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DIRECTORS’ FEUD?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
May 26, 2017
A common
problem in many community associations: Feud among the board
members! It’s a lot more common than the people who are
supporting the existence of community associations want us to
believe.
I have
seen outrageous cases where presidents – in cahoots with
management companies – refused board members access to official
association documents. Or where asked to pay for the financial
documents needed to prepare for the upcoming board meeting. I
have seen even cases where board members were not even informed
that a board meeting was called. It’s outright ridiculous that
these kinds of abuses are left unpunished.
According
to the law every board member has one vote on the board –
meaning equal rights. Being an officer – like the president –
doesn’t give this person the right to make dictatorial
decisions. A president is not the CEO of a
for-profit-corporation, he/she is just the president of the
board with very limited decision-making power – mostly described
in the association’s Bylaws.
The main
problem I see is the fact that CAMs often support the power-trip
of a president who is signing their pay-check. These CAMs should
be held responsible for their actions, since these kind of
abuses often cost the association members lots of money – even
leading to costly litigation. Even association attorneys support
these “power-plays” – since “nice” litigation creates lots of
billing-hours for them.
Here goes
again the old saying: “Power Corrupts – And more Power
Corrupts Even More!”
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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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