CHIMNEY LAKES OWNER’S
ASSOCIATION. INC.
Rules and Regulations Regarding Inspection
and Copying of Records
I. Definitions
A. Copy shall mean a copy of a record reproducible
in its entirety on one side of either
a single 8 1/2
x 11 or a single 8 1/2 x 14 sheet. The Association shall not be required
to
reproduce and
make copies available of documents with a sheet size greater than 8 1/2
x 14.
B. Member is defined in the applicable
provisions of the Florida Not For Profit Corporation Act,
as amended from
time to time. For the purposes of record inspection and copying only, the
term “member"
also includes a member's authorized representative as designated in writing
signed by the
member and provided to the secretary in advance of the exercise of any
authority thereunder.
However, any designation by a member of an authorized representative
for record inspection
purposes shall only be valid for a period of 90 days, or until the member
personally submits
any record inspection request, whichever shall first occur,
C. Official Records are those records
designated by the applicable provisions of the Florida
Not For Profit
Corporation Act, as amended from time to time. However, “official records"
does not include
the contents of sealed ballot envelope that have been submitted to the
association prior
to the meeting at which the ballots will be opened and counted, nor the
content's of
sealed proxy envelopes that have been submitted to the association prior
to the
meeting at which
the proxies will be opened, verified as legitimate, and submitted for
counting.
D. Records shall mean a document or group
of documents relating to a particular matter. By way
of example, the
following constitute (1) record each; monthly phone bill as sent by the
utility,
monthly bank
statement with enclosures as sent by the bank, the general ledger of a
particular
fund for one
month, a paid invoice from one vendor as sent by that vendor, and the minutes
of a meeting
held at one particular time and date.
The Secretary
shall, in his or her sole discretion, determine what constitutes a single
record.
Under no circumstances
does a record include any document not already in existence, nor
records whose
retention period has expired as provided for by law whether or not said
records are still
in existence.
E. Time Periods. When computing
time periods herein, the day of the event from which the
designated period
of time begins to run shall not be included, nor shall any intervening
Saturday, Sunday,
or Iegal or public holiday. The last day of the period so computed will
be
included unless
it is a Saturday, Sunday, legal or public holiday, in which event the period
shall run until
the end of the next dav that is neither Saturday, Sunday, legal or public
holiday.
Legal and public
holidays as used herein shall be deemed to be those holidays specified
in
Chapter 683,
Florida Statutes as amended from time to time.
F. Working Day shall be deemed to
mean Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or
Friday that is
not a legal holiday as defined above between hours of 9.00 a.m. and 4:00
p.m.,
local time.
II . Inspecticon and Copying.
A. A member desiring
to inspect records of this association shall submit, on a working day,
a
written request to the secretary. The
request shall describe each record desired in sufficient
specificity to identify it, must specify
pertinent dates or time period, and shall state the purpose
of the inspection. The request must be
legible, and must describe records by type such as listed in Section 617.303(4),
Florida Statutes, and not by transaction such as "all records relating
to
grounds care."
B. Each written
request to inspect records shall contain no more than 10 records, or constitute
in the whole more than 200 pages of material. Requests exceeding these
limits will be denied in
their entirety.
C. No more than
two (2) written requests to inspect the records shall be permitted from
a single member and/or his or her authorized representative, or a single
authorized representative irrespective of the number of members said individual
represents, within a thirty (30) day period. Requests exceeding these limits
will be denied in their entirety.
D. No more than one (1)
written request shall be permitted per record per six-month period. Once
the record has been inspected by the member or by an authorized representative,
or a copy obtained by the member or authorized representative, if the record
has not changed, it is not subject to further requests for inspection and/or
copying by that member or authorized representative for a period of six
months. Any record inspection scheduled as the result of the receipt of
a request shall be deemed to be an inspection of all records listed in
said request that were not previously indicated as exempt or unavailable.
E. Upon receipt
of the written request, and within the time period permitted by law, the
association shall respond to the member in writing designating the date,
time and place that the inspection shall occur, and that the inspection
shall be limited to the records as detailed in the written request. In
the event the secretary asserts an exemption to disclosure, the member
or authorized representative requesting the record shall be advised in
writing of the specific grounds for exemption.
F. The record inspection
shall occur at the time, date and place designated by the association in
its response to the member or authorized representative, and will be under
supervision of a
person or persons designated by the association
to monitor and assist in the record inspection. The record inspection session
shall not extend beyond two hours. The secretary may institute any supervision
or reasonable security measures with regard to the record inspection.
G. During the record
inspection, no mark whatsoever shall be made on any record, nor shall any
pages affixed together by staple, paper clip or other means be disassembled,
nor shall the records being inspected be altered from the sequence in which
they are presented for the inspection. Further, no record shall be removed
from the location of the inspection for any reason whatsoever.
H. The right to
obtain copies of records is incidental to, and a part of, the inspection
of records. During the inspection of records, a member or authorized representative
may request the association to copy any document by placing a paper clip,
post it memo sheet, or other similar marking device on the document or
documents of which copies are desired, and by advising the supervising
person of the number and location of said marking devices.
I. If during the
inspection of the records, the member has determined the need or desire
for a copy of said record, the association shall make or obtain those copies
and provide same to the member within five (5) working days from the date
of the record inspection and subject to the association receiving prior
payment therefor.
J. The association
is not authorized to make and/or mail or deliver record copies to the member
or an authorized representative upon demand; but rather the member or authorized
representative can obtain record copies or request same, as detailed herein,
during the inspection.
K. A member shall
pay to the association, in advance, the sum of 25 cents per page for copies
of records, said payment to be either cash, business or personal check,
whichever the association specifies. The association shall, at its option,
prepare record copies on single sided sheets or duplexed. A duplexed copy
shall be, for purposes of the 25 cents per page charge, two copies. The
association shall not, however, be required to copy two separate documents
on a single page for the purposes of minimizing the per page copy cost.
L. Lists of members
containing their addresses and/or phone numbers shall not be released by
the member or the authorized representative, to anyone not a member in
this association.
III. Manner of Inspection.
A. No written request
for inspection or copying shall be made in order to harass any member,
resident, association agent, officer, director or employee. Inspection
and copying requests not in conformance with these rules will be deemed
to be harassment.
B. All persons
inspecting or requesting copies of records shall conduct themselves in
a businesslike manner and shall not interfere with the operation of the
association office or place where the records are otherwise inspected or
copied.
IV. Enforcement of Inspection and Copying
Rules.
A. Any violation of these
rules shall cause the immediate suspension of the inspection or copying
until such time as the violator agrees in writing to comply herewith.
B. Any written
requests for inspection or copying not complying with these rules will
be denied. The association shall indicate in writing the nature of the
noncompliance and transmit same to the requesting party within ten working
days subsequent to receipt of the written request.
C. Verbal requests
for inspection or copying will neither be honored nor acknowledged.
D. A request for
record inspection and/or copies will be denied if the parcel owner has,
within two years, preceding his demand, given, sold or offered for sale
any list of parcel owners, or has aided or abetted any person in procuring
any list of parcel owners for any such purpose.
E. A request for
record inspection and/or copies will be denied if the parcel owner has
within two years preceding his demand, improperly used any information
secured
through any prior examination of the records of this association. Improper
use shall include the providing to anyone not an association member, a
list of parcel owners which is subsequently used for nonassociation or
commercial purposes, or the selling or distribution of any information
or records inspected, except to the extent that such use is for a proper
purpose as defined in Section 607.1602(3) or 671.1602(4) Florida Statutes,
as applicable.
F. The association reserves the right to
amend these rules from time to time as deemed necessary.
G. The association may take any available
legal action to enforce these rules.
Adopted September 19, 2002 |
