When the president ignores the code

If a minority director violates the Code of Ethics, the majority wastes little time kicking him or her off the board. As this e-mail shows it is a little bit different if the president is accused of:
• making decisions on her own.
• keeping the directors in the dark.
• violating the Inside Management rule.
• provoking lawsuits from the contractors.
• hiring new contractors without a resolution from the board.
• ignoring the Condominium Act.

To:	President
	Vice-President
	Secretary
	Treasurer
	Directors
cc:	Management office
Date:	March 25, 2013
Re:	Failed to follow Directors' Code of Ethics

I am requesting, Maria Seyhan, President of YCC #l87 to respond my concern which I have noticed over few days and received complaint from past Board of Directors and unit owners.
 
Condominium Act protocols are not followed:

•	Failed to call BOD meeting and collect vote in dismissal of management company.
•	Failed to call BOD meeting and collect vote in dismissal of security company.
•	Failed to call BOD meeting and collect vote in appointing new management company at higher cost without 3 contracts proposal.
•	Failed to call BOD meeting and collect vote in appointing new security company at higher cost without 3 contracts proposal.
•	Failed to call BOD meeting and terminating Riviera contact without looking at termination clause, which could result in possible lawsuit to the Corporation.
•	Failed to call BOD meeting and collect vote in approving new union contract for five years without consulting with corporation lawyer.
•	Failed to call BOD meeting and collect vote in appointing new lawyer for corporation.
•	Failed to call BOD meeting and collect vote when changing locks of the corporation office.
•	There are many other items on the list where the President failed to follow Condominium Act protocols and failed to respect local YCC #l87 by-laws.

These actions could situate corporation in financial burden and lawsuits from contractors and homeowners. Banks might not finance people's homes when they are up for renewal or new loans if the condominium's status certificate shows many lawsuits.
 
The corporation is running in deficit and without studying budget for year 2013, the President has appointed new contracts at higher costs.
 
As a Board of Director, I did not know when all above decisions were made, nor was I invited into any meeting. I personally will not be liable for any damages these could bring to the corporation.
 
The Board of Director’s, who failed to comply with Condominium Act 1998 could personally liable for their actions. The Board of Directors, whom failed to follow the Reserve Fund Study, could personally liable for their actions.
 
I am requesting the board to call homeowners meeting to address all the above issues.
 
Dixant Patel
Board of Director
 
Note: Management office to print copy of this letter and hand deliver to all Board of Directors.

Well, that is quite the list of wrong doings isn't it. Did it do any good? Nope.

A second director protests
Here is another e-mail written about a week later. This time, the Secretary is protesting about a decision made by the same president

From:	Secretary
To:	President
	The other Directors
Sent:	Sent: Thursday April 4, 2013  11:58:13 AM
Subject:	Hiring contractor

Maria you can't do that. We all agreed as board members last time that no one that lives in the building would be hired to do work in the building. That was the reason why you decided to replace the security company.

Besides that if you are going to continue making decision by yourself, is not right. We all know that you are the President but nonetheless it does not give you full power to make decisions without consulting the rest. We are all directors and we need to discuss the matters.
 
I still don't agree with hiring Akber for the same reason of why you replace the security company.

The reply

From:	President
To:	The other Directors

We have to move on to the next step as we talked a lot about conflict of hiring someone lives in the building. The answer is we can hire the person that is not in the board and there's no conflict about it. So we are hiring Akber. I already told the manager about this.
 
Who controls the majority?
The president controlled the majority of votes on the board so she could ignore the two minority directors and so she did.

One director resigned. Later, a second director resigned. Then two others were pushed off the board.

See, the Code of Ethics only applies to minority directors, not to a president that controls the majority on a board.

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