I have never heard of such ugly behavior as is being exhibited by the board of our condo association.

We received notice today that our new member has resigned. He doesn't have the time to put up with bullshit. He travels all over the country all of the time.

Lyman won't let me name names. There are people that you should avoid in your to day to day congress with society. Two are in the Birmingham area.

UPDATE: Please allow me to compose myself. Ahem. Ahem.

On 5/31, there was a board meeting by teleconference. At that meeting, the board determined that we would change from our present property management company to another on site of the complex.

There are distinct advantages to the change, in that the new management company would be devoted to our complex. At a party during our meeting weekend, Lyman spoke to the man who would be our representative with the new company and was impressed. It is not his fault that the owner of the company sold her proxies to the board for the contract. That, dears, is another issue.

Mr. S, our new board member, prepared an e-mail for the membership informing us of the events at the meeting. He was asked to hold back until the current contract holder could be informed. He did so.

It so happens that the new contract had not been finalized when Mr. S sent the e-mail. That information was not passed to all members of the board, including Mr. S.

The Craven lawyer called Mr. S to set up a meeting. They met for breakfast. The Craven requested that he be allowed to review all communications prepared by Mr. S for the membership to avoid legal ramifications. Mr. S agreed to let him review any communications that might touch on legal issues, but said that otherwise, he would pass on such information to the membership as he deemed fit.

Mr. S then received a call from the president of the board asking him to be available for a phone call. The president then drove to the treasurer's house so she might have a witness to the conversation. She proceeded to tape the conversation.

Madame president informed Mr. S that his decision to not allow the Craven to review all of his communications was "totally unacceptable". She gave him what Mr. S called a "verbal reprimand". She told him he was violating "official board protocol". There is no such protocol in the Bylaws or Declaration of our association.

She then told him that she had spoken to all other members of the board (except for Mr. C), and there would be a teleconference about what "to do about Mr. S".

The treasurer then berated him, telling him he should not be communicating board information.

Mr. S says, "No one is going to tell me with whom, when and what information I can provide to my fellow owners."

That's the gist.

Apparently there is a good deal more, which Mr. S suggests might best be related over drinks at someone's dining table.

I am fit to be tied.

I have backhanded out of control managers before, and I'd like to do it again, several times over.

UPDATE II: We received with our association bill a summary of the owner's meeting in May. It contains two pertinent lies.

Where is their sense of shame?

Or more to the point, what the hell is the matter with these people?

There must be some underhanded money somewhere.