Open Forum at Special Meeting

A Special Meeting must have a specific reason. It is no a free for all meeting. I say no open forum but if one is to be held it should be to ask and or comment only about the specific reason the meeting was called.

To add to JohnC: Many states now require an Open Forum at HOA Board & members meetings. And many states do NOT allow "free-for-all" types of meetings. I.e., in many states there must be a notice posted in advance listing the item(s) of business. And it/those are the only topics that may be addressed at the meeting by the Board, or by the members if a members meeting.

At our HOA's special meetings of the Board, which almost always has only one item on the agenda, the meeting chair does ask the audience to keep their open forum remarks to that topic. Often ours, like Susan's should be, are very non-controversial with very low attendance.

Hope you found the Davis-stirling.com Election Calculator useful, Susan.

True in CA--any owner can bring up any topic in Open Forum . Good to keep in mind, though extremely unlikely to happen due to low attendance. Just in case-- state on the agenda that open forum comments will be limited to 2 minutes. That way, if someone decides to talk totally about some random stuff, you all won't have to listen for long.

In my 14 years of planning meetings for the annual meeting in CA, it's the most boring set of decisions we directors had to make.

Our bylaws have an 'order of business' section regarding meetings of members

- roll call to dete1mine the voting power represented at the meeting
- proof of notice of meeting or waiver of notice;
- reading of minutes of preceding meeting;
- reports of officers;
- reports of committees;
- election of inspector of election (at annual meetings or special meetings· held-for such purpose);
- election of Directors (at annual meetings or special meetings held for such purpose);
- unfinished business; and
- new business.

Nah. Example: Owner John Smith repeatedly refers to the Chinese-American residents in the HOA using a derisive racial slur. The president has a legal obligation/duty to shut Smith down.

Perhaps you could re-read my remarks and see that I do not agree with Terri's comments. I do agree with yours, so far. Asking is one thing. Requiring is another.

You are young indeed. (You are welcome.)

And what law would be broken?

Kerry
Those topics are what is supposed to occur at a members meeting. Real life, all they do is count ballots if we have enough ballots to meet quorum.

Yes, they announce IoE contract months in advance

Interesting legal section I came across the other day. We have been paying our IoE to count ballots via zoom, since it is cheaper. Take a look at this:

Corporations Code section 7510(f)

"A corporation shall not conduct a meeting of members solely by electronic transmission by and to the corporation, electronic video screen communication, conference telephone, or other means of remote communication unless one or more of the following conditions apply: (A) all of the members consent"

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?secti7510&lawCode=CORP

Civil Code section 4925(b) there is no limitation on speech as well as the California Constitution.

So you mean if the HOA is taken to court over this then just the board pays right Terri NOT every member... Considering that a HOA is only funded by it's members.

True to form, ElleN is misrepresenting what posters write - intentionally to derail the thread. I never said members can say whatever they want. I write that members can speak on any topic they want. They are not confined to speaking on agenda items, or speaking about topics other than is what is on the agenda.

The board can lawfully shut down topics that, if spoken in front of others, may result in liability to the HOA.

Where in Civil Code 4925(b) does it say there is NO limit on speech?

Actually it says the board shall establish a reasonable TIME limit. No other limit.

Like what?

Totally beside the point. It is understood that certain types of speech don’t belong. In an HOA meeting. Any topic is OK on or off agenda.

No. The issue was whether or not members have to stick to the agenda when commenting at open forum. The answer is No.

Remember this is about special meetings of the Board. I wrote the meeting presider certainly can say: "And now, Open Forum. We prefer you stick to this special meeting's agenda item. Thank you!' The Board already could have made a 2-minute limit policy.

4925(b) open forum applies to every board meeting except executive sessions. Open forum means open forum.

Our Articles of Incorporation detailed what we had to cover at our meetings...

Say, Terri, neither you nor I nor Elle is qualified to interpret Calif. Civil Code about HOAs. In my case, I defer to real HOA attorneys. Davis-stirling.com has a lot of them & one partner in the firm, Larry Stirling, is the main author of the Davis-Stirling Open Meeting act. Over maybe 10 years I've turned to that site many times. And sometimes to others. Here's what their author says, as you well know, in part about Open Forum

"For example, topics should not:

involve matters outside the board's authority,
be defamatory, indecent, abusive, or involve personal attacks or threats, legal or otherwise,
involve personnel issues,
involve the disclosure of confidential information,
maintenance issues can be raised during open forums but are often better addressed in writing with the management company."

So the Policy our Board has on the back of every open-meeting agenda states near the end (along with the 2-minute limit).

"Ideas for improving [my HOA] or concerns about Board policy are acceptable.

Berating any individual director, homeowner, or manager will not be tolerated.

We ask that maintenance items be reported to management outside of meetings."

The last is sometimes ignored & usually lightly responded to by our PM, depending. I suspect that even when a "preference" is stated to stick with the Special Meeting topic in open forum, that most of the presidents of my board or a relevant de director or the PM would respond, staying within the law on permissible responses. BUT, my HOA j has had, and I know about from this forum that there are rude, ignorant, dictatorial presidents who behave otherwise.

Thank you, Kerry. I know you have plenty of experience with meetings. And my comments are always overshadowed (with dark clouds) by having a seriously terrible board leadership. There is actually more vitriol spewed by either board members or homeowners outside of open forum than in open forum itself because we have a chairman who is a milquetoast domineered by his wife.

How sad that you think boards should contact the HOA attorney anytime they feel they have to look up something in the Civil Code.

The D-S site is the best there is when it comes to law firm sites that serve to guide a state's HOA/COA board. However even the D-S site's sponsoring law firm messes up on occasion in its interpretations. That's not me correcting the D-S site's attorneys. Instead and most recently, a state appeals court and then the state supreme court said, in so many words, that the D-S site got something majorly wrong (regarding email exchanges among directors, where no decisions were made).

And here comes the loser point of view when Ellen sets them right...