We provide a free Job Market where associations and management companies can post job openings. If you are looking for a manager, manager assistant, maintenance supervisor, etc. the Association Job Market gives you quick and easy access to industry specialists.

Job Alert. In addition, we provide free automatic email notification to job seekers whenever a new job is posted. This "Job Alert" service quickly brings managers and employers together.

Salary Surveys. Our website also provides the results of salary surveys to help boards determine appropriate compensation levels for management candidates. We update our surveys every two years and will be conducting new ones in the next few months. If you are an onsite manager and wish to participate, please notifyAdriana Hernandez.

NUMBERED BALLOTS

QUESTION: Our board recently mailed secret ballots to homeowners to vote on a proposal brought to the board by a homeowner. However, we noticed that every ballot was given a number before mailing them. Doesn't the ballot numbering effectively make them no longer secret ballots, since the board may have a list identifying which ballot went to which residence?

ANSWER: The numbering on ballots might be an innocent control mechanism to ensure there are no duplicate ballots so as to prevent ballot box stuffing. This system was used by many management companies prior to the new election requirements in the Davis-Stirling Act. However, since all voting must now be done be secret ballot (Civil Code §1363.03(e)) there should be NO markings on ballots that could be used to identify voters.

MANAGEMENT PROXIES

QUESTION: At our last annual meeting, some homeowners designated the management company as their proxy. Other owners voiced concern over possible conflicts of interest since the next board would determine if that company's contract would be continued. When the question was raised as to who could act as a proxy, the manager claimed that even a dog could be designated as a proxy. Is that true?

ANSWER: Although the Corporations Code does not restrict who may act as a proxyholder, the Davis-Stirling Act does. It limits proxyholders to members only.Civil Code §1363.03(d)(1)(A). As a result, neither a dog nor the management company may serve as a proxy.

SIGNED BALLOTS

QUESTION: If owners sign their ballots, does it invalidate them?

ANSWER: No, signing ballots does not cost owners their votes; they simply lose their anonymity. Restrictions on signing are imposed on associations, not owners. As such, associations can not require that members sign their ballots. Civil Code §1363.03(e). Hence, inspectors of election should not invalidate an owner's vote just because they inadvertently signed their ballot.

CHECK SIGNER MARRIED
TO CHECK MAKER

QUESTION: Our treasurer is the primary check signer; he is also married to our office clerk who prepares the checks. Is this spousal relationship in conflict with the Davis-Stirling Act???

ANSWER: The arrangement is not illegal, but the board could be deemed negligent because the arrangement lacks internal controls. Because the check maker and the check signer are married, (i) the signer might not examine checks and invoices for accuracy or (ii) the two could conspire to embezzle funds. It does not mean they will, but the association is vulnerable. The more prudent course of action is to make someone else treasurer and remove the existing treasurer as a signer on the bank account. This protects everyone, including the office clerk and her spouse/director.

QUESTION: The vice president of our board has sold his place and is moving. Another person will be appointed to take that board member's seat. Does the new director automatically become vice president?

ANSWER: No. The office remains open until theboard decides who to designate as vice president.

WRITE-IN ELECTION
FOR RESIGNED DIRECTOR

QUESTION: I had a temper tantrum and resigned last summer after a dispute with another director. At our annual election, homeowners voted for me as a write-in, so I was elected. I just received a letter from our management company that says the "nomination is considered invalid due to my resignation." Can they keep me off the board?

ANSWER: Unless your governing documents state otherwise, your resignation from one board does not disqualify you from being elected to future boards. As provided for in Civil Code §1363.03(a)(3), qualified candidates may nominate themselves to serve on the board.