HOA Attorney is also General Manager

Our HOA's General Manager recently quit and the Attorney has taken over the position. Does this present a conflict of interest? I can see situations when as GM the person might use their HOA Attorney position to justify actions.

Doug, I would seriously question why the Board of Directors allowed an attorney to manage. Doesn't appear to me that they used good business judgement.

At the size of this association, GM is basically an administrator, and it sounds like the board thinks the attorney can administer the day-to-day activities. I don't think its a conflict of interest. Only time will tell if it was a good decision. It's going to depend on the skill set of the individual.

Also, you didn't indicate if this was gong to be permanent. Could it be possible that the attorney is only handling it until the board can do a better search? As the manager quit, they probably left with less notice than a board needs to find a suitable replacement, or they may want to take some additional time to look at what is really needed in the position.

I recently talked to a management company owner that had taken over the account of a 13,000 home master association, They went through 3 of their best managers in 18 months. Finally hired a former city administrator, who could handle the politics as well as the admin. Understanding what is needed in the position and then matching a person to that is hopefully what the board did or is doing.

I'm not going to second-guess the board, but it wouldn't hurt to talk them about the why's and wherefore's of the decision. If the best they can answer is that the attorney was available and "knows" the association, I'd start asking a lot more questions about job descriptions, evaluations, what kind of search did they do, etc.

Joe

Not enough information to state one way or the other. And a lot of associations use their attorney to send out all violation notices and then collect if necessary. Management companies find violations, send them out and collect, but this isn't a conflict. I just don't like condemning something on so little information. Which is why I suggested finding out more.

Joe