1 Response

1. 

   Dennis Legere

   May 13, 2024 at 5:38 am

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   William,

   Thank you for your question. If every board member asked the same question, then there would never be issues in these communities. First congratulations and thank you for volunteering for this position. The first thing you have to understand is what is your duty to the community and to the association. That duty is never clearly established in the governing documents but goes like this.
   1 The duty to protect, manage and maintain the common property and the financial assets of the association and to act prudently in all matters.
   2. To treat members fairly.
   3, to act reasonably in the discharge of your discretional powers including rule making, enforcement and design control.
   4. to provide members reasonable access to association records.
   5. To always act in good faith and in compliance with the law. Please remember compliance with the law is not optional for any board member no matter what any attorney tells you.
   The above are all case law for Arizona and supersede the business judgement rule for these communities.

   Your job is not to make everyone happy; your job is to act in the best interest of the community as a whole.

   Whatever you do let your conscience be your guide and act individually based on what you believe is right even if the rest of the board believes otherwise and vote accordingly.

   Do whatever you can to ensure that the board as a whole conducts its business transparently and in full view of the community. There are only five topics that board can discuss in closed sessions everything else must be discussed in open meetings of the board, and the board is never allowed to vote on anything in closed session under the current law. If others on your board ignore these requirements, they are trying to hide something from the community and risk losing all trust from the community and nothing, but trouble will result.

   Transparency builds trust, trust builds respect and respect builds communities.

   People do not give up their constitutional rights when they buy in one of the communities so simply act accordingly. Specifically, the right to free speech even if that speech is critical to the actions of the board. The CC&R’s are the only restrictions on the use of behavior in any property so imposing any rules that exceed the specific restrictions of the CC&R’s is an infringement on the property rights of the members.

   While these are all general concepts, they will give you a good understanding of your role as a board member for the community. This is a hard and often thankless job, but someone has to do it. It does not in any way have to be adversarial if done with consideration and respect of the wishes of your community. Treat homeowners with the respect they deserve after all they pay for everything the board does, and hopefully you will be treated the same in return.

   Know that I’m always available to answer any question or issue that you may face.

   Good luck.

   Dennis