Board member problems

At an open Board meeting I would announce that since Board member X insists on personal attacks in her emails that I would be blocking all future emails from her until she grows up. We had a Board member that was misusing email, sending needless emails that wasted my time and that was exactly what I did. I wrote a rule in the email program that sent all of his emails back with the message: SENDER BLOCKED EMAIL UNREAD.

Finally, thank you... I hope I have the nerve to do this at the meeting.

I hope I can step up an speak my peace about this lady but I am sure I will have members who want their questions answered about this since they all got her email. Should I go into it to clear up the mess or just leave it be at that point? Could this be considered verbal harassment?

Fran's powers of ESP is great because it is happening to me! I am the secretary and what I meant by hiding behind her computer is she won't say this to my face but in writing and she is a board member at large with no title (she just wanted to be on the board) The matter she is sending out was an email to landscaper and she got her hands on it and started sending to neighbors. That is what I meant about none of her business. It was a landscape question between homeowner not board member to vendor... She as a board member is sending it out like it is a board problem with another board member therefore she is misusing the board to do this asking for my removal because I didn't like the landscaper's way of doing my yard. Of which I might add she chose. I brought it up to the management company because their office writes up the letters to our HOA problem items and they have a lawyer I have asked for advice. This is not between two members because she is bringing the board into it.

I can't stay out of it when it is me. Just don't know how to handle her. She is slandering my name. That is just it, the grown up board members won't handle it or deal with them. Our term is almost up next month and they don't want to bother but she has decided to stay on the board. I have chosen not to. I have an HOA meeting I have to attend and without saying something in an open meeting like someone else suggests then everyone will think what she said is right - she is spreading lies. That is why I asked for advice so it won't blow up in my face...

Fran,

Once you started telling the story with more of what is really going on, Michelle told you like it is. Now it is you who is getting the short end of the stick. You should have said that right away. Now I understand more what is happening from the other person's perspective. Accept responsibility for your part in this childish behavior and move on.

Correction:

**Sometimes an off-line clearing of the air does wonders.

I should have but I was just wanting to feel out the whole thing without getting too deep with it. Didn't know it would cause a stink.

Fran - with all due respect, your basic premise that it "was between an owner and the landscaper" is flawed. Presumably the landscaper's contract is with the HOA who pays the landscaper for their services. As such, unacceptable performance is a Board issue, not an individual homeowner issue.

How the matter was dealt with once it reached the Board may be a different story, but your fundamental premise is incorrect.

Oh my! Even more relevant and key information!

If the landscaper screwed up your yard, then absolutely you go through the board instead of directly to the landscaper!

Being a board member, you should know that as well!

How else do you think the landscaper can be held accountable?

It also appears that you communicated with the landscaper by email.

If a homeowner in our development received an email from an irate homeowner, or not even irate, simply a homeowner claiming the landscaper did some damage to the resident's yard/landscaping, you can bet that our landscaper would forward that email along, regardless of whether it was his fault or not, because he would want to be sure the board knew about it in case it became an issue.

So to be honest with you, when you mention that this was a problem as a result of a "meddling board member," I would say that the meddling board member is you.

You should have gone directly to the board with the issue with the landscaper from the very beginning, as we would expect every homeowner to do.

A couple of other things:

"No one has told me to drop it, they just won't get involved since it didn't concern them even tho it is a board member doing it."

This, my friend, is the same thing as telling you to "drop it." It appears you have some problem understanding social cues.

"Is this considered slander when this person keeps bad mouthing me to HOA over and over and over?"

No. It's not. At least not as you present it. What is the exact "bad mouthing"? You never really make that clear.

But it's probably libel if anything at all because it appears it was just in writing.

Also, Fran, keep in mind that you are branching into libel yourself as you start attributing motives and characterizations of the board member who sent the emails as "meddling" and "whose purpose is to create trouble."

Among some of the other things you've characterized this person with.

You are treading on thin ice yourself at this point.

I would follow the advice of the other board members to drop it and also recommend that you simply apologize for going directly to the landscaper and let the board know that it will never happen again.

Is this person calling you a bitch? Is she calling you mentally deficient? Is she saying you said or did things you did not do?

Fran - to answer your statements, in order:

1). Actually you pay your association fees to the HOA. The management company merely collects these on behalf of the HOA (for which the Board has fiduciary responsibility).

2). The management company may well handle the logistics of paying the landscaper, but they, once again, are doing so on behalf of the HOA and it's Board of Directors.

3). Yes the landscaper is responsible for it's low or unacceptable performance, but it is responsible to the entity that hired them, namely the HOA. They are not responsible to the individual homeowner. In fact the individual owner has no direct link - contractually, or otherwise to the various vendors that are hired by the HOA.

4). Yes it IS a board issue when it is on your personal property. The Board hires the landscaper to do the work throughout the community, including on the property of individual owners. The landscaper works for the Board, not you. Unless you personally have a contract with the landscaper, you have no business telling them how to perform their duties under a contract you are not a party to. The distinction between owners' property and common area is very likely moot, since I'd bet the landscaper only has one contract to care for all of those areas.

5). Once again, how it was handled at the Board level may (or may not) be an issue for you to be concerned about, but the Board was, in fact, the proper place for this complaint to go.

Hi RichM2. I think it'll be a good thing if you start a new thread instead of adding to this old one. In your new one, tell us how many are on your board, how these two got on (were they elected, or?)

For starters, though, you need to get the other directors to support your civil approach.