Can a homeowner attend a board meeting?

Did you read my blogpost on August 5, 2023, titled Homeowners vs. "Residents"? It's here. In that post I tracked the HOA's efforts to exclude, first, residents from board of directors' meetings to, secondly, trying to exclude Homeowners from board meetings.

Whose Association is it, anyway? It's yours!

Now the attorney for the HOA has written to me (August 16, 2023) that only Directors and Voting Members can attend monthly board meetings and that a homeowner (named) is excluded from attending.

The fact is that the attorney is wrong.

In support of her position, she quoted Article III, A, Section 15 of the By-Laws, which begins with

"Section 15. Open Meetings . Subject to the provisions of Section 16 of this Article, all meetings of the Board shall be Voting Members, ..." The rest of the Section addresses whether Voting Members can speak at board meetings.

Now, read that again. Slowly. Perhaps out loud. 

It doesn't make sense, doesn't it? Words were left out. The Section, as published on the HOA's website, was not proofread. How long has it been that way? 

It definitely does not say that homeowners or resident cannot attend a board meeting. Does it?

The title of the Section is "Open Meetings", not Closed Meetings. 

Whose job is it to publish correctly-worded materials? The Secretary? The President? Any Board Member? The Assn. property manager at CAMS?

Now they can't just decide to type in some words. That would be a change in the By-Laws. And that must be handled in accordance with the CC&Rs. Art. XIII, Section 2 Amendment indicates that an amendment can be made upon the approval of Voting Members representing 75% of Class A votes.

This will be a nearly-impossible requirement to meet. It does not mean 75% of the Voting Members. A Class A vote (Member) is a property. Thus, 75% x 2,480 property owners. That equals approval of Voting Members representing 1,860 homes. Some  neighborhoods are larger than others. So, a few Voting Members, representing the largest neighborhoods, could control the vote.

Not much to worry about here. There aren't even any legitimate Voting Members, so there won't be a vote on amending the By-Laws anytime soon.

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