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KurtG1 (Texas)
Posts: 30
Posted:
Finally, the time has come for our annual meeting of the members. Recent changes to Texas law will go into effect on January 1. Lots of simple things like a requirement to post notification of board meetings and having to enter actions taken outside a meeting into the minutes of the following face-to-face meeting.

What I need help with is interpreting this addition in HB2761 to section 209.00593.

Sec. 209.00593. ELECTION OF BOARD MEMBERS.
(a) Notwithstanding any provision in a dedicatory instrument, any
board member whose term has expired must be elected by owners who
are members of the property owners' association. A board member may
be appointed by the board only to fill a vacancy caused by a
resignation, death, or disability. A board member appointed to
fill a vacant position shall serve the unexpired term of the
predecessor board member.

Our Bylaws state the following:
At each annual meeting of the members, the members shall elect the number of directors equal to the number of directors whose terms expire at such time for a term of two(2) years.

We currently have one board member that recently resigned (moved out of the hood) and to my knowledge they have not appointed anyone to fill her position. I think they are going to wait until the annual meeting in 30 days. I don't have a problem with waiting until the annual meeting to fill the vacant position. The problem I have is that the meeting notice only listed election of a single director and a different directors term is expiring. Since we have not held an annual meeting in 3 years, all of the directors are serving in expired positions.

1) Can the board appoint someone to fill a position when a director resigns from an expired position?

2) Does 209.00593 allow or require all expired positions to be up for election at this annual meeting? (I already know what the HOA attorney will say and that is the bylaws only allow electing 1 board member this year because only a single seat would be expiring this year, that is if elections had been held 2 years ago.)

GlenL (Ohio)
Posts: 5,491
Posted:
IMO the terms are not "expired". If there was no meeting due to a lack of quorum from the owners, the people serving were in effect "reelected" until the next time their term comes up for election. Most documents state that a person serves until they resign or are replaced at an election.

Studies show that 5 out of 4 people have problems with fractions
KurtG1 (Texas)
Posts: 30
Posted:
Using that logic, under what conditions would there ever be an expired board seat and why would section 209.00593 be necessary.
TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,046
Posted:
Kurt,

I am of the expectation that your Association is using staggered terms. I don't see any conflict between what you say the bylaws mention and what the law says (that's a good thing).

The law says that the Board "may" fill the seat by appointment. This means that the Board may also leave the seat empty (unless there is a quorum issue for the Board). It's the Boards choice.

Your Bylaws state that the membership will vote in Directors whose term has expired.

If the person resigned in the middle of their term, there is no requirement for the Board to have the membership fill that seat until the term expires (say 1 year later - based on your 2 yr terms).

Example:

Dir A elected in 2009 for 2 yr term
Dir B elected in 2010 for 2 yr term but resigns in 2011

At the annual meeting in 2011 the membership would vote to fill Dir A's seat.
The membership isn't scheduled to vote to fill Dir B's seat until 2012 when the term expires.

Therefore, even if there are 2 empty seats at the 2011 annual meeting, the membership only has a right to vote to fill one of them. Per the law, the Board has the right to appoint someone to Dir B's seat, leave it vacant or (if they wish) call a special election for the membership to elect someone to serve the remaining time of the unexpired term for Dir B.

Hope this helps,

Tim

EdC5 (Florida)
Posts: 117
Posted:
I don't see that change to the Texas statutes as a helpful one. Our association hasn't had a quorum of owners for the past 5 years, so no elections of directors. Fortunately Florida law allows the Board to appoint members to fill vacant seats otherwise our board would have evaporated due to resignations.

Edward J Cooke, CMCA, LCAM
KurtG1 (Texas)
Posts: 30
Posted:
The reason the change is helpful is that it prevents boards that don't want to hold elections from remaining in control. The Texas legislature also added language that requires an annual meeting. We are usually just shy of reaching quorum and our bylaws contain a declining quorum provision. The only reason to not call a second meeting, where quorum would be half, is that you think you'll lose. I requested our board to call the annual meeting again and they declined because they "didn't think it was fair". In Texas, you do not have to appoint someone to fill an expired seat. You can continue on with the same authority as you had if you were elected. Your position is still expired. If you require an annual meeting then the only reason I can see for removing the ability to appoint someone to an expired seat would be to force resigned and expired seats to be filled at the next election.

EdC5 - I don't know about your bylaws but ours can be changed at the whim of the board. If your board wanted to hold elections they could make changes to allow that to happen.

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