A LABOR DAY TRADITION
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published September 5, 2016
Each year I love to write about how Labor Day
should apply to everyone, especially to those people who
voluntarily serve as officers and directors in our Florida
community associations. If anyone deserves a day of recognition
and a day to sit back, kick off their shoes and soak in the sun,
it’s these underappreciated people. This column is devoted to
them.
David Dogooder is the President of Far From
Paradise condominium in Palm Beach County. David is glad it’s
Labor Day and plans to concentrate today on using all the
wonderful amenities the condominium has to offer. He has invited
his family and friends over for a day packed with fun and
entertainment.
It’s time to prepare. David needs to run out
and get some food. He rushes out the door, only to bump into his
next door neighbor Yetta Yapper. Right off the bat, Yetta tears
into David and tells him that she’s tired of all the damm
commercials about Trump or Clinton on TV all the time and blames
David for signing that new bulk cable contract. Yetta swears
that if David didn’t sign that contract, there would be no such
commercials and thinks there’s also no need for anyone to be
paying for the internet, which she believes is useless and a
passing fancy. Yetta was a school teacher and likes old
fashioned books instead of computer screens.
David politely nods his head and sprints
toward the elevator. The elevator arrives, the door swings open,
and there is unit owner Jacob Jockey, and his support animal
horse. Jacob tells David that he learned that Florida law allows
someone to have a horse as a service animal. While David admits
that Jacob is right, he still tells Jacob that he thinks a horse
is too big an animal to keep in unit 403. Jacob demands his
right to keep the horse, telling David that the horse will help
him emotionally cope with what is expected to be a particularly
bad Miami Dolphin season. No time to argue, David gets to the
first floor and runs off the elevator.
The Board at Far From Paradise signed a
contract a few weeks ago to finally fix up the broken parking
lot. Of course the contractor, Paymefirst Construction, never
bothered to show up for the job. Until today. David’s car as
well as some of the neighbors, is blocked by several
construction vehicles. David isn’t going anywhere, without
calling Uber. That didn’t stop Frank Foulmouth from screaming at
David that David should be investigated by the cops and thrown
in prison for hiring his son in law to do the construction.
David reminds Frank he has no children and no son in law. Franks
doesn’t believe him.
David meets the Uber driver by the front gate
and goes shopping. David gets his food and comes back to the
condo. The security guard won’t let him through the gate because
the Uber car doesn’t have a Far From Paradise parking decal and
the driver does not have three dollars in exact change to park
in Visitor Parking. David reminds the security guard that he
simply wants to be dropped off, the driver isn’t staying, and
that the $3.00 or the parking sticker isn’t necessary. The
security guard, Blindas Abat, tells David that he gets no favors
just because he’s the President and he has to carry his
groceries through the parking lot that’s under construction,
just like everyone else.
David manages to carry his groceries
upstairs, but when he gets to his door, Lucy Deliar is standing
there. Lucy always seems to have no luck operating the laundry
machines on her floor and demands that David give her some
laundry tokens immediately or she will sue the hell out of the
condo for millions of dollars. David puts down his bags, goes
inside and politely returns with a few free tokens. Lucy doesn’t
say Thank You, turns around and leaves apparently in disgust.
David’s friends and family arrive. They are
all having a wonderful dinner in David’s unit. Until Norman
Nofareners bangs on the door. Norman demands that David come to
his unit immediately because the smell coming from his next door
neighbor’s unit is unbearable. David excuses himself from his
own party, goes to Norman’s unit, and sure enough smells some
sort of foreign dish being cooked right next door. David
explains that people have a right to cook what they want in
their own home. Norman screams “Not on Labor Day – it’s an
American Holiday --- hot dogs, burgers and chicken wings --- and
that’s it.” David politely disagrees and goes back to his party.
It’s been a long day, David’s guests finally
leave and David looks forward to calling it an evening. That’s
when security called and said that unit owner Victor Voyeur
apparently drank too much on this Labor Day and is in the pool.
Wearing nothing. And the neighbors want David to take care of
this unsightly problem. David has already seen too much today
and tells security to call the police and in a few hours when
they show up, they will remove Victor from the pool.
David finally gets to bed and ponders how
lucky he is to be going back to work tomorrow instead of
spending the day at the condo. David works as a high speed
safety test track dummy for General Motors.
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About
HOA & Condo Blog
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Eric Glazer graduated from
the University of Miami School of Law in 1992 after
receiving a B.A. from NYU. He has practiced community
association law for more than 2
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decades and is the owner of Glazer
and Associates, P.A. a seven attorney law firm with offices in
Fort Lauderdale and Orlando and satellite offices in Naples,
Fort Myers and Tampa.
Since 2009, Eric has been the host
of Condo Craze and HOAs, a weekly one hour radio show that airs
at noon each Sunday on 850 WFTL.
See:
www.condocrazeandhoas.com.
He is the first attorney in the
State of Florida that designed a course that certifies
condominium residents as eligible to serve on a condominium
Board of Directors and has now certified more than 10,000
Floridians all across the state. He is certified as a Circuit
Court Mediator by The Florida Supreme Court and has mediated
dozens of disputes between associations and unit owners. Eric
also devotes significant time to advancing legislation in the
best interest of Florida community association members.
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