HOA cancels Special Duty from RCSD

The Board of Directors decided in its secret, private, pre-board meeting at the end of August to cancel the Special Duty Agreement with the Richland County Sheriff's Department. 

If that meeting was one week before the September 5th regular monthly Open board meeting, then the pre-board meeting was on August 29. There should be Minutes of that (and of every) pre-board meeting, but they have never been published. Are they even written?

If they are, they should be in a Minute book at the HOA office that any Member can walk in and examine.

Also, the Minutes of the Special Board Meeting on August 22nd were never published.

As part of the Minutes of the September 5th "closed" board meeting, the Safety Committee reported, in part, "A motion was made to not renew the Signal 30 contract [sic] when it expired on August 30, 2023." (The  Minutes were re-written after initial publication. Fortunately, I saved a copy of the original Minutes.)

According to the Agreement with RCSD, the Agreement did not expire on August 30, 2023, but it could be canceled at any time with 30 days' notice. If the board decided on August 29th to cancel the contract, they should have given notice to RCSD that it wished to terminate the contract on September 30, 2023. 

For whatever reason the board decided to cancel it, it's good that they did, because the Agreement contained a Liability Clause that was very dangerous to the financial stability of the HOA. The HOA also avoided the possibility of a premium increase from its insurance company, due to that same Liability Clause.

The board should not be making decisions in secret, private, pre-board meeting. ALL decisions should be made in open monthly board meetings, where any Member (Homeowner) can observe what the board is doing. It's called transparency, honesty, integrity, responsibility, duty.

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