Hands Off that Ballot Box!

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Scott Gordon

Florida's Republican primary is just a few days away and many, if not most, of the community associations in our state are in the midst of their own ROC board elections.

What better time to remind unit owners in condominiums and cooperatives about the procedures that must be followed if the association wishes to verify information on the outer envelope (which contains the inner envelope in which the completed ballot has been placed).

Florida Administrative Code Section 61B-23.0021(10)(b) describes the process for condominium associations and FAC Section 61B-75.005(10)(b) details the process for cooperative associations.  These sections provide that an association that wishes to verify outer envelope information in advance of the annual meeting may do so as follows:

  • The board designates a committee that does NOT include current board members, officers, candidates for the board in this election, or the spouses of any of these persons--this is defined as being "impartial" in these two FAC sections
  • This impartial committee may then hold a meeting to verify the outer envelope information.
  • This meeting must be noticed in the same manner as board meetings and must be open to all unit owners

At the meeting of this impartial committee, the signature and unit identification on the outer envelope must be checked against the list of qualified voters and the voters shall be checked off on the list as having voted.  

Any exterior envelope not signed by the eligible voter shall be marked "Disregarded" or with "words of similar import," and any ballots contained in those disregarded envelopes shall NOT be counted.

A few more very important points:

Neither the inner nor the outer envelopes can be opened until the "polls are closed" and no more ballots are being accepted.

The outer envelope must be signed by the eligible voter--simply sticking an address label with the eligible voter's name on the outer envelope--without some evidence of that eligible voter's signature--is NOT sufficient

Finally, and perhaps most important, any meeting of the impartial committee to verify the outer envelope information MUST be held on the day of the election.   ROCs that allow this committee to verify these outer envelopes prior to the day of the election are violating Florida law.

I assume that the drafters of these FAC sections realized that not allowing the impartial committee to meet until the day of the election would result in some very long annual meetings--and I've had the pleasure of serving as the "entertainment" at many resident owned communities while the envelopes were being opened and the ballots counted!

Our next four weeks will be very busy with annual meetings and seminars in Bradenton, Lake Placid, Bonita Springs, and Venice.   We hope to see you at one of those seminars--please contact Karen (kmidlam@lutzbobo.com) or Kathy (ksawdo@lutzbobo.com) if you haven't already rsvp'd and want to attend one of those events.

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Join us at our next ROC seminars

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Scott Gordon

We're only two weeks into 2012 and I've already had the opportunity to make a presentation on conducting elections in community associations for managers and board members on behalf of our local chapter of the Community Associations Institute and speak about the"55 and over" exemption and other Fair Housing issues at this month's meeting of EPROC at the Colony Hills community in Zephyrhills.   EPROC has grown tremendously in the two short years since its formation and this is in large part due to the efforts of Rebecca Gaddis, who recently accepted a new position with the San Antonio Citizens Federal Credit Union.   Since that's San Antonio, Florida (not Texas), and she'll be based out of Zephyrhills, EPROC will continue to benefit from Rebecca's involvement.  It was very encouraging to see so many communities represented at EPROC's January meeting and I'll look forward to returning to their April meeting to moderate a discussion on the various types of community management.

I'm pleased to announce the dates of our next set of seminars for managers and board members in resident owned communities:

  • Tuesday, January 31 at Village on the Greens in Bradenton (formerly known as El Rancho Village--we had a great time at their very well attended "name change" celebration on January 5th!)
  • Friday, February 3 at Camp Florida Resort in Lake Placid
  • Wednesday, February 8 at Bonita Beach Trailer Park in Bonita Springs
  • Thursday, February 16, at Sandalwood Park in Venice

We'll be covering a number of topics at these seminars, including the following:

  • What every board member and manager should know about buying, selling, and transferring homes in resident owned communities
  • Florida-friendly landscaping
  • Updating the "55 and over" survey in ROCs

As always, we'll discuss any proposed legislation affecting resident owned communities and leave some time for questions and suggested topics for future seminars.

All of these seminars start at 10 a.m. but many attendees arrive a bit early to enjoy the refreshments and meet and greet attendees from other communities.  We'll aim for ending these seminars between noon and 12:30. 

Please call Karen Midlam or Kathy Sawdo at our office (941-951-1800) or email them at kmidlam@lutzbobo.com or ksawdo@lutzbobo.com to let us know which of these seminars you'll be attending, the number of members from your community that will be attending, and whether you'll need directions to the host community.

There's no charge to attend and enjoy some refreshments and the company of other ROC board members--and pick up some useful information!

I hope to see you at one of these seminars.

 

 

 

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