THE GENERAL MANAGER'S SALARY, DUTIES & MORE
A Factual Report & Commentary
See BLOG POST on the CAI: 'The CAI Could be Assuming Control of Your HOA'
There are serious concerns that our GM is greatly overpaid and his actual duties and job responsibilities have changed without resident input or votes. But the board claims residents have no say in the matter.
Salary Amount
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Our General Manager (GM) makes a higher salary than the Town Manager of Oro Valley. This is public information, within the public domain.
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What does he do for this large salary? He has an Asst. General Manager, who has an assistant as well. He also has his own personal assistant to answer emails and a staff list that has grown by 50% within his employment period. But our community has not grown in numbers.
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As a comparison, Saddlebrooke, a much larger community, has less employees than we do, and there is a 55+ planned community in Texas with over 9,000 homes with less employees. They have twice as many amenities than we have, they make profits on all of them, are never in debt and their dues have not been raised in over 13 years. (On that note, our previous GM ran our community on the motto:
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"I’ll always keep this community in tip top condition and in the BLACK.” Will our current GM live up to that?)
Salary on the IRS Forms
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The GM 's salary is listed on the community's IRS tax return. This IRS Form is open to the public. Looking at previous years, the salary has increased on average approximately 10% per year.
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There is also a section in its Schedule J that notates non-taxable benefits (i.e.; $23K in 2020). This amount can be used for trips and incidentals such as travel expenses and room & board to attend the Community Associations Institute's (CAI) training conferences across the country. (More on the CAI, at the bottom of this page.
The Duties of our GM as Outlined in our Governing Documents
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The GM's duties as stated in our current 21st Amen. Bylaws Article 8 / Association Management are written vaguely, yet relegate to board policies:
"If the Board so determines, the daily administration and operational functions of the Association shall be performed by a staff of employees under the control and supervision of a general manager who shall serve at the pleasure of the Board. The Board shall determine the effectiveness of the administrative and operational functions and may adopt policies that govern all relevant action thereto. Policies may include job titles, responsibilities of key managers, the manner of reporting to the Board, general guidelines for a management hierarchy, financial and supervisory limitations and other checks and balances and means of reporting deemed necessary for appropriate oversight of all aspects of Association affairs."
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We must question whether the board of directors is delegating the appropriate duties to the GM or giving him too much power and control. And, whether they have both over-stepped their authority.
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It is important to note that the duties of the GM outlined in our older Bylaws such as the 2009 13th Amen. Bylaws, Article 7.11 / Gen. Mgr., the 2003 9th Amen. Bylaws, Article 7.10 / Gen. Mgr., and the 1995 3rd Amen Bylaws, Article 7.10 / Gen. Mgr., state things concisely with highly specific duties from (a) to (g) which have been changed, somewhere along the line.
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Certain changes and amendments to our governing documents, which are legal entities, require a resident vote. Some revisions are being revealed to residents in board study sessions, documented for reference and then approved by the board at subsequent board meetings. But if there are significant changes being made to our governing documents however, without resident votes, this could be an infringement of HOA law.
Can HOA Change Rules Without a Vote?
"A homeowners association (HOA) operates by a designated set of rules and principles. The three main documents that govern HOAs are: Rules and Regulations; Bylaws; and Declarations of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs). These documents cover various aspects of the community, and changes to any of the documents could have a minor or significant impact on homeowners.
To make amendments to HOA rules, members of the HOA board must follow procedures. Although rules may vary from one association to another, there are some rules that every HOA must follow when making amendments, just as it must during any HOA board election campaign.
Amendments that have a minor impact on homeowners may not require a vote. Instead, the board of directors can discuss the matter, make a decision, and inform homeowners of its decision. If most board members are opposed to the decision, the issue may have to be reviewed."
https://electionbuddy.com/blog/2022/08/16/can-hoa-change-rules-without-a-vote
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It has been noted that at an average the verbiage in our governing documents is being amended approximately every 2 years or more. It is customary however in most HOAs that governing documents are reviewed only every 5 - 6 years. Dennis Legere of the AZ Homeowners Coalition viewed our governing documents and board policies. He said he had never seen so many amendments to governing documents and new board policies in an HOA before. In regard to the board policies, he stated,"While I totally agree that they are excessive, overburdening and dictatorial, they reflect the power management of the big government that your association has become."
Below is the GM's salary information from the fiscal years 2019 to 2021 on the Federal IRS Form #990. The salary increase from the year 2019 to 2020 was $18K, a 10% increase. Adding in this increase every year, it is possible the salary rate is currently up to $247K in 2023 including benefits. That's almost $50K more than the salary of the Town Manager of Oro Valley.
NOTE Our Association uses guidelines for general manager salaries listed with the 'lobbyist trade organization' called the Community Associations Institute (CAI), of which our general manager is an active gold member. (Could this be part of the problem?)
2021: $221K
2020: $208K
2019: $189K
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As a comparison, attached is a pay plan spreadsheet of the Town of Oro Valley's 2022 employee salary rates. Note the Town Manager on the top line, which states his salary ranges from $151,048. to $226,572. per year. According to Glassdoor, Tucson area community association manager salaries are calculated at an average of $75K, within a range of $54K to $114K.
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NOTE Oro Valley hired a new Town Manager in April 2023. His starting salary is $200K plus $10K set aside each year for retirement. According to calculations based on previous tax forms, our GM makes approximately $50K more per year.
Click the link below to read the Tucson Sentinel article about the new OV Town Manager.
A Comparison to the Salary of the Oro Valley Town Manager
Click the link below for Tucson GM Salaries
https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/tucson-community-association-manager-salary-SRCH_IL.0,6_IM869_KO7,36.htm
The Duties of the Town Manager of Oro Valley as a Comparison to our GM's Duties
All About the Community Associations Institute (CAI)
Our Association uses guidelines for general manager salaries listed with the 'lobbyist trade organization' called the Community Associations Institute (CAI), of which our general manager is an active gold member.
This organization originally had noble intentions at its beginnings in the 1970's and 1980's, to instruct Homeowners in how to run their HOA's, but today it is dominated by those in the trade businesses of HOA's, like property management companies, general managers, builders, architects, attorneys, realtors and other interest groups. Emphasis was shifted to legislative advocacy through paid lobbyists and grass roots mobilization of thousands of CAI members - limiting the influence of Homeowners, with the exact opposite purpose of which it had started.
The CAI in actuality, undermines Homeowners, it does not work to protect them. This is why Dennis Legere of the AZ Homeowners Coalition is diligently working at the State Capital to change our legislation to favor Homeowners' rights, and not the businesses who make money from our money. Also, according to AZ state law statutes, there are no requirements to hire registered or certified general managers in HOAs. And, there are no certification requirements for HOA general managers. With that said, we believe Homeowners would benefit by using management teams who are not affiliated with these types of trade lobbyist groups. In fact, Dennis Legere has stated jokingly in one of his lectures, "a monkey can do the job".
NOTE After reading the two web links below, Homeowners may want to reconsider hiring management staff or related HOA contractors affiliated with the CAI. There is a similar trade organization for general managers called the AZ Association of Community Managers (AACM). Our current GM is an active gold member of both organizations.
"CAI is a business trade organization, a tax exempt 501(c)6 non-profit serving its members to better serve the public, not an educational 501(c)3 non-profit. CAI does not inform subscribers or viewers of this fact. A business trade group does not educate the consumers of its members’ services, which would constitute a conflict of interest and a violation of its tax exempt status."
~ NeighborhoodsatWar.com
Click the links below to read about the Community Associations Institute (CAI):
http://neighborsatwar.com/2014/09/uncovering-real-community-associations-institute-cai/
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