Gotta Love em

I would close the pool to all guests, prohibit grills, alcoholic beverages, glass containers and amplified music. If you want tunes, ear buds only.

I would also assign board members as periodic monitors who will check the activity at the pool and authorize the board members to eject anyone breaking the rules or engaging with disorderly conduct (call police and have arrested’ if they argue the least bit) or close the pool entirely for the day and order everyone to leave.

If the injured have health insurance, their insurance provider usually inquires where these injuries occurred and your HOA may receive a bill from their insurance company. I would be assessing the offending owners that bill.

LetA,
First the person or persons who caused the trouble should lose privileges for the remainder of the season. I would hope you have cameras in your pool area that caught all of this on video for future punishment. If you have a pool, you should already have posted signs stating the rules and they obviously broke many of them based on your post. The first weeks of pool season is when the board needs to set the precedence for the season, and it is very important that it is done. If not, this will be one of many future posts about bad behavior this year.

You also should consider getting a company to monitor your pool during busy hours onsite. It is not cheap but is very important. I do not recommend board members taking on this task. It needs to be a contractor who has the authority to do the job.

... and for this particular board, without any hesitation, I would absolutely vote to close the pool immediately until the rules, enforcement and more could be evaluated by the HOA attorney.

Hi Mark, I am not sure on which side you are coming down. Or maybe as of this writing you are conflicted? You are a long-time HOA president with important experience under your belt and, at least over the net, a calm but firm demeanor. I am reading your thoughts with care.

I am presently firm in saying I believe the board should shut down the pool until the HOA attorney weighs in. What LetA has written in the past about this Board and his/her role on it is one, not insignificant reason why. I want the pool shut down because I feel there is already too much liability. I think brawls, two ambulances, five police cars, and multiple citations do not happen unless the rules are either quite poor or have not been enforced.

Were I there, I might very well be on pins and needles over the insurer's response. I would also be examining closely whether and how I failed (were I on this board). People getting physically hurt is a big deal. I am in the camp that believes the first duty of a HOA director is to do what I reasonably can to ensure people are safe, within the four corners of the governing documents.

ElleN,
I guess if cornered I would say I am in the middle. If I could have my way I would close my pool and hope it was never there in the first place. We spend a ton of money for mtce and upkeep on our pool and we get some issues that are on the minor side compared to this incident. I get your legal concerns, and they are real. I am assuming the signage posted at the entrance and also again on the inside you put most of the liability on the people who are causing the problems. The HOA will always be involved but that is just part of our business.

I know that if we even mentioned closing our pool our 1450+ owners would hang our board members from the nearest trees. We have however spent the money for Fob access, extensive camera coverage and pool monitors to make sure minor incidents are corrected well before the need for Police or Ambulances are needed. When we have an issue the offender's access is removed till a meeting with the board can be scheduled in Executive session. Once we hear their side, we make a decision on the penalty required. Just for the record it has been years since we have gone all the way with any owner. I am knocking on wood as I hit enter.

Kerry,
I have always been a bid advocate for cameras. They work 24/7 and take no breaks and don't have any opinion. They 100% legal and with signage posted no one can complain about privacy in public areas. They pay for themselves many times over. Just imagine what one slip and fall can cost.

Still have not seen the police report because it is not ready. Everything mentioned is already in the pool rules.

The PM is still putting out the stops on changing the locks to a more secure digital locks that can't be duplicated.

My suggestion of posting the pool rules at the pool house will likely be implemented with posting the main rules. I would like to
see a QR code next to them for people to scan and read the whole rules so they are informed.

THe other board members aggreed to take a zero tolerance approach on any shennanigans moving foward.
Security has been notified and will attempt to make a visit when the pool closes and will clear the pool.
A resident told me they were at the pool when this was going down and one member of the group threatened to get a gun and bring it
down to the pool. I don't know if that made it in the police report or not.

We definately need surveillanve cameras in the non sensitive area of the pool to retain as evidence for future events.

I will know more after the police report is available.

Minus the beer and ambulances, you can see why our community eventually got rid if our pool.

As some have said, start by shutting the thing down and keeping it closed until the board can sort all this out. That will probably take at least 30 - 90 days, depending on damage, injuries and maybe a few more things. I know Nevada gets really warm in the summer, but these folks bought this mess on themselves. Unfortunately, those homeowners who act right and weren't there when this jumped off will be penalized.

The resident who started this is definitely out for the rest of the season - or year, depending on how long it stays open. If you have fines for bad behavior, assess them.

It's hard to say what will happen to your insurance-that will probably depending if the injured people yell lawsuit. I'd prefer they went after the homeowner and whoever hurt then, but people usually go after whoever has the deeper pockets. For now, that would be the HOA

Should the pool reopen, get some off duty cops to work as pool monitors. That's what we did, and they were given authority to order people out and shut down the pool for the rest of the day if things got rowdy (and there were a few occasions where they did just that). Board members would put themselves in danger if they took on the job, so don't do it.

Finally, check your documents and talk to your attorney about the pros and cons of selling the land. You'll probably need homeowner approval to do it and there may be zoning issues to consider, as well as the legal expenses and perhaps tax consequences. You don't want something even more awful in the community, so I'd only consider that as a nuclear option. Good luck in whatever you decide to do.

Here's wording our HOA attorny provided for our restated CC&Rs "...no vaping or smoking of tobacco, or any other material (including,
but not limited to marijuana) which emits odors, smoke or other substances, is permitted anywhere ...." Something similar but shorter might be good for the pool area.