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TERM LIMITS: YES OR NO?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
August 4, 2017
I don’t think there is a doubt that term limits are important --
not only for legislators. And I personally believe that there
should be term-limits as well for board members of community
associations.
It’s actually a shame that the wording regarding term-limits
created by HB 1237 is not very clear – not as clear as it should
be.
Actually, the wording, as enacted this year, leaves many
questions open. From being retro-active to which terms are
really limited is obviously a matter of “interpretation” -- as
the many different opinions published by various law firms and
their attorneys show.
But, like many reform bills over the years, the provisions in
the bill are a “Work in Progress” and will undergo quite a few
changes in the next few years.
In my opinion the term should be EIGHT (8) YEARS, no
matter if the board members were elected for a 1-year or 2-year
term – and it should be retro-active.
The term-limit provision was added to FS 718 for a reason – and
starting anew now would leave the “problems” in place for
another eight years to come.
And I doubt that was in the mind of our elected legislators when
they enacted this bill.
Legislative intent is always a tricky argument because in all
reality it would take a mind-reader to know the actual “INTENT”
of all these legislators involved.
So, minimum for another year, we will see the fights over
term-limits continue, much to the pleasure of certain attorneys
who will argue this point at length – charging “good” money for
it.
I wish that the “conferences” about these reform bills – and the
discussion over the necessary wording – would take place long
before the bill is actually filed in Tallahassee. Once the
session starts there is little time to work on much needed
changes to the initially filed wording, which leaves us with the
necessity to work on “REPAIRS” of enacted bills
for the next year.
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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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