Board incumbents illegally postpone election to benefit themselves

In what will surely go down as the most shameful attempted power grab in International Village history, the Board of Directors, in a “special meeting” on Monday that outrageously preempted Candidates Night, voted to postpone the upcoming Board election and start over from scratch, discarding all ballots already submitted. (See 1/13/14 video HERE.) The cost to the association of reprinting and re-mailing all the ballots is about $2,700.

Retiring Board member Jerry Mirrow deserves praise for his eloquent opposition to this travesty. But Board members Marvin Tow, Marc Richman, Sandra Best, Frances Mesirow and Collette Goslin have entered the Hall of Shame for their disgusting abuse of power. It’s particularly galling that three of the Board members who voted to do this are themselves candidates – a clear conflict of interest since their decision would appear to benefit themselves.

Their excuse for this unconscionable waste of time and money? That a Board member – me – supposedly had prior knowledge of a candidate’s withdrawal and should have instructed the association office to remove her name from the ballot before it was printed.

First of all, there is no precedent in Florida for postponing an election when a candidate on the ballot for a condo election withdraws. What has always taken place in these cases is that any votes cast for the withdrawn candidate aren’t counted and the next runner-up is promoted. This happens all the time, because it’s the law.

As for the charge that I supposedly had prior knowledge of a former candidate’s withdrawal and should have kept her off the ballot, it’s pure slander with no basis in fact. It’s also patently absurd, since it assumes that a Board member has the power or authority to remove a candidate’s name from the ballot, when in fact only the candidate himself or herself can do that by withdrawing in writing to the association office. But these facts didn't stop the Board from underhandedly signing off on a cover letter that blames yours truly for the nonexistent need to redo the ballot mailing based on my alleged foreknowledge of her withdrawal. The mailing containing this obscene letter arrived in most owners’ mailboxes this Wednesday.

I demand to know who approved this libelous letter, exactly which Board members knew about it, why it was not taken up at the special Board meeting to be reviewed for its wording and voted on, and why it was deliberately concealed from at least two Board members – Jerry Mirrow and me – before it was printed and mailed out to all unit owners as part of this second election package mailing. Were they afraid of getting caught in a crime before committing it?

Aside from the fact that this letter constitutes illegal election engineering to denigrate the slate of candidates that I am identified with, it begs a very simple question regarding the author of this letter, who I have been informed is our association attorney Dennis Eisinger (the same attorney who had to apologize to the association twice last year for his poor advice on handicap accessibility requirements and free speech).  The question is: Did Mr. Eisinger even bother to verify any of the alleged “facts” in this letter by at the very least contacting Nancy Schuette, the candidate who dropped out? Shockingly, even though the association office had her email and phone number, no attempt was ever made to ask her what really happened. This is now a known fact because last night – in a terrible stroke of misfortune for my accusers – Ms. Schuette sent this email to the association backing up my version of events and demanding that Board candidates stop using her as a political football. (I have redacted her email address and have deleted virtually all earlier references to her in my blog out of respect for her stated desire for privacy.)

It appears that my accusers deliberately failed to contact Ms. Schuette precisely because they were afraid she would demolish their case for postponing the election and re-mailing the ballots, since the entire rationale for this absurd move is the now completely discredited charge that I had prior knowledge of her withdrawal. This intentional failure by Board members to do their due diligence is a despicable breach of their fiduciary responsibility. It means they deliberately wasted YOUR MONEY to cause CHAOS and CONFUSION in the middle of an election – all in a criminal scheme to smear their most vocal critic. They hoped that by creating a big distraction, you would forget their maintenance-fee-increasing, special-assessment-loving, big-spending ways. But this election do-over is a perfect symbol of the personal animosity, vindictiveness and complete disregard for fiscal responsibility that drives all the current Board majority’s decisions. It’s very revealing that the Board members who voted for this totally unnecessary expense didn't even bother, during the meeting in which they approved it, to ask how much it would cost – because they DIDN'T CARE.

In light of the foregoing, I will be filing a complaint with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (as well as continuing discussions already under way with my attorneys regarding remedies for libel and defamation of character) unless the following demands are met:

1. A third election mailing must be sent out containing a cover letter featuring a complete retraction and apology for the current libelous cover letter – with the last two mailings being charged to the five miscreant Board members who are responsible for all of this.
2. Mr. Eisinger and his firm must be completely removed from any involvement in the election, including the collection of ballots, since he has clearly revealed himself to be partial to one side. 
3. Absolutely no meetings or decisions of the Board of Directors that include the term-expired members are to take place during the interval between their originally scheduled departure date of Jan. 27 and the rescheduled election. 

There is one alternative solution that is both fair and simple: All five Board members who participated in this unlawful scheme should apologize for their misconduct and resign. The three non-incumbent candidates should then be allowed to take their seats on the Board; they have earned it with all their busy campaigning and door-knocking over the last several weeks. It’s not fair to tell them all their work has to go down the drain and they must start all over again, simply because of Board members’ illegal stunt to manipulate the election. Then the newly constituted Board could schedule a clean election for the three remaining seats.

Enough is enough. Email Board members Marvin Tow, Sandra Best, Marc Richman, Frances Mesirow and Collette Goslin and urge them to do the right thing by resigning. This would save us all a lot of trouble.