Is This Happening Elsewhere? Boards Using Zoom to Silence Homeowners
I’m sharing this to ask: Are other communities seeing the same ABUSE OF VIRTUAL PLATFORMS that we are? Is it just our HOA, or is this common to our management company?
At a recent board meeting of Tonto Forest Estates HOA — fully supported and facilitated by Ogden & Co.’s community manager (CM) — all member microphones were muted. No one could un-mute themselves without permission from the CM, and the text chat was disabled. There was no advance notice of these restrictions and no instructions for how audio-only participants could request to speak. Unless you were tech-savvy enough to find a workaround, you were simply silenced.
The result was a tightly controlled environment that bore little resemblance to a lawful open meeting.
If this had happened in-person, it would be like the community manager removing everyone’s vocal cords at the door, letting you speak only when she surgically reattached them — then silencing you again the moment she decided you were done. You couldn’t even whisper to the person next to you. And all of it was imposed without prior notice, clear explanation, or any legal justification.
Throughout the meeting — even though no one else had been speaking — the board president repeatedly threatened to mute members “without warning,” — entirely at his discretion. That level of control was especially puzzling, given that our meetings haven’t been unruly or disruptive in years. This kind of fear-based restriction doesn’t just chill participation; it violates ARS 33-1804, which guarantees homeowners the right to speak during BOTH board deliberations AND proceedings. Neither the board nor the community manager seemed to care.
I hope the Arizona Legislature takes a hard look at this in 2026. Virtual platforms can increase access — but not when they’re used to suppress members’ rights and stage-manage meetings.
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Virtual meetings became prevalent during the pandemic because there were really no other options. The open meeting laws never recognized that meeting format but no court would have considered that a violation of the open meeting laws. The law requires the association to allow any member to come and to speak at the appropriate time and prior to any vote of the board. If the association complies with that premise the satisfy the open meeting laws never. But what is actually being experienced in communities across the state is that associations and their managers are abusing that system to stifle participation from homeowners by their control of the microphones. Everything you experienced is being experienced across the state. I’ve proposed legislation to allow but regulate virtual meetings to maintain the intent of the open meeting laws. I’ll continue to drive for that legislation until we get this fixed. Associations have also resorted to virtual meetings for meetings of the members to even greater abuse. The law requires the association to provide the opportunity of all members to vote in person at those meetings and by absentee ballots. Every association using a virtual meeting format to my knowledge has violated the law bu not allowing members to vote inperson at the meeting.
Lawyers and community manager have total disregard for the law when it is inconvenient for them to comply.
This has to change.
Dennis