Clarification of ARS 33-18133 4D
Hi Dennis!
Can you help dummy down ARS 33-18133 4D? “(d) For purposes of a special meeting called pursuant to this subsection, a quorum is present if the number of owners who are eligible to vote in the association at the time the person attends the meeting equal to at least twenty percent of the votes of the association or the number of persons who are eligible to vote in the association at the time the person attends the meeting equal to at least one thousand votes, whichever is less, is present at the meeting in person or as otherwise permitted by law.”
In my scenario, we have 41 lots. So 20% would be ~9 lots that have to vote. A few questions/clarifications:
1. Does the meeting have to be in person as written or can Zoom be used to capture a vote? What about mail-in ballots?
2. Does it mean they only need 9 (20%) of the people to vote YAY to remove the board member or is it still a majority vote? So if 20 people voted but only 9 voted to remove that person, would the board member remain on the board?
Thanks!
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Lori,
My pleasure. The quorum for the special meeting to recall board members would be 20 of the membership. that simply means that at least as you stated would be 9 people who either attend the meeting in-person (whether they vote or not) or by absentee ballot. The association is required by law to allow both options. Since it is impossible to submit a ballot at a virtual meeting then for those meetings absentee ballots would be used but if someone participates in the zoom meeting and has not submitted a ballot that still counts to satisfy the quorum. If a quorum is not achieved then no vote can be counted. Once a quorum is satisfied than the simple majority of all votes cast decide the issue. For example 5 people attend the meeting in person or via zoom and 25 other people send in absentee ballots. Obviously the absentee ballots all voted but only three of the people at the meeting cast votes at the meeting then a total of 28 votes would have been received and 15 votes would be required to determine if the board member is recalled or retained. You cannot be counted twice for quorum so if you vote by absentee ballot and attend the meeting you are only counted as one member for quorum purposes and obviously one have vote.
To your specific questions:
1. They must allow the meeting to be held in person or by virtual meeting. And they must allow absentee ballots to count toward satisfying quorum.
2. quorum and total vote count are unrelated you need quorum to have the meeting but once quorum is achieved than the majority of all votes cast satisfy the issue. So in your specific example than yes, the board member would be retained with 11 vote to retain and 9 votes to recall.
Dennis
Thank you, Dennis! That’s what I thought but I wasn’t 100% certain. Much appreciated!