Article Courtesy of The
Local 10 News Miami
By Andrew Perez
Published January 7, 2022
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WATCH VIDEO |
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MIAMI-DADE COUNTY – Homeowners in the Hammocks community of southwest Miami-Dade
are growing more and more frustrated.
Resident after resident of the Hammocks Community Association showed up Tuesday
to pay association fees, but there was no answer at the club house.
This comes on the heels of a pretty chaotic night on Monday.
It was supposed to be a simple process of voting for leadership of the community
association.
Covid safety protocols moved things along slowly until officials said a threat
was made by phone.
That led to hundreds of homeowners who were waiting in line to be abruptly
turned away.
Some of those homeowners aren’t buying it.
Anna Danton is running
to be on the board again, claiming corruption has hit a peak
after the association’s former president was arrested last
year, accused of stealing more than $100,000 from her
neighbors for personal use.
So homeowners were given a ballot and their first shot in
years to vote in a new board.
Things got so heated that Florida State Senator Annette
Taddeo was called out to help, but even she was denied entry
and couldn’t supervise the voting process.
Meanwhile, voting continued on Facebook, which many
residents said was odd and should not be considered
legitimate.
Taddeo is speaking with police about the alleged threat,
compiling a list of legal irregularities and more
importantly, dealing with this legislatively because she
says these boards that manage small cities in some cases
should be held more accountable. |
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Homeowners in the Hammocks community of southwest
Miami-Dade are growing more and more frustrated.
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Attorney Hilton Napoleon, II, Esq. represents the Hammocks Community
Association and he sent Local 10 News the following statement:
“First, it is important to note that we are in the middle of pandemic with
an increasing number of COVID cases. The Board took several precautionary
measures to ensure the health and safety of everyone involved in the voting
process. The Hammocks encouraged everyone to vote by mail. In all, over one
thousand residents took advantage of mail-in voting to promote a healthy
environment. Additionally, an independent election monitor and his staff
were solely responsible for opening the envelops and counting the ballots.
The entire counting process was streamed on Facebook Live for all of our
members to view. We have no information of any illegal activity involving
the voting process.
Unfortunately, a resident created a social media site where she urged
members of the community to come out and protest the election during the
exact same time that in-person voting was set to occur. Members of the
community began inciting a crowd, yelling at our public safety officers, and
threatening our staff. There was also a physical altercation between a
resident and a public safety officer when the resident broke through the
security border. People began banging on several doors and windows of the
election site. We even received reports from our public safety officers that
residents were threatening to enter the premises by any means possible.
According to them, “they were getting in one way or another.”
The situation continued to escalate, jeopardizing the safety of those inside
and the integrity of the election process. The Board made the tough decision
to close the in-person voting process to protect the safety of the people on
site and protect the election process. It is important to note that
in-person voting was scheduled from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The Hammocks
closed the doors at 7:02 p.m.”
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