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HAIL TO THE CHIEF?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
February 22, 2013
President’s
Day is supposedly a day to honor former presidents. It was aimed
at US presidents, but isn’t a president a president, no matter
what?
Let’s make no mistake: There are many good folks out there who
serve as president of the board of their community association.
Hat off to these volunteers who serve in an honest attempt to
make their community a better place to live!
But
if I would suggest to honor all presidents of HOAs, I can
assure you that I would hear a loud cry of outrage from many
association members. There are as well a lot of presidents in
our HOAs who seem to have middle names like Adolf, Joseph or
Fidel. With other words, power-hungry presidents who abuse the
power given to them. There are quite a lot of folks who think
that the fact that they are indemnified – meaning protected
against civil lawsuits -- gives
them the right to use dictatorial methods to run the show! They
totally forget that any more serious decision regarding the
association has to be made by a vote of approval of the majority
of all board members. Despite all rumors to the opposite – the
president’s vote only counts as one vote – that’s it. And
nowhere in the statutes does it say that a president can do
whatever he/she wants without the approval of the other board
members.
Let’s
make no mistake: The system -- as in existence today -- invites
dictators to become board members. Certain provisions in the
governing documents are giving them enough power to think that
they can tell their neighbors to stand at attention when they
say so.
These
are definitely not the kind of presidents you want to honor on
President’s Day.
But
there are many good “presidents” who are trying their best
to make their communities a better place to live.
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