Charlie Judice

Editor, Red House Branch Swamp Life

August 1, 2016

Editorial

Three or Five: So What?

We are now being asked to approve increasing the number of Board members from three to five. Does this really make a difference? Well the short answer is yes. The current Board decided to be as inclusive as possible by appointing owners not on the Board to officer poitions. In fact every committee chairperson is a VP of the HOA. In addition to the three Board members there are another four officers who while not on the Board still have a fiduciary relationship with the owners. So why have more Board members?

It is the opinion of this author that raising the number of Board members from three to five is less democratic and less transparent. The reality is that it only takes three Board members to pass a resolution. To the extent that a special interest group wants to "run the HOA", the strategy would be to enlist five owners to run for the Board and hope that at least three of them win. If they do, then the special interest group runs the Association. Furthermore, with five Board members, any pair can causcus in private without calling a public meeting. With three Board members, this is not allowed since two members talking together about Associaiton business consitutes a meeting and must be open to the public.

My bottom line is to keep the number of Board members the same and increase the number of officers.