California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed into law Senate Bill 528 (Aanestad), a bill intended to "add greater transparency" to the Common Interest Development Open Meeting Act, which sets forth rules governing the manner in which common interest development (CID) meetings are conducted.

CIDs include condominiums, community apartment projects, housing cooperatives, and planned unit developments. There are more than 41,000 CIDs in the state, ranging in size from three to 27,000 units. CIDs make up over four million housing units, approximately one-quarter of the state's housing stock.

As the senate legislative analyst noted, "CIDs are in some cases responsible for substantial budgets and have many of the responsibilities of local governments including maintaining the roads and other facilities of the common areas. Many view CIDs as quasi-governments because of the influence they have over the daily lives and financial well-being of individual owners." It is because of this vast influence wielded by some CIDs that the legislature has seen fit to craft a variety of laws governing the manner in which CIDs are both formed and operated.

The Common Interest Development Open Meeting Act was enacted in 1995, AB 46 (Hauser) was fashioned after California's Brown Act which sets rules for meetings of governmental bodies. For example, secret meetings are prohibited except for specific subjects regarding personnel matters and/or litigation.

Under current law, owners must be given at least 4 days notice of the time and place of any meeting to be held. The whole intent of this, of course, is to prevent surprises. SB 528 plugs a perceived loophole in the current act. Specifically, SB 528 requires that, now, the notice of a meeting must also include the agenda. Moreover, it prohibits the board of directors from discussing or taking action on any item at a non-emergency meeting unless the item was placed on the agenda included in the notice.

Anyone who has been surprised or sandbagged by items introduced under "new business" can appreciate this.

Under the new law, a majority of the board is still authorized to declare an emergency situation and to take action on that issue. Moreover, it allows for routine responses to statements or questions posed by a member who speaks at the meeting. Additionally, it would allow the board to direct the management agency or staff to report back on matters that had been raised.

SB 528 was not controversial and it didn't receive a lot of attention. But it's good law, and that's good news. How refreshing.

Published: December 20, 2007

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Bob Hunt is a director of the National Association of Realtors and is author of the recently published book, "Real Estate the Ethical Way." A graduate of Princeton with a master's degree from UCLA in philosophy, Hunt has served as a U.S. Marine, Realtor association president in South Orange County, and director of the California Association of Realtors, and is an award-winning Realtor. Contact Bob at .