Do the By-Laws Allow "Getting Signatures"?

For several years I have been ragging on the Boards of Directors about the illegitimacy of the Voting Members. Before May 4, 2024 I asserted there were NO legitimate Voting Members. That's because the 28 Neighborhoods in The Summit were not having Annual Neighborhood Meetings.

On May 4th the Barony Place Neighborhood of 78  homeowners held a Neighborhood Meeting. Ten (or so) homeowners were present, and 21 homeowners were represented by proxy. Three homeowners were elected to the Neighborhood Committee, and one of them became the legitimate Voting Member.

Where did those 21 proxies come from? I spent a week on the phone calling the homeowners. 

The HOA has one Voting Member.

Where have the existing, recognized "Voting Members" come from?

A umber of them claim to have held the office for years. Who knows how they even got it in the first year? 

At least one "inherited" the office when her husband died.

Some "moved up" from Alternate when the "Voting Member" moved out of The Summit, got sick, died, tired, or just quit.

And quite a number took advantage of a scheme of "getting signatures" on a form from the office.

"Getting signatures" is not the same thing as being elected by a quorum of his neighbors at a Neighborhood Meeting.

Can any board member (past or present) find any Section in the By-Laws that allows a homeowner to "get signatures" on a form and become a legitimate Voting Member?

I've been reading the By-Laws for five years, and I've never read it. There is one way, and one way only, to become a Voting Members. It's in the By-Laws (Art. V, Section 3).

A couple of years ago a board member told me she thought it was in the PRM. Even if it is, the PRM can't modify the By-Laws.

That same board member told me that if a Neighborhood held a Meeting 25 years ago and elected a Voting Member, and then never had another Neighborhood Meeting, that homeowner would still be the Voting Member.

I hate to tell a person that she is wrong, but she is wrong!

It's like the elusive parking rules that you can't park on the streets in The Summit. 

Some people have talked about it so much that they now believe what they have been saying. 

But that doesn't make it so, for either Voting Members or the parking.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Annual Meeting, Barony Place Neighborhood - continued to 5/4/2024

Barony Place Neighborhood (Barony Place I and Barony Place II attempted to hold a Neighborhood Meeting this afternoon. Of the 78 homes, seventeen (17) homes were represented, and that was not sufficient to meet the quorum requirement of 26. The meeting was continued to Saturday, May 4, 2024, 1:00PM, at 44 Barony Place Circle. An effort will be made to have at least 26 homes represented in-person or by proxy. Three homeowners have volunteered to be on the Neighborhood Committee: Tracy Manderino (Barony Place II), Della Glynn (Barony Place II) and Gwen Hayes (Barony Place I). If a quorum is present on May 4th, those present, including by proxy, will elect the Neighborhood Committee. Once the Committee has been elected, it will select one of its three committee members to be the Voting Member for the next 12 months. The other two members will be Alternates. A new announcement will be distributed to your newspaper box, along with a proxy. If you will not attend Saturday's meeting, plea...
Read more

Open Letter to Barony Place "Voting Member"

An open letter to the "Voting Member" of Barony Place Neighborhood. Good morning, Billie, If you and/or an Alternate attended last night's board of directors meeting, will you please send out a recap of the meeting to Ann Stirlen and me (and to all the homeowners and residents in Barony Place)? About a dozen homeowners from throughout The Summit showed up for the board meeting  at the church  last night, only to learn from one person that it had been switched to Zoom, which allowed the board to meet in secret. Many of them had not received the email from the office that the board was (illegitimately) closing the meeting to homeowners. There are only about 1,800 (73%) email addresses of the 2,480 Members in the website database. I attempted to join the meeting on Zoom, as I am Attorney-in-Fact for Ann Stirlen, but I was not admitted to the meeting. The HOA's attorney has quoted a section in the By-Laws that she believes allows the Board to close the meetings. That spec...
Read more

Special Assessment Possible?

How would you feel about a $3,000 Special Assessment levied by the HOA against you and every other HOA Member (homeowner)? Article X, Section 4 in the CC&Rs allows this. Are you aware of that? Should the Board do everything possible to eliminate the possibility of such a Special Assessment? What is the Board doing that might just lead directly to such an Assessment? The HOA, by actions of the President (Justin Martin), the Treasurer (Vernell Butler, and the Safety Committee Chair (Dennis Rybicki) entered into a contact with the Richland County Sheriff's Department, effective February 1, 2023. They arranged for special patrols in the Summit at a cost of $48.00/hour. In the Special Duty Agreement is a Liability clause. It reads,  "The Requestor will hold harmless the Richland County Sheriff's Department from any and all claims or liabilities resulting from service and indemnify RCSD for any loss due to any injury of its employee unless there is a determination of neglige...
Read more