Adding items to an agenda
In Arizona, can a new item be added to new business in an open meeting after a published agenda?
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Jen,
Yes, the open meeting laws for these communities are not as strict as they are for public bodies. It just makes sense, while I’m sure that some board will try to abuse this flexibility to keep issues that they intend to discuss from the agenda until the last minute to minimize any homeowner opposition to those issues, i have to believe that a majority of board want to do the right thing and need the flexibility to add late breaking issues to established agendas. I’ll never propose anything that limits that flexibility.
Dennis
Hi Dennis, where I get the statute about adding an item to the agenda under new business during an open meeting. It appears that everyone agrees that a board member can propose adding an agenda item during a meeting, and if there is a motion and vote by unanimous consent, the item can be added and discussed, but I can’t find anything other than the 48-hour requirement unless it’s an emergency, which requires no notice? It only makes sense that the item may come up during a meeting that the owners would like to discuss, but it’s not on the agenda, and they don’t want to wait until the next scheduled meeting, which could be months away, and it does warrant a special meeting.
Daniel,
There is no statute that addresses the ability of these communities to add new business to a meeting that was not included on the agenda.
The statutes for public bodies specifically restrict any public body from consideration or action on any issue not specifically included on the agenda. But these communities are not public bodies and the open meeting laws for these communities are appropriately less restrictive than the public body open meeting laws.
I also fully agree that associations should be able to consider and act on issues that are identified after the meeting agenda was published but the danger is that association attorneys and community managers will abuse this exception to intentionally circumvent the expectations of meeting notice and agenda requirements to allow the association to limit community engagement and objection to issues they want to sneak past the community. This happens every day in this state now with the use of illegal closed sessions so there is no doubt that if I can apply better controls on closed sessions the HOA advisors will try to abuse any provision that allows associations to take up issues not listed on the agenda. Our open meeting laws today establish public policy for this state that homeowners are provided reasonable notice of the issues to be discussed by the board. I initially drafted language into my open meeting legislation that would allow the association to consider and act on any issue identified after the agenda was published or at the meeting itself by either individual board members or members of the community. But the more I considered that proposal I decided that the risk to the communities are too great for the association to abuse that flexibility as opposed to the benefit it provided for the community. My current legislative proposal is silent on the issue. Which mean that any association is still free to consider any issue not on the agenda on a community-by-community basis. The law neither allows nor prevents such action. This is a safer approach and allows any community to decide on their own how they will address these issues.
Dennis
does not warrant a special meeting.