OWNERS' RIGHT TO SPEAK AT MEETINGS! COMMENT |
An
Opinion By Jan Bergemann Published December 23, 2010
COMMENT TO "Florida limits condo owner rights to speak"
Let's just face it: Nothing in the statutes prohibits owners to ask questions and/or boards to answer questions. Nothing in the law requires board members or owners to stick to agenda items regarding questions from owners at board meetings. Neither the provisions in FS 718 (Condominium) nor in FS 720 (Homeowners' Associations) disallow any questions being asked by owners to be answered by the board. The provisions address the minimum "RIGHTS" granted to owners in regard to speaking at board meeting -- nothing else.
The same goes for tape recording and videotaping of board meetings [FS718.112(2)(c) and FS720.306(10)]. The provisions explain the minimum rights owners have.
It is clearly up to the board and its members to allow questions -- outside the agenda -- to be asked and answered. The wording in the statutes regarding these issues clearly leaves it to the board to answer questions from the audience.
We hear always complaints from board members that the owners are not interested and don't attend the board meetings. In all honesty, would you like to waste your time with attending a board meeting where you are told to sit down, shut up and listen to the board's discussion and decisions -- often already prearranged by computer?
The wording of the provisions, pushed by the lawyer lobbying groups, is nothing but a defense for bad boards -- boards that have something to hide.
The interpretation of the law in this article is exactly what attorneys looking for billing hours want everybody to believe.
But this is not what the law really says: There is nothing in the law that disallows boards to answer these questions -- if they just want to! It is up to the board -- and especially the president -- in this case hiding behind the attorney -- to answer anything they want.
There is only one good way for owners to deal with board members with an "attitude": Beat them at the next election or recall them real fast, before your money buys the association attorney a new Mercedes. Board members who can't even answer simple questions -- in this case the answer would have taken less time than the refusal -- have something to hide and are clearly wasting everybody's time and money. CONDOMINIUM
HOMEOWNERS' ASSOCIATION
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