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Dear Poliakoffs,
Our association board of directors schedules workshop meetings of the full board without notice to owners. They discuss business and projects but never follow through with a regularly scheduled board meeting. Owners are never informed on association business. A friendly board member advised me that their association attorney told the board that it's legal to have this workshop meeting if nothing is voted on.
Signed, P.P.
Dear P.P.,
I absolutely disagree with the advice given by the association’s attorney, and I think they are playing with fire in the event anyone was to sue the association.
The Condominium Act, at Section 718.112, Fla. Stat., says “meetings of the board of administration at which a quorum of the members is present are open to all unit owners.” A quorum of your board is, in fact, meeting—and so that meeting should be open to the owners (and noticed, etc.). The only argument otherwise is that the term “meeting” requires that the board members vote on items of business. But that doesn’t make logical sense. Does that mean if they intend to vote on something, but simply don’t, then that in fact was not a “meeting”? That can’t be the deciding factor. In my opinion when a quorum of the board is together and discussing association business, it’s a meeting and should be noticed and open to the owners. Now, conversely, I have no issue with the board getting together socially and not discussing association business, without that get together being noticed; and similarly, the Condominium Act expressly authorizes directors to discuss issues via email, so long as they do not conduct a vote by email—so that is always an option for the board as well.
While you said you lived in a condominium, note that the HOA Act is even more explicit. Section 720.303, Fla. Stat. says that “a meeting of the board of directors of an association occurs whenever a quorum of the board gathers to conduct association business.” Again, to justify “workshop” meetings you would have to argue that “conducting association business” requires that the directors intend to vote, which I think is a very aggressive argument. Boards meet regularly to discuss lots of matters that don’t require a vote, and it’s all part of conducting the association’s business. If the statutes intended to make voting the de facto definition of a meeting, it would have said so (for example, “a meeting of the board of directors of an association occurs whenever a quorum of the board gathers to vote on business items.”)