International Village budget package and election notice

By now, all unit owners should have received two important pieces of mail from International Village: the 2014 budget package and the notice of the Board of Directors election to be decided on Monday, Jan. 27, 2014.

First, the budget package: As I have stated previously in my blog, I disagree with some of the spending contained in the proposed $3.5 million operating budget (including $1,350 for our Board of Directors president's cell phone), and I look forward to proposing a number of cuts to bring spending down because I don't support raising maintenance another 7 percent after this past year's nearly 20 percent increase.

As for the election package, those of you planning to run for the Board of Directors must submit the enclosed Notice of Candidacy to the office by Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2013. Candidates also should submit a bio no later than Monday, Dec. 23, 2013. Ballots will then be mailed out to unit owners including the names of all the candidates as well as a number of proposed changes to our condo docs, some of which were discussed at our last Board meeting on Nov. 18. (See 11/18/13 meeting video.)

There was also discussion last month of holding a special meeting in the very near future to revisit "Part II" of last year's special assessment, which the previous Board voted to postpone in September 2012 after approving the "Part I" special assessment of $1.3 million, which was collected over four months from October 2012 to January 2013. The idea of a meeting to impose another $1.4 million special assessment just before an election is insane, and I hope it doesn't happen.

In another action last month, the Board voted to ask our association attorney to prepare a petition to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) requesting a declaratory statement to determine the legality of installing a camera surveillance system in International Village before proceeding any further with the idea. But instead of asking for a decision on the proposed system, the Board voted 6-1 (with me dissenting) to inquire about the propriety of the camera system that was installed in the Zurich building a few years ago by a committee of Zurich unit owners. A DBPR official I spoke to after the meeting told me in no uncertain terms that the petition will be denied because the agency won't issue declaratory statements on actions that have already taken place (as made clear in Finding #11 of this recent DBPR ruling). So before we spend $3,000 in legal fees so our association attorney can prepare a worthless petition, I hope the Board will reconsider its move.

Finally, the new Safety & Security Committee, which was created to discuss safety issues after the proposed camera system hit its DBPR roadblock, will hold its first meeting this Wednesday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. in the clubhouse small card room. If you're not too busy, I encourage you to try to make it.