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ELECTIONS – OR SAD COMEDY?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published October 26, 2018
It’s autumn – the time when the
snowbirds are coming back South and many associations hold their
elections.
But do we really have “fair”
elections in Florida’s community associations?
I don’t think so. The legislators have done a horrible job
creating election laws – and the Division arbitrators are doing
everything in their power to confuse the situation even more.
Elections in community
associations are more a crapshoot than an election supposedly
creating a board managing the affairs of the association. There
are so many vague wording in the election provisions that
holding a fair election is nearly impossible.
Many of the big association law
firms are doing everything in their power to confuse the issues
even more by making sure that the wording regulating elections
in associations is more than just vague – and instead of finally
getting the message our esteemed legislators under the “great”
leadership of George Moraitis (Thank God for Term Limits)
created even more confusing language.
Honestly: Not even in Russia
they have election laws that allows a sitting board to appoint a
Nominating Committee that then is allowed to limit the
candidates for the election to the people they like – for
example their spouses. ONLY IN FLORIDA’S HOAs!
In condos legislators obviously
attempted to create 8-year term-limits for board members. But,
according to lots of attorneys with very different opinions, the
language the legislators enacted in FS 718 doesn’t really say if
the term is retro-active or not.
LET’S FACE IT:
We send former presidents to foreign countries to “observe”
their elections to make sure they are fair. BUT WE CAN’T
EVEN CREATE THE SIMPLE NECESSARY RULES TO MAKE SURE THAT
ELECTIONS IN OUR COMMUNITY ELECTIONS ARE FAIR!
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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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