Non Profit Road Association as of 2018, statutory previous to that since at least 2014

1. Bylaws state 1membership regardless of lots,   1 vote per member and dues assessed by lot based on conveyed deed approx $250 per year plus plowing. Dues have already been billed and paid for this yr.

Bylaws also require notification of agenda as per statute and bylaws cannot be changed without proposal and proper notice with 2/3 vote of those present. Members can designate a proxy.

We have 17 deeds. 4 owners own a second lot. Road is a shorefront road.

Our normal road maint has not occurred for the last few yrs as the contractor has been unreliable.

We also had 3 members with lots having residential structures (homes) develop their second lot adding a residential structure (homes with garages and separate septics). This has caused runoff that is damaging the road as well as other members property. Flooding their basement and erosion.

Additionally there has been 2 replacement homes and a couple with renovations. All of this has done considerable damage to the road and we need to address it.

We brought in a engineer who gave us an astronomical quote 6 figures. We decided at that meeting to get additional quotes and see if we could get grants or low interest rate loans (no success here) .

We met a second time a month later Agenda was "review quotes and discuss path forward".

During this time it came to some of our attention that not everyone (3 of the people with second lots) has been paying dues per the bylaws. Nor have they been named as not paying when others were named and decisions to go after them with liens were discussed and approved. This has been going on for years. There no listing of who paid what at our meetings just a list provided by the treasurer of those members behind in dues.

Of these people with developed second lots, 1 of these is the treasurer. The president has 2 developed lots and has been paying twice and stated it openly at the last meeting.

At the last meeting to review quotes and discuss path forward. There was only 1 copy of the quote retained by the president,  no numbers in writing or documents were provided ahead of time it was all just provided verbally at the meeting. No notice of voting on assessment was given.

Not everyone showed up for the meeting 4 members didn't.

A motion was made to vote on removing 10k from the current funds and 26k +- in special assessment from members. Motion approved.

Then the topic of lots and the bylaws and who should be paying came up and we spoke up and said the bylaws state its by lot. 1 person who hadn't paid started griping they can't afford to pay they have an undeveloped lot and others said that was never the intent of the RA it was "historically by family, 13 families" the historical meeting notes clearly show this isn't true it has varied.  Arms were waving and loud groaning and we were told to "be good neighbors" and pay based on family by the secretary who needs the road fixed ASAP due to his construction timeline.

We said this is what the bylaws you implemented and most of us signed state. In fact someof them signed twice and listed their second lot on the bylaws thats registered. Everyone acted surprised as if they had no idea whats in the bylaws and that they dont matter. The member whose wife is the treasurer who hasn't been paying for both lots  claimed it was never the intent,  made a motion to change the bylaws to pay according to 13 families. President said he would get a lawyer to bless this.  Of 9 -  1 voted no, 1 obstained. Motion approved.

Then a motion to divide the assessment by family was raised by president according to "new bylaws" $2070.00 out of pocket per family.  Motion passed approved by 7 of 9. Many of these members are very elderly and just didn't want to be seen as bad neighbors.

We then emailed the president saying there are problems with this that proper notice wasn't followed, that makes it unenforceable and the bylaws aren't being followed, the bylaws define what a lot is and the treasurer has a conflict of interest because she isnt paying for her lots and the spouse is bullying members into paying more so they can pay less.  President said he would read the bylaws and consult an attorney.

We are still expected to pay the $2070 plus they are taking funds out from the current funds for the 3 other lots that never paid in since they owned them. Dues were owed for 1 of those lots prior to them owning them and there is a historical record. No discussion ever on record that they didn't owe for the second lot.

We are concerned with what appears to be the complete lack of integrity of our board. Their inability to enforce the bylaws THEY had written and enacted. The treasurers failure to perform her duty and report all dues owed and pay her own.  President is unable to moderate meetings and maintain control and prevent the bylaws from being violated. Also we don't think a record of who voted is being kept.

Has anyone else experienced this and how did they deal with it? 

Unfortunately I don't think these people will vote for their own interests. Alot of thrm are in their 80s and 90s, hard of hearing. They already voted to pay more so the second home owners ( whose 2nd homes are worth more than most of the shorefront homes by structure) can pay less. We would have 4 maybe 5 votes. We are the  bad guys now that we exposed this fraud is happening and tried to force adherence to the bylaws. Not that we care.  We are doing what's right. We requested clarifications to the meeting notes and were ignored. We have been here and paid for 11 years and never imagined this was going on.

Any confirmation if we have asked for them to open the books for inspection they need to provide it? We asked for this and it's been ignored. 

Yes it says they have to make them available within 5 business days to any member. Also the treasurers husband emailed the whole group and said they carefully crafted the bylaws to reflect their "tradition of payment by family". That was their "intent". And he signed it with his and her names. They benefit from this as we are paying more so they can pay less and have a second lot w/ home on the road The bylaws don't say this anywhere. Nor do they say you only pay once regardless of how many lots.  We were never told this. I thought the intent of the bylaws was supposed to be to assess the costs of maintaining the road proportionally. I have never seen anything about incorporating old traditions in road association bylaws. Slavery was a tradition and it's wrong so we stopped it. This just gets weirder and weirder. The pres and treasurer have been exposed as benefiting from the construction of the bylaws that force everyone to cover their costs. We have all the notes and calls to meeting going back to when we bought.  We signed the bylaws after they were notarized.  if anyone has any thoughts pls feel free to share. We have no problem paying our fair share and have every year with no issue. But there is something untowardly going on here