Email rules changing in 2012 ????

I don't live in California, as you can see, but there are lots of references to something called the Davis-Stirling law, which is a California state law governing homeowner associations - sounds like it might have been amended to address emails between board members. Try searching for the law on Google or even on this website and you should find what you're looking for.

Our association attorney usually notifies his clients on new HOA laws, so you might also ask yours.

Here is a recap of SB563

SB 563. Open Meeting Act. S.B. 563 amends Civil Code §§1363, 1363.05 and 1365.2. (1) The bill requires that boards now give notice of executive session meetings at least two days prior to meetings that are solely in executive session, i.e., not in conjunction with an open meeting. The notice must contain an agenda for the meeting. (2) Except for emergencies, boards are no longer allowed to make decisions by email. Emergency meetings may be held by email if all members of the board, individually or collectively, consent in writing to the action, and if the written consent or consents are filed with the minutes of the meeting of the board. (3) Board meetings can be held electronically if it includes at least one physical location where members can attend and at least one member of the board of directors is present at that location. All board members and homeowners must be able to hear one another.

As you can see, "Action without a Meeting" is eliminated, but it doesn't stop a Board from communicating by email, just no actions or decsions can be made. Also notice that posting an agenda for Executive Sessions is now required.

So why has this law just been excepted without anyone pushing back? We spend from 5:30 to 7:00 in Executive session and from 7:00 to 9:00 in General Session then back in Exec. seesion till sometimes midnight once a month. We also discuss many items during the month as they come up. I can not imagine not using email to work out minor details during the month.

Are we the only HOA that has this much to handle?

Say, Mark, there actually have been two or three threads on this topic at this site going back a couple of months. Our Mgmt. Co. sent us directors a thorough review of the new leg. Our PM went over it with us last month at our monthly board meeting.

Our board of 7 rarely has needed to take action without a meeting anyway, so the new email restrictions barely affect us. We've always discussed, deliberated about and decided on agenda items at our monthly open meetings. Our budget is $2.5 mill. & we have settlement funds from a defect lawsuit that we're dealing with too, so it's not like we don't have much to do!

Our ex. sessions are usually 1-1/2 hours & our open meetings 2-2/1/2 hours.

Remember that fewer than a quorum of your board may still discuss agenda items online. Non-agenda items also may be discussed online by all directors.

Do go to davis-sterling.com, Mark, for more details and also look at their last several Newsletters.

Brian,
I agree with you. As a board we have made all meetings very public. We even have open budget meetings which past boards would never allow. For me it is not about keeping secrets it is about being able to work on items during the month when they come up.

Mark

my board meets every 3 months, or less. One thing we learned to do was structure the decision based on the principles of good business. Any project requiring expenditures, for example, your pool repairs, or a road repair, would have a project leader. That person would present the information, costs, scope, etc. to the board, and ask for permission to proceed with the project. The board would, during the meeting, motion and approve the leader to proceed with the project "and any other related issue, necessary to the successful completion of the project" with a caveat that such decisions "would not exceed an additional amount of $X". Of course, any moneys so spent would be presented later to the treasurer and board as part of the project total.

Basically, we give the project leader the right to do what he said, and some extra money to spend as needed for emergency changes. If the amount does exceed that, you are correct, we are stuck with having a meeting, but we learned that typically, the PL can estimate what can go wrong, and ask for that much leeway in the budget for discretion. It always happens, the truck you were going to rent is broken, so you can either get the larger one today (for $10 more) or scrap the project until later. Or they didn't have enough Behr paint in stock, so you had to get the SW instead (either that, or waste all the money on the equipment you already rented/lined up).

I would rather send my kid to the store with a $20, and expect a full accounting of what he bought and proper change, than send him with a carefully calculated, exact $13.45, only to find out that the store raised the price yesterday by 10 cents, and have him come back empty to beg for a dime.

Any project, especially one with a decent size estimate should also be approved with a contingency, 10% is typically a good number. I don't care how careful you are there are just things that come up. As Brian said structure your decision to reflect that.

yup, Jeff, sounds like you had one of those situations that can't really be predicted.

And you are correct, starting Jan 1, in California, you'll have to have a real meeting to decide to switch/react to something like that.