Voting Members - remove new board member?

One of the powers of the HOA's Voting Members (VM) is to remove a board member. Should the VMs convene and discuss removing one now?

Recently I wrote to the six board members to suggest that they follow good business practices and Robert's Rules of Order by changing how they approve Minutes of a previous meeting.

My recent email to all six directors provoked one of them, recently-elected Vernell Butler, to reply and tell me not to send him any further emails.

I replied to him that I would continue to include him on emails sent to all board members and that I would not email him individually (i.e., other than about HOA business).

This further provoked him and he replied, "The next email will be from my legal representative."

Does that sound like a threat to you?

If you tune into monthly board meetings on Zoom, Vernell is the "Mr. Butler" who kept his video turned off during the July 13 meeting. Justin should have told him to turn on his video, but he didn't. 

The Summit HOA is a quasi-public organization - a South Carolina non-profit corporation. As such, it should follow all the rules of public bodies, such as County Council and the school board. It does follow some of them, such as holding private, non-public (some would say "secret") pre-board meetings that they call Executive Sessions, so that they can keep the public out.

But the HOA doesn't really follow public-body rules because they run the "executive sessions" the way they want to - in ways that public bodies cannot (by making decisions or making decisions on agreements before the public monthly meetings).

Back to Vernell. It is inappropriate for a board member to refuse communications from residents in the community he helps direct. He shouldn't be threatening me (or anyone else) with legal action for communicating in a professsional, business-like manner. If he doesn't want to read them, he can just hit Delete. But you can't infringe on First Amendment rights and threaten a resident who writes to him as a board member.

Now, what should or could the Voting Members do about Vernell? They could call a special meeting and either censure him or vote to remove him as a director. Justin won't call such a meeting of Voting Members, but they can call the meeting themselves. If you think they should, contact your Neighborhood's Voting Member and ask him or her to do so.

Below is the email that so offended Vernell:

Board Members,

Are you aware of an incorrect procedure followed at board meetings with regard to approval of Board Minutes?

Justin asks for the Minutes to be approved, and you approve them.

Then he tells you to send corrections or changes to the office. This is wrong.

The office has no authority to change the Minutes after they are approved.

The correct procedure is for Justin to ask for a Motion to approve the Minutes. After it is seconded (a Second is not actually required), then he should ask if there are any changes or corrections. This is when you speak up about the grammatical errors, typos, omissions, changes and other corrections.

For example, Paul Hill should be listed as Treasurer, not Director. (George was listed as Director, not Treasurer, for many months. Anyone reading the Minutes would think the HOA had no Treasurer.)

Of course, this would require that each of you had read the Minutes thoroughly before the meeting.

Then Justin should ask for approval of the Minutes "as amended". Then you vote to approve them. And the office prints and enters them into the Minute Book. No changes can be made by the office. 

If an error is found later and needs to be corrected, it gets brought up at a future board meeting.

For example, a complaint about the HOA was made to the S.C. Department of Consumer Affairs in December 2020. Are you aware of that? There was no discussion at a board meeting or mention in Minutes. The HOA answered the complaint over Angela's signature. The HOA response contained defamatory and libelous statements about the complainant. 

The board should know and document who authored the response; I doubt it was Angela who took the liberty of defaming the complainant. The Minutes should document whether the response was the opinion of the board or of one or more, but not all, persons.

Gus Philpott