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