December 8, 2008
The petitioners submitted the this letter to all homeowners.
Special Meeting on the Petition to Amend the Bylaws & Declarations for
the Edgewater Isle Master Association
★ Overview ★
This summer we began a homeowner effort to amend the Edgewater Isle Master Association Bylaws and Declarations regarding how directors are elected to the Master Association Board. It is now time to hold a Special Meeting to discuss the proposed amendment. This affects you and me because the Master Board directors make many decisions impacting our community and how our dues are spent.
★ Background ★
We have a complicated HOA structure here at Edgewater Isle. We have two separate Homeowner Associations (North and South), a Master Association, and Commercial Master Association. We also have the Senior Apartment Center as part of our community. The current owner of the Senior Apartment Center is HIP (Human Investment Project), a non-profit organization that helps provide affordable low-cost housing solutions in San Mateo County.
The purpose of the Edgewater Isle Master Association is to deal with matters that impact the entire community. The Master Association Board is designed to provide representation for homeowners in Edgewater Isle North and South as well as HIP. To achieve this, the Edgewater Isle Master Association Board is comprised of 2 directors representing North homeowners, 2 directors representing South homeowners, and 1 director representing HIP. When the Master Board votes on matters for our community, each director has 1 vote.
★ The Issue ★
The owner(s) of each home in Edgewater Isle has 1 vote in any election held by the Edgewater Isle Master Association. HIP has 92 votes. HIP has these votes because there are 92 units in the Senior Center and they pay dues for each unit. HIP usually casts these votes as a block vote. A block vote of this size, usually cast by 1 person, is very powerful.
To put this in perspective, the HIP voting block is about 30% of the homeowner electorate.
This block of 92 votes makes HIP more influential than any other property owner in Edgewater Isle.
The Bylaws allow HIP to appoint their Master Board representative; homeowners have no influence over the HIP appointed director. The Bylaws also allow HIP to vote for the North and South homeowner representatives to the Master Board. Therefore, the current Bylaws and Declarations give HIP excessive power over who serves on the Master Board.
How does this affect you? In the last Master Board election, the HIP block of 92 votes may have changed the election outcome to be different from how the homeowners voted. When homeowners do not participate, we basically allow HIP to dominate the election results.
We believe that HIP should not participate in the election or recall of the homeowner -representatives to the Edgewater isfe Master Association Board.
Homeowner representatives should be elected by the homeowners.
★ Action ★
> A copy of the petition is printed on the other side of this document for your review <
> Talk with your neighbors ~ Encourage them to attend <
> Please vote when you receive the mail-in ballot <
> Please come to the Special Meeting <
| Kelly Xxxxxxxxxx Edgewater Isle North XXXX XXX XXXXXX |
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Moxi Posner Edgewater Isle South XXXX XXX XXXXXX |
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Petition to Amend the Bylaws
Edgewater Isle Master Association
August 2008
We think that the owner of the Senior Apartment Center, currently HIP (Human Investment Project), should not vote in the election or recall of the homeowner representatives to the Edgewater Isle Master Association Board of Directors for the following reasons:
- HIP appoints their representative to the board; they have representatio
- HIP has 92 votes, usually voted in a block, which dominates election results.
- The homeowner representatives should be elected by the homeowners.
By signing this petition you are requesting the Edgewater Isle Master Board to conduct an election to amend the Edgewater Isle Master Association Bylaws as follows:
Amend the Edgewater Isle Master Association Bylaws to state that the owner the Senior Apartment Center does not vote in the election of or recall of the North or South Association representatives to the Edgewater Isle Master Association Board of Directors.
Addendum
October 29, 2008
Amend Section 3.5 of the Declaration as follows:
... at any meeting of the members, the owners shall be entitled to one vote for each unit owned by him or her with the following exception: the owner of the Senior Apartment Center does not vote in the election of, or recall of, the North or South Association representatives to the Edgewater Isle Master Association Board of Directors.
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