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Six of Columbia’s 10 villages met last month to choose representatives to serve on the Columbia Association Board of Directors. In two cases, a representative was not picked because the villages failed to reach quorum.
Those two villages will meet again on May 7 to select their CA board representative.
The Columbia Association, a massive homeowners group that in many ways functions like a city government, recently named a new CEO/president after being without one for well over a year. Shawn MacInnes, who mostly recently served as town administrator of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, is expected to begin his new role June 17.
How villages define a quorum differs. For example, Harper’s Choice defines a quorum as 10% of all street addresses, including all absentee property owners and apartments, according to Steve Ingley, manager of the Harper’s Choice Community Association.
The community also “reduce[s] the quorum based on vacancies that we are made aware of,” Ingley said.
For each village election, the Columbia Association is allotted a number of votes for quorum purposes only.
“The Columbia Association (the Corporation) owns property (lots and buildings) in the Village of Harper’s Choice. As such, they get to vote for each of the properties that they own, just like anyone else,” Ingley said in an email.
“Even though we didn’t achieve [a] quorum this year, it would be almost impossible to ever reach quorum without the CA votes,” Ingley added.
The individual village elections are not held like traditional spring primaries and fall elections.
“We are electing representatives/directors inside of a meeting,” said Craig Barton, manager of the Owen Brown Community Association, in an email.
“Think about how Congress works, rather than how a general election works,” Barton said.
CA Board elections are typically held at the end of April because members’ terms coincide with the Columbia Association’s fiscal year, May 1 to April 30.
Four village boards did not have CA Board elections this year due to differing term lengths: Dorsey’s Search, Kings Contrivance, Long Reach and River Hill.
Vote again?
Elections are in limbo for the villages of Harper’s Choice and Owen Brown. Both villages failed to achieve a quorum at their respective elections last month.
Harper’s Choice residents set out last month to choose between Alan Klein and Ashley Vaughan for that community’s board seat.
But the village fell 29 short of the 373 needed for quorum.
At next week’s meeting, valid mail-in ballots that were postmarked but not delivered on time will be added to the vote total, according to Ingley, the Harper’s Choice village manager.
“There will be no further voting. Members will approve the outcome of the election based on ballots received by the posted deadlines,” Ingley said in an email.
For the Owen Brown community, a total of 341 votes were needed for the April 20 election; only 288 were cast.
“Our quorum is based on the total number of lots within the village,” said Barton, manager of the Owen Brown Community Association, in an email.
Two candidates are running to represent Owen Brown on the CA Board: William Campbell and Michael Golibersuch.
For the Owen Brown May 7 meeting, Barton said, “quorum is automatically reached by those present … We no longer must reach 341.” He said this is based in state laws for homeowner associations.
“Whoever is present [next Tuesday] is quorum,” Barton added.
At that meeting, those present will decide to either accept the results from last month or choose to re-do the votes, Barton said.
Winners chosen
Three villages had uncontested CA board races: Karin Emery will again represent Oakland Mills on the board, as will Skye Anderson for Hickory Ridge. Collin Sullivan is the new Town Center representative on the board.
In the bylaws for these three villages, when there’s an uncontested race, the sole candidate is deemed elected.
In Wilde Lake, enough voters made it out on April 20 to not only reach a quorum, but elect their representative. Wilde Lake needed 332 votes for a quorum; 418 were cast.
William Santos, who currently serves on the CA Board of Directors, defeated Kathleen Uy by 18 votes. Santos received 218 votes, while Uy received 200.
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Jess Nocera is a regional reporter covering Howard County.
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