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PRESIDENT
OR DICTATOR?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
December 5, 2014
Many
presidents obviously think they are the community dictator –
or CEO.
Guess
what: THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY WRONG!
I
hear nearly daily stories about presidents who obviously adopted
middle names like Adolf, Joseph or Fidel!
Many
of these folks just ignore the bylaws of the community – or
even the
Florida
statutes.
Make
no mistake: The president is just another member of the board --
and has only one vote – like every other board member. A
president can’t just make “executive” decisions – unless
the board authorized his/her actions in a public board meeting
first.
A
president is just another officer with a few special tasks like
calling meetings, writing agendas and chairing board meetings
– and whatever other tasks the bylaws allow him/her to do!
But that’s about it – no matter what some folks think!
Remember:
A community association should be a membership
organization – not a dictatorship!
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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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