What Happens When the Board President Is a Rotten Egg?
April 1, 2015 — We've been talking a lot about the new breed of board member — a take-charge director who has obsessively turned the idea of money-saving into an art form. What about the other side of that coin? We're talking about a dissident board member, or even worse, a dissident board president. What happens when your co-op's board president goes on a power trip and intimidates fellow board members and goes so far as turning down the application of "a same-sex couple who wanted to purchase in the building"? That's the question Brickunderground's Ask an Expert column fields this week.
"While your board president's behavior does sound egregious, in order to give her the boot, you'll have to stick to building protocol (and brace for a long, drawn-out dispute)," respond Brickunderground's experts.
That means you'll have to not only rally likeminded people but also pore over the building's bylaws to make sure you're playing by the book. Brickunderground's experts aren't kidding when they add that you should get ready for a long, drawn-out dispute, either.
The kinds of people who cause these sorts of problems are not shrinking violets, as we've reported in the past. And sometimes, it's the entire board that's the problem. Rare though that scenario may be, don't worry. Ousting an entire board is certainly difficult, but not impossible. Remember, nobody should have to endure a toxic, let alone hostile, environment in his or her own homes.