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WHEN IS A MEETING A MEETING?
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published March 22, 2021
It’s funny how many times over the years, Boards have told me
“We weren’t having a meeting, we were only talking about the
condo” or “We weren’t having a meeting, we were in a workshop.”
For clarification, let’s see how a “meeting” is defined by law.
For a condominium, the Florida Administrative Code says:
(1)(a) “Meeting of the board of administration” means any
gathering of the members of the board of directors, at which a
quorum of the members is present, for the purpose of conducting
association business.
(b) “Committee meeting” means any gathering of a group of board
members, unit owners, or board members and unit owners appointed
by the board or a member of the board to make recommendations to
the board regarding the association budget or take action on
behalf of the board at which a quorum of the members of that
committee is present. For example, a meeting of an executive
committee, as defined in section 617.0825, F.S., or as that
section may subsequently be renumbered, would be included in
this definition as would a meeting of a group charged with
developing a proposed budget.
So under this Rule, a quorum of the Board gets together and
talks about the condo --- it’s a meeting that needed to be
properly noticed and the unit owners had a right to attend.
The Florida HOA Statutes 720.303(2) says:
A meeting of the board of directors of an association occurs
whenever a quorum of the board gathers to conduct association
business.
This provision also shall apply to the meetings of any committee
or other similar body when a final decision will be made
regarding the expenditure of association funds and to meetings
of any body vested with the power to approve or disapprove
architectural decisions with respect to a specific parcel of
residential property owned by a member of the community.
So…….same rule for HOAs -----, a quorum of the Board gets
together and talks about the HOA --- it’s a meeting that needed
to be properly noticed and the unit owners had a right to
attend.
Now…….here’s the fun part.
As you learned in last week’s blog, both the condo statute and
the HOA statute say that Board members can communicate by
e-mail. So, let’s say that tomorrow night you happen to walk
past the Board room and there are the 5 directors sitting next
to each other on the stage, talking about association matters.
You would scream and say they are having an illegal meeting that
was not properly noticed – and you would be right.
The Board members promise never to do this again.
The next night you walk past the same room, and again see the
Board members sitting next to each other. This time however,
they are not saying a word. Each one of them brought their
laptops to the room and instead of verbally speaking with each
other, they are e-mailing each other.
It may be hard to swallow, but suddenly these Board members are
not at a “meeting” and are not violating the statute.
What do you think? Good statute or bad statute?
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About
HOA & Condo Blog
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Eric Glazer graduated from
the University of Miami School of Law in 1992 after
receiving a B.A. from NYU. He has practiced community
association law for more than 2
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decades and is the owner of Glazer
and Sachs, P.A. a seven attorney law firm with offices in
Fort Lauderdale and Orlando and satellite offices in Naples,
Fort Myers and Tampa.
Since 2009, Eric has been the host
of Condo Craze and HOAs, a weekly one hour radio show that airs
at noon each Sunday on 850 WFTL.
See:
www.condocrazeandhoas.com.
He is the first attorney in the
State of Florida that designed a course that certifies
condominium residents as eligible to serve on a condominium
Board of Directors and has now certified more than 10,000
Floridians all across the state. He is certified as a Circuit
Court Mediator by The Florida Supreme Court and has mediated
dozens of disputes between associations and unit owners. Eric
also devotes significant time to advancing legislation in the
best interest of Florida community association members.
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