Condo Media - June 2023 - 46

The Region RHODE ISLAND
Of course, the board should protect
itself from being forced to disclose such
sensitive information by recording
in the minutes that those discussions
occurred during executive session.
The person responsible for taking minutes
should record the beginning and
ending time of the session. That person
should keep a separate log of those
executive session minutes.
Speaking of minutes specifically, the
next question raised is, " Can a board
refuse to release any minutes to the owners? "
That depends. The board can and
should take minutes, and again, except
for those taken during executive session,
the minutes should be released to the unit
owners. In Rhode Island, minutes are association
records, and a board's refusal to
provide them to unit owners upon request
could subject it to fines and penalties
under the RI Condominium Act.
A related question is whether a board
Meeting Minutes
What Information Should and Should
Not Be Recorded [By Frank A. Lombardi, Esq., CCAL]
Many owners have questions about
what happens at the monthly board
meetings, what can and should be put in
the minutes, and what part of the minutes
can be released to the unit owners.
First: What happens at board
meetings? Apart from the pre- and
post-meeting banter about what board
members did for fun the prior weekend,
by and large, association business
happens at board meetings. Since unit
owners comprise an association,
with certain exceptions, unit owners
are entitled to know the business
of association management and
operations. And the unit owners can
learn about the association business
conducted at those meetings by reading
the minutes. A basic summary or
outline of the issues discussed at the
46 CONDOMEDIA June 2023
meeting and the votes taken, if any,
should be put into the minutes.
EXCEPTIONS AND
EXECUTIVE SESSION
An important exception would be
discussions at the meeting with the
association's attorney concerning,
for example, an existing lawsuit or
potential lawsuit, the reason being that
such information is often privileged
and divulging it may prejudice the
association's chances of winning the
lawsuit. Another exception might
be the discussion of hiring or firing
a manager or staff person, again, the
divulgence of which might breach that
individual's rights of privacy, exposing
the board and association to liability
under state and federal laws.
can refuse to identify who voted on
certain issues. Again, unless in executive
session, the note taker should record who
voted for and against an issue. Although
it may cause board members some grief
from unit owners from a public relations
standpoint, this is association business,
and as such, votes should be transparent
to maintain the vote and the voter's
integrity. Besides, should it ever come a
time when a vote is challenged, then of
course, knowing and recording who voted
for or against a measure would be critical
to authenticating the actual vote.
UNIT OWNER ANNUAL OR
SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES
An executive board was recently
criticized for not being transparent
because it did not strictly follow
Robert's Rules when it prepared and
circulated minutes of the association's
last annual meeting. Just because the
board does not strictly abide by Robert's
Rules does not mean that it is a) not being
transparent, b) being undemocratic,
and/or c) scary. The unit owner critic
would seemingly want the board or its
representative to record every single
minute of discussion in order to avoid
a, b, and c. Not so fast.
Condo Media - June 2023

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