Disappointing behavior by a Board member

As you may recall, some months ago the International Village Board of Directors exercised its right of first refusal to purchase a two-bedroom unit in the Bordeaux building for $50,000, for the dual purpose of keeping up our comp values and earning additional income for the association by reinvesting the profits of its resale in the ongoing building renovations and other projects.

After a few months of inactivity and one offer that fell through, the association received a second offer of $76,500 this spring, but a couple of months later the prospective buyers backed out of the deal, and the association is now considering a third offer. However, while the contract with the second set of prospective buyers was being prepared in May, Board member Hayden T. Joseph, who uses the email hayden49@aol.com, sent me the email below, in which he proposed to match the buyers' offer and purchase the unit himself. In exchange, Mr. Joseph, who lives in Miami, demanded a contractual agreement from the Board to pay him at least $15,600 per year to live in the unit, presumably so he could be appointed as Treasurer, since the owners recently voted in favor of a provision that executive officers must be resident owners. Mr. Joseph also demanded that the association purchase him a desk, an executive chair and a side chair.

This outlandish proposal, which would be illegal if approved since state law prohibits compensation for association board members, made me very uncomfortable, and I chose to ignore it (though I later reported it to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation), and I went ahead and authorized the sale of the unit to the prospective buyers who had made the original offer of $76,500. Mr. Joseph was angered by my decision and let me know, and this has led to considerable tension between him and the Board of Directors ever since, which recently deteriorated into a series of disturbing actions by Mr. Joseph to settle scores with the association by feeding International Village’s arch-enemy Ilan Weiss confidential information (and in many cases, misinformation) about ongoing legal matters to help Mr. Weiss with his many current lawsuits against us.

The Board has made repeated attempts to reason with Mr. Joseph privately in the hopes of convincing him to either change his destructive behavior or resign, but our efforts so far have been to no avail. Therefore, we have been left with no choice but to bring his conduct to the attention of the unit owners, and we will be discussing this matter at the Board meeting this Tuesday, Aug. 25 at 7:15 p.m. in the clubhouse. 

Thank you, and may God protect International Village from malicious people.

John Labriola
International Village President
VillageViewpoints.blogspot.com

Unit for sale

---

hayden49@aol.com <hayden49@aol.com>	Fri, May 29, 2015 at 9:33 AM
To: John Labriola <jflabriola@gmail.com>
I am considering making an offer equal to the most recent price offered. In doing so I will be acquiring a property which will generate no income but will incur an obligation for maintenance, taxes, phone and electricity. I will therefore require a commitment in the form of a contract where I will be paid for services that exceed my duties as a board member. Such payments should not be less than $1300 per month or $15,600 per year. I would probably need a desk, an executive chair, and a side chair as well. Thanks. www.htjosephcpa.com For Taxation and Accounting Services This electronic mail transmission may contain confidential or privileged information. If you believe that you have received this message in error, please notify the sender by reply transmission and delete the message without copying or disclosing it. Advice contained in this written or electronic communication, including any attachments or enclosures, is not intended or written to be used and it cannot be used by any person or entity for the purpose of (i) avoiding any tax penalties that may be imposed by the Internal Revenue Service or any other U.S. Federal taxing authority or agency or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.