Fiduciary Responsibilities????

Started by SteveS8 • 3 replies • 1429 views

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SteveS8 (New York)
Posts: 128

Posted:

A friend of mine was just elected to the board of our new condo community. I happen to run the blog for the community homeowners.

His campaign for the election centered around opening up the lines of communication between the Board and the community.

As soon as he was elected, he was taken into a room by the attorney for the builder who told him that he had a fiduciary responsibility and could not post anything about the Board activities on the blog.

Seems to me that his obligation is to the homeowners who elected him and not to the builder whose best interest is not to have a blog at all.

Any opinions on what is right and what is wrong here?

Thanks,
Steve

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

Steve!!! B.S. There will be information that is not available to the membership, aka litigation and legal association matters but Board meetings are open to the members and all of them have a right to know what goes on within the association and it's meetings. After my minutes are approved, I write a "BOARD BUSINESS" for our newsletter and do a simplified version of what happens at Board meetings. I don't think much of that attorney's advice but he is being paid by the builder so probably got told what to say.

MaryA1 (Arizona)
Posts: 7,043

Posted:

Steve,

First of all, a board member's fiduciary duty is to the assn, not the members, and certainly not the developer.

Secondly, the meaning of fiduciary is "trust", which means the members have placed their trust in the board members to do what is right -- and of course legal -- for the assn. Fiduciary duty has nothing to do with communicating with the members, even if that communication was against board action. I'm thinking the attorney's message had more to do with the developer not wanting this new board member to post anything derogatory about the board on your blog. Have there been messages posted on the blog that have been unfavorable to the board and/or the developer?

SteveS8 (New York)
Posts: 128

Posted:

As in any community, there have been people not happy with the Board and developer, and they have said so on the blog. The biggest issues have been when security issues would come up and people were looking for answers, and the Board totally ignored the blog (as they have always done). There is no question that the developer hates having a forum where residents can say what is on their minds. It is a wonderful community, but the developer appears to want it to look perfect to all.

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