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ANNUAL MEETING: CHAOS BY ATTORNEY?
An Opinion By
Jan Bergemann
Published
January 8, 2016
I guess it all
depends on the point of view – and who you are hiring to run
your annual meeting with election. If the attorney is competent
and knowledgeable, Eric may have a point saying that it might be
wise to have the association attorney present – and in charge of
the meeting.
But otherwise, you
might be a lot better off running your own meeting. Saves money
– and can save a lot of frustration.
I give you an
example why having the attorney present to conduct the election
may in my opinion defeat its purpose.
I attended in
December the annual meeting with election of the OASIS AT
PALM AIRE ASSOCIATION, INC. (regulated by FS 720) in
Pompano Beach. The meeting was scheduled to start at 6:30 PM –
and quite a lot of owners showed up. But there was no
registration at the door and nobody seemed to know what should
really happen. For about two hours absolutely nothing happened –
besides a few formal statements being made. Attorney Russell
Robbins scrambled to register present owners and the different
kind of proxies that were submitted. Owners got totally bored,
some even left being sick and tired waiting for the meeting to
start. Two hours of nothing can really test everybody’s
patience.
When owners asked
why the meeting was so disorganized and obviously a total waste
of time, Robbins claimed that it took so long because he was
“threatened” with litigation if the election wasn’t done
according to the Florida statutes and the governing docs of the
community. I considered that “excuse” a total joke and wasn’t
sure if he was really serious. Isn’t the reason for hiring an
attorney to conduct the election to make sure that all rules and
laws are followed – without any “threats”?
By the way, in my
opinion Robbins still didn’t get it right – but that’s beside
the point! In my opinion he still missed minimum one very
important part of the governing documents of the association.
In my opinion this
meeting was a clear example for not having the attorney present
– and even running the election. We are talking here about less
than 100 voters – in reality a small number of proxies and votes
to be registered and counted. Requiring the owners to sit there
and wait for about two hours is really testing peoples’ patience
– owners who might be deterred from coming to the next
association meetings. And we wonder why the attendance of owners
at official meetings is so low in most associations? Even the
most stupid comedy show on TV might have been more interesting
than watching an attorney scramble to register less than 100
owners (proxies) for about two hours.
Here is my take on
the issue of having the association attorney present at the
annual meeting with election: Learn yourself how to conduct
these meetings in a proper way – and save the association’s
money for the arbitration proceedings that may follow such a
meeting with election.
Make sure you
understand: Even the presence of the association attorney at the
meeting will not guarantee that everything was done according to
the “book” – and that none of the owners will file for election
arbitration.
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Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community
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associations. He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website: http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
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