Unseating a Board Member

I would tell anyone that brought it up that "in a mutual decision that will be in the best interest of the Association, "XYZ" has decided to resign from the Board for personal reasons". The obvious answer to the question of why is 'personal reasons'which are personal and not open for discussion.

Not a good situation for anyone, but as the Board member still is a member of the Association, it saves a little face. Unless something illegal or downright unethical was done by this person, why elaborate.

Good luck!
Lisa

I was voted by the community to the board of directors and made president. It has been a rough 6 months. The old board of 5 members insists on breaking Fl statutes, bylaws, C&R's and litigating homeowners without mediation first and many other violations and evil behavior. Needless to say I have failed to convince them in a nice and professional way to abide by the rules. At the last board meeting,the old board orchestrated be a vote of 5-3 to remove me as president and the vice president took over the meeting. It made the Jerry Springer show look normal the way this meeting went down. They did this without holding a special meeting with a posted agenda and no majority of the "voting interests" (homeowner community). I am dealing with mob mentality here with about 30 very loud homeowners backing the old board making it impossible to get anything done unless it benefits them. Please advise what I should do. I'm considering blowing the whistle on them with the States' Attorney.

Are you sure your not enforcing too many rules? Yes there are rules and they are to be followed. However, a HOA is managed by it's members for it's members. Sometimes the rules are what the members want to live under. If the rules written don't work, then change them. It's all in the documents to do it. Don't enforce rules for enforcement sake. If they don't make sense then get rid of them.

Mediation is not required in many states. It can be a waste of time and money. A HOA's legal actions should involve placing liens, foreclosures, or handling counter-suits brought by members/others. Anything outside of that is just not a functional use of the legal system. It shows the uneducation of all of those involved.

My solution/suggestion: Bring a copy of the rules to EACH meeting. Answer questions by stating that you will consult the rules before responding. Simple as that. Start stating and knowing the rules will be half the battle. It will bring some education to those who don't know or have never read them. A copy on hand and quotes usually gets people who really have an issue to do the research.

Remember that serving as Director and serving as an Officer are two different positions, even if the same individual is serving in both positions.

The removal of Officers fall under FL 617.0842. Per that section, the Board, by majority vote, may remove an Officer at anytime. This would not require a special meeting of the membership.

You are still a Director, should still attend board meetings and should vote on any issue before the Board.