Update on Rogue Board member....

Hello all...
Someone mentioned inform..inform..inform the community! We dropped the ball a little in that area. The excatator selected by this board to repair our road saved us approximately $35,000 but many owners did not agree with the boards decision. The board wanted to wait until the road was finished (excellent job)to eliminate witching...knowing there would be many other complaints. Unfortunately, as the road repair was completed,the President began her shenanigans, was demoted, began her petition for unseating the board, called the sheriff, etc. Dealing with that and a mistake at the printers with the new payment slips our Association meeting didn't happen until 06/23. The board had the attorney for update on lawsuit against previous management co and to explain what would happen if owners placed their money in escrow as the demoted President had ALREADY done! The bank representative was there to explain about the lockbox system (some owners did not want the board handling their checks.)And the insurance man to explain our liability insurance because some owners were supposedly concerned that without a management company we were more exposed to a lawsuit. (During this time everyone received the letter the President wrote to the demoted president which listed all of the boards reasons for dismissing the current management co...plus our intention to look for another management company who will better fit us over the next few months as we get our ducks in a row...so everyone had the facts)
The board went into this meeting hopeful that the owners would give us a chance to continue the good things we had already done...and simmer down!
There is no way I can adequately explain what happened.
My husband opened the meeting by reminding them that we had three speakers, they could question them but please hold all other questions until the end of the meeting. There were only about 10 others there (we are 52 owners)and of the ten, three women were immediately irate! Started asking questions riddled with sarcasam, while my husband attempted to hold his cool...and get them to wait. While he was talking at some point, our next door neighbor who never speaks but is definitely on the other side, leaned over and in a sharp tone asks "why is there an attorney here?" My husband lost it a bit and said, "Just sit back .....,and be quiet and you will find out." At that, she stood up and threw a water bottle at the board table and hit one of the other board members...and marched out! All that in the first 10 minutes! The attorney took over from there...they pummeled him with questions (about just who he represents,conflict of interest,why he wrote a letter to the management co on behalf of the boards dismissal when 2/3 of the community was against self management, etc, etc.... which he handled beautifully. When he got to the part about owners sending their money to an escrow account, he explained they could do that if they wished, but they would then be treated like any other delinquent owner...late charges and possible liens....plus they would be cutting off their nose to spite their face! Obviously without your fees the board will not be able to pay the pool people or the landscapers, etc. and will shut down! The demoted board member, who has graduated from law school but not been able to pass her bar exam on two occassions, spoke up saying that at the meeting she called, she had an attorney from _________who told them they could escrow without fines. His response was, "I am not going to discuss the fine points of the law with you,but if you wish you may have your attorney call me." In retrospect we should have had the banker speak first...she had to sit threw all of this squabbling! The insurance man did not show up ...just as well. Due to the circumstances the board did not even bring up old or new business...my husband read a statement he had written to try and bring us together...but this meeting was too far gone for that...and he closed the meeting. Before everyone left, one fairly new resident gave his observations of this community which were really right on. "In essence we will get nowhere until the trust issue is solved!" One board members husband and the chief "minion" (as the past board named these older members) are despised by this group of about 8-10 owners. Even if this complex was run perfectly...they would still object to self management because those people are involved and are friends of all the board members. All this is a result of the past, when the chief minion was pointing out all the mistakes of previous boards. I must say he was correct in his past assessment 90% of the time! None of the recent board members came to the meeting....my guess is because the agenda was handed out ahead of time and they did not want to sit under this attorney. Down the road they could be found derelect in their fiduciary responsibility in the law suit with the management company! Of course they think they have no reaponsibility. Time will tell.
The next day the attorney told the board that they might want to place a lien on the demoted president's property in order to stop the others from escrowing their fees. He could hardly believe a board member would do such a thing! I didn't take that seriously for now...but thought it might be perfect for down the road. (At this meeting, she stood up and said anyone who wanted to know about escrowing fees could call her...she had all the information! This woman has moxey!) The board just received the final records from the management co and our funds...so will know soon who has not paid. I spoke to an owner yesterday who had removed her name from the list to unseat the board, based on the letter the President wrote. She said she walked our of the meeting because it was so horrible. I asked her thoughts...she said I think we need a mediator...these people are not going to stop and will never accept the influence on the board, of those two I mentioned earlier. I said, I doubt the board will even consider that...can't we just go foreward as the previous board did? Knowing we were going to do everything right and allow them to look at the books anytime they wish...sending out reports monthly. She had no real response.

Today the chief minion sent out a memo to the board saying the attorney was waiting to hear from us...before he can file a lien he must send a registered letter to the demoted President. Then he would give us the form to file a lien ourselves to save money. We will know in a day or two if anyone else has placed their money in escrow...I don't think anyone really wanted to do that...no matter how much they are against us. My husband and I think we should wait until the 15th of July to decide to do that. We are afraid that will appear spiteful...and bring out sleeping giants...those who are with her somewhat...and it might push them over the edge...maybe so far as to hire their own attorney! What a mess that would be. By the 15th we will know for sure who is going along with her...and will have justfiable cause. We could even call those few we may not have received checks from...it has been a bit confusing for them as to where to send the June checks. Their main gripe(other than their disdain for the two men) is self management and the fact that we are not taking into consideration their wishes when they represent so many owners! They think this board has no mind of their own and will let the "chief minion" run the show. They cannot tolerate that! A management co will provide an unbiased third party in their mind! No matter that the money we will save can be put to good use catching up on necessay maintenance...with excellent oversite! that was always missing in the past!
We live in a mid size city and finding a good mangement co will not be easy. Plus we have become known as a community with problems! We have depleted our small reserve... and honestly cannot afford management companies like the past 3 or 4 we have had. With no oversite from previous boards the repairs we have paid for are poorly done and most have to be done over. Sometimes our charges have been close to $3000 a month! This complex was built in 1973 and in need of much repair...but has an absolutely beautiful setting on 3 A of lakes.

Please chime in with your thoughts about the registered letter and lien on the demoted President. Or any other words of wisdom.
Ann

Ann:

Sounds like you have problems on several fronts. Tough to follow along at some points in your post.

When one of the owners threw a bottle at the Board members I would have called the police. (Or in our case the already present would have removed them with possible charges. We have police officers present at our annual meeting.)

As to the wanna be lawyer and holding her payments in escrow I would do whatever possible to hold her responsible under the law. In NY you can NOT place your payments in escrow and still claim to be current. You must pay in full to the Board or MC. Some of the owners on our property were threatening to do just that when they had recieved some legal "wisdom" from one of the property's no law school lawyers. They make things up and believe it will work.

Our attorney was notified if in the event they did not make direct payments as instructed we would be filing liens and moving to collect on those immediately.

Sorry to say your property is not unique sounds like a group of owners lacks any real knowledge or understanding as to the matters before the Board or the obstacles facing the Board. One case when unhappy with a MC their first cry "replace them" now as you suggested in many areas your options would be limited. There are not hundreds of MCs and some are not good. But for the owners their simple answer solves everything, Hardly.

Sorry to say many owners lack the knowledge or the brains to understand the issues at hand and when they are fortunate enough to have a group of people willing to volunteer their time and work in improving THEIR property this too is lost on them.

Working hard to make the best decisions and taking abuse from the uninformed---
just one of the many "perks" of Board membership.

In some cases ( yours included) no matter what the Board does or how or why it will be questioned or complained about. My job to do what's best for the property period. NOT to make each and every owner happy, that is not and never will be possible. Like trying to please a group of spoiled year olds.

AnnW, let me just say, if the attorney has advised you to place the lien on the former board member's property, I would indeed do it NOW rather than later.

For one thing, (the attorney) doesn't need to contact her "attorney" to discuss the finer points of the law.

She is dead wrong.

This attorney you have recognizes one thing for sure, if you cut off the head of the snake, it dies.

So if you do as he suggested/advised/recommended, then the others will see that they will not be able to do the same thing.

You DO want to nip that action in the bud as quickly as possible. As it is clear she is not going to pay voluntarily, then you need to show that, as a professional organization, which is what your HOA is (or should be) you will do what is right to protect the integrity of the governing documents and the organization.

Hello All,

Thank you all for your replies! I have been away & am leaving again for a week...so will respond when I return. Just checked my email before leaving and found the enclosed from our Rogue board member. Due to a mistake at the printers we were late passing out the new payment slips to our lockbox at the Bank for fees. Along with the slips we included a financial statement and the minutes from our last "Fiasco" meeting! The rogue board member (demoted from President) just sent out the enclosed e-mail! The board decided when preparing the minutes to leave out all the negative stuff, bottle throwing, etc and stick to the facts that were presented by the board and speakers. As you can see below (pasted her email for you to read)she believes we were wrong to do that...remenber she has graduated from law school but not passed the bar. Would like your opinions when you have a minute as to whether we should have included the nasty stuff. There were only 10-12 people + the board & spouses present at the meeting out of 52.
This transition from management company to the board management has been a bit hectic. But it appears that "no one" but the rogue member has placed their fees in escrow...thank heaven. The attorney will follow up on that.
Thank you for you past responses...I will answer when i return next week.

Dear All,
It is with my sincere disappointment that I have to address you all regarding something as simple but yet as fundamental as meeting minutes. The minutes that were sent to you, besides containing such disorganization as not addressing owners by their full names, and grammatical errors, were very incomplete. Minutes such as these cannot and will not be tolerated by the community. A board that creates such minutes should be embarrassed and are not serving this community in their required duties.
The minutes of each meeting should accurately state what was discussed, whether popular, unpopular, pretty, ugly, political, I could go on and on. As unfortunate as the attendance of the meetings are, the importance in the accuracy of the minutes is even more critical for the knowledge of the community at large.
Please be informed that at the meeting some wonderful and informative questions were asked, however were not included and merely brushed over on the minutes. I apologize to those owners who came with such prepared and organized questions and were not recognized nor acknowledged properly. Additionally, I presented an agenda of a meeting that many of you attended in May, along with a forty signature petition for no self management that was signed by the majority of you and your fellow owners. Furthermore, I also presented thirty signed ballots by your fellow owners to remove board members Pat Kallage, Dolores Madden, Betty Sanker and Don White. Ironically none of this was included in the meeting minutes. I spoke with Pat Kallage last night to address these issues. The problem was not acknowledged and I was told if I did not like the minutes that I should do them myself. Therefore, as my duty as a board member of this community, from now on at every meeting as long as I am on the board, I will be providing a court reporter to keep an accurate and neutral record of ALL minutes. This will allow the community to be included on not only what a few may want you to know, but what as a community we all must know. If there are any questions or concerns regarding this, as always my ears and door is always open.

Thank you and hope all is well,
Denise

Steve,
You are right the meeting reflect what was done by the Board. not what was said by the audience and this Board member is out of line at best.

If she wants to publically call the Board to the carpet, she can't do it as a Board member. She can chew the other members out at the Board meeting if she wants, and that is ill advised and will accomplish nothing. She has the opportunity to speak to each member individually about her concerns, that's fine. She also has agreed to act in a responsibile manner as a Board member and work to the betterment of a the association as a member of the Board.
She should resign and take her battle to the streets (so to speak). To send out a message like this is nothing but an attempt to say, "look at me, I am right and the rest of the members are wrong. Can't you all see how smart and wonderful I am." That's her problem.

Ann,

I would defintely start with placing liens on owners who have not paid their assement(s).

Ann, the Board needs to reign in this rogue board member. Including not allowing her to be an officer; not allowing her to create the minutes; pass a resolution that official correspondence to the member must be approved by the Board; and any other restrictions which are deemed necessary by the Board. If she is delinquent in paying assessments what rights can be removed, in accordance with the HOA's governing documents, until she pays? Also, the Chair needs to do a better job of controlling meetings; including who may speak, for how long, and when at meetings.

Her erroneous comments on the content in minutes have been clearly addressed by other posters with whom I agree.

I am curious about the signed petitions presented for self management and removal of Board members. Were these presented and handled in accordance with your rules? If so, were there votes taken and reflected in the minutes?