RobertG (Arizona)
Posts: 505
Posts: 505
Posted:
We recently had the annual election for board of directors. Our documents do not say exactly how the process of getting a slate of candidates is to be done. There is no state law (that I can find) that says anything about it. We haven't adopted Robert's Rules. The only thing that was done was a notice was sent to each homeowner stating that if they wanted to have their name on the ballot, they must respond to the management company (address given) by Friday at 6:30pm. There are 7 open positions. Four people apparently got their information in and were put on the ballot. We must allow absentee ballots so the ballots were sent out with the four people on the ballot. At the annual meeting several other people were nominated from the floor. Seven people were elected which included the four people from the ballot. All seems ok.
One of the elected board members who were part of the 4 on the ballot has since told several homeowners that he couldn't really decide if he wanted to put his name in the pot and waited until the end of the deadline for consideration (Friday at 6:30pm). For some reason, he then decided he did want to run and sent in his name to the management company. The result (who did what is unknown) was the he was placed on the ballot and got elected even though he failed to comply with the rule of when the closing time was to be placed on the ballot.
So, now we have a homeowner as a board member who was elected without following the rules of the nomination process.
What do we do? Do we have to have a new election? The board member can't just resign as they were not fairly elected in the first place. What happens to any action the board takes with an invalid board member? Is if fair to just take the next highest vote getter?
How would you suggest we proceed?
One of the elected board members who were part of the 4 on the ballot has since told several homeowners that he couldn't really decide if he wanted to put his name in the pot and waited until the end of the deadline for consideration (Friday at 6:30pm). For some reason, he then decided he did want to run and sent in his name to the management company. The result (who did what is unknown) was the he was placed on the ballot and got elected even though he failed to comply with the rule of when the closing time was to be placed on the ballot.
So, now we have a homeowner as a board member who was elected without following the rules of the nomination process.
What do we do? Do we have to have a new election? The board member can't just resign as they were not fairly elected in the first place. What happens to any action the board takes with an invalid board member? Is if fair to just take the next highest vote getter?
How would you suggest we proceed?