A 50 percent maintenance fee increase???

Only a week remains before our budget meeting and we are unfortunately still FAR SHORT of the number of proxies we need to waive reserves and avoid a massive maintenance fee increase for all International Village owners. I can't emphasize enough the importance of returning your proxy as soon as possible. As I explained in my previous blog post, not voting is essentially the same as voting to RAISE MAINTENANCE FEES BY 50 PERCENT because state law requires us to obtain owners' consent to waive reserves. That means if you are currently paying $292 in monthly maintenance, you will pay $438 if enough of you don't return your proxies before our Dec. 5 budget meeting. And if you currently pay $449 a month in maintenance and we don't receive your proxy by then, you will run the risk of paying $674! “Abstaining” is not an option. If we don’t get enough proxies back before the Dec. 5 deadline, we will be forced under state law to “fully fund” reserves and massively raise your maintenance fees. We’re asking you not to make us do that. If you haven’t already done so, please reply to this email with your proxy. Just CLICK HERE to download it, then print it, fill it out, sign it, scan or snap a picture of it and email it back. To avoid a maintenance fee increase and improve board accountability, vote "YES" to waive reserves and "YES" to reduce the board from seven to five members. (For a detailed explanation, click here.)

UPDATE: Last Wednesday (Thanksgiving eve), Marvin Tow sent a very un-holidaylike blast email to owners attacking me for exposing him in my Nov. 9 blog post/email as the individual behind the CIVOC "committee of one." Mr. Tow has finally dropped the phony "CIVOC Committee" label and signed his own name to his latest email to owners. I hope I can take credit for that. But he still refuses to identify the four shadowy investor candidates he is backing for the board, even though he's asking owners to keep the board's membership at seven for their sake. Over a week ago, I sent Marvin an email challenging him to a debate on the bylaws amendment on board size – with equal time for both sides and the opportunity for owners to ask questions. Unfortunately, he ignored my invitation. Marvin, what are you afraid of? That somebody could ask you who these four secret investors are? Or that someone might want to know why you are calling owners "on behalf of the investors" and urging them to keep the board at seven members in order to have "four new board members that are friendly to investors"? (To hear Marvin Tow's voicemail message to an owner, CLICK HERE and download the message.) Marvin, you live in the Village, so why are you attempting to speak on behalf of investors? And why should anyone trust your judgment given your infamous support for a convicted felon (Jason Levy) as property manager in 2012-14? Come out of the shadows and let's have a fair debate.

John Labriola

International Village President

JFLABRIOLA@GMAIL.COM

Happy Thanksgiving / Return your proxies

I would like to wish all International Village unit owners a happy Thanksgiving. As a community, we have a lot to be thankful for this year. At the top of the list of course is surviving Hurricane Irma. As we all know, if Irma had maintained its original course, the damage to our community would have been devastating, so we should all be very grateful that didn't happen.

We can also be thankful for continued progress on our building renovations, a new elevator maintenance company, and the fourth year in a row of no maintenance fee increase – but ONLY if you return your proxies in time. To those who have already sent in your proxy, thank you! If you have not yet received a proxy for any reason, click HERE to download one. Then print it, sign it, scan or snap a picture of it, and email it back. If we don’t get your proxy back before the Board of Directors’ Dec. 5 budget meeting, we will not be able to avoid a maintenance fee increase, so please return it as soon as possible. I strongly urge a “YES” vote on waiving reserves and a "YES" vote on reducing the board’s size from seven to five members. For a detailed explanation, click HERE.

Thank you, and a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving to you and your families.

UPDATE: Wednesday night at 6:12 p.m., Marvin Tow sent an unhinged and unprovoked blast email to owners attacking me for exposing him in my Nov. 9 blog post and email as the individual behind the CIVOC "committee of one." Mr. Tow has finally dropped the phony "CIVOC Committee" label and signed his own name to his latest email to owners. I hope I can take credit for that. But he still refuses to identify the four shadowy investor candidates he is backing for the board, even though he's asking owners to keep the board's membership at seven for their sake. A few days ago, I sent Marvin an email inviting him to debate the bylaws amendment in an open forum – with equal time for both sides and the opportunity for owners to ask questions. Unfortunately, he ignored my invitation. Marvin, what are you afraid of? That somebody could ask you who these four secret investors are? Or that someone might want to know why you are calling owners "on behalf of the investors" and urging them to keep the board at seven members in order to have "four new board members that are friendly to investors"? (CLICK HERE to hear Marvin Tow's voicemail message to an owner.) Marvin, you live in the Village, so why are you attempting to speak on behalf of "investor owners"? Come out of the shadows and let's have a fair debate.

John Labriola

International Village President

JFLABRIOLA@GMAIL.COM

Less is More

Thank you to all the owners who have already submitted their proxy for the budget and by-laws amendment. From your emails and from personally speaking to many owners over the last couple of weeks, the response so far has been overwhelmingly positive. The vast majority of owners strongly agree that it's time to reduce the board's size in order to improve accountability. Most owners also agree we should waive reserves, not only to avoid higher maintenance fees, but also because a lot of owners just don't trust some future board not to raid the giant potential "slush fund" we'd be creating if we "fully funded" reserves.

If you still haven't voted your proxy, it's very important to do so. Because of the way the state law works, not voting is pretty much the same as voting "No." That means that if enough of you don't vote, the state will force the association to raise maintenance fees by 50 PERCENT in order to "fully fund reserves"!!! Don't ask me to explain the logic of this state law, but that's how it works. So please return your signed proxy as soon as possible.

If you have not yet received your proxy for whatever reason, CLICK HERE to download one. Then print it, sign it, scan or snap a picture of it, and email it back. 

I strongly urge a “YES” vote on both waiving reserves and reducing the board’s size from seven to five members. For a detailed explanation of the reasons, see my last blog post.

Less is more. To hold the line on maintenance fees and reduce the size of the board, please vote YES on #1 and YES on #2. 

John Labriola
International Village President
JFLABRIOLA@GMAIL.COM

Five is enough

By now, most of you have received your proxy for the budget and proposed amendment to the International Village By-Laws. To avoid a maintenance fee increase and to improve Board accountability, you should vote YES on both waiving reserves and reducing the size of the Board of Directors from seven to five members.

Before I go into the reasons again, I feel I must address a recent email many of you received from the so-called “CIVOC committee” urging owners to oppose reducing the board's size. For those of you who may not be aware, the “CIVOC committee” is no committee at all but is in fact one individual. That individual is Marvin Tow, who was board president in 2012-13. In the past, Mr. Tow closed his “CIVOC committee” emails with a list of about 35 owners purportedly comprising the committee. But he stopped doing so after a number of those owners complained that they never signed up for such a committee and were neither consulted nor agreed with his emails. Ironically, while he was on the board, Mr. Tow supported an earlier proposal to shrink the board. But now he opposes reducing the board’s size because he is backing four unnamed board candidates, whose hopes of taking over the board in 2018 would be stymied if the proposed amendment passes because only two seats instead of four would be up for grabs next year. I don’t know who these four people are because Mr. Tow declines to identify them, but I would be very wary of supporting anyone endorsed by Mr. Tow considering his record as a board member, which included presiding over a massive special assessment and huge maintenance fee increase and hiring and adamantly defending a former property manager (Jason Levy) who ended up in prison for embezzlement. The current board has had to work very hard over the past four years to clean up the mess he left behind, so I certainly hope owners aren’t foolish enough to take his endorsements seriously.

To recap my reasons for recommending that you vote YES on reducing the size of the board: First, it’s always difficult to find good, honest candidates willing to run for the board who don’t have their own selfish interests at heart. Second, the growing percentage of owner-investors who live out of town, out of state or overseas means there is a shrinking pool of owners able to effectively and responsibly carry out the duties of a board member. Third, a new state law limiting the terms of condo board members will shrink that pool even further over time. Finally for some perspective, consider the fact that the city of Fort Lauderdale with its population of 180,000, and the city of Miami with its population of 440,000, each has five members on their board of city commissioners. I humbly submit that if five board members is enough for a city of nearly half a million residents, it’s certainly enough for a condo association of 832 owners.

So I recommend voting “YES” on waiving reserves and “YES” on reducing the size of the Board of Directors. Be sure to sign your proxy and mail it back with sufficient postage or drop it off at the association office as soon as possible. You may also scan it and email it back. If you have more than one unit, you should fill out a separate proxy for each unit. If you have any questions or need help, please feel free to contact me.

UPDATE 11/22/17:

Following my Nov. 9 blog post exposing Marvin Tow as the individual behind the CIVOC "committee of one," you may have noticed that Mr. Tow dropped the "CIVOC Committee" label in his subsequent email to owners, but he continues to refuse to sign his name to his emails from his anonymous intlvillageowner@gmail.com email account.

Marvin, have the courage to at least identify yourself in your emails. A few days ago, I sent Marvin an email inviting him to debate the bylaws amendment in an open forum, with equal time for both sides and the opportunity for owners to ask questions. Unfortunately, he ignored it. Marvin, what are you afraid of? That somebody may ask you to identify the four shadowy investor candidates you are backing who won't be able to take over the board if this amendment passes? And why are you calling owners "on behalf of the investors" and telling them that "only by keeping the board at seven will we have an opportunity to vote for four new board members that are friendly to investors"??? (CLICK HERE to hear Marvin Tow's voice mail message to an owner.) Marvin, you live in the Village, so why are you trying to represent the interests of "investor owners"? Come out from behind the shadows and let's have an honest debate.

John Labriola
International Village President
JFLABRIOLA@GMAIL.COM