Spending Special Assessment Money on other than voted for.

CathoO,
I like that name CathyO,
Frankly you treat this president just like an unruly child.

Here's the deal:
The President is elected by the Board and serves the Board.
The Board is elected by the people and serves the people.
The Board can replace the President.
The members can not replace the President.
The Members can replace the BOD.

So, your president is out of line, he is not given the authority to act unilaterally. The onus is on the Board.

If the people allow the Board to ignore their obligation to the people and not act as a governing body, the onus is on the people to replace the Board.

You probably know all this and and are looking for some kind of step by step procedure to rein in the President., so:

At a Board meeting a Board member makes a motion to censor the President for acting outside his authority. A second is made and a discussion is entertained. The Board has the fiduciary responsibility to enforce the By-laws and any relevant documents. Usually after discussion, a vote to censor is taken and recorded. The Bod can vote how they want but they do so with the knowledge they, then, are acting improperly and are exposed to action of the owners, if they don't follow the documents.

I suspect this President is going to scream bloody murder, and it may help to show him the pertinent documents. If he is the kind that will not accept reason, make a motion to vote him out for cause and the Board then elects a new President. The Board does not elect to remove him from the board they elect to remove him from the Presidency.

If what you say is true, and you can prove that he spent money without authorization, you can censure him by a motion during a board meeting. That makes it official, in the record.

Or you can ask for a resignation or start a removal from the board. Depends on how much support you have for this action and your directions in your documents.

PS The treasurer or whomever is signing these checks is just as guilty.

Kirk:
Your:
You probably have no ability to remove him from the board. Further, if he doesn't have power to initiate action apart from the Board, you have no real reason.

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Not sure how to take this.
A Board member can motion a call for there to be a new election of Board Officers (in this case the elected officers of the Board, by the Board.) A majority vote on the motion would result in the President being replaced and a new one added or the VP taking over.

Your second sentence switches from "he" to "you". A individual Board member only has power that is granted to him by the Board or under the By-laws. Certainly a he, or a you can not replace the President.

Kirk,
I forgot.
Your point about a censure is well taken and you are right.
I do think the word censure here was used as an action and included removal from the board. But your are right about a censure means nothing unless it contains some overt action.

You seem to know more about this than I do, so, isn't it proper for a censure to include the offense or the charge or something that defines the censure.

Susan,
If Utah happens to be one of those states that elect an HOA president, and I doubt it is, then a censure would serve, as you say as an action when entered into the minutes and allow the Board to take corrective action.

Either way, the guy is out of line, I believe, the Board is guilty if they are not following the by-laws, etc., and it could very well be this president will resist any motion or discussion about what he does, at a Board meeting. If, as we suspect he has been doing this a while he has probably in the past been challenged before and apparently came out on top. It happens. Also the possibility exists that there are some provisions written somewhere that gives him this kind of authority. But, I am sure you agree, it is more likely the actions of someone that does these kind of things because he can. It is interesting to note sometimes these folks have done wonderful things for their associations in the past and some seem to think they have earned this sort of power. IMHO.