Board Recall
Good Morning Dennis,
My Community is going through the recall process, trying to remove 4 directors from our 7 member board. We expected the Special Meeting notice to be sent to the community yesterday but didn’t receive anything. I’d like to know if we misinterpreted the process. This is how we understand it…. on January 17, 2023, the signed petition was hand-delivered to our Property Manager’s office, so the 30-day clock would begin. There is a 10-day notice for a Special Meeting, meaning we should have had a meeting set by February 6, 2023, to stay within the 30-day timeframe. Is this correct? What do you think we could do if no meeting date is set? Are there any enforceable consequences for ignoring the law?
Thank you!
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If the special meeting is not called as required by the law, you could file a petition to ADRE to force the association to comply with the law. They clearly violated the law, and this is an open and shut case and it will cost the association $500. Do not do anything until the 30 days has expired and before you do contact me at AZHOAtruth@gmail.com
Dennis
Thank you! Will do.
May I ask for clarification so that there is no misunderstanding on my part to the recall question above? The 30-day deadline is Feb 16, based on count of calendar days. The minimum 10-day deadline was Feb 6. That should have been the last day for the residents of the community to be informed of all of the recall information. Is the fact that the Feb 6 deadline requirements were not met enough to trigger a win of the case if filed with ADRE?
Rhonda,
Both facts that you state are requirement of the law and subject to enforcement by the ADRE dispute resolution process. While these are clear open and closed facts the burden of proof lies with the petitioner. If you count days from the date, that you submitted the petition the association could argue that it took some reasonable amount of time to validate the that the signatures on the petition were valid. How many names were on the petition? Did you ask every signer if they were the owner of record for the property or if they were “in good standing” with the association? Good standing varies from association to association but anyone that is not in good standing can be disqualified from voting and from signing a petition for action. That is why I always recommend to homeowners that you get much more than the minimum number of signatures on any petition. If after review, the association determines that insufficient number of valid signatures, they have no obligation to call the meeting, they should inform you of that fact and allow you to get more signatures but clearly, they did not in your case. They cannot ignore the petition.
These are the type of arguments that association attorneys have used in the past to defend the association from violating the law. This is why i wanted you to contact me before you filed a petition. Because the association has clearly violated the law does not mean that you are guaranteed to win your case.
Dennis
Yes, for sure we will contact you before any further action! I wanted to be clear on the 10-day issue, and as you said, we need to be sure we have all of our ducks in a row, which I believe we do. We exceeded the requirement by ~50 signatures and did ask the “are you the owner” question prior to receiving the signature. We checked the records of the Assessor’s office in cases where we were not personally sure of ownership status. We believe we only left vetting based on “good standing” to the Management Company and Board.
One additional question – Who runs the recall meeting; is it the Property Manager or Association Attorney?
Thank You!!
Having an attorney run any meeting of the association is a total waste of money. Why would anyone in their right mind pay someone $350 an hour to run a meeting of members that should be run for free. This is a meeting of the members, anyone can be assigned to facilitate and run the meeting for efficiency and to complete the purpose of the meeting. The board or a member of the board or the community can facilitate the meeting as long as that individual is a member of the association.
Dennis