HOA boards should try to provide complete agendas

NOTE: This question was asked before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown prevented homeowners associations from holding in-person meetings. It is still a good topic, so I included it in my column this week.

Q: For several years, I have been reading and sharing with others your homeowners association Q&A articles published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Thanks so much for writing those.

I have had a couple of issues on my mind that have bothered me for some time and would like to present them to you for your response.

Planning meetings

Article III of our bylaws states that: “Place of meetings of members shall be held on the properties or such other suitable place as proximate thereto as practicable and convenient to the members as may be designated from time to time by the board of directors.”

Our association is lucky to have a very nice and convenient clubhouse that is used for regular monthly board meetings. It takes no more than four minutes for any of our 195 unit owners to get from their front door to our clubhouse.

Here are the issues of concern:

* Our board holds “planning meetings” one week prior to our regular monthly board meetings. No agendas are sent out on paper or electronically in advance. The meetings are held at our community manager’s office which is about 15 miles away (30 miles round trip) and is in a large multistory business park complex by the busy Strip.

* When we are able to obtain copies of minutes several months after the meetings, we discover that that many business decisions significant to our community have been made, spending and contracts were approved and assignments are given to managers and contractors. We rarely, if ever have seen any matter that comes anywhere close to being a life or safety emergency that can’t wait until the regular meeting seven days later.

* Based on the minutes, no unit owners have ever been present or spoken at any of these meetings we assume mainly because the meetings are always at 10 a.m. on a business work day at a very inconvenient location and no one knows what the meeting will be about.

When the board is confronted with these and other concerns, they simply say that they have determined the location is convenient “for them” and that if a file is needed, the community manager’s office is the place where it can easily be obtained. They further tell us that all 12 planning meeting dates, time and address are published a year in advance and anyone can obtain an agenda three days in advance by calling the manager.

Your opinion of how our board is operating and any recommendations you may have for improvement would be appreciated.

Meeting agendas

Several months after a regular monthly board meeting, or a planning meeting for that matter, has been held, we are able to obtain minutes from our community manager.

For the past couple of years, we notice that our board has added an item to the standard minute boiler plate outline. The new item is to “approve the agenda” of the meeting that is just starting. The agenda is rarely approved as is and the directors take turn each month to add several new (three to eight) items to the meeting and, of course, the motion is always seconded and unanimously passed without discussion.

Unit owners contend that even though they receive a mailed copy of the regular meeting monthly agenda at least 15 days before the meeting like Nevada Revised Statutes require, the meeting is actually much more robust and includes many more important topics of interest than the preliminary agenda informed. Some of the new items are controversial and some of great significance to our community appearance and budget.

It is obvious to a rational person that almost none of the last-minute added items are of an emergency nature. One can conclude that the original agenda is being haphazardly prepared and sent out by management with little oversight or sign-off by the board members, or that the board members are intentionally avoiding full disclosure of all meeting business to help keep meeting attendance low and controversy limited. Your opinion of how our board is operating and any recommendations you may have for improvement would be appreciated.

A: There is difference between a workshop and a board of directors’ meeting. In a workshop, the board can have discussions about association matters, but no decision should be made at a workshop. There is no formal NRS 116 law pertaining to workshops or pertaining to the notification of workshops to the homeowners.

According to the your email, the board did send out the dates of their planning meetings. If decisions are being made at the workshop, a complaint could be made at the Nevada Real Estate Division.

As to the agenda, here is what is stated in NRS 116.31083, sections 1 and 5. First, associations are required to provide notice to the homeowners of a board meeting not less than 10 days before the date of the meeting with exceptions concerning emergencies. (Emergencies are found in section 13 of this law).

Section 5 states the notice of the meeting must state the time and place of the meeting and include a copy of the agenda or the date on and locations where copies of the agenda may be obtained by the unit owners.

Based on this section of the law, the notification of 10 days of the meeting is required, but the agenda has no requirement to be included with the notification if the information is included in the notice of the meeting of when and where an agenda can be obtained. In essence, the board does have an option per state law.

Agendas that are sent with the notification of the meeting are sometimes revised by the time of the meeting date. Generally speaking, this is a result of bids for services that were not received before the sending of the agenda. Other additions may require action by the board of unanticipated issues. As to prudent practices, when sending the notification of the board meeting, managers and board members should make the best effort to include a complete agenda.

Barbara Holland is a certified property manager (CPM) and holds the supervisory community manager certificate with the state of Nevada. She is an author and educator on real estate management. Questions may be sent to holland744o@gmail.com.