We have a problem with previous board members that try to disrupt our
meetings with the homeowners. We are very new to the
condo association board and all of us volunteered to run because of the disgraceful way that meetings and business was run by previous board members. Meetings consisted of bullying homeowners, disrespectful behavior on the part of these past directors. A common comment was "Shut up and sit down" at every meeting.
Homeowners would walk out in disgust. The attendance at these monthly meetings was less than 20 and we have over 180 units. The only time attendance is at full is at the annual meeting since elections and budgets are discussed. We were a totally new board except for 3 members and these 3 were kept out of any meetings that the previous board had. Well last year they decided not to run figuring that we would fall on our faces and they would just come in and pick up the pieces. That did not happen. From the very first meeting in January until now, homeowner attendance has increased from 20. In the summer there is less than one third present, to over 100. The average attendance is around 75 every month. Previously it was less than 20. We report only facts, work in progress, thins that need to be done, security issues, etc and homeowners are allowed to ask questions at the end of the meeting. Yet, previous board members try to rile people against us. They try to make comments while the meeting is in progress. The meetings are basically kept in order, but their riling also brings negative comments from other homeowners and not against us, but against them. Fortunately their tactics only manage to increase our popularity as people can see through their little games. We have had so many positive feedback with the only negative coming from previous board members. The question is: Can we legally do anything to stop this harassment? Another type of harassment from these people, has been to send us letters every so often asking for copies and bids on file together with all the work orders by our maintenance staff. We have raised the cost per copy to 25 cents, in an effort to prevent useless requests. But their interference has cost us valuable time. In the firs year alone and the year has not ended, we managed to save over $40,000 in the
budget. Cost cutting measures and looking at every expenditure carefully has resulted in this saving. There are a lot of projects that we have initiated that will result in further savings. Some of these projects cannot be fulfilled until the new year due to money constraints and as you know the statute on
reserves etc has to be abided. We cannot just take money form where ever to meet a short fall some where else. In my opinion, these rabble-rousers do not care for the homeowners and are interfering with our work. What can be done about this?
