Records request
Dennis,
At the start of every month, I put in a request to see the CHECK REGISTRY for the prior month. For months now, our Community Manager (CM) has been cooperative, providing it to me within a few days of the start of the month.
Now our board has moved from Monthly to Quarterly meetings and tonight I get this message back:
> financials for the period have not been approved by the Board.
> Once they are approved they will be available for members to inspect.
This, to me, sounds like baloney and a stall tactic. I’m not asking for the “financials” or some kind of balance sheet. I’m not asking for board-approved documents. I’m simply asking to see the Check Registry. I wonder: what could the board possibly need to do to “approve” the Check Registry? And since the board is only meeting quarterly now, it would appear that they want to prevent me from viewing this record more frequently than that, or they’ll have meetings in secret to “approve” the Check Registry more frequently than quarterly.
I’m inclined to file an ADRE complaint when 10 business days passes (c.f., ARS 33-1805) since I asked to see the prior month’s Check Registry. It feels to me that they are not making this “reasonably available for examination”. Do you think their stall tactic would qualify as a violation of ARS 33-1805A?
Thanks!
About Post Author
3 Responses
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Fish7,
Associations have used the “not approved tactic” for meeting minutes and technically the minutes are not an association until they are approved. It is a real stretch for that argument to be applied to financial records. You state that you request the check registry every month, what possible reason would you have to make that request? Monthly financial reports should be adequate for any homeowner. While the board would need to approve the financial statements the check registry is the check registry and simply reflects checks written. The board has to either approve the writing of a check or allow the community manager to pay all bills, that come due in the month. To be quite frank with you I would find the request to see the check registry every month as simply unreasonable and abusive. If you want to see the check registry, get elected to the board and become the association treasurer, and make that request then. Otherwise, this is simply burdensome and a fishing expedition. You have a right to reasonable request to view association records, you do not have a right to overly intrusive and burdensome request without cause.
Dennis
Dennis
As I stated, our board has gone to quarterly meetings so monthly financials are not available. Then, what’s given as a “financial report” at the quarterly board meetings is too often a high level view, which is not particularly helpful. Worst of all, the board flashes a slide for a minute or so and then moves on. How are people supposed to digest all that information enough to understand if it’s reasonable or not? Or determine if it’s consistent with the annual budget? In viewing the check registry, nothing can be hidden (so-to-speak) as it can in their high level “financial report”. In viewing the check registry, I have found mistakes (plural) and brought those to the attention of the CM. With that reasonable cause, there’s nothing unreasonable, abusive, or burdensome in this.
I was on the board and was the Secretary for two years, so I have deep knowledge of the community and still care about it. So, when you ask “why”, the answer is simple: I care.
You asked my opinion, and I gave it so move on. if you truly cared you would allow your board to do their job and honor the will of the rest of your community. My motto is trust but verify, you have absolutely no right to act in the place of your board to manage your community. While it is appropriate to do periodic checks on financial reports of bank statements doing it every month is totally inappropriate.