2025 Annual Election and Membership Meeting

Election Mishandling Again

It boggles the mind that the Sevilla Board of Directors continues to ignore the law especially as it relates to elections. It appears that the board directors are ignorant of the law as it relates to election law with homeowners associations or it relies upon the property management company to run elections with no oversight by the board. Errors have continued for the past three years in conducting elections.

Posted on the Sevilla HOA Portal on Friday, April 4, 2025, were agendas for the Annual Election and Membership Meeting which will be held on April 10, 2025, at 5 PM followed by an Organization Meeting, Executive Session Meeting, and a Regular Session Meeting.

Let’s tackle the Annual Election and Membership Meeting first.

1. The Sevilla HOA Board of Directors scheduled the Annual Election and Membership Meeting for March 11, 2025. However on March 10, 2025, the Association posted on the Sevilla HOA Portal that the meeting was cancelled because the Inspector of Elections (The HOA Election Guys) indicated to Diversified and/or the Board that quorum for the election would not be met. Apparently, the number of ballots received was not sufficient at 51% or at least 56 ballots. This was done before the Annual Election and Membership Meeting. This prevented members from attending the meeting and turning in ballots where possibly quorum could have been met.
2. No Annual Election or Membership Meeting took place on March 11, 2025. Therefore, members were not able to participate, turn in ballots, witness the counting of the ballots turned in and vote on changing the date of the election if quorum was not met. That didn’t happen. Therefore, the Annual Election and Membership Meeting should have changed to another date where the quorum remains at 51%. That didn’t happen. Not having a Membership Meeting was a significant error.
3. Instead, on March 19, 2025, at the March Board of Directors Meeting, the Board of Directors made an announcement that the reconvened Annual Election on April 10, 2025, despite no agenda item related to the Annual Election and Membership Meeting published on the agenda.
4. According to Davis Stirling: A “quorum” of the membership is the required minimum of number of member voters present in person, by proxy and/or by ballot before the association may conduct business at a membership meeting. RONR (12th ed.) 3:3; 40:6.

Statutory Reduced Quorum to 20%. Beginning January 1, 2024, the Davis-Stirling Act allows for a reduced quorum of 20% for the election of directors for associations with quorum requirements greater than 20%. (Civ. Code 5115(d)(2).  If an association relies on the reduced quorum provision in the Act, it may adjourn the meeting to a later date where the quorum requirement reduces to 20%. 

The Sevilla HOA By-Laws requires that if a quorum isn’t met, the quorum requirements are 25% at the reconvened meeting. However, the Board in its March 10, 2025, notice to members indicated that “the Association did not receive enough ballots to conduct the Annual Election and Membership Meeting on March 11, 2025. As a result, the Association will reconvene the election until a new date and time is announced, which will be sent to all homeowners. The reduced quorum for the Reconvened Annual Election and Membership Meeting is now 20% or 22 ballots. Thus, the Association is now relying on this reduced quorum law from 2024.

New Meeting Date. The window for holding an adjourned meeting is normally found in the bylaws and will vary from association to association. Typical language will state “no less than 5 days and no more than 30 days.”However, if an association relies on the reduced quorum provision in the Davis-Stirling Act, the window for holding the meeting is not less than 20 days after a scheduled election.  Civ. Code § 5115(d)(2). Again, The implication from the March 10, 2025 Association notice was that the reconvened meeting with no announced date would adhere to the reduced quorum of “20% or 22 ballots”.

Notices to Membership

Procedurally, the chair of the meeting (the president of the association) consults with the inspector of elections to determine their availability on a particular date. The chair then adjourns the meeting to that date, which must be at least 20 days after the adjourned proceeding. No less than 15 days prior to the new meeting date, the association must provide general notice of the meeting, which includes: (i) the date, time, and location of the meeting, (ii) the list of all candidates, and (iii) a statement that 20% of the membership present or voting by proxy or secret ballot will satisfy the quorum requirements for the election of directors and that the ballots will be counted if the 20% quorum is reached. In this board election, 1) no membership meeting occurred where the chair of the meeting consulted with the inspector of elections to set a new date for the adjourned meeting and 2) no notice has been provided to members no less than 15 days prior to a new meeting date that includes the date, time, location of the meeting, the list of candidates, and a statement that the minimal quorum requirement is 20%. None of this occurred.

What did the Association do? In this election process, the Sevilla HOA failed to hold an initial Annual Election and Membership Meeting on March 11^th. Since there was no meeting, no date for an adjourned meeting was made. Instead, Diversified informed members via the Sevilla online portal through AppFolio on March 10, 2025, that read “This notice is written on behalf of the Sevilla Homeowners Association (“Association”) Board of Directors (“Board”) regarding the 2025 Annual Election and Membership Meeting. The Association did not receive enough ballots to conduct the Annual Election and Membership Meeting on March 11, 2025. As a result, the Association will reconvene the election until a new date and time is announced, which will be sent to all homeowners. The reduced quorum for the Reconvened Annual Election and Membership Meeting is now 20% or 22 ballots.” Now there is a conflict. The Association has indicated that the reduced quorum percentage and now written on the current agenda for the reconvened Annual Election and Membership Meeting is 25%. Which is it? The Board keeps flip flopping and making U-turns due to its mistakes and errors.

What must the Association do?

1. Cancel the Annual Election and Membership Meeting for Thursday, April 10, 2025

Why?

▪There was no initial Annual Election and Membership Meeting convened on March 11, 2025.

▪The implication from the March 10, 2025, Association notice was that the reconvened meeting with no announced date would adhere to the reduced quorum of “20% or 22 ballots”.

▪Even if there was an initial Annual Election and Membership Meeting on March 11, 2025, the Association did not provide notice to members no less than 15 days prior to the reconvened meeting if the Association was adhering to the 20% reduced quorum rule.

▪The defective notice provided by the Association on Friday, April 4, 2025, was an agenda indicating that the Annual Election and Membership Meeting was scheduled for April 10, 2025. This agenda was provided on the Sevilla Portal 5 days before the meeting. The CC&Rs indicate that notices must be placed in a prominent place within the community, which the Board has failed to do for the past 2 years.

▪The agenda indicates that verification of quorum (25 %) will take place. Which is it? 20% or 25%?

▪The agenda indicates that there is no physical location for the meeting for members to participate in which precludes them from turning in ballots, witnessing the counting of ballots, and a homeowner forum. This is discriminatory to all those members, including myself, who would like to attend and participate in the Annual Election and Membership Meeting instead of participating through Zoom.

▪Homeowner forum is required at all member meetings. This is not indicated on the April 10^th Annual Election and Membership Meeting Agenda. The Association has a pattern of denying homeowners that right at the Annual Election and Membership Meetings and Recall Election Meetings.

▪Any changes at this point to the agenda or location of a physical location for the Annual Meeting on April 7-10, 2025, would be considered insufficient notice to members.