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NO EXECUTIVE ORDERS PREVENTING MEETINGS IN PERSON
By
Jan Bergemann
Published December 17, 2021
There are no more executive orders
that will allow boards to circumvent the Florida statutes
regarding board- or membership-meetings or not to hold
elections. Zoom meetings may have been convenient for many folks
involved, but the owners have the right to attend meetings and
are allowed to speak on agenda items without being shut off by a
computer button. There are no more excuses for dictatorial
boards to cancel annual meetings with elections and stay in
power without having to face any challenges. It was sad to see
that many boards (in cahoots with their attorneys and CAMs) used
the Pandemic to cancel required elections and didn’t give owners
the opportunity to elect a board of their choice.
There is a reason that the statutes
require meetings in person: No more hiding behind computer
screens!
I have in the past 18 months received
many complaints from owners who attended these “ZOOM”-meetings
and who were not given the opportunity to speak at these
meetings. In some cases owners were even informed that there
will be a board meeting, but were not given the access code to
the Zoom meeting.
It’s high time that things return to “NORMAL”
and meetings are again held according to the requirements of
statutes and bylaws.
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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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