Fall is here, and many community associations are planning annual meetings and fiscal budgets. On average, community association residents connect three to four times per year with their community’s governing board, according to the Homeowner Satisfaction Survey conducted by the Foundation for Community Association Research. One of those bonding events is the community’s annual meeting.
Annual meetings are required by the community association governing documents, which specify when it will be conducted, as well as how and when members will be notified about the meeting. Members receive the new budget, elect a new board, hear committee reports, and discuss common interest items. Annual meetings are a perfect opportunity for Legislative Action Committee members to promote ongoing advocacy efforts and encourage financial contributions to their state LAC.
CAI LAC Fundraising and Contribution Opportunities
CAI LAC members fundraise throughout the year. One way is by encouraging communities and clients to add a budget line item to support CAI’s Dollar-a-Door campaign. Communities also can make a flat donation to the state LAC. CAI also has a sample community association board resolution or a CAI state LAC contribution form to share with communities. Please let CAI’s Government and Public Affairs team know if you need a state specific Dollar-a-Door flyer at government@caionline.org.
CAI’s Dollar-a-Door campaign encourages community associations to consider donating $1 per door or more to their state LAC. We encourage LAC members and communities to consider adding an annual budget line-item contribution to their state LAC.
LACs are diverse groups of homeowner leaders, community managers, and representatives from community association business partners that provide perspective to legislators on how proposed legislation could impact people living and working in community associations. LACs monitor state legislation, educate lawmakers, and protect the interests of those living and working in community associations throughout the year.
Each committee is comprised of homeowner leaders, community managers, and business partners who graciously volunteer their time to track legislation, speak with legislators, and keep homeowners informed and involved if problematic legislation is introduced or beneficial legislation needs support.
Along with CAI’s dedicated volunteers, many LACs hire and pay for a lobbyist. Without CAI’s lobbyists, the community association industry would not experience the level of success it has when advocating for the 75.5 million Americans living and working in community associations, according to the Foundation.
Contributions from community association boards and companies are critical in helping LACs fulfill their advocacy mission. Most community association boards can legally allocate money to support the LAC. Please check your governing documents before donating. You don’t have to be a CAI member to contribute to a LAC. Corporate contributions are allowed and appreciated. Homeowner leaders, community managers, and business partners should consider encouraging their communities to budget for an annual LAC donation today.
Click here to donate to your LAC.
Learn more about your state’s LAC here. Please contact CAI’s Government and Public Affairs team with any questions regarding LAC fundraising opportunities at government@caionline.org.
To be clear, you are recommending that association boards insert a line item in their budgets for their associations to become involved in politics and influencing legislation by contributing to political action committees? Even though under state law and association governing documents, association funds are only permitted to be collected (as levied assessments on properties) and used for common area and controlled facility maintenance, and for incidential business expenses related to those purposes, such as maintaining a bank account and filing tax statements. Perhaps paying a property manager. The purpose of community associations is to take care of common real estate, not to get involved in politics.
The following information is from the Davis/Stirling Law Firm site https://www.davis-stirling.com/HOME/B/Buck-A-Door-Program
Can HOAs legally contribute to CAI’s buck-a-door program?
ANSWER: Yes, they can. The program is not a political action committee and does not contribute to any political campaigns. Instead, it pays for a consumer advocate hired by the Community Associations Institute’s California Legislative Action Committee (CAI-CLAC).
Each year, 2,000 to 3,000 bills are introduced into the legislature and CLAC tracks bills affecting associations. CLAC is composed of homeowners, managers, and attorneys from around the state dedicated to protecting and improving California’s community associations. CLAC members attend regular meetings where they discuss legislation and decide which bills to support, modify or oppose. They then work to educate legislators on the impact of a particular piece of legislation.
Through the buck-a-door program, associations contribute one dollar per residence per year to support CLAC’s valuable work. The money pays for our consumer advocate, printing, postage, and other incidentals needed for CLAC’s operations.
Recommendation: Boards of directors should build into their budgets an annual donation to CLAC. To make a donation, see Support CAI-CLAC or CLAC’s Pledge Form.
This law firm’s declarative response of “Yes, they can” is not the legal assurance an association needs to direct funds from its only legal purpose of maintaining common areas and specific areas of responsibility on private lots (controlled facilities). If a law school student responded on a law exam like that, the grade would be an “F” for not citing legal basis and no analysis. What part of any association’s governing documents allows this type of spending? What state statute requires or allows it? I have owned property in states under the UPCA and under legislative-drafted laws, and neither has even suggested an association can use assessment funds to contribute to a PAC. Assessments are the member/owners share of the costs to maintain the association’s property.
Just a guess here, but the suggestion of $1 per home sounds like an amount small enough that association members would not be likely to raise an issue or lawsuit over it even though it may be an illegal use of association funds. Until I see a legitimate legal basis for this, I’m not buying it.
One of the most underreported scandals and abuses is how HOA boards and management companies use third-rate lawyers to concoct contrived, unsubstantiated legal opinions as a CYA to support their unlawful activities. The lawyers are basically just selling their letterheads. No other professional gets away with such abuses. If we had a functioning media, there’d be a lot of converse of this issue.
One of the most underreported scandals and abuses is how HOA boards and management companies use third-rate lawyers to concoct contrived, unsubstantiated legal opinions as a CYA to support their unlawful activities. The lawyers are basically just selling their letterheads. No other profession gets away with such abuses. If we had a functioning media, there’d be a lot of coverage of this issue.
To be clear, I’m not seeing how being involved in legislative action is any better than being involved in political action. It’s a one-off, because it still supports politicians to do CAI’s bidding, and still not relevant to the purpose of a community association. Not to mention, a board taking a position on legislation for an entire association is inappropriate as not every member may agree with the legislation.