Can the HOA Amend the CC&Rs and the By-Laws?

What's the answer? Yes and No.

The HOA can amend the CC&Rs and the By-Laws, according to the documents themselves. The method of amending the CC&Rs and the By-Laws is spelled out in detail.

However, the HOA cannot amend the CC&Rs and the By-Laws, if it does not follow the method specifically described in the documents.

Therein lies the problem. Legitimate Voting Members are required to amend the CC&Rs and the By-Laws.

For years I have complained to the Boards of Directors about whether there are any legitimate Voting Members. I say that, for several (many?) years until May 4, 2024, the HOA did not have any legitimate Voting Members.

By that I mean Voting Members who were elected in compliance with the By-Laws.

No Board, director, or officer has ever told me that I am wrong. 

"Getting signatures" is not an approved or authorized method of becoming a Voting Member. Why is the Board recognizing homeowners who "got signatures" as "Voting Members"?

One current member of the board told me, in writing in February 2024, that, if a Voting Member had been elected in a Neighborhood Meeting 25 years ago and that Neighborhood never held another Neighborhood Meeting, then that person is still the Voting Member for that Neighborhood.

That is absolutely untrue because every Neighborhood is to conduct an Annual Neighborhood Meeting and elect a three-member [local] Neighborhood Committee, which then elects one of the three to be the  chairman (of that committee) and the Voting Member for the next 12 months.

Will the HOA be distributing a Referendum this summer? How many legitimate Voting Members will there be, who can vote to approve the amendments to the CC&Rs and the By-Laws?

The importance of legitimacy is because the Voting Members can obligate you, the homeowner, legally and financially. This is why the Voting Member is to be elected by homeowners in his own Neighborhood.

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