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 LabriolaBefore 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.
International Village President
JFLABRIOLA@GMAIL.COM
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank your for your comment. It will be posted following system review.