Declarant board not attending Annual Meetings, no real opportunity to reach/question the board members
Hi Dennis,
Some activities by our Declarant Board (ignorant!) and Management Company (shrewd!!) have been neither done in good faith nor represent best practices. For last four years, the full board (president, secretary and treasurer even if these positions were filled by 3 different persons from Developer) have never attended the annual meetings. The treasurer only attends, even though the association’s bylaws clearly state that the president or designee shall preside over ALL association meetings, the secretary or designee shall keep meeting minutes …during conduct of association meetings. The 2024 annual meeting was attended only by the treasurer (+ management company) where residents demanded that the full board be present for Q&A as there had been many missteps by the management company. The 2025 meeting (conducted earlier today) was again a repeat of 2024 where only treasurer showed up despite the president and secretary having been listed on the meeting agenda. Very skillfully, the management company threw in multiple rounds of raffle draws and free food to divert attention and adjourned the meeting without a vote or going to Q&A. Homeowner’s questions was listed as one of the meeting agenda. The association’s bylaws also state that the board should provide for a reasonable number of persons to speak on each side of an issue.
Though the developer has added/taken out multiple people to this declarant board (changed 6-7 times in past 4 years or so), homeowners have no way to reach them as their contact information is never shared. The management company acts as the firewall, and we seriously doubt that issues reported via the management is ever routed to the board. One of the major demands has been to change the management/manager. The treasurer who attended last two meetings appears so ignorant on range of issues and parrots the management’s lines on escalating costs, wastage, lack of common area maintenance etc.
From a top-level view, what are your thoughts on these range of issues with full board not attending the meeting, not following meeting agenda, homeowners having no access to the board members, and if the board president’s presence is a must item for annual meetings, then the association has not held a single annual meeting in past 4 years…Are these true infarctions of state’s legislations with some actionable steps by homeowners or lie on the borderline that the management/board can get away till termination of declarant control?
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Deepak,
I’ve tried for many years to rein in the power and time that a declarant can control a community, all to no avail, based on the power of the developers to influence legislators. Money buys influence. While I may try again next session, depending on the willingness of this coalition to actually support legislation we work hard to develop and get sponsored, without that support, any further attempts will be futile.
During declarant control, the board does not represent the community; it represents the declarant’s interest only. There is no obligation to attend member meetings because the members have no power to do anything. So many people buy into new communities without a complete understanding of what declarant control means and how it will impact their lives. This period is contrary to everything that this country stands for and is a total dictatorship with taxation without representation. Yet the lawyers, developers, and CAI developed this scheme and wrote it into each declaration and most state laws. There is a large new community in the west valley that allows the developer to control the community for 40 years. Those members will never have a say in the governance of their community for their entire lifetimes. The declarant can do whatever he wants and bill them whatever assessment he wants, and they all must pay or lose their homes.
This will never change for any of you until enough people get together to demand that their legislators stand up for them for once and protect their fundamental rights to a representative governance scheme. We can protect the development interest and investments of the declarant without ignoring the rights to self-rule by the homeowners.
I created this coalition to facilitate the organization of homeowners, and while 2,400 people have joined this coalition over the years, less than 200 do anything to help. While I’m incredibly grateful for the support of the 200 people, it simply is not enough to move the needle and get needed changes in the law.
Dennis
Dennis