Our Property Manager (PM) has assumed various responsibilities at our Annual General Meetings:
- Sending notice to owners of the date and location of the meeting
- Including in the notice an agenda and the auditor’s report
- Attending the AGM
- Providing information to the meeting when requested
- Verifying owners in attendance
- Validating proxies
- Stating legal opinions
- Supervising the election of Directors
- Participating in the Director election vote counting
I have observed both the current and the previous PM in relation to the above list. It’s important to examine these roles to distinguish which are properly found within the PM’s contract. In my opinion, the PM is legitimately responsible for the first 4 items in the list. The PM should work with the Secretary on items 5 and 6 and might assist the Board, if asked, with item 7.
In my opinion, the PM should not be involved with the election, items 8 and 9. The PM’s company has a contractural relationship with our corporation, CCC #82. The Board of Directors represents the corporation so the Directors could be seen as the PM’s employer. Therefore, the PM’s involvement in election of Directors is a conflict of interest.
I don’t fault the current or previous PM for what has taken place. Boards have either encouraged the PM to expand her role or have passively allowed its expansion. Owners should prepare for the 2017 AGM with this in mind. One way to help such preparation would be a committee consisting of Directors and owners not planning to run for election. The committee could decide on best practices for the AGM.