HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - May 26, 2017
Published: Fri, 05/26/17
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How to Handle an HOA Board at War Against Itself
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In this week’s tip, we lend a reader a hand on the issues of who can call a board meeting, whether it can proceed if the president boycotts, and how to address the situation if the president refuses to recognize motions.
Oh, and the reader wants to call this meeting to remove the president, though it’s not clear who’s got the association’s interest in mind, the reader or the president. (Be sure to click on the link to read the full question; it’s got lots of moving parts.)
Let’s start with the fact that we don’t have enough information from our reader’s question to fully understand what’s going on.
“This was a crazy one,” laments Joe Winkler, vice president of marketing at Keystone Pacific Property Management in Irvine, Calif., which manages associations ranging from 2,000 to 4,000 units—about 65,000 units in total in Southern California. “I read it four times and still didn’t understand exactly what’s going on.”
What does seem clear is that somebody’s trying to outmaneuver somebody else. It’s just not clear who’s standing on the moral high ground.
“The question involves a lot of machinations, and I’m troubled by the apparent attempt by the person referred to as the president in this question to seemingly rig the system,” states Matthew A. Drewes, a shareholder at DeWitt Mackall Crounse & Moore S.C. in Minneapolis. “Presumably, that’s being done to consolidate more power by, I’m assuming, adding positions to the board. That way, the president would then hope to appoint additional board members who are favorable to the president.”
It’s also possible those opposed to the president are the ones potentially “rigging” the system. “Looking at this as a whole, it sounds like you have a president who wants to have a meeting to amend the documents or to allow more directors,” states Bob Kmiecik, a partner at Kaman & Cusimano LLC, which represents associations throughout Ohio. “But you have people who want to remove him from the presidency so they can control that or prevent it. It’s a power play. The president is saying, ‘I’m leaving town until the meeting so you can’t do that.’”
See the problem? It’s not clear who may be trying to pull a fast one. That said, we can provide some answers to our reader’s questions. Read more in our new article: https://www.hoaleader.com/members/2554.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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