commentary by Joe Reynolds

OPA committee meetings are generally not well attended by association members. However, when a few people on OceanPinesForum.com asked about some aspects of how the Elections Committee works, I decided to attend the committee's meeting on 6/10/2013 at 2 P.M in the OPA Board Room.

I entered the room and took a seat just as the meeting was about to begin, and was the only association member attending. The chairwoman was handing out the meeting agenda to committee members. I asked if I could have a copy. The initial response was No, with the reason being the bottom of the agenda contained some sort of top secret information on it. Fortunately another committee member suggested just tearing off the bottom of the page, and so I received a copy of the agenda.

With that settled, the chair asked for a vote of the committee to approve the agenda.

I interrupted, and said, "Excuse me, but I don't see an agenda item for public comments."

The committee chair responded, "We don't have public comments."

I replied, "You are required to have a period for public comments."

Someone then asked, "Says who?"

I replied, "Maryland law, specifically the Maryland Home Owner Association Act."

The hostility toward my comments from the chairwoman and another woman on the committee was.... well, let's put it this way, if hostility was water the room would have been flooded.

Finally I asked the board liaison, Dan Stachurski, to inform the committee as to the HOA Act and the requirement for a public comments period. Stachurski did so, and it was decided to add a public comments period to the meeting. By this time some committee members obviously viewed me as public enemy number one, but it turned out things were just warming up.

After some discussion related to the upcoming Candidates Forum run by the Elections Committee, the chairwoman said she would have to ask me to leave the room as they would be moving to a closed session to discuss the questions to ask board candidates at the forum. At that point I asked if she would move up public comments so I could also address her comment that I would have to leave the room. She agreed.

With that I read the actual text of the Maryland HOA Act applicable to committees meeting in private, including a list of the only specific reasons allowed under the law to go into a closed session.

I then asked, "Would you please tell me which of the specific authorizations in the Act you intend to invoke to go into closed session?" As expected this again invoked a degree of hostility toward me from a couple of committee members.

At some point I said, "Well you are probably really gonna love this next question then, "What authority in the law will the committee invoke to go into closed session when it is time to actually count election ballots?" I explained that Maryland law overrides any board resolutions and that an association member had asked a year ago to "observe" the counting of the Yacht Club referendum ballots, but her request was refused on the premise that a board resolution said the count would be done in a closed session of the Elections Committee.

Around that point a committee member angrily replied, "We're not operating under Maryland law."

With that bombshell delivered, any further protestations from me would have been useless. To my surprise the chairwoman then said the meeting was over and the committee would not be going into closed session to discuss candidate forum questions.

With the committee meeting over, it was time for the announced 4:00 P.M. drawing by the board candidates to set the order their names would appear on the ballot. When that concluded, I spent some time talking with candidate Bill Cordwell. When I returned to my car to leave, I noticed the committee chair sitting at the head of the board room conference table. The entire committee was meeting again behind a locked door, an obvious and flagrant violation of the HOA Act.

Then again, maybe the committee really thinks it can operate outside Maryland law.

If there is blame for the committee's ignorance of the HOA Act it lies with the Board of Directors. These committee members are volunteers, volunteers who did not have a clue about the HOA Act. Truth be told, in my 25 years of board watching, many board members don't understand much about the HOA Act either. Those who do have frequently tried, with a measure of success, to move heaven and earth to avoid the intent of the Act -- openness and transparency in the management of every HOA in the state.

Here is the actual text of the Maryland HOA Act as it pertains to board and committee meetings in private:

A meeting of the board of directors or other governing body of the homeowners association or a committee of the homeowners association may be held in closed session only for the following purposes:

      (i) Discussion of matters pertaining to employees and personnel;

      (ii) Protection of the privacy or reputation of individuals in matters not related to the homeowners association's business;

      (iii) Consultation with legal counsel on legal matters;

      (iv) Consultation with staff personnel, consultants, attorneys, board members, or other persons in connection with pending or potential litigation or other legal matters;

      (v) Investigative proceedings concerning possible or actual criminal misconduct;

      (vi) Consideration of the terms or conditions of a business transaction in the negotiation stage if the disclosure could adversely affect the economic interests of the homeowners association;

      (vii) Compliance with a specific constitutional, statutory, or judicially imposed requirement protecting particular proceedings or matters from public disclosure; or

      (viii) Discussion of individual owner assessment accounts;