At our recent homeowners community association annual meeting, a member presented a motion to the board of directors that a specific agenda be set for the meeting.
The member read the proposed agenda aloud, for the benefit of the attending members, and supplied a written copy to the board. The board expressed opposition to the motion, but then put the measure to a vote.
Out of a total of 2,020 votes cast (including proxy votes), the yes votes (for the proposed agenda) were exactly half of the total, just short of the simple majority required to pass the measure, so it failed. There were about 250 members present at the meeting, so proxy votes were the majority.
We, an unofficial ad hoc committee in favor of the measure, had worked for months walking door-to-door in our communities, talking with homeowners, and seeking the assignment of proxies to our committee. We had accumulated some 800 proxies by the time the meeting convened.
The board of directors, however, without lifting a finger, had 700 to 900 proxies just handed to them by area developers, which they apparently used to vote against our proposed meeting agenda.
To add insult to injury, these developers are assigned one proxy (one vote) for each and every lot, whether the parcel has a house on it or not, or even if construction on the house has not yet begun. Further, the developers are not required to pay one red cent for association dues, on any of their lots, until they have published a notice of completion and filed an affidavit of that publication for those lots.
Where is the fairness in this?
”’Don Brown is a resident of Kapolei.”’
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