Our Association contracts Concierge/Valet Services. The owner of this company, has a realtor license also. He has been sitting at the front desk for at least 13 years. He has earned the trust of many of the owners, particularly the out of town owners, and also full time owners that have resided many years in the building. As a realtor he has rented and sold our apartments at any price, usually under market value. He doesn’t vet well the renters, as such he has been renting to people that do not follow rules.
Although we have a manager, the contractor, under cuts her role and seniority by providing to new owners/renters with the wrong information and/or information that may benefit him.
Many owners would like to get rid of him, but board members protect him and will not allow his contract to be terminated and/or not renewed.
For many years he has gotten involved in our elections, making sure that at least 3 of the 5 members protect him. Until this year, he had denied getting involved in our elections.
However, this year he decided to be upfront by creating a list of the candidates he preferred to be elected and gave the list to new owners, out of town owners and elderly owners that trusted him. As a result, last week 5 members were elected that fully support him.
Many of us are very concern as some newly elected members dislike the manager. We suspect they are going to make the manager’s job very difficult that she may resign leaving open her position and the BoD will decide to offer the manager’s position to the contractor.
The conflict of interest is beyond control between the board members and the contractor. My question is, since the candidates knew the list was being circulated by the contractor: -
1- Are the contractor’s actions legal?
2 - Can the election be considered fraudulent?
