If the assessment was an “emergency” then the Davis-Sterling voting requirement does not apply (from my understanding).
Also, if it was an emergency, then the issue of taking multiple bids is questionable due to time issues.
If one unit has a leaky roof, you can do a short-term patch but if multiple units were having problems, that might be enough to push it into an emergency replacement. Should be in the minutes though.
We changed our board at a normal election for all the seats. Nothing special. One guy had been a dictator for awhile, was afraid to raise the HOA, so we were spending more than taking in. Reserves were pathetic so we had to blindside him to get some changes. If you have an elevator in your complex, then $500 dues are not unexpected. $400 seems to be market rate. In DC HOA’s were hitting that in the late 90s. Units with doormen, fancy gyms have HOAs in the $700-1000 range.
At least in my building, being on the board is a thankless job. Kind of odd to talk about Brazil money when the money is held in escrow by your management company. This isn’t the Wild West, CA has plenty of regulations re: HOA management.