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| OHCC LIVING | JANUARY 2020 | 3 President's Message By Angela Takemato Hello everyone, and here's to a happy and healthy New Year. Well the deadline for this article fell well before the December Board meetings, so I don't have anything to report on what actually happened! So, I thought I'd write about Board meetings in general. Our Association is governed by a California law known as the Davis- Stirling Act. The statues cover many subjects and provide guidance on how we should operate. One area where we have clear guidance is on the subject of Board meetings. Beginning at section 4900 of the California Civil Code are the rules about Board meetings. The first item states "the Board shall not take action on any item of business outside of a Board meeting." This is very important. Because in order for a Board to authorize action, it must be approved by a majority vote of the Board. Individual Board directors have no power to authorize action. We are required to provide notice to the membership when Board meetings are scheduled. We do this by posting the agenda for the meeting in the glass cabinet outside Abravanel Hall in the Clubhouse (and by the way, as you read this, that cabinet is probably being taken down and relocated, because of the Clubhouse renovation project). Open meeting notices must be posted four days before the meeting, and Executive meeting notices two days prior. So, let's talk about Executive meetings and what is discussed at these meetings. Executive meetings allow the Board to discuss and act on items that are confidential in nature. The law is clear in limiting what can be discussed in Executive session. Subjects include litigation, matters relating to formation of contracts with third parties, member discipline, personnel matters, delinquent assessments, and foreclosing on a lien. What does that mean though? Litigation can include advice from our Attorney related to active or potential litigation, as well as advice on matters related to the Board's duties and actions. Formation of contracts includes review of bid packages, analysis of proposals submitted for projects, interviews of bidders, discussion of contract details, and change orders for ongoing projects. Member discipline covers a wide range of issues. Basically, a situation where a member refuses to abide by the conditions in our Governing Documents… the CC&Rs, Bylaws, and Rules and Regulations. Personnel matters relate to confidential issues around people. Even though the Association doesn't have any direct employees, there may be times when the Board might want to inform Management of concerns. Also, Board discussion on volunteers for committees and other assignments can be initially discussed in Executive session, prior to formal appointment on an Open session. Delinquencies covers a few different scenarios. First, the Board is made aware of situations where members are not current with their assessments. And by the way, for this month, the number of people not current is ZERO! Thanks to all of you! But if a member is not able to bring their account current, the Board can meet with the member, in Executive session, to discuss a payment plan, to facilitate clearing off the backlog. But if this is not successful then the Board has the right, in accordance with our published collection policy, to file a lien on the property, to protect the Association's rights. That is done in Open session. But if the debt continues and becomes a long term problem, then the Board can take action on the final step, a decision to foreclose on the property. Thankfully in our community this is an extremely rare occurrence. So those are the only things we can discuss and take action on, in Executive session. All other subjects must be acted on in Open session. As you know, we hold an open session every month, and the agenda is published, posted and also delivered to every home in the community. The Board reviews each item on the agenda and decides what, if any, action should be taken on the item. Approval for action must be approved by a majority vote of the Board. And at every Open Board meeting, members have the opportunity to address the Board in the homeowner forum. Minutes are published for every Board meeting, and you can find minutes of all open sessions on our website. Minutes are also created for Executive sessions, but these are not available to members, due to the confidential nature of the subjects discussed. There's another type of meeting, a Member Meeting. This is generally the annual Meeting of the Members in August, when we elect new Board members and vote on other items if they are presented. We vote with secret ballots, and the process is tightly controlled in accordance with the Davis-Stirling Act.

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