|
RECOGNITION OF PRESIDENTS?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published February 24, 2023
I know that there are many
good presidents who are working hard for the good of the
community, keep open books and openly communicate with the
members of the association.
But then there are lots of
presidents, drunk with power and full of themselves. You
wouldn’t believe the many ugly stories I’m hearing daily about
presidents behaving like Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler or Fidel
Castro. With the help of greedy attorneys and community
association managers they create dictatorships that make living
in community associations a living nightmare. They are even
willing to ignore arbitration and court rulings and continue
their evil doings even after being officially removed by
elections or recalls. They are even willing to waste the
association’s money on ridiculous appeals court filings.
The real reason why this
can even happen in a so-called “civilized” country like the USA:
The unwillingness of our government to enforce the many laws
legislators create every year.
Many of these laws turn
out to be just a waste of paper because too many of the
so-called “specialized” community association attorneys
are willing to help these dictatorial presidents to circumvent
these laws, telling owners, who stand up at meetings to
challenge actions of the board that violate the laws, to “sit
down and shut up since they don’t have the money to sue the
board anyway”!
Living in a community
association isn’t something you can just enjoy by not
participating, willing to ignore to happenings in the
neighborhood until it’s too late. Apathy of owners allows these
dictatorships to be created in the first place. Don’t let apathy
destroy your community.
REMEMBER: EVEN THE BEST COMMUNITY IS ONLY ONE ELECTION AWAY FROM
DICTATORSHIP.
|
|
 |
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
!
|
