Last year during the 2011 legislative session, Representative Cindy Acree was successful in passing House Bill 11-1110 to address open meetings and transparency in governance for “Residential Nonprofit Corporations.” As originally drafted, the bill would have included homeowners’ associations (“HOAs”) that were similarly regulated under the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (“CCIOA”). Since this wasn’t the intent of the bill, Representative Acree specifically excluded HOAs from the definition of "Residential Nonprofit Corporations" and focused upon independent senior living facilities.
Representative Acree used the meetings provisions of CCIOA as the foundation for her bill. Yesterday, Senator Tedd Harvey introduced Senate Bill 12-024 (“SB 024”) which would amend the requirement that committee meetings of Residential Nonprofit Corporations be open to members and agendas be made available to them. Senator Harvey is proposing that committee meetings be open and agendas be made available only if the committee “is authorized to take final action on the board’s behalf."
SB 024 is certainly contrary to the philosophy of CCIOA that members have a right to attend and observe the work committess are carrying out on behalf of their communities. If SB 024 is passed and ultimately signed into law, it will be interesting to see if this provides a precedent for a similar revision to CCIOA.