Governor signs community association pay bill

Gov. Tim Kaine last week signed a revision of the Property Owners' Association Act (POAA) that allows members of community associations to get salary information for the top six persons earning over $75,000. The revision takes effect July 1, but the salary threshold does not include medical and dental benefits, retirement or FICA contributions, which can total another 30 percent above salary.

Currently, only aggregate salary information is available. The bill also specifies that all books and records of the association, including individual salary information for all employees and payments to independent contractors, be made available to members of the association's board of directors.

The POAA change was made possible when three Brandermill residents - Charlie Davis, Dr. Bob Friedel and Bob Malek - partnered with Majority Leader Morgan Griffith (R-Roanoke/Salem). As a Brandermill board member, Friedel complained that he was prohibited from knowing individual salaries even though he votes on the association's annual budget of over $2 million.

"I am pleased that the POAA has been amended to enhance the necessary oversight of association budgets while balancing that with the needs of staff privacy," he said.

Sponsored by Griffith, a more transparent House Bill 2305 sailed through the Virginia House of Delegates on a 98-0 vote, allowing association members to obtain the compensation of all employees, but it was watered down in the Senate. On a 4-1 vote last October, the Brandermill Board of Directors defeated a motion to release salary information to board members for consideration of its 2009 budget.

The Community Association Institute opposed releasing salary information, saying community associations are private, non-stock corporations, which are not like governments. Last year, Brandermill Community Association President Joel Bradner called the change "unnecessary," saying it could jeopardize the ability of community associations to recruit and retain employees and be "a breach of privacy" for their staffs.