Work Session Abuse

While serving on an HOA Board, it became apparent to me that work sessions were being abused. While, technically, there were no actions taken, thus avoiding the open meetings requirement, the fuller truth was that decisions were being made informally. Consequently, there was no real debate among directors when it came to subsequent formal board meetings, so an observer at that point was not getting anything close to the whole story behind votes. The decisions had already been made in secret and informally during work sessions. I know the counter argument well: we need to get work done and having members looking over our shoulders would interfere with that. I think the only way having members looking over one's shoulder interferes is in making a director think twice about what they may say. The latter is a good thing. I believe both Florida and California have made work sessions subject to their open meetings laws. I think Colorado should as well. Doing so with some harmless softening, like relaxing notice requirements or restricting work session observation to Zoom, would add to transparency while avoiding interference with getting work done.