Select HOA subcommittees
Our HOA has several resident committees, e.g.,landscape,maintenance, finance, to advise and make recommendations to the elected Board. The Board recruits members and appoints the chairs of the committee. Can we deliberate about those appointments in Executive Session.
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Catherine,
Why would you want to?
Committee members are not employees, nor is that assignment personal information, nor would that appointment require legal consultation. Unless you can explicitly identify one of the five allowed exceptions from open meetings, you must interpret all other actions and discussions in open session.
My suggestion is that the board nominate any individuals and then vote on that nomination without discussion. There may be personality concerns that individual board members may have with nominees, and that should be left to their vote. You have no business badmouthing an individual in closed sessions. This should be a merit-based decision alone: can they do the job, and are they willing to put in the time to help the community? Because someone does not like someone, it has no place in board decisions. You must act at all times in the best interest of the community as a whole.
Dennis
I’ll tell you why. Our by-laws clearly say that the board appoints committee people. However, our president recruited new chairs for several open spots and informed one current chair that he was being replaced. The rest of the board learned of this by reading the posted agenda. We were asked to vote to accept his slate in the board meeting. His reasoning for replacing one of the chairs was that he’s heard complaints from others, most specifically for two regular malcontents who are friends of his. His reasoning for going around the board was the open meeting law prohibits us deliberating as a board. I see that the state law defines appointment to a committee as a function of an executive committee(38-431.03.A.). When I attempted in the meeting to object to the process, the malcontents in the audience pretty much shouted down any discussion. I completely agree with your last 3 sentences. My question is how to avoid this kind of problem in the future.
The open meeting laws for these communities are defined in either the Condominium Act or the Planned Community Act and not the statutes for public bodies. Committee appointments cannot be discussed in executive session and must be discussed and acted on in an open meeting with any member present, provided the opportunity to speak to the issue before the board votes. The board is precluded from taking any vote on any issue in executive session. The five exceptions to the open meeting law are used for “consideration” of the issue without action. The respective specific statutes are 33-1248 and 33-1804.
Nothing in the open meeting law prevents the board from deliberating on any issue. However, they must conduct that deliberation in an open meeting or, within the five exceptions, in a closed session of the board.
Before anyone applies any statute to the operation of these communities, they must first go to the respective chapters for these communities to see what is specifically directed for these communities’ use.
Dennis