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TERM LIMITS – OR "FOREVER" BOARD
MEMBERS?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
October 24, 2014
The discussion about creating provisions to term-limit board
members in community associations is going on since many years.
Both sides of the ongoing argument have good reasons supporting
their opinion of why term limits would be bad – or useful.
Apathy – or the unwillingness of many owners to serve on the
board -- speaks in favor of the opponents of term limits.
Proponents claim that certain board members serve forever
because the election provisions in HOAs are so vague that board
members willing to stay on forever can create an election
environment that makes it impossible for volunteers to get
elected, allowing the sitting board members to stay on the board
“forever.”
Yes, there are communities where nobody really wants to serve on
the board, but there are as well communities where the sitting
board members are unwilling to hold fair elections in order to
give other volunteers the chance to serve.
With the momentary valid election provisions in FS 720.306 – the
Florida statutes regulating HOAs – any board willing to continue
to stay in power can easily create election rules making it
impossible for other candidates to challenge the sitting board.
In cases like this anybody can easily make the case for creating
term limits for board members, preventing “little dictators” to
be on the board forever.
With such a scenario term limits come in handy – wouldn’t you
agree?
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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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