that can apply anywhere in the USA.

Our new MC started on 2/1. So far, so good. I've only skimmed th 23pp contract (!!), but it seems OK.

Yes, I’ve already spoken with one HOA Board President regarding their changeover to a new company we are considering. It was very positive.

Oh, Mark reminds me, our Board, too, has had prospects come back a second time with the candidate for an on-site engineer slot the we switched eng. vendors. It's a great idea for a PM. (The current Board kept the PM from the fired firm here)

Checking references is good too and I know some board members here contacted board members at HOAs that also use our new MC. In addition, our president spoke with our HOA attorney, who has other HOAs as clients that use our new MC, for his opinion on the MC.

Thank you, KerryL1, more good advice. Of course, we are a much smaller community than yours but the essentials remain the same.

I scheduled 3 companies to give 15-20 minute presentations at an open board meeting and then the board voted on who they wanted to go with. I made a spreadsheet of costs comparisons between the 3. Honestly the other board members did zero research befroe the meeting. Not sure if they even read my emails.

why do you want to do executive session for this? Why not let HOA members see the process and how transparent it is?

Sheila,
My opinion about it being in executive session has a lot to do with who the PMC actually works for in this contract. I know in my community (1450 SFHs) only about 2% of the community has any interactions with the PMC and this usually comes when they have received a letter regarding a violation. Why would we invite them to come in and get them to complain? I doubt they would attend but why give them a chance? I would also say that only about 30% would even be able to name the company.

The board works with this company regularly and represents the community. We are elected to make good choices on the owners' behalf. If we choose a bad company, we can expect the blow back come election time. I would also like to mention that if you have ever googled or yelped PMCs you will see that it is rare for them to ever get positive feedback. The time spent by your board to interview managers should be taken very seriously and not be clouded by others that will only distract in my opinion.