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LET'S HAVE A DEBATE
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published October 19, 2020
There certainly have been a few
debates lately and there may be another on the way. Who Knows?
Maybe you think Trump won. Maybe you think Biden won. Maybe you
think Pence won or maybe you think Harris won. It doesn’t
matter if some of you even think the fly won. The bottom line
is that it's apparent that when it comes to voting, we want to
hear what our candidates have to say, at least those candidates
on the national or state stage. The question is why doesn't the
same feelings apply on the very local level that is your home?
When it comes to HOA elections,
many voters don't get to meet the candidate until the actual
night of the election. Oftentimes they don't even know who's
running until the night of the election. In condominium
elections someone running for the condominium board has the
option to include a resume in the second notice but may choose
not to. Therefore, the voters may not know anything about the
person running for the board of directors. How is one supposed
to decide who to vote for?
I have had the honor of serving
on a few occasions as a moderator at a “meet the candidates”
night at various associations. On this night the associations
ask the candidates who are running for the board of directors to
address the members of the community. Each one is given a few
minutes to speak and then the community has the right to ask
each candidate some questions. The truth is the incumbents
have it a little more difficult because they have to answer
questions about certain decisions they made in the past that
might have gone bad. Typically they hang in and do a good job
defending their positions however. The point is, that during a
meet the candidates night at least the voters get a chance to
see and hear from the people that want to serve their community.
The coronavirus has caused a
strange phenomenon to happen in our community associations.
Believe it or not I have seen more participation by board
members and non-board members than ever before. You can thank
video conferencing for that. The attendance at Community
Association meetings is the highest I have seen in my nearly 30
years of practice. People are enjoying the ability to
participate in the affairs of the community from the comfort of
their home and by simply turning on their computer and tuning
in. I am certainly suggesting that going forward every
Association have a meet the candidates night so that the persons
running for the board of directors have the opportunity to
address the members of the community and the members of the
community have the ability to ask questions of the people
running for the board. If it's important enough to have these
debates on the national level it should certainly be important
enough to have these question and answer periods when it comes
to your own community and your own home.
And Happy 89th
Birthday to my mom!
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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 Sachs, 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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