The Board gave itself a power it doesn't have
Our Bylaws let the Board make rules “relative to the operation, use and occupancy of the units, common elements and Association facilities.” That means rules about our homes and our shared property. Nothing in the Bylaws lets the Board police what residents say about it.
The Board didn't amend the Bylaws to give itself that power. It simply passed a resolution.
Read the Bylaws' rule-making power (page 24)
It claims to reach everything you say, anywhere you say it
The policy says it applies to communications “in any form or medium, whether made in person or transmitted orally, in writing, electronically, or digitally,” and “regardless of where the communication originates or is received.”
Its only limit on where is that the communication must have “a substantial connection to the Association, its operations, or the community.” The policy never defines that phrase, and the Board decides when it is met. So a phone call, a letter to a neighbor, or a Facebook post written from your daughter's house in Florida is covered whenever the Board says it is connected to the community.
No one will tell you where the line is
The policy bans “incivility,” which it defines as “significantly unprofessional, abusive, harassing, hostile, or demeaning conduct” toward board members, management and others. It says its list of banned conduct is “illustrative and not exhaustive.” And the Board alone decides, “in its reasonable discretion,” whether you broke it.
Is “Board member Sally Doe is doing a bad job” allowed? What about “Sally Doe is a hack”? Or “my dog could do a better job”? The policy doesn't say.
When residents asked at the August 5 meeting where the line was, a trustee answered that “you have to trust that the people that you put in here in power will do the right thing.” The Association's lawyer said harassment “is subjective and it depends on context.”
You can be punished for what other people say
“Members shall be responsible for the conduct of their guests, tenants, and any other residents within their units, and shall be subject to penalties for violations of this policy committed by their guests, tenants, and any other residents within their units.”
The policy doesn't define “guests.” It doesn't require that you knew what they said, or that you could have stopped them. Your visiting son's angry email could cost you.
The Board can suspend you first and hear you later
If the Board decides a violation “endangers the health, safety or welfare of others,” the policy lets it suspend your rights and privileges immediately, before any hearing. The suspension stays “in place until the Association has confirmed that the threat to others no longer exists.”
Our Bylaws say the opposite: “No such suspension shall be taken by the Board until the Unit Owner is afforded an opportunity for a hearing in accordance with due process.” And the fines schedule the Board brought alongside this policy, which it has tabled for now, proposed suspending owners' voting rights.
Read the Bylaws' hearing rule (page 12)
A call to the police can make you guilty
The policy lists “conduct that results in intervention by law enforcement” as a violation. If a board member calls the police over your email and an officer shows up, you can be disciplined, even if the police find you did nothing wrong.
It was passed in the middle of an election
Ballots for the Board election went out on July 29. The Board adopted this policy one week later, with 26 days of voting left. For the rest of the campaign, anyone who criticized the Board's record had to wonder whether the Board would call it “uncivil.”
I don't believe that timing was a coincidence.
The “protection” for criticism is an illusion
The Board points to Section 3, which says members may voice “concerns, complaints, criticisms, disagreements, suggestions, or opinions” about the Board. Read to the end of the sentence: only if those communications “do not otherwise constitute conduct prohibited by this Policy.”
In other words, your criticism is protected, unless the Board decides it's uncivil. That is the whole problem.