Article Courtesy of The
Orlando Sentinel
By yan Gillespie
Published August 4, 2017
Despite a state-ordered redo of the vote, Poinciana homeowners again failed to
wrest control of one of the state’s largest homeowners associations from the
sprawling community’s developers.
As officials worked to count the votes late into the night Tuesday, state Rep.
John Cortes, D-Kissimmee, said he tried to watch as a neutral party. However,
the lawmaker was barred from the room because he wasn’t a homeowner.
“It wasn’t an election; it was a sham,” Cortes said. “They treated the election
like the ones in Venezuela.”
A photo posted to Facebook shows the legislator wearing a dark-colored suit
peering into the room from behind a glass door as a security guard stood watch
on the other side.
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Some homeowners claim the developer-run HOA treats them unfairly over debt
collection and lacks transparency about how it spends money.
Although they put up a spate of candidates in six village elections, homeowners
couldn’t overcome the voting power of developers Avatar and Fairhomes
Properties, said Keith Laytham, a spokesman for a group of homeowners called
Friends of Poinciana Villages.
The association said it followed rules for the new election ordered by an
arbitrator with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. However,
it also received a ruling in Polk County Circuit Court last month that appears
to contradict a key element of the arbitrator’s decision.
That ruling by Polk Circuit Judge Donald Jacobsen said the developer’s votes
could be calculated by the maximum amount of homes allowed to be built per acre
in the communities. The arbitrator ordered landowners to prove how many homes
can be legally built on undeveloped land before voting.
The arbitrator in June tossed out the results of the previous vote held in
February that also maintained controlling power of the homeowners association to
the developers. Her ruling stated that the developers had cast scores of illegal
votes based on undeveloped land, including some lots that were underwater or
deemed unsuitable to build on.
The arbitrator has said she cannot talk to the news media about the case.
The Poinciana neighborhood of more than 50,000 residents is divvied up into
several villages, each with an elected board.
One member of each individual board is then named to the overall governing
master board, which oversees the entire community that straddles Osceola and
Polk counties between Haines City and Kissimmee.
A seat on the board gives homeowners a voice in how the community is governed,
including how the budget is spent and much it charges residents in annual fees.
In total, 12,109 votes were cast this time. It’s unclear how many of those were
cast by the developer, but the association said the developer had up to 9,892
votes across the six elections.
“Going forward, [the association] will recognize the developer’s right granted
by each Village Association to cast votes on behalf of its unplatted tracts of
land without platting them,” the association said in a statement.
But Cortes and several homeowners were skeptical the association complied with
the arbitrator’s order.
And real estate attorney Jennifer Englert, who has fought the association on
behalf of several homeowners in several legal disputes, said she wasn’t aware of
the judge’s ruling until it was brought to her attention by a reporter on
Wednesday.
Laytham predicted there would be more legal challenges filed on behalf of
homeowners, which to date has cost about $70,000, he said.
“I promise you that,” Laytham said. “This whole thing is malarkey.”
Englert agreed, saying, “I’m sure we’re going to do something, we just don’t
know what yet.”
Victor Destremps, a losing candidate for the Village 1 board, said the election
was a tough loss for homeowners. He said he still is hopeful homeowners will one
day govern the community.
“I want this place to be run by the homeowners,” the retiree said. “The
homeowners should make the decisions.”
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