(1) The governing body or a designated representative of the provider shall hold meetings with the residents’ council or meetings that are open to all of the residents in a continuing care retirement community at least twice a year for the purpose of free discussion of subjects that may include, but are not limited to, facility income, expenditures, financial trends, resident concerns and proposed changes in policy, programs and services. The meetings shall be open to a designated personal representative of a resident. In addition, the provider shall present for discussion any issue the residents’ council or any resident of the CCRC identifies orally or in writing 14 days or more prior to the date of the meeting.

(2) The provider shall give residents at least 45 days’ notice of proposed changes in fees, regular periodic charges or services. At least 30 days before an increase in regular periodic charges takes effect, the provider shall hold a meeting with the residents’ council or a meeting that is open to all of the residents of a CCRC to present the reasons for the proposed increase and any data supporting the need for the increase. A meeting described in subsection (1) of this section may be used for this purpose. At least 14 days prior to the meeting, the provider shall post in a conspicuous location and make available to each resident an agenda for the meeting. At the meeting, the provider shall make available an accounting of:

(a) Actual and projected income and expenses for the CCRC’s current fiscal year;

(b) Projected income and expenses for the following fiscal year; and

(c) The current charges for each living unit in the CCRC and the proposed increase to each charge.

(3) A provider shall review the CCRC budget with the residents’ council or a committee appointed by the council during the budget planning process.

(4) A provider shall make available to the residents’ council or a committee appointed by the council, at least twice each year, a financial statement for the CCRC that compares actual costs to budgeted costs, broken down by expense category.

(5) A provider shall maintain and make available to any resident, upon request, minutes of the meetings of the provider’s governing body. The provider may remove from the minutes information regarding any matters discussed in executive session or that relate to litigation, personnel, competitive advantage or an individual resident’s personal affairs, but may not remove information regarding the annual budget, increases in regular periodic charges, provider indebtedness or expansion in new or existing facilities. A provider shall retain the minutes for no less than three years from the date the minutes were created.

(6) The governing body of a provider shall allow at least one resident from each CCRC operated in this state by the provider to participate as a nonvoting resident representative on the governing body or along with the owners or managers. The resident representative may be excluded from any executive session and from discussion of confidential matters or matters related to litigation, personnel, competitive advantage or an individual resident’s personal affairs. The resident representative may not be excluded from discussion of matters relating to the annual budget, increases in regular periodic charges, provider indebtedness or expansion in new or existing facilities.

(7) The resident representative described in subsection (6) of this section and the representative’s alternate must be elected by a majority vote of the residents’ council of each CCRC or by a majority vote of all residents of a CCRC. The representative is responsible for submitting the representative’s name, address, electronic mail address and telephone number to the provider. The provider may establish the term for representatives and the procedures for election and replacement of a representative and an alternate.

(8) A provider shall send to each resident representative and alternate, at the same time and in the same manner as other members of the governing body, owners or managers of the provider, the notice of meeting and any written materials relevant to the discussions in which the resident representative may participate under subsection (6) of this section.

(9) The provider shall pay all reasonable travel expenses for a resident representative or alternate to attend meetings of the governing body and meetings of governing body committees.

(10) Nothing in this chapter prohibits a provider from allowing greater resident participation than the minimum requirements set forth in this chapter including, but not limited to, the requirement:

(a) Under subsection (1) of this section to hold meetings with the residents’ council or meetings that are open to all of the residents twice each year.

(b) Under subsection (6) of this section to allow one elected resident representative for each CCRC to participate in the provider’s governing body or along with owners or managers. [Formerly 101.055]