My Homeowner Association

I originally conceived this Homeowner Association section would explain the attributes and general workings for Buyers to understand these organizations.  Explanations of how an organization is created; how Declarations and Covenants morph into Bylaws, rules and regulations; how the Board of Directors is organized, their responsibilities and authority.   This Homeowner Association information will be published in the near future.

This original concept is now on hold so I may explain how my Board of Directors continues to mismanage our association.  The problems shown below (detailed in the links) include:

• Not properly accounting for pay, bonus or expense checks.
• Not recording all votes.
• Exposing the association to liability by hiring uninsured contractor and by not awarding a contract to the lowest competent bidder.
• Disregarding Bylaw requirements.

All this effort may seem trivial to you since this is only a Homeowner Association and not a world dominating multibillion dollar corporation.  The Board of Directors is responsible to 281 households for the fiscal management of the association, a Not for Profit Corporation with an annual budget of $240,000 (+/-) and a reserve fund of $450,000 (+/-).

 This is about my unsuccessful struggle, as a Board member, to have our experienced Board of Directors follow the Bylaws and use common business sense.  I believe these problems started as a result of the board not using and/or not correctly interpreting the Bylaws.  You may draw your own conclusions from the facts presented as you follow the links:

• Bonus checks to “employee” not recorded as pay (1999 to 2011).
• Votes taken by email between meetings are not recorded (Mar 2010 to Sep 2011).
• Board hired unlicensed and uninsured contractors (Jun 2010 & Apr 2011).
• Employee expense amount questioned by Treasurer, then signed by other Board members (Nov 2010).
• Checks were not signed by the authorized Board members (Nov 2010-Sep 2011).
• Meeting called without proper notification (Aug 2011).
• Meeting minutes are not published as required (Aug 2011).
• Bids solicited without specifications written prior to bid (May 2011).
• Not awarding a contract to the lowest competent bidder (Aug 2011).
• Board made a voting member of an additional duty (Nominating).
• My removal as Board Member without just cause (Sep 2011).
• Employee signs for Secretary of the Association (Dec 2012).

My conflict with the Board started with my objections to hiring two “green card” laborers and not paying them as employees, independent contractors or in any seemingly legal way.  The liability of hiring anyone without insurance is, to me, totally incompetent.  The additional items listed above added to my concerns and escalated my conflict with the other Board members until the Problem Surfaced.

 These conflicts came to the boiling point with the email Additional Duties from our part-time employee, Mary.  The apparent intent of this email was to change Mary’s employment status.  This was my cause for alarm, so I delivered my letter to the community dated August 26, 2011 for all concerned members to attend an unscheduled meeting on August 30, 2011.

 How serious do you consider these problems after you read each explanation, read emails with the Board bickering over these matters, and, then, read the quoted sections of the Bylaws?  Hopefully, other members of the community will take an interest and become involved.

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