Board Member walks out of meeting? Resigns? Input needed?

Hello all,

We had a meeting this past month and it happened that our meeting club house over looks the pool area. One of our new homeowners ( 6 months old ) was seen not only by the entire board, but all in attendance.. as she walked her unleashed dog into our pool area which is double whammy. No leash and in the pool area are both no no's which are clearly outlined in our rules, and in fact the young girl has been given a copy of these upon move in.

The young girl happened to join the open session as there was some common area maintenance she wished to discuss. In front of everyone a home owner ( not a board member) verbally confronted the dog without a leash in the pool area. Also the homeowner stated she has seen this homeowner let her dog do his doo and not pick it up. I only commented to the young girl that she was indeed breaking our community rules by both having the dog in the pool area and it's a no no to have any dog on our property without a leash The girl left the meeting with an apology and took her dog to her unit.. Done deal.

One of our board members who was newly elected walked out of our meeting. I assumed he had an emergency or whatnot. He called this morning to say that he was upset at the board because the rude homeowner wasn't stopped from chastising the young lady who was ignorant of our rules.... he also stated he felt that he didn't want to part of this nonsense and that I should of stopped the verbal attack....

Since when is it the boards responsibility to control what is said between homeowners? The interaction was very short and the girl who was there with her dog left shortly after to take her dog away. Is there anything that you think could of been done or said? I personally think that a homeowner who speaks to another regarding such should get kudos and shame, but it's my opinion. Please advise. .

that should of said kudos and not shamed..

that should of said kudos and not shamed..

Have a cup of coffee and talk to the Board member. Explain it was his responsibility as an owner to individually complain if he has a issue. I am pretty sure your by-laws will refer to the individual responsibility of each owner to enforce the rules or whatever. He can make a formal complaint against the owner to be heard by the Board, if he wants. Since the matter had been addressed by the Board maybe he would be satisfied if the Board send a polite letter to the dog owner.

Do all that you can to keep the Board member, in fact you could go as far as including the incident in your minutes and make note of the offense and the Boards action.No need for names. Use it as a reminder you do have rules and will enforce them.

My post may be confusing (nothing new), but since reading Susan's I think I should clear up that the man that got up and spoke to the dog owner was out of line only because of place and not because of his complaint. All owners are burdened with rule enforcement. Our documents says that anyway. As the OP said it was a short moment in time and should not have been cause for a Board member to disrespect the rest of the Board and walk out. He has responsibilities also. But there is this ingrained DNA in some folks that will NOT confront a law breaker. We aren't talking walking into a loaded pistol pointed at you, we are talking about order in the community. I think the President did as well as expected.Should the correction be polite and informative. Of course, but, try that on some night after a long day and you find your parking space is occupied by a person that is trespassing or your neighbor habitually parks in your spot, or a renter that doesn't know any better, and more, doesn't care.

As bad it it sounds, the meeting did get back on track and attention to open agenda items. I am just not sure how we could of stopped a homeowner from saying what she did. By the time all the words came out, the damage was done........ I personally did tell the homeowner who confronted the other after the meting that she should of notified the pm if she witness the dog peeing and pooing on the property vs confronting the girl. None the less, the damage was done by a homeowner who blitrted out you are not allowed to have your dog in the pool area, and I haveseen him pooing on the green belt without you picking it up. I myself didn't have a chance to cut her off.. the damage was done. But looking back, I should of asked to her to please refrain from personal attacks during our open sesssion, if she had issues please contact the pm. But I didn't.. looking back that should of been said. Bad me

Well, with all due respect, Robert, it is a big deal. It's probably a bigger deal than we even realize, not being there.

But it's over.

The thing is, based on many of the other posts Francesca has "reported" about her HOA, and going back to the original question, I think the board member who walked out -- and then resigned -- did the right thing.

But, to be honest, I'm not really sure WHY Francesca posted this query. Unless to obtain strokes that she did the "right thing"?

My original post was asking could this been handled any other way? But thank you for your pyscho babble analysis I see you are sometimes famous for. I feel bad enough about this and wanted input on what other HOA's would of done. Maybe your analysis of issues could be used elsewhere.. thank you for your off the target comments, they are DULY Noted.

Michelle! You're FAMOUS?!? Who exactly ARE you?!?

Nope.. nothing wrong with different opinions. It makes us all unique.. thank god.

Nancy,

If you're asking if other HOAs have adopted this as a board policy for noticing violations, I can honestly say mine has not and I doubt they ever will. Although I see nothing wrong with one member cautioning another member about a potential violation; I don't believe the BOD should promote such a policy. I think what your BOD really feels is that they don't want the monkey on their back -- they're afraid to stand up and do their job. I know there are some assn's that only send out violation notices if a complaint is recieved from a member. I also think that is wrong. IMO, even though the CCRs may state the member can enforce the CCRs, the resp. really lies with the BOD or the A/C comm. If they are afraid to do their job then they should not be in the position of authority. Just my opinion of course.

I just remembered an incident that happened to me a number of years ago. I was speaking to a neighbor and casually commented about the boxes he had stacked on his patio and that if the A/C members took a walk behind his house they might see them and send a violation notice. Well a week later he received such a violation notice and blamed me for it saying I must have informed the A/C committee. Of course I did no such thing, but he believed I did and that was the end of our "friendship".

For what it's worth, I think your current board is full of, well, what the dogs are dropping.

In what Fractured Fairytale World does having neighbors address and criticize each other (which is what it "feels" like when neighbors, no matter how politely or kindly ask "curb your dog" or "silence your windchimes") amount to "build[ing] community"?

That sort of interaction does just the opposite, which is why if the people are in violation, a more directly and personally removed "authority" to step in and request compliance should be the board or the board's delegated authority (say a project management company).

It seems your board wants to focus more on the "minimizes the policing aspect" of the board function.

In other words, that translates to "we're chicken****, and we hate confrontation. Oh, and we're lazy, to boot."

Then they should step down from the board.

A board doesn't have to engage in "active" policing to enforce violations, unless, of course, the governing documents specifies they must.

They can adopt a "complaint driven" process.

THAT will allow neighbors to continue to be neighbors and improve interaction.

For the record, I'd love to see the governing documents that consider wind chimes violations. Never heard of that before.

Hey Michele,
Guess who.
I had wind chimes that my neighbor objected to and complained to the Board. Both our units are twenty feet from the ocean and the surf sounds are constant. The Board circulated some kind of edict that owners should talk to owners about things like wind chimes. I put some rubber bands on my wind chimes but still got complaints so I put felt around the little bangers and then they didn't make any noise and then I just said to hell with it and took them down. Then we went through a period of other wind chimes being stolen and then this owner sold the place and left.
But you are right it is not any way to run an association. You can imagine how the rest of the place was run. Then we have a new board voted in and that was a lot of trouble but we got the job done and now, I am not sure this Board will be any more effective than the last. I still have hope but I have lost my "spark" about the whole thing, but that is just me and my side of a part of the story.

AMEN!!!!!!

I agree to an extent to this Robert. I do find that if I go to a neighbor and let them know that there is a violation and I am trying to keep them from getting a letter or fine I seem to have a good response. It is how they are approached and I don't think everyone has the personality to tell someone they are doing something wrong. Saying that I see nothing wrong with an owner letting a neighbor know they are in violation. Most of the time it is because they don't know (should have been here with the argument about what constitues proper window coverings).

We are setting it up where an owner can complain to a BOD, who then investigates the complaint. If they confirm there is an issue they can either try to talk to the person and if met negatively it is passed on to the PM who then starts the letters a coming.....