Petition for Removal of Director done and Delivered, what next?

First and foremost I must say you are all the best resource I have had access too. I really mean that. During this past few months our management company who has always been a resource to the homeowners, and HOA BOD has stepped past this issue and dodged every request for information on removal.

The petition as per our governing documents has been sent. One to the management company with certified reciept, and 1 to each board member. After the all the petition reads like a letter to the BOD. That has been done just yesterday. Management was notified via email such was sent and they acknowledged the notification.

My big question is. I have spoke to many homeowners as you can imagine. Many questions are like.. how can remove madame president with no replacement. Who will be in charge now? My most humorous and shocking at the same time was a homeowner who said, you have enough signatures, I won't add mine, but can I have a copy of your petition? "Also I didn't know Madame President" was still on the board... shocking as she has been on it 5 years in a row, this is mid term for her.. lol

I know our management company will respond as per our governing documents, arrange a special meeting and what not.

Is it considered inappropriate send each homeowner a copy of the set forth petition and alert them that the current board has enough members that is one was recalled we still meet quorum according to our governing documents? Meaning no harm no foul one down? Or Alert them if they wish, they can volunteer and be appointed as well?

Please advise. Looking forward to moving this along.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I suspect you are right, but what I felt our management company should of done was be kind enough to send our person asking about direction to proceed that they felt this was conflict etc. Instead, they never answered any emails or calls. but thats behind us.

Moving forward our petition said this..

The undersigned members representing 5% or more of the XXXX Association hereby petition that the Board of Directors set the earliest reasonable date for a special membership meeting ( election ) to removing one or more directors as described below and to elect replacement directors in the event the recall is successful.

Then below is the 4 issues homeowners had with the President. According to our bylaws and Davis Sterling, this is needing to be done with a secret ballot. I'd love to run the meeting but this is something that our managment company usually handles.

There is no specific alloted time for the election to occur. This petition was directly off the DSA website and includes the proper wording for such. I even had to stop at 10% signatures as it would of ran onto another page which would make the petition null according to DSA.

What would be an acceptable alloted time? 30 days? I'd think.

Fiona

Your petition looks fine. You need to factor in the 30 day window for sending and receiving the secret ballots to homeowners.

Below is a timeframe to follow:

Setting the Date. The date of the special meeting is set by the board and may not be less than 35 nor more than 90 days from receipt of request. Corp. Code §7511(c).

Notice of Meeting. The board has 20 days from receipt of the petition to set the date and give notice of the meeting. If the board does not do so, the persons calling the meeting may set the date and give notice. Corp. Code §7511(c). If the board fails to give notice, the petitioners may give notice which is not less than 10 nor more than 90 days before the date of the meeting. Corp. Code §7511(a). However, the 10-day minimum was modified by Civil Code §1363.03(e), which requires at least 30-days of balloting. As a result, notice must be at least 30 days.

I wouldn't send the petition to everyone, but rather do something after the ballots have been mailed.

Fiona

A year and a half ago 12 homeowners and I set out to re-write our Bylaws. Before the ballots are set out you appoint 1-3 inspectors of elections. We went door-to door after the ballots were mailed and dropped off a summary of the changes to each homeowners, along with an a blank ballot. In your case you would provide a fact sheet of why the action is being taken, make sure it is factual. We followed up the following week going back door to door collecting ballots and handing the ballots to the inspectors who were walking with us. If they needed the two envelopes, we provided them with extras.

We have 317 homes. We stopped after collecting 240 ballots with a week to spare.

Fiona,

If a sitting board refuses to acknowledge a petition from the membership for a meeting to recall or refuses to acknowledge the results of an election (at a meeting where all procedures were properly followed), the only other recourse for the membership that wants to recall the board is to use the court system. For this, you will need an attorney.

Sometimes all it takes is a letter from an attorney to have the Board accept what is happening.
Sometimes it takes a court order.
Sometimes, the membership failed to follow proper procedures and the recall election is null and void.

Please Remember, when backed into a corner, most peoples instinct is to fight. This can be the same for an outgoing board and it can happen if the recall failed to follow procedures and doesn't want to listen to that fact.