2017 ISMA Board Election--My recommendations
Arthur Hoffman
All the candidates that spoke at the Candidates Forum Tuesday are good. They all want to serve your community. But you can only vote for 5. My recommendations are more or less based on the answers to the three questions that I asked them about. First, I want to explain the questions and let you see where I stand on them.
I support amending the covenants to add a Capital Contribution from buyers in Indian Spring. Let’s face it, Indian Spring is almost 40 years old. Things break down and need replacement. This costs money. Previous Boards did not provide for reserve funds to pay for major repairs. If a big expenditure was needed, those Boards would have assessed for them. You and I would be assessed. The current Board wants buyers of Indian Spring property to contribute a modest amount to fund a reserve for these major expenditures. Other communities do this and we should too.
I am opposed to Block Voting as it stands now in the ISMA documents: condo associations have it, homeowners don’t. This means condo association boards in Indian Spring cast all (100%) of their members votes as a block in elections or amendments to ISMA documents, whereas each homeowner casts his own ballot separately for these matters. I would extend block voting to each HOA if it chooses to want it by amending its documents.
I believe each unit owner in Indian Spring should pay the same amount towards ISMA expenses because as near as I can tell each unit owner receives the same services from ISMA, such as security, basic TV, electricity, etc. But ISMA documents don’t currently provide that. Condo owners are assessed 8 shares, homeowners get 9 shares and homeowners on lots more than 10,000 square feet get 10 shares. Florida law does allow for apportionment of expenses, i.e., assessments, among different classes of parcels based on the level of services received by the applicable members, or other relevant factors.
Three years ago I questioned the then ISMA president what “other relevant factors” were there here which led to the different apportionment of expenses among our classes of members. The answer I got was that it was installed by the developer and no one had ever asked the question. In other words, no answer.
I did a survey of 19 other master associations’ documents in Palm Beach County. 18 of 19 apportioned its expenses according to the formula 1/(total units) times (total expenses). In other words, these master associations apportioned their expenses equally among its classes of members.
As I said in the beginning of this post, all candidates are good. In choosing for whom I shall vote, I am selecting the ones who support the issues I support. Those are Robert Radner, Saul Hoff, Barry Kesselman, Patricia Atwater, and Andres Rosenberg.
And I shall vote AMEND to add the Capital Contribution to the ISMA Covenants.
If you aren’t planning to attend the annual meeting, be sure to send in your proxy in time for it to be counted.
andres.r...@comcast.net
I would like to make an additional comment regarding the block voting. I honestly believe that all owners have the right and the duty to vote. Block voting accommodates to those owners that don't really want to get involved on important issues that affects everybody at Indian Spring.
One of the candidates have said in the "Meet the Candidates" that, because lack of owners voting, nothing in IS would be done because we will never get enough votes for approving nothing if we do not allow block voting.
Therefore, what we should do is to amend the bylaws by (1) eliminating block voting (one owner, one vote; doesn't matter if the owner lives in a condo or in a home), and (2)amend the bylaws to allow the majority to win.
Every vote counts, and if an owner does not vote, then cannot argue or complaint about the result. If someone is interested in an issue, then he/she should go to the Board Meetings and vote. The proxy vote should be allowed, but in a one to one basis.
I believe that if this is presented to all owners in a way that everybody understands the importance of getting involved in the Board decisions, we could have a bigger attendance to the Meetings.
Block Voting gets lower attendance, and lower involvement on important issues.
Thank you for being in the Meet the Candidates.
Gerald Stone
Always appreciate your insights and the time and energy you take on Indian Spring owner issues. I agree with all your views other than on block voting. Here Andres Rosenberg has the better idea of revising the the bylaws to allow one owner, one vote, simple majority rules. Problem with allowing “houses” to block vote is the same as now with condos: board presidents have absolute power, and we know what absolute power does.
Gerald
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josef
To: "andres rosenberg" <andres.r...@comcast.net>
Cc: "Indian Spring in Boynton Beach" <indian-spring-i...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2017 10:23:32 AM
Subject: Re: 2017 ISMA Board Election--My recommendations