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WHEN
MEETINGS TURN INTO BOXING MATCHES!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
March 7, 2014
Most
of us have seen association meetings getting very emotional.
That’s no miracle since the topics of home and money stir up
minimum as many emotions in human beings as religion and
politics.
Shouting
matches are actually pretty common in such meetings. I have
watched many videos of meetings of board and/or membership
meetings turning pretty wild. I guess some folks wish they would
have never said what was shown on tape if they watch it a day
later. Too many people are making an a.. out of themselves at
such meetings. Never forget: Civilized meetings definitely
create better results!
But not all heated discussions just end in verbal exchanges with
lots of screaming and yelling.
Some
of these emotional discussions actually don’t stop with
threats, some really turn physical. Over the years there have
been many reports in the media about actual fights at such
meetings and people even going to jail over it.
I
still remember the story from
Ocala
where two homeowners attacked a representative of developer
Zacco at a meeting of concerned owners (see: Meeting
turns violent; two arrested).
For these two the meeting ended in jail. It seems the name Zacco
stirs up lots of emotions in
Ocala
’s communities as we could see at a recent HOA meeting
organized by the Division and Senator Hays. I think most owners
in that area feel that the police should rather arrest some
Zacco family members instead of homeowners.
It
doesn’t happen too often that such meetings turn violent, but
most often it is foreseeable that it might happen. There are a
lot of warning signs popping up before such confrontational
meetings! And the people in charge should take notice – before
somebody ends up in the hospital or the jail.
Sometimes
an off-duty police officer in uniform will stop the feuding
parties from getting physical.
But
police officers can as well create a lot of havoc at owners’
meetings. Remember the case of the Fontainebleau Terrace
Owners’ Association in
Panama City
Beach
, where police officer Donald
Nichols, in an attempt to help his “buddy” Cam Ray
McDonald, actually started the violence and arrested a condo
owner, injuring others? (THIS
IS A CONDO BUST -- NOT A DRUG BUST!). The police
department was sued and police officer Nichols resigned. But
guess what: He became a licensed
CAM
(License Number CAM36678). I guess he chose that profession in
order to be able to continue his bullying tactics?
But
in most instances hiring a police officer will guarantee a more
peaceful meeting – meaning the expense of paying an officer to
be present at the meeting pays dividend. Shouldn’t we all be
able to look forward to a nice community meeting without
screaming, yelling or even a brawl?
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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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