New HOA president faces problems

Q: As the newly elected president of our homeowners' association board, I find myself with a couple of disturbing problems.

The first is with the past president; I will call him Bill. Over the years, Bill has asked individual homeowners for their email addresses. He has about 75 percent of the homeowners' addresses on his personal email list, and dispenses board/community updates and information to them. He has made it clear that the email list is his and that he will not share it with other members of the board.

I have two concerns. First, because he does not want to be in charge of the monthly newsletter or write any articles, some homeowners may not get the information. Second, I am concerned that information is not reaching all the HOA members.

There is another board member who is a problem. I will call him Sam. Since I took over the presidency from Bill, Sam has begun to disrupt meetings by making snide remarks to me, talking out of turn and/or just under his breath. He refuses to conduct himself in a proper manner under Roberts Rules of Order. It is very obvious that he strongly dislikes me personally. Sam is an 82-year-old man who has been on the board for many years. I am not sure how to address this problem. The meetings are becoming difficult, volatile and divided, making it hard to accomplish HOA business.

Are there any state regulations regarding conduct of board members that could help resolve this problem? I find him to be very disrespectful to me and the other volunteer board members. I talked with some of them about what I see as a problem and they are hesitant to come down on him because of his age and longevity.

A: First, it would not be very difficult for the current management and board to obtain email addresses from the membership to become part of the official records of the association. This is the path of least resistance, as it would cost more time, money and possible litigation to try to force "Bill" to provide this information based on the assumption that he acquired this information on behalf of the association.

Second, in your official newsletter, you need to inform the membership that your newsletters, emails, flyers, etc are the official voice of the association, that when in doubt, homeowners should contact current management for clarification on any issues that may be stated in any third-party correspondence.

SB 204 section 42 states that meetings of the association must be conducted in accordance with the most recent edition of "Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised" unless the bylaws or a resolution of the executive board adopted before the meeting provide otherwise. If your association's governing documents already state that your meetings should be run according to Robert's Rules, or if your board decides to approve Robert's Rules per SB 204, then you would be able to have your disrupted board member removed by the "sergeant of arms."

Regardless of Robert's Rules, you, as president, have a number of choices. You can call for a short adjournment and tell the director that if he continues to disrupt the meeting, he will be asked to leave. Second, you can adjourn the meeting. Third, you, as an individual, or by the board (by vote at next meeting) can begin a recall of this director. Finally, your board could establish rules of behavior at your meetings, following the guidelines of Robert's Rules, whereby any member who disrupts the meeting could receive a warning notice for the first offense and for the second offense, a hearing/fine letter. You will definitely want the assistance of legal counsel as homeowners and board members have the right to speak even when you do not agree with them.

Snide remarks or talking under your breath may be annoying but not necessarily would allow you to remove a director.

Barbara Holland, certified property manager, is president and owner of H&L Realty and Management Co. To ask her a question, email support@hlrealty.com.