new to board dealing with rogue member

She takes everything very personally. We are all new board members, old board was voted out due to (let’s call her Sue) getting a bunch of homeowners riled up over an assessment and petitioned for a special meeting to vote out old board & won. Sue was trying to be the savior of the assn. I really appreciate her eagerness and go-getter gumption, but she was driving us insane. Talks in circles, jumps from one topic to the next and back. Loooong winded. Complains about EVERYTHING and calls our lawyer daily. Complains about how much time she’s putting in, but when we ask her what she’s working on so we can divide and conquer, she gets offended saying we don’t appreciate the work she’s doing. We asked her to make a list so when contacting lawyer send all issues at once instead of multiple correspondence and let us to review before emailing the attorney to stop racking up fees -or members or contractors etc. the next day she was right back at it. We were seriously getting 5-10 emails a day and each one is a book that you just can’t make sense of it - uses a lot of “he, she, they” type of talk so it’s really hard to follow. If you dare ask a question it just doubles and she comes back with rage msgs like “you are making public accusations about me” She’s always looking for a conspiracy so in every communication she’s quoting this statue and that statue and this law and this bylaw and she even hired her own attorney, so when she speaks about “the lawyer” we nvr know if she’s talking about hers, ours, or the prop mgr’s. We new she was a loose cannon and handled her with kid gloves to no avail. She threatens to sue everyone including homeowners, managers, contractors etc
[now I’m being long-winded!]
Anyway - in a middle of the night rage email she said she resigns - relief! Board voted and accepted her resignation. Then she decided she didn’t want to resign she “was just mad”. We simply said we already voted and accepted her written resignation and thanked her for her time & service. We consider the matter closed. Thinking we can FINALLY get down to business, then she really went to town.Because I was the one drafting the communication she felt it was all coming from me. She started sending emails to all association, management, board, lawyers, city council, mayor, state representatives, etc… saying she didn’t quit, we were lying and forced her to resign - even after we shared her own written resignation she still said we were lying! When we didn’t budge she started retaliating against me in her messages accusing me of crazy things - i’ve counted 30 bullet points of libel defamation. When she didn’t get anything out of me she started attacking the assessment spreading more lies, getting members worked up, and has started a new petition demanding the assessment is wrong and demanding we return portion of the money to the homeowners.
There are things wrong with the assessment, but we are working through it and meeting this week with the atty, mgr, contractor to comb through it and hopefully start the next phase of repairs - the problem is we’re running out of time, getting close to the 2yr mark of when the hail damage occurred, if we don’t start repairs soon we won’t have ANY insurance to pay for ANY repairs! Everyone wants a new prop mgr but we’re tied to a contract she knows this yet has ppl convinced we’re not doing anything about it.
I’ve asked the manager to send members communication re assessment and ask the atty if we can file a cease & desist or something but he keeps saying we shouldn’t talk to her it will just add fuel to the fire. I told him she’s not going to just go away. The more we allow her to fester the stronger her power kick. Now she’s trying to get me kicked off saying i was illegally voted in because i still owed the assessment, but she doesn’t know the facts I’ve got a legal reason tied to my divorce proceedings which trumps the bylaws.
HELP - what can we do???

First, write smaller paragraphs please- this was hard to read! I know people forget that when they get upset and write, but itvall tends to look like a gigantic word salad. Slow your roll and then write- that will become important when you respond to sue.

As you know from what happened to the last board, there is a process to dumping anyone from the board, so don't worry about her threats. If she calls, emails or texts you personally, ignore them and block her number and email. All of the board members shoukd do the same, so your attorney is correct.

Note I said if she contacts you or your colleagues PERSONALLY. If the board has an email account people can use to contact all of you at once, you probably can't stop her from sending those emails, but you can and should control how you react. For those, simply send her an acknowledgement that you received it and leave at that. If she tries to come at you in person, walk away and if she threatens you with physical harm, talk to police about a restraining order. You may need more than one incident before you take that step, so document everything.

That includes nastygrams to the board - it's harder to explain to a judge that the board is corrupt when there's time and date stamped documentation of you acting a fool. In the meantime, all of youbshould do what you were elected to do and concentrate on resolving the insurance issue. Then you can sit down to address the property manager- there are recent conversations on this website about keeping, selecting and sacking them - you can bring your questions to this one to ensure you get current information.

Oh, and tell the association attorney not o respond to this lady about anything without authorization from the board. In fact, have a conversation with him on how to address these situations going forward and establish that as board policy via a resolution. It could be part of an overall approach in dealing with homeowners who can't behave themselves when discussing problems. Cursing, threats, etc., should never be tolerated- that's NOT the same as approaching the board with real issues

Finally, don't wring your hands everything this woman barks. If you get a petition from other homeowners, address it at that time. I suspect people are already aware this lady is a loose cannon and are ignoring her anyway. If she threatens to sue, respond only if you get a letter from an attorney or a summons. It's easy to threaten, but another matter to actually follow through - zbd most peopke pip down when they see they might start something they can't finish or their favor. Good luck!

If other homeowners have questions about this, they can attend the next board meeting and ask them. If they'd rather listen and believe lies, damned lies, rumors, etc., that says more about them than you. If your community has a website, you can post a statement there, and skip the door to door.

I think you're running scared because this homeowner spearheaded the last recall, but now I wonder how much of her accusations were true or did everyone (including you) jump to conclusions. If you have any relationship with one or two previous board members, it might be interesting to talk to them about everything and perhaps get their side of what happened.

If they really were a crappy board, they got what they deserved and you can skip it, but now that they're out of the line of fire, they might be more forthcoming about e everything. Don't mention Sue's latest drama or spread gossip about anyone, but focus on what they might have done differently and what advice they'd give the new board on fostering more transparency with the homeowners and educating them on association issues.