Election of Trustees

I live in a sizeable, single-family home condominium complex. We are a condo association due to a common waste water treatment plant and some common "open space" areas. The trust documents stipulate that the Board of Trustees is to be elected every two years at an open meeting attended by the homeowners. For many years the Board of Trustees has always disregarded this bylaw, mailing out ballots with names of the people who wish to be elected. Apathetic homeowners blindly check off names and mail the ballot back. This past year, however, the Board has taken it upon themselves to unilaterally establish new rules and regulations for use of our common land. It's election time again and I received the ballot which has the names of those who wish to be elected. I contacted the president of the Board of Trustees asking that an open meeting of all homeowners be held at which time we could interview those people who want to serve on the Board so that we can make informed choices on who to vote for (given that the Board now wants to establish new rules and regulations for our neighborhood). So far my request has not be answered. My question is this....is an election held by mail invalid if the Trust documents stipulate it is to be held at an open meeting? Thanks for any information you can give me.

Julie, as Michele stated the answers to your question may be buried in your documents which unfortunately the majority of homeowners don't ever bother reading until they have a problem. The answer may also be in your state condo law which you can read here: http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/gl-183a-toc.htm

As a general rule I'm suspicious of Boards who are afraid of the membership which yours seems to be. At the very least somewhere in your documents there should be a provision for the members to call a meeting to ask these questions. Gather your neighbors who have the same concerns and call a meeting.

Put another way (I think), do your governing documents allow for voting by proxy? A mailed ballot may be a proxy ballot. If this is allowed, and a meeting is also required, then both the proxies and votes from attendees may be counted. If so, the BoD is obliged not to require members to attend the meeting in order to vote. If a meeting is required and one is not held, then the elections are technically invalid. What to do about that is another matter. If a meeting is required and you have requested one and it is not held, I think that may be even more egregious misconduct. But consider what would happen with a meeting.

One problem is getting enough Members to come to the meeting to show the BoD they are interested, listen and ask questions to learn what the BoD has to say, and say what they (the Members) think at the meeting. Another problem is that depending on how many attend the meeting and how many send in their proxies, the attendees may be vocal but may not have many votes relative to the total.

It would probably be wise to speak with the trustees and understand why they changed the rules. You could also ask for minutes of their meetings where they did that. Ask if meetings were held for past elections and if they plan to hold one for this election, and if not then why not. If meetings are required in the governing docs, then there is probably a notice requirement. If this is the case and the mailed ballots came without any meeting notice, then they are probably either not planning to hold the meeting or have not fulfilled the notice requirement. Ask about that.

It's important not to assume motive or attitude, but to try to establish a dialogue and see what they are doing and how they feel about it. Are they volunteers trying to do their best and believing that there is no real problem, or do they seem to have an agenda and don't want to deal with conflicting views from Members, or do they just want to get the job done and not be bothered with including Members? Also, you need to try a friendly, open approach that shows you are interested in helping and want to see their viewpoint. You want them to see you as a neighbor willing to contribute, not some troublemaker using the fine print just to harass them and make a stink.

It is important, while being friendly and conducive to discussion, to also put your specific requests in writing. In case they turn out to be bastards or crooks, you can show exactly what you requested. In case they are lazy or prefer to disregard you, this put them on notice that you may be ready to escalate if they make it necessary. Friendly, polite professional but specific.

If you do your best and think they are not looking out for the Associations interests or if they continue to not respond, then by all means come here with updates, and there will be more suggestions.

Thank you all for your replies. Our documents, which I've read and re-read many times, stipulate that "the Trustees shall be elected by a vote of owners holding not less than fifty-one percent of the total voting power, which vote shall be cast at any annual or special meeting of the owners." It also states that "at all meetings of owners, each owner may vote in person or by proxy. All proxies shall be (a) in writing signed by or on behalf of all the owners of the dwelling involved, (b) dated and (c) filed with the Secretary of the Trust." I guess the problem stems from the fact that our annual meeting isn't specifically identified as one at which new trustees will be elected. The election sort of occurs "after the fact" and ballots are mailed in without the required signature. (Easy to photocopy and mail in several votes for your favorite candidate.) By and large, though, I think the Trustees are trying to do an honest job, but they haven't read the documents very thoroughly and since we are an unusual set-up as far as a condo association goes, they are just clueless and not very interested in following the rules. I pose a problem for them because I am making them do things by the book, which I firmly believe they should. They are allowed to make rules regarding the common land areas, but not any rules which would conflict with the Master Deed, which specifically gives every homeowner in our neighborhood free access to every part of the common land areas. One could argue that any rule or regulation which prevents any other homeowner from using the common land area is null and void since it contradicts the Master Deed. In fact, "first come, first served" has always worked well in the past for our neighborhood with respect to the common land areas. Kids play baseball in the field, soccer, fly kites, etc. The issues arose very recently when specific Little League teams requested "reservations" on our baseball field in order to hold their Little League games. This prevents anyone else in the neighborhood from using the fields for many, many hours at a time on many weekends in the spring and fall. To me, this is specifically against the open use granted to everyone in the neighborhood by the Master Deed. Unfortunately, the Trustees didn't see it as a big deal, but for those of us with young kids who like to use the field on the weekends, it sort of denies us our rights.
We are just like a conventional neighborhood, individual single-family homes, set on our own "exclusive use" lots of 1/2 to 2/3 acres of land. (I think that is why many people in our neighborhood are fairly apathetic regarding the Board of Trustees. It is easy to ignore the issues of our neighborhood "as a whole" because each of us owns our own single-family home and our own private lot of land.) Driving through our neighborhood you wouldn't think that we are a condominium trust, but we share a waste water treatment plant and many acres of open space (with a baseball field) that must be maintained. Each of us has free and open access to all the common land areas. We pay into a fund bi-annually that goes to operate the treatment plant and to mow and maintain the common land areas. Beyond that, the town owns our roadways (and plows them) and we are responsible for our own single-family dwellings, yards, and driveways. It's a great set-up until the Trustees get over-zealous without reading the condo documents. I will continue to press my issues and perhaps some of my neighbors might begin to care also. Thanks again for all your responses.

Julie,

If you press your cause in writing I do hope you will use some paragraphs.