Author’s note: Board consensus could not be obtained for the content of this article. Please consider this Part 2 of the July
President’s message.
If you didn’t see the Special Meeting petition (and even if you did and perhaps weren’t given time to examine it in detail), here’s what it said:
First I want to say that I have no problem standing up for recall and if you as a neighborhood prefer different leadership I will totally respect and accept that based on the results of this meeting.
That said, where I do have a problem is with a petition that’s circulated in the neighborhood to garner signatures that has spread misinformation and unfounded rumors.
The Misinformation in the petition:
At the June 13th board meeting the board refused to fill two positions despite having interviewed…volunteers…and could give no reason or explanation.
What Really Happened:
Appointing Directors was not on the agenda for the 6/13 Board meeting. Determining the best course of action with the volunteers that we’d already interviewed was. However, since this was a matter that involved specific named individuals, this discussion was slated for Executive Session in order to protect privacy. Executive Session happened after the owners were excused from the meeting but, because I allowed extra meeting time for the Owners Forum, we were not able to get to this topic before our time in the meeting room was up.
The Misinformation in the petition:
The Directors…declared that the Board wouldn’t hold a vote to fill the open positions on the Board at the Annual Meeting…by a vote of all Members but…wait until a vote solely by the Directors…in a September Board meeting, in violation of By-Laws §4.1.
The Facts:
Here it’s important to differentiate a couple of things. The Board is composed of Directors and Officers. Directors vote and Officers do not but both are considered Board positions. In some cases a person is a Director and an Officer (like the President). Officers have one-year terms. Directors have three-year terms. Now here’s the important differentiation:
Officers (like Secretary and Treasurer) are appointed by the Board at the first Board meeting after the annual Member meeting – usually in September.
Directors are voted in by Members when a Director’s three-year term has ended. We have one Board member in this position and it’s always been the plan to fill this Director seat with a vote at the Member meeting in August, where all members of the HOA can have a say in who they want to represent them.
Director positions that are vacant but where the 3-year term is not yet up are filled by appointment by the Board at its discretion.
There is and never was any By-Laws violation. In our by-laws, Section 4.1 is further clarified by Section 5.6. To double-check me on that, please see the By-Laws posted on CreeksideNeighborhood.com. The relevant sections are:
4.1 Annual Meetings
5.3 Term of Office for Directors
5.6 Vacancies
8.1 Enumeration of Offices [sic]
8.2 Election of Officers
The timing of the 6/13 meeting was a bit unfortunate in that we were waiting for advice from legal counsel in relation to an aspect of this question and could not be as forthcoming on this topic as we would have liked due to that constraint. This information was repeatedly relayed to those in attendance. The Board got that legal advice the morning of 6/20 and it allows us to proceed with the By-Laws-directed plan to have you, our neighbors, vote for the expiring-term Director at the Annual Member meeting. The Board will, at its discretion, vote to appoint qualified candidates to fill the remaining Director vacancies.
The Unfounded Rumor:
There are also questions about undocumented excessive spending beyond the annual budget.
The Reality:
There is no undocumented excessive spending beyond the annual budget.
Everyone attending the 6/13 meeting either got a copy or got to see the 2023 Financial Scorecard which is a tool the Board uses which details the HOA’s Year-to-Date expenses and compares them to the member-approved 2023 budget. There were no questions raised regarding this document. We are overall in very good shape against budget. However these types of proceedings do result in your volunteer Board seeking legal counsel as well as spending additional funds on postage to send notices, meeting rooms, and anything else required to hold this unbudgeted Special Meeting. This may result in cost-cutting actions in other areas to stay within the approved 2023 budget.
There was a question raised at the 6/13 meeting about 2022 spending, which is not an active Board topic as it’s in the past and 2022 taxes have been filed, closing the books for that year. Attendees who had questions for last year were directed to CreeksideNeighborhood.com to use the Records Request Form at the bottom of the Documents page to request specific information about it. A request came through this week and those asking to inspect the financial records will see that there’s no undocumented excessive spending beyond the annual budget.
Thanks for reading this. If you have any specific or questions or concerns related to this or anything at all that’s on your mind regarding your neighborhood, please let me know at President@CreeksideNeighborhood.com.