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A DIVIDED
BOARD OR A UNITED BOARD?
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published May 22, 2017
With all of the negative press
out there regarding condo and HOA boards, one would get the
impression that all board members are united in their effort to
accomplish a pre-planned agenda that serves the board members’
interests instead of the community interest as a whole. The
truth is often times very different.
Despite what you may read,
board members are often times at each other’s throats. It is
not uncommon for me to be at a meeting where one half of the
Board wants the other half removed. In fact, I get so many
phone calls every year from Board members who say a majority of
the board members want the minority of the board members
removed. They want my assistance in accomplishing that
objective, and I have to quickly tell them that board members
can’t remove board members from the board; only the owners in a
recall vote can accomplish that. But, that may not be true any
longer.
Since forever, Florida law was
clear. Board members can remove officers from their officer
positions, but could not remove directors from serving on the
Board. If a majority of the Board doesn’t like the President,
they can take away that title, but the President remains a
director.
This year, everything
changed. Starting July 1st, a majority of the Board
will be able to remove directors who they believe fail to
disclose a conflict. Let me suggest that this is a dangerous
measure and suddenly lots of conflict that were allegedly not
disclosed are suddenly going to be alleged by a majority of
Board members. The law wasn’t broken, yet The Florida
Legislature thought it needed a fix. The recall provisions
which allow a majority of the owners to remove a director for
any reason, or no reason, already was in place. Why the need to
now suddenly allow directors to remove directors?
If anyone hears about their
Board removing fellow board members, let us know about it here.
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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 Associates, 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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