No Say in Upcoming Election for HOA Directors

If you are a homeowner in the "Barony Place" Neighborhood (Barony Place I or Barony Place II),  do you realize you will have NO say in the upcoming HOA election of four directors?

Why not?

Because your Neighborhood does not have a legitimate Voting Member.

For a Voting Member/Neighborhood Representative to be a legitimate representative of a Neighborhood, an annual Neighborhood Meeting and Neighborhood Election should have been held within the past 12 months. The Neighborhood of Barony Place did not have a Neighborhood Meeting in 2021 or in 2020 or in 2019 or in 2018.

A Voting Member is in office for one year only. It is not perpetual. It is not continuous. It is not renewable. A Voting Member can be re-elected.

The HOA has not followed the By-Laws for years. And nobody on the board cared. And nobody on the Board cares now. So, quite likely, four incumbents will be re-elected on November 9.

Each year every one of the 28 Neighborhoods is to have its own annual Meeting. At that Meeting a three-member Neighborhood Committee is to be elected. One person on the Neighborhood Committee becomes the Voting Member. The other two are Alternates. (They substitute on occasion for the Voting Member; ex., attending a monthly meeting of the board of directors.

When a Voting Member stops serving, an Alternate cannot just "move up" into the Voting Member's slot, but that's what has been allowed. The Neighborhood Committee should meet and decide which of the two Alternates will become the Voting Member. That, apparently, has never been done.

Some Neighborhoods have no Alternates. At least one Neighborhood has no Alternates AND no Voting Member. Yet the board has allowed that Neighborhood to be unrepresented for months!

In April Treasurer George Reynolds died. George had controlled many of the Voting Members. The board should have immediately declared that director's position vacant and proceeded to fill that vacant position by appointment of a successor director as soon as possible.

Instead, the six directors, under the leadership of the HOA president, have malingered. They intend to have that vacant director position filled by election by the Voting Members on November 9th. That plan DOES NOT follow the By-Laws. And it will throw a monkey wrench in the gears for future elections.

In odd years (2021, 2023, etc.) four directors are to be elected. In even years (2022, 2024) three directors are to be elected. If five directors are elected in 2021, then only two will be elected in 2022. That destroys the protection created in the By-Laws of a 4/3 rotation for elections. 

What should you do NOW? Contact the Board of Directors and insist that they comply with and follow the By-Laws, both in letter and in spirit. Their email addresses are on the HOA website. Hover over their names and read their email address in the tiny print at the bottom left of your computer screen. Do this now. The election in November 9. I urge Voting Members to elect three who are not incumbents. For the fourth, vote for Paul Hill.

Call Billie Jones now and express your wishes. Even though she is not a legitimate Voting Member, the Board will allow her to vote on November 9. Tell her how you want her to vote. 

Ask her to explain why no Neighborhood Meeting has been held in Barony Place in four years. And then DEMAND a Neighborhood Meeting for "Barony Place".