Merry Christmas!

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I’d like to wish all unit owners a very Merry Christmas, and to thank you for helping make 2014 a great year for International Village. Without your steadfast support, we would not have been able to accomplish all we did over the past year. Let's continue working together in 2015 to build on these successes, and may God fill your new year with good health and prosperity!

P.S. Thank you to all those who attended last Saturday’s Latin Christmas Party, which drew a record-breaking crowd of well over 115 attendees. To see a slideshow of pictures from the party courtesy of John Henderson, click HERE.

Lower maintenance fees and 40-year success story Part 2

International Village unit owners will be getting their first maintenance fee reduction in decades. Of the more than 340 owners who submitted their proxies before our budget meeting last Tuesday, about 97 percent of you voted “Yes” to paying a little less in maintenance starting in January. The Board of Directors heard you loud and clear, and I was very happy to cast my vote for a budget that will make that happen.   

Cutting maintenance fees even modestly was no easy task given the significant challenges we faced this year: First, we inherited a situation in which over half of the community’s residential buildings still had not been renovated after more than two years’ delay due to the previous board’s neglect and mismanagement of funds. Second, the association’s Hurricane Wilma loan with Wells Fargo was coming due, with a $2 million balance. And third, due to the actions of our former property management company AMG and a small group of disgruntled unit owners, we faced a premature and potentially costly 40-year certification. 

But we overcame these challenges by keeping a tight rein on spending, which not only allowed us to pass some of the savings on to the owners, but also put enough money in the bank to enable us to resume the building renovations without a special assessment. These savings also were instrumental in recently helping us obtain an 18-month extension (with 6-month renewal option) on our Wells Fargo loan, which required a $250,000 principal reduction payment at the signing. 

But the 40-year certification threatened to overwhelm all our other efforts, since AMG and Criterium Inspection Engineers (the engineering company AMG brought in) insisted that more than a $1 million would have to be spent to complete all the repairs they claimed were needed to pass the County-mandated inspection. Of course we now know those claims were completely false.

As I reported back in September, International Village saved approximately $220,000 on the first phase of our 40-year certification by getting a reputable engineer to re-inspect our three oldest buildings, which came due in the summer. And I'm pleased to report that we just completed the second phase of the certification last week by passing inspections on seven more buildings using the same well-respected engineer from Ace Flood & Inspections. How much did we save by getting this crucial second opinion on those seven buildings? Almost $600,000! That means we saved a total of about $800,000 on 10 buildings by NOT blindly trusting AMG and Criterium Engineers. Combined with the approximately $300,000 in operational savings that we have achieved this year, that brings our total savings for 2014 to well over $1 million!! And more than a million dollars in savings sounds like a pretty good Christmas present to me.  

John Labriola

International Village Treasurer

Want a maintenance fee reduction? Send in your budget proxy!

It has been brought to my attention that a number of unit owners have not yet turned in their budget proxies. It is very important that owners submit their proxies immediately and vote “Yes” to waive reserves in order to receive a maintenance fee reduction next year. Your proxy must be received by the association by the Dec. 9 deadline, which is the date of our budget meeting. Some of you have told me you never received your proxy or perhaps you misplaced it. No problem. Click HERE to download and print one. You can also pick up a copy at the International Village association office.

Others have asked me for specific instructions on how to complete the proxy, so here goes:  Fill out the very top part where it asks you for your unit number and building. Leave the line just below that blank (as in this sample proxy); Board Secretary Colbert “Carl” Simmonds will act as proxy-holder and is required by law to cast your proxy just the way you voted it.  Just make sure you check "Yes," date it, sign where it says "SIGNATURE OF VOTING REPRESENTATIVE" and print your name below that. Leave the “SUBSTITUTION OF PROXYHOLDER” part at the bottom blank.  If you own more than one unit, fill out a different proxy for each unit you own.

You can bring your completed proxy to the office in person, fax it or scan and email it. You could also mail it to our mailing address, but considering that the proxy must be received before our Dec. 9 meeting, it might be safer to use one of the other methods.

To email it, just scan or capture a clear, legible image of the completed form and send it as a PDF or jpeg attachment to ASSISTANT@INTLVILLAGE.COM.  Double-check the email address to make sure you have spelled it correctly, include the word “Proxy" in the subject line, and request a reply to confirm that it was received.

To fax it, send it to 954-739-1604.

If you have any questions or need any assistance to get your proxy in, please let me know.

On an unhappy note, I’m sorry to report that our property manager David Friedman has stepped down for health reasons. David has been a trustworthy and hard-working manager who can point to several important accomplishments in the last several months, and his presence will be missed. Please keep him in your prayers as he recovers from open heart surgery which he unexpectedly had to undergo last week. 

Our interim manager Richard Sayre has several years’ experience working as a property manager and brings an impressive background with him. Please help me welcome him to International Village.  I also want to say a big “thank you” to our staff and the folks at Campbell Property Management for working extra hard these last several days to make this unplanned transition a smooth one. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

John Labriola

International Village Treasurer

Lower maintenance fees among reasons to be thankful

International Village has a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Thanks to a cost-conscious Board of Directors and honest new management team committed to avoiding wasteful spending, the association has saved approximately half a million dollars so far this year without cutting back on services.

Not only has this been accomplished in the midst of a 40-year certification, but the really good news is that these savings have put enough money in the bank to allow us to resume the renovations of our residential buildings after a nearly three-year delay without resorting to a special assessment! And to top it off, the association still has enough money left over to give some of it back to unit owners in the form of a modest maintenance fee reduction in 2015!  Because of the significant investment that will be involved in completing the long-overdue building renovations (which are now underway in the Orleans building), the maintenance fee reduction won't be as big as we would like, but this is undoubtedly the first time in International Village history that you the unit owners will actually see your maintenance fees go DOWN instead of up, and that’s definitely something to be thankful for!

The maintenance fee reduction will be discussed at our upcoming budget meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. in the clubhouse. The 2015 budget package has been mailed to all unit owners, and it is very important that you open it as soon as you receive it because it requires your immediate action. If you want the REDUCTION in maintenance fees that we are proposing, you must vote “Yes” to waive reserves and send in your proxy in time for it to be received by the association before Dec. 9. You can either bring it in person to the office, mail it, fax it to 954-486-5677 or scan and email it to admin@intlvillage.com with the subject line “Proxy.” If you have any questions, feel free to let me know. 

In another positive development, I’m happy to report that AMG, the association’s former management company, has formally dropped the lawsuit it filed after its contract was terminated by the association in April. As I explained previously, the lawsuit had no merit as AMG was fired for good reason, and I hope this predictable outcome will serve to discourage others who may be inclined to abuse the legal system in a vindictive attempt to harass or inflict financial harm on the association, this board, or its members. Fortunately, the association’s insurance carriers covered our legal fees in this case as their policy required, while AMG apparently came to the realization that it was throwing money away in pursuit of a meritless lawsuit.

On a less positive note, it has been brought to our attention that Alliance CAS, the collections company that the Board of Directors fired in September for lack of performance, last week sent letters to an unknown number of owners whose accounts are in arrears. In these letters, Alliance falsely claims to represent the association and instructs owners to pay any unpaid balances to Alliance. PLEASE NOTE these letters WERE NOT authorized by the association and you MUST NOT send any payments to Alliance as their contract has been TERMINATED.  If you received one of these letters, or if your account was previously placed with Alliance as a result of a delinquent balance which remains unpaid, you must make your checks payable to International Village Association Inc. and mail them to:

Campbell Property Management

8010 N. University Dr.

Tamarac FL 33321 

Thank you, and have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving!

John Labriola

International Village Treasurer

Feel the difference

What a difference a year makes. 

Flashback to December 2013: As we all too painfully recall, that was the month the previous Board of Directors approved the 2014 budget that raised our maintenance fees 7 percent, saying the increase was needed despite the previous year’s 18.5 percent maintenance hike and $1.3 million special assessment. When some of us proposed finding savings to avoid digging deeper into owners’ pockets, the old Board told us it couldn't be done, because there supposedly wasn't an ounce of fat in the budget to cut. 

Well, they weren't just wrong – they were dead wrong. As Board President Marcio Jaspan and I announced at our last regular Board meeting on Sept. 23 (see 9/23/14 video here), the association is now coming in $30,000 under budget every month. That means we're spending $30,000 LESS in operating and administrative expenses per month than what the old board said we needed to get by on. And best of all, we've done it without cutting back on maintenance and other services, but by simply operating more efficiently, eliminating waste, and avoiding dishonest contractors and rip-off artists. Since the beginning of the year, we've already achieved a whopping $200,000 in operational savings compared to the spending projections that were built into the budget. That’s on top of the $220,000 we saved on the 40-year certification for our three oldest buildings by getting a second opinion from an honest engineer – Murat Kizikli P.E. of Ace Flood & Inspections. (See my last blog post titled “40-year certification success story.”) When you add those two figures, you’re looking at almost half a million dollars in savings so far in 2014, and the year isn't even over yet! 

As Treasurer, I’m quite hopeful these very significant savings will allow us to actually cut maintenance fees when budget time comes around again at the end of the year. But we must first await the results of the second round of building inspections. Last month, the city notified the association that seven more buildings are now due for the 40-year certification. At our last regular meeting, the Board again engaged Ace Flood & Inspections to conduct the inspections to determine if any safety-related repairs are needed, and once we get the results, we'll be in a much better position to start planning next year's budget.  

In another action on Sept. 23, the Board appointed unit owner Hayden Joseph to fill the seat vacated by former board member Marc Richman.  Mr. Joseph, who also serves as Chairman of the Sales & Leasing Committee, is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Community Association Manger’s license. His financial expertise and in-depth knowledge will prove a tremendous asset to the association as we continue to explore further ways to save money and achieve even greater operational efficiencies. Please help me welcome him to the Board.

40-year certification success story

I’m very pleased to report that International Village has passed the first phase of its 40-year certification with flying colors. The City of Lauderhill has certified that the association’s three oldest buildings – the Bordeaux, the Yorkshire and the clubhouse – do not pose any safety-related structural or electrical issues that need to be addressed.  That means that – contrary to what the old guard had led us to believe – there will be no need for a special assessment to pay for costly repairs on these buildings.  (The association’s nine remaining buildings have not yet been placed on notice for the 40-year inspection.)

This clean bill of health is in dramatic contrast to the alarmism of the previous Board of Directors, which had used the community’s upcoming 40-year anniversary as an excuse to award Miami-based Criterium Inspection Engineers a $22,000 contract in 2012 to perform a premature and highly flawed engineering report, although the building inspections weren't due yet and wouldn't have to be performed until the city gave us its official notice. (Until recently, we had reason to believe that wouldn't happen until 2019, but the inspections were accelerated by five years due to the actions of a disgruntled cabana unit owner and those who had been pushing the Criterium report.) To make matters worse, Criterium's report falsely asserted that International Village needed to perform more than $1 million in repairs to pass the 40-year certification. The 2012 Board led by former Directors Charles Fitzpatrick and Marvin Tow then approved two huge special assessments – a “Part 1” assessment to serve partly as a “down payment” on repairs, and a $1.4 million “Part 2” assessment to pay for the balance of the projects. Fortunately, the Part 2 assessment was put on hold following a major outcry from owners. Otherwise, we would have been stuck footing the bill for completely unnecessary repair work at bloated contractor prices.

As you may recall, last year I raised serious questions about the reliability of the Criterium report and demanded that we get a second opinion before beginning any work on the buildings. You may also recall the April 2013 town hall meeting in which Fitz Harris, a local professional engineer and 40-year certification specialist, informed us  that the Criterium report did not follow the format of a 40-year inspection (see video starting at 8:04) and that most of the work it recommended was not necessary to pass inspections because it dealt with cosmetic issues and not safety problems, which are supposed be the sole concern of a 40-year inspection as explained in the law that governs the County-mandated program. We now know that in April 2012, just two months before the previous Board hired Criterium to perform the inspections at International Village, Criterium’s president Douglas Mercado was issued a citation by the state for using an unlicensed subcontractor to perform concrete restoration work at a Fort Lauderdale beachfront condo.

Fortunately, after International Village received the city’s official notice a few months ago that our three oldest buildings were due for the 40-year inspection, we got the second opinion we needed by hiring respected professional engineer Murat Kizikli, who works as a structural building inspector for the City of Boca Raton and is the owner of Ace Flood & Inspections, which performed International Village’s insurance inspections two years ago. For a small investment of $1,500 per building to obtain the required professional re-inspections that needed to be filed with the city, the association ended up saving more than $220,000 – which is approximately what we would have spent on unnecessary work on just those three buildings if we had relied on Criterium’s report.  (See the cost comparison chart prepared by our Property Manager David Friedman HERE.)

Last Tuesday, the Board of Directors ratified the re-inspections and formalized other actions taken during our summer hiatus. (See 9/9/14 meeting video). In other actions, the Board:

• Appointed unit owners Colbert “Carl” Simmonds, a retired database manager for Citibank and Vietnam veteran; and Richard “Rabbit” Young, a former equipment and machine design engineer for Sylvania, to fill two of the Board vacancies created by the recent resignations. Please join me in welcoming these two highly respected and involved owners to the Board; their experience and expertise will be a huge asset to the association. 
• Appointed Director Simmonds as Board Secretary to replace Wendy Hernandez following her many unprofessional and unethical shenanigans. 
• Terminated the association’s collections contract with Alliance CAS due to the company’s dismal performance since 2012, when it was hired by the Fitzpatrick-Tow board to take over collections – resulting in a dramatic increase in our delinquency rate over the following two years. 

Call for honest volunteers for Sales & Lease Committee

I'm pleased to report that International Village Board member Wendy Hernandez has been removed from the association's Sales & Lease Committee as a result of her unprofessional and unethical antics, which have included attempting to bully staff into letting her deny leases to qualified tenants of owners whom she dislikes, demanding keys to the office so she could snoop around after hours (which she was denied), threatening staff with their jobs for failing to carry out her unethical demands, disseminating false and defamatory accusations against staff and other board members, physically assaulting a fellow Board member, and apparently attempting to gain unauthorized access to unit owner accounts.

The association is seeking honest, trustworthy unit owners to help the committee's remaining hard-working members do their jobs. If you are interested, please call the office at 954-484-9106, or send an email to assistant@intlvillage.com.

On a related note, a number of you have asked me to shed light on the reasons for the recent spate of board resignations. Because these resignations appear to have been the result of these former board members' improper involvement in an ongoing legal matter (in which Miss Hernandez appears to have been a co-conspirator), I am currently not at liberty to disclose details, but rest assured that these resignations were in the best interest of the association and that a full accounting of what transpired will be forthcoming.

Update on Board resignations

Marc Richman on Tuesday became the latest International Village Board member to resign, following on the heels of former Board members Frances Mesirow and Collette Goslin, who stepped down on Monday. We wish them farewell as we continue to weigh our options regarding what to do about the three vacancies.

Board resignations

Frances Mesirow and Collette Goslin on Monday announced their resignations from the International Village Board of Directors, effective Sept. 1. I thank them for their service and wish them well. The question of how the board will handle these two vacancies is under discussion. Stay tuned.

Thank you for saving our employees!

Kudos to all the unit owners who came to the defense of our hard-working employees yesterday by emailing your thoughts to the Board of Directors in response to my email (SEE BELOW). You prevented a grave injustice from taking place. Three of the four Board members who seemed ready to fire at least some of our employees appear to have had a change of heart in the face of your overwhelming outpouring of indignation. Only one Board member, Wendy Hernandez, continued directing her wrath at our loyal staff, but in the end, she was outnumbered and not a single employee was fired. That’s nothing short of a miracle considering that just last week Miss Hernandez was heard bragging that our entire security staff was about to get the boot. What turned things around? Your emails! (See a small sampling HERE.) I thank you, and our employees thank you.

On the other hand, despite the mounting pressure for her to resign from the Board, Miss Hernandez chose not to step down last night. But she must now face the fact that she can’t get her way through intimidation and double-dealing. Nobody likes a bully.

Speaking of bullying, I chose not to discuss the incident that took place in the clubhouse gym over the weekend in my email to owners yesterday, but since many of you have already heard about it and have been asking questions, I feel I have no choice now but to address it.

I walked into the clubhouse gym a little before 5:30 p.m. on Saturday to find Miss Hernandez waiting by the entrance with her arms crossed. She had apparently been eavesdropping on a conversation I was having with a neighbor in the hallway just before walking in. The conversation happened to be about Miss Hernandez’s unethical conduct. After greeting her, I asked her about the behavior and she became incensed and physically assaulted me. The attack, which was recorded by the gym’s security camera, takes place about two minutes into THIS VIDEO.

I called the police and I plan to press charges because this kind of behavior on the part of a unit owner (not to mention a Board member) should not be tolerated. I have discussed the incident with an attorney and have been told the chances of obtaining a felony conviction on Miss Hernandez are very good, especially since the incident was captured on video.

Save our International Village employees

From:	John Labriola <jflabriola@gmail.com>
Sent:	Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 8:25 AM
To:	John Labriola <jflabriola@gmail.com>
Cc:	Marcio Jaspan <marciojaspan@hotmail.com>, Duv Wolff <guitarharm@aol.com>, Wendy Hernandez <wendy_hernandez@ymail.com>, Frances Mesirow <fmkmbm@gmail.com>, Marc Richman <mwr2020ou@gmail.com>, Collette Goslin <colletteg@comcast.net>, MANAGER INTERNATIONAL VILLAGE <manager@intlvillage.com>, Assistant Manager International Village <assistant@intlvillage.com>

Some of you may be wondering why a closed Board meeting is posted for tonight. Unfortunately, although I serve as the Association’s Treasurer, all I can tell you about the meeting is what I've managed to gather from second-hand sources. That’s because the Board members who decided to organize it haven’t bothered telling their fellow Directors exactly what the purpose is. All we have received is an agenda with a few vaguely worded items and no explanation.

The meeting, which will be conducted behind closed doors with no unit owners permitted to attend, was apparently the idea of Board Secretary Wendy Hernandez, who prepared the agenda with the help of Board members Frances Mesirow, Collette Goslin, and Marc Richman without consulting her fellow officers President Marcio Jaspan, Vice President Duv Wolff and myself. This may come as a surprise to the 200-plus voters who thought they were voting for change when they filled out their ballots for Wendy Hernandez in February. Why, you might be asking, is she now working with the team that she ran against, the team she blasted in her candidate bio for their “constant maintenance fee increases and special assessments”? 

The answer is because over the last few months Miss Hernandez has made a number of unethical, immoral and sometimes illegal demands of her fellow officers that Mr. Jaspan, Mr. Wolff and I have refused to go along with. In retaliation, she has apparently sold herself to the other side to see what she can get from them in exchange for promises of putting them back in power – and they have welcomed her with open arms.

Here’s a partial list of Miss Hernandez’s outrageous demands which the Board President, Vice President and I refused to give in to:

• Fire the Association’s maintenance chief, security manager, entire security staff and others for no apparent reason other than personal animosity and envy. 
• Put her on the Association’s payroll as office manager while allowing her to remain on the Board (in violation of Florida law) despite her obvious lack of qualifications.
• Provide her with keys to the association’s office so she can come and go and snoop around the office as she pleases after hours. 
• Grant her unfettered access to unit owner accounts and files, including highly sensitive personal information. (See HACKING VIDEO.)
• Allow her, in her position as Sales & Lease Committee Chairwoman, to bully staff into letting her deny leases to qualified tenants who happen to rent from owners against whom she holds a personal grudge, thereby exposing the Association to costly litigation.

Miss Hernandez has abused her power and created a hostile work environment for our employees by treating them with open contempt and disrespect while threatening to fire them if they fail to carry out her unethical demands. Mr. Jaspan, Mr. Wolff and I have given our full support to our hard-working staff. But unfortunately, Board members Frances Mesirow, Collette Goslin and Marc Richman have decided to act as Miss Hernandez’s enablers, and they appear ready to throw our dedicated employees under the bus in order to bribe Miss Hernandez over to their side so they can seize back control of the Association.

So tonight’s agenda includes the item “Personnel Matters,” which understandably has employees terrified of losing their jobs in light of Miss Hernandez’s stated desire to fire nearly everyone. 

Some unit owners have warned me not to expose Miss Hernandez’s treacherous and unethical behavior, saying it might provoke her to join forces with her “new friends” on the Board to remove me from the position of treasurer. I guess they don’t realize this title involves no salary, benefits or perks and very little real authority, and losing it would be a very small price to pay for telling the truth. But I will not stand quietly by in the face of injustice while a shameless, unscrupulous group of Board members sacrifice our loyal staff on the altar of power. Our employees deserve better.

Finally, I want to apologize to all the unit owners for recommending that you vote for Miss Hernandez this past February. Now that I am fully aware of her lack of integrity, principle and honesty, I regret ever giving her my support. Miss Hernandez has proven herself untrustworthy, unqualified and temperamentally unfit to serve in any position of authority, and we as an Association deserve better. I encourage you to call her at 954-612-6018 to urge her to resign. You may also contact her and the rest of the Board by email to let us know how you feel by simply “Replying All” to this email. 

John Labriola
International Village Treasurer

Good riddance to AMG

A hated symbol of tyranny in International Village came down this Monday afternoon. ENJOY THE VIDEO as the AMG plaque is removed from above the association's office door after two years of runaway spending, huge special assessments and massive maintenance fee increases under AMG's mis-management. Good riddance. We won't miss the fleecing.

Welcome International Village's new management company

As of mid-June, International Village will have a new property management company. The Board of Directors, at last week's Board meeting, voted to hire Campbell Property Management after listening to presentations by representatives of the top three candidate firms. (See 5/27/14 video HERE.)

With over 60 years in business and more than 250 properties under its management – including several in Inverrary – Campbell impressed the majority of Directors as being ready on day one to help us right our ship and work with the Board to save money by operating more efficiently. Campbell will be sending letters to all unit owners soon with more information about the company and the transition.

I’m pleased to inform owners that the switch to Campbell is going to save the association tens of thousands of dollars on an annual basis right off the bat compared to AMG’s contract, partly because of the AMG manager’s bloated salary, which at $90,000 – plus $22,500 in “payroll burden” – is dramatically higher than that of any of the management companies we contacted. While the numbers speak for themselves, the far greater cost savings will come from having an honest and competent management company that shares the Board majority’s commitment to fiscal responsibility, as opposed to one that has presided over a deteriorating financial situation while pushing for the kind of runaway spending, massive special assessments and huge maintenance increases that we suffered under AMG’s two-year tenure.

In other good news, the association last week signed an additional 90-day extension of our Wilma loan with Wells Fargo. This will give us time to clean up our finances, especially in the area of collections from units that have stopped paying, which has been a growing problem under AMG. Once we address this challenge, working with our new manager, we will be in a stronger position to negotiate for a longer-term extension at a good interest rate. 

On a somewhat sour note, AMG has notified the Board of Directors that it has filed a “defamation” lawsuit against me based on the reasons I gave for the company's firing in my April 16 blog post, which I invite owners to read again. While naming me as defendant, the lawsuit is clearly aimed at the association as a whole, since I was acting in my role as a Director to inform owners of AMG’s wrongdoings prior to our vote to terminate its contract. It’s sad that after its two years of mismanaging our affairs, AMG is incapable of stepping down with any semblance of dignity. But our association attorney (of the Kubicki Draper firm, which the Board hired on April 22 as the association's general counsel to replace Eisinger Brown) has advised us that truth is the ultimate defense to a defamation claim, and we’re confident that the association will prevail based on the ample documentation we have of AMG's misconduct, whose full extent we will reveal to owners at the appropriate point in the litigation process. The upside of the lawsuit is that it will give us the opportunity to dig even deeper – as part of the discovery process – into AMG’s actions, which we are hopeful will lead to a substantial judgment for damages in the association's favor.

Finally, a number of you have informed me that you have been receiving blast emails from a “committee” that calls itself “CIVOCC.” The main objective of this small, bitter group of owners (which is made up of the losers of the recent Board election and their die-hard supporters) is to reverse the results of the election and rehire AMG so International Village can return to the days of reckless spending and assessments. In pursuit of that goal, their favorite tactic is the baldfaced lie, including their preposterous claim that AMG's contract was somehow saving us money, when in fact AMG's pricing is by far the highest of any of the property management companies we investigated. But CIVOCC’s deviousness should come as no surprise considering that one of its leading members is the same owner who went out of his way – with the help of our former property manager – to notify municipal authorities that their records regarding International Village’s construction date were inaccurate, a malicious act of sabotage that has accelerated our 40-year inspection by five years (pending a response from the city inspector to our recent request for a time extension). So my advice to owners is to take this so-called committee’s feigned concerns about the welfare of International Village with a very large grain of salt. For my part, knowing their twisted agenda, I take their nasty and dishonest personal attacks as a badge of honor. 

Important decision

The International Village Board of Directors will meet on Tuesday, May 27 at 7 p.m. to hire a new property management company. 

The search committee made up of Board officers has spent the last several weeks reaching out to a number of management firms to meet with them and vet their qualifications. Representatives from the top three companies have been invited to the Board meeting to present their bids and answer questions.

The selection of a management company is a very important decision for the community. I encourage all unit owners to attend the meeting and welcome the new management team – whoever it may be – as we work together in a renewed spirit of cooperation to move International Village forward.

After AMG

Last Wednesday, the International Village Board of Directors voted to terminate AMG's property management contract with the association, providing 60 days' notice of dismissal as stipulated in the contract. (See 4/16/14 video HERE.) The reasons for the dismissal were thoroughly explained in my last blog post. 

Tonight (Tuesday, April 22 at 7 p.m. in the clubhouse), the Board is scheduled to discuss property management at International Village after AMG. I encourage all unit owners to attend. 

Breach of trust

Two years ago, International Village hired American Management Group (AMG) to perform property management services in this community. AMG promised competence and professionalism and a commitment to serving the best interests of unit owners, in exchange for generous salaries for its top staff. Like many owners, I was willing to trust in the company’s integrity and commitment to quality, as well as its ability to remain above the political fray and work with any Board of Directors the owners chose to elect. So it is with great sadness that I must report our property manager’s role in precipitating a recent visit by a City of Lauderhill building official that will result in fines for illegal balcony work. His actions also appear to have led to an accelerated 40-year re-certification process that could cost the association more than $1 million in repairs under a County law requiring extensive upgrades when a property reaches the four-decade mark. 

At the Board’s March 25 meeting, our Board President Marcio Jaspan, a licensed engineer, pointed out that a number of balconies that are due for repairs could be handled by our in-house maintenance staff at a significant savings to the association. At no point did he say that all the balconies could be done without the use of a contractor. In fact, he stated the opposite, and he specifically asked for only one balcony to be repaired as a pilot project. He also stated that the city’s permission should be obtained before starting any work. (See the video HERE.) 

Instead, work was performed on three balconies that were apparently in a considerable state of disrepair without consulting the city. When I spoke to our Property Manager Jason Levy on Friday, he told me that management was “shocked” one day to discover our maintenance personnel working on the balconies, claiming the work had been done behind management’s back. This is patently false. In a March 27 email to the President, our assistant manager requested (in fact, his words were “we need”) approval for various materials purchases including several bags of concrete “to do a test balcony.” Management also specifically ordered our maintenance personnel to take before and after pictures of the work (which had never been done before, suggesting a setup). The before picture was taken and the camera returned to the office THE DAY BEFORE any work had been done. The following day, our assistant manager performed a site inspection of the balcony work and did not order the work to be stopped. It was only the next day that our maintenance crew was told not to proceed with the work.  

We pay our manager a lot of money to supervise any work being done in the community and to ensure that it is done legally, as provided in AMG’s contract with the association. While the President can give direction, our maintenance personnel answer directly to the manager as per AMG’s contract. Our President was not on the property and was not involved in the selection of the balconies that were worked on. 

Soon after the work was done, Geoffrey Edwards, a cabana unit owner affiliated with former Board members Marvin Tow and Sandra Best and their supporters, requested and obtained from the office the before and after pictures of the balcony work from the manager, along with numerous photos documenting required repairs throughout the property that were included in the association’s 2012 Engineering Report, which was prematurely commissioned at a cost of $22,000 at the manager's specific recommendation. Mr. Edwards took those pictures to City of Lauderhill building official Randy Youse and invited him to International Village. When the official came on April 9, he ordered the association to hire a contractor to undo the work that had been performed and complete it to code specifications. Mr. Youse also put the association on notice to expect to receive its 40-year re-certification letter within the next week, which could force International Village to perform more than $1 million worth of repairs throughout the property and jeopardize the extension of our $2 million Hurricane Wilma loan. 

I asked Mr. Levy on Friday, April 11 how Mr. Youse got the information regarding the age of our buildings, since the Broward County Property Appraiser’s website had been identifying International Village’s construction date as 1979. He told me that Mr. Youse came “armed with information” about the actual build date. I was able to contact Mr. Youse the next day and found out that he had no such information other than Mr. Edwards’ prior verbal assurance that the buildings were over 40 years old. In fact, it was Mr. Levy who volunteered to Mr. Youse during his April 9 visit that the buildings were built in “1971, 2 and 3.” You can hear it for yourself HERE since the meeting was recorded, and it's obvious from the conversation that Mr. Youse did not know the age of the buildings. We also now know that Mr. Edwards had been pushing both the city and the Broward Board of Rules and Appeals (which is responsible for compiling the annual list of properties due for the 40-year certification based on county property records) to add International Village to the list. In an email Mr. Edwards sent to Board of Rules and Appeals official Jim DiPietro just hours before Mr. Youse’s visit, he provided very specific information about each building’s folio number and virtually begged Mr. DiPietro to add International Village to the 40-year certification list. Where did Mr. Edwards get his information? Did management provide it? In any event, thanks to Mr. Edwards’ actions, the Property Appraiser’s Office on Tuesday, April 14 apparently managed to locate the “correct” construction dates for the condominium, and the city may soon force us to begin the process of upgrading the entire property.

Based on this disturbing series of events, I can only conclude that there was deliberate collusion between Mr. Edwards and our property manager to engineer a crisis that would result in embarrassing our new Board President by unfairly blaming him for the illegal balcony work and deceptively linking that incident to the accelerated 40-year certification process – when in fact the two issues were unrelated and were both instigated by his opponents, who clearly appear to include our property manager.

What could our property manager’s motivation have been for such a deliberate act of sabotage that may end up costing owners a lot of money and even force some into foreclosure? It may help to know that when AMG recently announced its plans to promote Mr. Levy to the position of Vice President of Operations of the company, Mr. Jaspan rejected AMG’s proposal to keep Mr. Levy on International Village property indefinitely while letting him draw half his VP salary from our association’s budget. Mr. Levy's anger about the decision, which in his mind amounted to a 30 days’ notice of dismissal, was hardly a secret. Engineering a crisis designed to pressure Mr. Jaspan and another recently smeared Board member to resign, if successfully carried out, would have given his three allies on the Board (Frances Mesirow, Marc Richman and Collette Goslin) the opportunity to reverse Mr. Jaspan’s decision, keep Mr. Levy on the property for several more months as VP of AMG, and allow AMG to lead International Village through its 40-year re-certification – which would amount to a huge financial bonanza for the company.

But instead of admitting wrongdoing and apologizing for his actions, our property manager's first reaction was to place all the blame for this crisis on our Board President in a sneering and misleading email sent to the Board on April 9 that reeks of twisted delight at our misfortune. I invite you to read it for yourself HERE. 

This is unacceptable, and it’s an insult to those of us serving on the Board as volunteers. Unlike Mr. Levy, we don’t get paid close to $100,000 a year for what we do for International Village. We have ideas and we make recommendations and rely on our manager to carry them out properly. But when our highly paid professional managers purposely and gleefully fail us, and then blame our Board President for their own failure, there must be consequences. Although AMG's CEO Jonathan Louis, in an email yesterday (April 15) to the entire Board, agreed to remove Mr. Levy as International Village's manager effective today (April 16), this is not enough. The Board of Directors will hold a special meeting tonight, April 16, at 8 p.m. in the clubhouse to revisit AMG’s management contract and take the appropriate actions. I invite all unit owners to attend.

Sore losers and liars

Some of you may have heard that there will be a special Board of Directors meeting this coming week. Three Board members – Frances Mesirow, Collette Goslin and Marc Richman – have invoked a little known provision in our condo bylaws that allows a minority of the Board to call a meeting without the President’s consent. They scheduled it for a date and time when they knew that the President and at least one other Board member would not be available. 

What could be the purpose of such a sneaky, underhanded move? The answer lies in the agenda they came up with: It includes several projects from the proposed $1.4 million special assessment package they tried to pass last year before owners rose up in protest. They know the rest of the Board strongly opposes such a special assessment and will not vote for it. However, if just one of the remaining Board members shows up at the meeting, they will have a quorum (sufficient number) to conduct business and can pass the special assessment on a 3-1 vote! I have also been told that the three minority Board members – cheered on by the losers of the recent Board election – plan to vote to “reorganize” the Board by appointing themselves as the new officers (including President and Treasurer) so they can take over International Village and return to the era of reckless runaway spending, big maintenance fee increases and huge special assessments. 

This is the most brazen attempted coup d’etat in the history of International Village. The sore losers of the last election think they can overturn the voters’ clear verdict and go back to the policies you overwhelmingly rejected. But we can keep that from happening if the rest of the Board – the majority who represent you – doesn't show up. Without a quorum, the angry, bitter minority won’t be able to have a meeting – and we don’t plan to let them have one. So don’t bother showing up, because I won’t be.

A new era of fiscal responsibility

The era of reckless runaway spending at International Village is over.

At its first regular Board of Directors meeting since last month’s watershed election, the new Board majority on Tuesday made clear its commitment to bring our budget under control and avoid unnecessary special assessments by carefully prioritizing spending and resisting calls to take on expensive new projects. (See 3/25/14 video here.)

Our new Board President Marcio Jaspan signaled the sharp break with the past in his inaugural President’s Message, in which he laid out his vision for fiscal responsibility – a new focus that has already resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings.

Marcio, the first licensed engineer we have had on the Board in years, announced that he recently inspected the Nottingham building roof and has determined that it won’t need replacing for a number of years – contrary to Criterium Inspection Engineers’ now-infamous 2012 engineering report. (Owners who need a refresher on the many issues with Criterium Engineers can read my blog post from April 2013 HERE.)

The Nottingham roof replacement – estimated at $300,000 – was one of several projects included in a proposed $1.4million special assessment package that the old Board tried to pass late last year before unit owners bombarded them with complaints. Also included in that list was $150,000 for balcony edge repairs, based on estimated contractor prices. But as Marcio explained on Tuesday, in his expert opinion most of the several dozen balconies that need fixing can be handled by our maintenance staff at a mere fraction of the cost (as has been done in past years). To that end, he has instructed maintenance to begin repairing the first of these balconies as a demonstration project. Combined with a host of operational efficiencies that will be taking place, including energy conservation measures, these savings should leave us with enough money on hand to resume the long-delayed remodeling of our buildings.  

Marcio also announced his plans to tighten the tenant-screening process to address the growing number of complaints about tenants breaking condo rules and lowering their neighbors’ quality of life. By a vote of 5-2, with Frances Mesirow and Marc Richman opposed, the Board approved Marcio’s proposal to develop procedures to require all prospective tenants to undergo an in-person interview prior to being approved for a lease.

In other actions:

• The Board announced the creation of two new committees: A Finance Committee to help make sure every dollar of owners’ money is spent wisely, and a Condo Docs and Rules & Regulations Committee to improve how we govern ourselves as an association. If you are interested in joining either of these committees, please reply to this email so I can let our President know.

• Management has been instructed to begin airing Board meetings and other association-related programming and interviews on Channel 92, our cable access channel. We also will be selling advertising time on the channel. Please let us know if you're interested. 

In other news, International Village residents are being invited to a Yard Sale this Saturday, March 29 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the clubhouse. Bring your used clothes, decorations, kitchenware and other household items to sell for some extra change, or just drop by to check out the bargains.

Celebrate St. Patrick's day with your neighbors and new Board members

International Village residents are invited to celebrate St. Patrick's Day weekend with their neighbors and new Board members at a Potluck Party this Sunday, March 16 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in the clubhouse. Bring a dish and BYOB. 

Come enjoy some good food and fellowship as we celebrate our community's positive new direction in the spirit of St. Patrick. And don't forget to wear green!

New leadership team at International Village

International Village has a new leadership team. At our organizational meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 26 to appoint new officers following last week’s landmark Board election, the Board named Marcio Jaspan as President, Duv Wolff as Vice President, John Labriola as Treasurer and Wendy Hernandez as Secretary. (The video is available here.)

I’m honored to be part of this fine team, all of whose members campaigned on a promise of restoring fiscal discipline. As Treasurer, I will work closely with our new President as he performs a top-to-bottom review of our entire operation to identify any inefficiencies that need to be eliminated, and I commend him for taking the symbolic first step of turning down an association-paid cell phone. I’m also looking forward to working with the rest of the team to review spending priorities, reduce unnecessary expenses and set clear cost-cutting targets to bring our budget under control. 

While the three remaining Board members will not be serving in an officer capacity, I invite them to join us in our efforts to become better stewards of your money. I think it’s time to put aside the rancor of the campaign and work together for the benefit of you, the owners. I believe you expect no less of us. 

In other business, the Board voted to change its monthly meeting schedule. Instead of the third Monday, Board  meetings will now be held on the fourth Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. to accommodate all members' schedules. That means our next regular meeting will take place on March 25. See you then!

Victory!

Congratulations to Marcio Jaspan, Wendy Hernandez and Duv Wolff on their landslide victory in the Feb. 18 Board of Directors election. (See video of election results announcement HERE and official tally sheet HERE.) Each of these three candidates earned well over 200 votes to win their seats by an unprecedented margin of victory. Coming in fourth place at 155 votes was Marc Richman, which will also secure him a seat on the Board. My congratulations to him as well, and I hope that he and the remaining Board members who were not up for reelection this year will heed the voters’ clear mandate for change and work with the new majority to restore fiscal discipline and prioritize spending.

I also would like to thank Marvin Tow and Sandra Best for their service on the Board, and I wish them luck in their future endeavors. But especially, I want to thank all the owners who showed they cared by participating in this election in impressive numbers. I encourage all of you to stay involved, come to meetings and share your ideas on how we can make International Village an even better place.

Now let’s get to work!

The Record...The Choice

The moment of truth has arrived.  On Feb. 18, International Village will have the opportunity to say goodbye to the last two years of wasteful spending, runaway increases in maintenance fees and special assessments, and astonishing abuse of power by the current Board of Directors.

The results of this year’s Board election will be announced following the counting of ballots this Tuesday night in the clubhouse main card room, which is open to any unit owner who wishes to observe the proceedings. The top four vote-getters will serve a two-year term on the Board.

If you haven’t voted yet, you must get your ballots in by 7 p.m. on Tuesday. But before you do, let’s briefly review the record of the current Board, which began its reign of error two years ago:

• A $1.3 million special assessment imposed over four months after the Board ended its first year with a deficit of more than $800,000. 
• A 27 percent maintenance fee increase over two years: nearly 20 percent the first year and another 7 percent the second year – a rate of spending that is well over 10 times the inflation rate.
• A series of behind-the-scenes deals that have cost you money while reducing your power as an owner – including approving outrageous settlement awards to well-connected cronies in secret meetings, bypassing the democratic process to fill a Board vacancy with an individual of questionable credentials, and running up legal and other fees by unethically using our association attorney to go after political opponents on several occasions.

Despite this dismal record, Board President Marvin Tow and Board members Sandra Best and Marc Richman are asking you to give them two more years so they can give you more of the same (including plans for another $1.4 million special assessment they've already hatched up).  But it's time to say “enough is enough!”  We can’t afford another two years of Mr. Tow, Mrs. Best and Mr. Richman. Just from an investment standpoint, if our maintenance fees continue to rise at these hyper-inflationary rates to support runaway irresponsible spending, our property values will soon begin to plummet, leaving our homes virtually worthless.

But fortunately, this election gives us the opportunity to change track by choosing new people for the Board.  Duv Wolff, Wendy Hernandez and Marcio Jaspan are all committed to bringing fiscal discipline to International Village by prioritizing spending, setting clear cost-cutting targets and implementing operational efficiencies that will finally bring our budget under control. Their fresh ideas, youthful energy and solid professional backgrounds in small business, accounting and engineering are just what we need to ensure that International Village can continue to be called the “Jewel of Inverrary.”

The choice is clear:  Please vote for Duv Wolff, Wendy Hernandez and Marcio Jaspan. 

Candidates Night winners and losers

Congratulations to Duv Wolff and Wendy Hernandez for winning the debate at Candidates Night this past week. (See video HERE.) These two impressive candidates scored the most points on substance and logic. They made a convincing case for why we need new people and new thinking on the Board of Directors to prioritize spending, exercise fiscal discipline and implement innovative programs that will save money by increasing efficiency. Just from the volume of the applause in the room, it’s clear that Duv Wolff and Wendy Hernandez have won the hearts and minds of International Village owners. Marcio Jaspan also did a convincing job of establishing his credentials as an engineer who can help us explore ways to bring down our large annual water bill, as well as someone who will listen to what the owners want before spending their money.

On the other hand, I was very disappointed in Marvin Tow, Sandra Best and Marc Richman and their disingenuous, dishonest, and sometimes downright insulting answers to owners’ questions. But more on that later…

Duv Wolff, a small business owner and active member of the community, discussed his plans for bringing International Village into the 21^st century with a forward-looking energy efficiency program that will shave about 40 percent off our annual $200,000 electricity bill by installing motion detectors at strategic locations to reduce the use of lights when they’re not being used. In return for a nominal initial investment, this environmentally responsible program will pay for itself many times over in just months’ time through major energy savings. These savings, along with his other ideas for reducing wasteful spending, would allow us to reverse most or all of the 7 percent maintenance fee increase approved last year.

Wendy Hernandez, who has a strong accounting background, advocated setting clear cost-cutting targets and reducing our reliance on expensive outside contractors for projects that could be done much more economically by our qualified in-house maintenance staff, such as painting and completing the remodeling of the buildings. Combined with prioritizing spending by delaying or canceling unnecessary projects (such as the proposed massive camera surveillance scheme and electronic key access system), implementing these proposals will eliminate the need for a special assessment of the magnitude of the recently proposed $1.4 million assessment. 

Marcio Jaspan, a licensed engineer, pledged to tackle our $600,000 yearly water bill by examining metering options. If successful, this would result in a significant reduction in the monthly maintenance fees and would especially reward unit owners who do a better job of conserving water. He also proposed an online portal to allow unit owners to register their approval or opposition to proposed spending projects before the Board votes on them. I would be interested to learn how this idea would be implemented, but I certainly welcome his obvious willingness to listen to how owners want their money spent before spending it. It's a refreshing change from the current Board.

And now for the losers...

Marvin Tow gave a very unsatisfactory and rambling answer to my question about why he spent 47 minutes on his association-paid phone with Mr. Ilan Weiss of New York just a month before voting in a closed (secret) Board meeting on April 25, 2013 to award Mr. Weiss an outrageous $56,500 settlement in his most recent lawsuit against the association. The questions still remain: Why was Mr. Tow speaking privately to a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the association without consulting the rest of the Board? What did Mr. Tow get from Mr. Weiss in exchange for his vote for this obscene settlement award (other than Mr. Weiss’ enthusiastic endorsement in the current Board election)? As I reported last week, Mr. Tow had flown up to New York the year before to testify on behalf of Mr. Weiss in a related lawsuit between Mr. Weiss and a former Board member (it was a libel suit in which Mr. Weiss was the defendant). Mr. Tow is now claiming, incredibly, that he paid his own way. I have spoken to two former Board members who are prepared to testify that Mr. Tow and Mr. Weiss told them at the time that Mr. Weiss paid for Mr. Tow’s plane ticket. If what Mr. Tow is saying now about purchasing his own ticket is true (which would almost be worse since it would reveal an inordinate fondness for Mr. Weiss), he could easily prove it by providing his flight receipt. Why hasn't he done so? In any event, his prior relationship with Mr. Weiss clearly created a conflict of interest that should have led him to recuse himself (abstain) from voting for the shameful settlement.

In response to another question by retired Board member Jerry Mirrow, Mr. Tow announced that his decision last year to ban Board members from all committees (except for his ally Frances Mesirow on the Sales & Lease Committee) was because of my election to the Board. Other than being another sign of his vindictiveness and lack of respect for the democratic process, this arbitrary decision essentially allowed Mr. Tow to act as dictator by handpicking only his supporters to be on important committees such as the Budget Committee, which incidentally signed off on the budget that resulted in a 7 percent maintenance fee increase this year, with obviously no input from opposing Board members. Now you know whom to blame.

Sandra Best, as she did in her now notorious Dec. 26 email blast message in which she cast herself as a struggling widow, again claimed to be someone who will watch spending because she is on a fixed income and knows what it means to have to pinch pennies. It’s worth noting that Mrs. Best voted to fully fund reserves in 2014, which would have resulted in a 34 percent maintenance increase this year instead of the 7 percent hike we experienced. (This would have meant about $100 extra per month for the average one-bedroom unit owner and $130 more monthly for the owner of the average two-bedroom unit.) Does this sound like the action of a penny-pinching widow? Mrs. Best, nobody begrudges you your wealth, and I’m happy that you can afford to own three gorgeous homes, drive the latest-model Cadillac and cruise the world as you did in 2012, but please don’t insult our intelligence by claiming to be an impoverished widow on a fixed income who knows how to be economical.

But Mrs. Best’s most revealing moment came in her answer to my question about what she considers her three main accomplishments as a Board member. See it for yourself HERE.

Marc Richman, as expected, claimed to be the only person in the world capable of saving International Village from financial ruin, but he couldn't adequately explain why he thought it was OK for him to profit to the tune of $21,300, while on the Board, from his deal to finance former Board President Charles Fitzpatrick’s purchase of a unit in the St. Moritz building. He also refused to answer a unit owner’s question about how he would be transparent, accountable and stable, and he even appeared to mock her question to make her feel bad. Not very nice, Mr. Richman.

There you have it. The choice couldn't be clearer. It's time for change in International Village. Vote for Duv Wolff, Wendy Hernandez and Marcio Jaspan.

Marvin Tow has much to answer for

Up to now, as you have probably noticed, I have chosen to ignore the many innuendo-filled, infantile and deceptive emails of Mr. Ilan Weiss of New York, a dishonest and in my opinion disreputable individual best known for filing frivolous lawsuits against International Village to milk us out of money. But with the Feb. 18 Board of Directors election less than two weeks away, and with Mr. Weiss now acting as the incumbent candidates’ official spokesman and campaign manager (a role they have apparently assigned him), I feel I must address Mr. Weiss’ relationship with the incumbent Board members running for reelection, particularly Board President Marvin Tow.

Owners should be aware of the fact that in May 2012, Mr. Weiss had Mr. Tow flown up to New York – all expenses and accommodations paid – so Mr. Tow could testify on Mr. Weiss’ behalf in a libel suit against Mr. Weiss by former International Village Board member Edwin Kaufman. Mr. Tow was actually heard saying at the time that he was thrilled at the opportunity to get a free trip to New York.

Less than a year later, on April 25, 2013, Mr. Tow, as Board President, called a closed meeting of the Board of Directors to award his personal benefactor Mr. Weiss a $56,500 settlement award in Mr. Weiss’ related lawsuit against the association, which Mr. Weiss had refused to drop even though the Board members he was accusing of misconduct had been off the Board for already well over a year. The meeting was closed to unit owners, which means you the owners were not allowed to attend or even know what the meeting was about (nor was I allowed to discuss it). At the time, the Board consisted of only six members because former member Sharon Trepiccione had just resigned and her replacement had not yet been appointed. Board member Jerry Mirrow and I refused to attend or participate in this $56,500 giveaway, so all four remaining Board members were needed to make quorum (a sufficient number to conduct business). Instead of recusing himself (abstaining from voting) as he should have due to his obvious conflict of interest, Mr. Tow not only called the secret meeting into session but also voted in favor of this obscene settlement award, along with Board members Marc Richman, Frances Mesirow and Collette Goslin.

Owners have a right to ask if there was a quid pro quo involved in this outrageous settlement, which incidentally was the second settlement payment the association made to Mr. Weiss in two years. (In another closed Board meeting in 2012, the Board of Directors, including Mr. Tow, approved giving Mr. Weiss more than$12,000 to settle another frivolous lawsuit he had filed against the association for not receiving certain requested documents as quickly as he felt he should have.)

I recently requested and obtained Mr. Tow’s phone records for his association-provided cell phone. (These are official association records because, as I reported previously, our maintenance dollars are paying for Mr. Tow’s phone, so the association was required by law to provide them to me.) These phone records paint a disturbing picture about Mr. Tow’s relationship with Mr. Weiss. They show that on March 12, 2013, at 6:44 p.m., Mr. Tow called a number registered to Mr. Weiss in New York and spent 47 minutes on the phone with him. The next day, Mr. Tow called him two more times, spending another 15 minutes speaking with him on the phone.

Why was Mr. Tow being so chatty with Mr. Weiss while his lawsuit against International Village was still ongoing? Was the association's attorney in the case made aware of these long conversations taking place at such an apparently inappropriate time? What could they have been spending so much time talking about just a month before the settlement? Did Mr. Weiss agree to act as Mr. Tow’s official attack dog in exchange for securing his help in obtaining a juicy five-figure award for himself? (It’s interesting to note that Mr. Weiss’ relentless email diatribes against me started shortly after these phone conversations.) Or was some other quid pro quo discussed?  

Mr. Tow, what did you gain out of this settlement? What was in it for you? Was there a quid pro quo? And why didn't you recuse yourself given your clear conflict of interest? Finally, why are you so close to someone who has been such an enemy to International Village and is constantly working against the owners’ financial interests?

Owners will have the opportunity to ask Mr. Tow these and other questions at Candidates Night tonight (Wednesday, Feb. 5) at 7 p.m. in the clubhouse. Mr. Tow has a lot to answer for, and we deserve answers!