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I'm currently the Board President at a large condo in Manhattan. We are now in our 5th year of the residential board. Our current voting process allows for proxies to either assign the proxy to someone in attendance at the annual meeting, or default to the Board President if the name filed is not filled in. We also allow candidate to run from the floor.
In the last 5 elections, the Board has remained consistent. The vast majority of proxies are assigned to the Board and therefore we tend to re-elect ourselves. Our finances are great with millions in reserve, low common charges, and a great staff and building environment.
However, there are a group of Board haters who claim this process is unfair, that they are not represented, and would like to use a ballot system. Two flaws I see with ballots are; lack of the ability to run from the floor, and difficultly achieving quorum (which is hard in our building without proxies). I suppose we would have to allow proxy in addition to the ballot, which makes things more complicated.
So my question is how do other buildings handle their election and what are the pluses and minuses of each systems? Do you allow early voting or do the votes require you to be present? Our by-laws are quiet on this subject so I'm curious of other buildings experiences.
Thanks
There should be ballot voting. to allow proxies to be assigned to the board is in any case quite unfair, of course the same board will continue. With ballot voting someone can still run from the floor, the person writing the ballot can always change it at the meeting if they so choose to. But allowing the board to re-elect itself w/proxies seems quite suspicious at best. The question is, does anyone else other than the current board members run for the board? If so, people can fill out proxies with the name they choose, not allow board members assigned to the board.
In our large coop we post notices about 5 weeks in advance of the annual meeting to have people who want to run submit their name. We distribute the official meeting notice several weeks before the meeting which includes the proxy ballots with the names and backgrounds of anyone who wants to run for the board. A locked ballot box is at the front desk for shareholders to vote in advance. They can also mail them in. We have a representative from the building attorney coordinate the counting of ballots at the annual meeting. The ballots allow voting for the individual board members or giving the board the proxy to vote on their behalf (which is hardly ever done). We require a majority of the shares to be present at the meeting or voting by proxy to constitute a quorum to hold the meeting and official vote. You can never get this by requiring that many to be at a meeting.
I appreciate the responses. A few comments. Typically we have around 80 unit owners represented at the annual, out of nearly 400. So we need a proxy system to gain quorum in the current model since most unit owners don't attend, or live abroad. The folks that do show up tend to be the vocal complainers with an axe to grind.
The proxy allows anyone to write in someone to vote on their behalf, or give the Board the proxy. We argue that if a unit owner give the Board their proxy, they are in fact OK with the status quo. In the last four 4 elections, the Board has achieved over 40% of the common interest with just over 50% of eligible unit owners casting votes. So a sizable majority of votes cast are given to the Board either through attendance at the meeting or proxy. If unit owners were that unhappy, they could always give their proxy to someone else if they choose not to attend in person, so to say that we're always going to be reelected is not true if enough people were vote differently.
But I agree that allowing ballots provides more opportunity to vote for candidates on an individual basis, but we still have the quorum problem which adds complexity to the process. Nearly 20% of the building is non owner occupied.
I'm leery changing a process that works, because of a few outspoken critics who think the system is unfair, because their candidate rarely garners more than 15% of the vote.
In the last three elections, we've only had 2 or 3 other candidates run that were not already Board members. And in each year we've had people run from the floor. They always get about 15% of the vote.
I've been told by the managing agent that this is very typical in NY City and only a few buildings use ballots. So this is interesting feedback.
Thanks
I sent that last comment a little too early - I own a Co-op and i am told that my lender is suppose to verfiy our insurance coverage trhough the Board of Directors. Is this something lenders do and has anyone seen how they communicate that to the board and how they determine a proper level of coverage?
This should be a new topic. You should be able to have the management co. for the coop provide the info directly to your lender, or have them contact the coop's insurance carrier to provide it to your lender. Generally, the coop has it's own underlying mortgage and that lender checks to see that the coop itself has adequate coverage.
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I too, live in a very large co op. Perhaps you might consider distributing ballots a few weeks before the meeting allowing owners to vote up until a set time at the meeting. Perhaps a locked box in the lobbies to collect ballots from those who cannot attend the meeting. An option to return the ballot by mail for snow birds or absentee owners. This will give people who cannot attend vote for whomever they choose. They can use a proxy if that is their choice. You can still have nominations from the floor if you choose to by allowing people to change their ballot on the night of the election. Be sure to have a line on the ballot with date and time so that only the last ballot cast is counted. My personal problem with floor nominations is that the voters don't have any time to learn about the candidate and might not vote as they would have with more information. If someone wants to run for the board they should be able to make up their minds at the start of the election process. Sometimes floor nominations are only used as a "spoiler" to prevent an announced candidate from winning. Give this some hard thought. You can then count the ballots THE FOLLOWING DAY, recount if necessry and announce the winners. I hope this is helpful.
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