Board President wants vote to cut her dues

Hello. I'm new to the condominium community and a first time home buyer. In the past six months I have come to realize there is a lot to learn when it comes to living in a condo. The condo complex I live in has 18 units and a self managed association board. Currently, there is a very big issue on the table.

The condo board president wants to vote to cut her assessments in half for two months. The reason? She says she's been dealing with alot of issues and has spent an extra 13 hrs of work. Just to give you some background, the storage unit partially flooded with sewer water and two residents were broken into.
My question: Isn't it aginst the condo bylaws to cut an owners dues? If the positions are non-paid and voluntary why should someone get their dues lowered because of their "Voluntary" service?

Thank you for any input you can provide.

-Elizabeth

Thank you very much for your reply. Some people have already voted to allow this, what do reccomend we do next?

In CA it is illegal to lower anyones dues for any reason. In our HOA, any board member who falls more than 30 days behind in dues must resign his/her position.

However, we have condominium insurance that we are legally bound to provide and the damage you describe sounds like something your insurance might pay for.

Sewers backing up also sounds like a local government issue. Perhaps you could seek some compensation there.

many by laws make it illegal for board members to receive compensation for their LABOR (ie, the work they do). They can receive payment for expenses they incur (for example, if I purchase envelopes for mailings, printer ink, and some weed killer, I can expect the association to reimburse me those costs. Not, however, for the time it took me to make the letter, annual report, or crunch some numbers, hold a meeting, answer a complaint, etc.).

Our assoc. bylaws do not allow monetary compensation for the hours spent by Board members. We can be reimbursed for expenses if, as previously noted here, one of us were to purchase office supplies for the printers or fax machines and turned in the receipts. Or, if one of us were a contractor and hired separately to work on installing the electrical components for a new electronic gate system after getting bids from other contractors in the area.

One thing we joke about as Board members when we receive the frequent complaints or 'out of touch' requests i.e. "I am smelling septic smell from my cabin. What are you going to do about it?" or "My windows won't open and always have; what are you going to do about it?" or "The river is too loud this winter; what are you going to do about it?"...is the fact that if our members think we aren't doing our jobs well enough, they can always dock our pay!!
Of course we are very careful not to say this within hearing distance of any member for fear they will think we are serious.

The reality of being on a Board is all the previous Board members who have been here, done this, right? And all the future Board members who will be here, doing this. My term is two years and I see a light at the end of this tunnel of all this hard work and, as a Board member I am making a difference and moving this assoc. forward. That is 'payment' enough for me.