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SUCCESSFUL ANNUAL MEETING – PART TWO – CURBING THE VIOLENCE
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published
March 3, 2014
A
few weeks ago, we blogged about how to run a successful annual
meeting. I not so
jokingly said the best way to make the meeting run smoothly was
to order food. Lots
of it. I also made
it clear not to serve liquor.
I wasn’t joking about that either.
As many of us know, liquor tends to fuel the emotions and
removes the filter from people’s tongues and brains.
There is already so much pent up feelings at these annual
meetings that adding liquor can only be equated to adding fuel
to the fire.
In
fact, in the case of Hidden Harbor Estates v.
Norman
, the Forth District Court of Appeals upheld a rule of the
condominium board of directors who voted to preclude any
alcoholic beverages in the clubhouse.
The Court found the rule to be perfectly reasonable, and
so do I.
Just
recently, at one of our Condo Craze seminars, a new vendor got
loaded and sexually harassed two wonderful attractive female
friends of the show. He
was escorted out, putting it nicely.
At a recent bar b que I attended, after pounding back a
few, some guy who appeared to be very friendly, went on to
explain to me how not a single Jewish person died in the 9-11
tragedy in New York because “the Jews knew the planes were
coming and signaled to each other in advance to stay home from
work that day.” He
was not escorted out so nicely.
And that’s all I’ll confess to about that.
These
fights took place at friendly events.
It certainly begs the question as to what would happen if
liquor was served at no so friendly events like an annual
meeting. If liquor
is to be served however, the association better purchase a
liquor liability policy in advance.
Several
times I have watched annual meetings or board meetings turn
violent. Just this
week, at one Board meeting I was pretty happy to have two Metro
Dade Police Officers in attendance after I had to advise someone
with a prior felony conviction that he’s now off the Board.
In
Hallandale
a few years ago, I had to be escorted to my car at 1:00 a.m. by
a police officer after a guy in a drunken stupor started
screaming at me “You are my lawyer and you will do what I
say.” He
eventually did what the Hallandale Police said.
In
a tough economy, it seems that everyone’s fuse is a little
shorter. The
situation is compounded in those communities that do a poor job
keeping their owners advised of association matters throughout
the year. The more
communication, the less distrust amongst the owners of the Board
and management, and even of the association attorney.
The more communication, the greater likelihood of a
smooth sailing annual meeting.
A growing trend by associations is to have a police
officer at the annual meeting.
If there is any concern whatsoever that the meeting may
become violent or the crowd or even specific individuals may
become unruly, having a law enforcement officer at the meeting
is a wonderful idea. Owners
may scream in the face of Sally, the 94 year-old President, but
they’re probably not going to do it if Joe Police Officer is
sitting next to her. Better
safe than sorry.
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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 is currently entering his 20th year as a
Florida
lawyer practicing |
community association law and is the owner of
Glazer and Associates, P.A. an eight attorney law firm in
Orlando
and Hollywood. For the past two years Eric has been the host of Condo Craze and
HOAs, a weekly one hour radio show 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 7,000 Floridians. He is certified as a
Circuit Court Mediator by The Florida Supreme Court and has
mediated dozens of disputes between associations and unit
owners. Finally, he recently argued the Cohn v. Grand
Condominium case before The Florida Supreme Court, which is
perhaps the single most important association law case decided
by the court in a decade.
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