Owner Launches E-Newsletter To Be Heard By Board
By Daniel Vasquez, Orlando Sun Sentinel, June 19, 2012
So several months ago, Hadley started publishing an e-newsletter for his community of Century Village Boca Raton. The name: The Village Sentry, a play on words. His potential audience: 5,712 unit owners, living among a campus of 105 separate buildings.
Now the board pays attention, but how do they feel about Hadley’s homemade news service?
“As a snowbird who is gone six months of the year, I wouldn’t know what was going on if not for the Village Sentry,” said Milton Fischberger, a board member for the Cornwall C condo association. “As a director, there are things going on around here that you would think I would know about, but I wouldn’t know about it without Fred’s Village Sentry.
Fischberger cited a recent incident in which he first learned in the Sentry that the committee responsible for researching and recommending a vendor for the community’s paid TV service contract had been approached by local consultants willing to work for free — or at least free up front via a contingency contract.
“That’s something you would have thought I would have heard about, having attended those committee meetings,” Fischberger said. “But I found out first reading the Sentry.”
Hadley said he is attempting to make sure his fellow Century Village owners know about the particulars of the TV service negotiation process, such as the amounts of bids and consultant reports, before the contract and possible service fee increases are a done deal.
“So far I have not been allowed to attend the committee meetings or see any documents,” Hadley said.
That’s because Century Village’s Cable TV Committee is not an association entity, said Stanley Siegel, who serves as the chairman. He said the group is an ad hoc committee for a Century Village Boca Raton umbrella association, called COBRUA.
“We have no approval power, we don’t sign contracts,” Siegel said. “We will eventually make a recommendation, and each association will decide for itself which contract to choose. At that time all of the information and documents will be available to any owner. Right now, Mr. Hadley is the only person asking for it.”
Whether Siegel or Hadley is ultimately right about who has a right to attend Century Village’s TV committee meetings may be for a judge to decide.
Generally, “Florida’s Condominium Act requires that boards and committees empowered to take final action on a matter make their meetings open to all unit owners,” said South Florida attorney Dennis Eisinger, of Eisinger, Brown, Lewis, Frankel & Chaiet. “And they must permit all unit owners to speak with reference to all agenda items.”.
Expect Hadley to help make sure owner voices will be heard. One way or another.
Photo credit, www.centuryvillage.com
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