ANNUAL MEETING: CHAOS BY ATTORNEY?

An Opinion By Jan Bergemann

Published January 8, 2016

  

I guess it all depends on the point of view – and who you are hiring to run your annual meeting with election. If the attorney is competent and knowledgeable, Eric may have a point saying that it might be wise to have the association attorney present – and in charge of the meeting.

 

But otherwise, you might be a lot better off running your own meeting. Saves money – and can save a lot of frustration.

 

I give you an example why having the attorney present to conduct the election may in my opinion defeat its purpose.

 

I attended in December the annual meeting with election of the OASIS AT PALM AIRE ASSOCIATION, INC. (regulated by FS 720) in Pompano Beach. The meeting was scheduled to start at 6:30 PM – and quite a lot of owners showed up. But there was no registration at the door and nobody seemed to know what should really happen. For about two hours absolutely nothing happened – besides a few formal statements being made. Attorney Russell Robbins scrambled to register present owners and the different kind of proxies that were submitted. Owners got totally bored, some even left being sick and tired waiting for the meeting to start. Two hours of nothing can really test everybody’s patience.

 

When owners asked why the meeting was so disorganized and obviously a total waste of time, Robbins claimed that it took so long because he was “threatened” with litigation if the election wasn’t done according to the Florida statutes and the governing docs of the community. I considered that “excuse” a total joke and wasn’t sure if he was really serious. Isn’t the reason for hiring an attorney to conduct the election to make sure that all rules and laws are followed – without any “threats”?

 

By the way, in my opinion Robbins still didn’t get it right – but that’s beside the point! In my opinion he still missed minimum one very important part of the governing documents of the association.

 

In my opinion this meeting was a clear example for not having the attorney present – and even running the election. We are talking here about less than 100 voters – in reality a small number of proxies and votes to be registered and counted. Requiring the owners to sit there and wait for about two hours is really testing peoples’ patience – owners who might be deterred from coming to the next association meetings. And we wonder why the attendance of owners at official meetings is so low in most associations? Even the most stupid comedy show on TV might have been more interesting than watching an attorney scramble to register less than 100 owners (proxies) for about two hours.

 

Here is my take on the issue of having the association attorney present at the annual meeting with election: Learn yourself how to conduct these meetings in a proper way – and save the association’s money for the arbitration proceedings that may follow such a meeting with election.

 

Make sure you understand: Even the presence of the association attorney at the meeting will not guarantee that everything was done according to the “book” – and that none of the owners will file for election arbitration.


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Jan Bergemann 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  

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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