Reply To: Strata manager stacks agenda then chairs meeting

kaindub wrote:

You are confusing roles here, The chair of the meeting conducts the running of the meeting, ensuring everyone is able to debate any motion. You could just as easily have the real chairman, or any other agreed party to be chairman.

I think you miss some of the key aspects of what is going on here.
The agent has fiduciary duties. There is a massive conflict when it comes to being Chair for this motion because the Chair has such a huge financial interest in the motion. The issue arises when the Chair is asked to rule the motion out of order. There is a whole lot more to being Chair than seeing orderly conduct and discussion.

We have the agent as Chair and questions are asked about the validity of a motion that has a $140k potential benefit for the Chairs company. Even if the Chair declares the interest where does that leave them; they are still Chair and they still have the $140k interest. Of course they are not going to rule the motion out of order.

Then there is the agents’  fiduciary duty to act in the OCs best interest. See PSA Reg – General Rules for all Agents
Most people do not even know there are general rules in the PSA Regulation for agents.

Is it in the OCs best interest for the agent to give some guidance when the OC could save $10k+ per year, of course it is. If this was related to say a water ingress issue then it is highly likely the Chair (agent) would say “save the 10k” and go with quote B if the OC is getting the same service and product as from quote A which is $10k more.

The issue might be better said as how does the agent juggle the fiduciary duty with their personal financial interest?

“… easily have the real Chair”.
No, the ‘real’ Chair would not touch it. Our SC is a show up, make a few decisions which are normally about items not on the agenda, posture and go home SC. They have next to no knowledge of the SSM Act and really don’t care for it anyway.