Declaration Review Committee

The board has decided to review our declaration and bylaws. I think this is probably a good idea, considering that our declaration was adopted in 1979.

From the PTCondo web site: If you would like to be considered for membership to this Committee, please let us know by Monday June 1st, when the Board is expected to appoint Unit Owners to serve.

Now that's a very interesting statement. What right does the board have to appoint members to this committee? Apparently, they're not aware of the ramifications of the Palm Ruling.

From our association attorney, David Bendoff in regards to this aspect of the Palm ruling:

Most notably, the order provides that the phrase "conducting board business" in Section 2(w) of the Illinois Condominium Property Act, defining a "board meeting," encompasses discussions by a gathering of a quorum of the board, and includes activities by a board in workshops. This was startling and is an expansion of what was otherwise the understanding in the industry as to what constitutes a board meeting.

Further from the same web page:

The ruling calls into question the use of board appointed "commissions" to do the board's business in the absence of express authority in the declaration, and notes that any business of the board must necessarily be conducted by the entire board.

Now it stands to reason that any commission or committee conducting business on behalf of the board is an extension of the board itself. Therefore the same rules that apply to a board meeting must apply to any such committee.

Any association member can attend any meeting they care to, with only 3 exceptions:
  1. information regarding the hiring and firing of employees
  2. rules violations or unpaid assessments
  3. pending or potential litigation involving the association
For the board to state that they will appoint members to this committee is to stack the deck in their favor with appointees that will advance the agenda of the board, not the desires of our association members. If we're going to form an ad hoc declaration review committee then the members of that committee should be volunteers from the association at large. We don't need nor want the board to insinuate their surrogates into this committee.