June 2, 2008 BOD Meeting

Una traducción española está disponible en Web site: www.TAJWatchSpanish.blogspot.com

I was only able to attend a few minutes of the meeting, as I am preparing for another road trip in the morning. What I saw was quite a few members from the community. What I heard was a fairly high level of contention between them and the BOD (maybe that is why the Association's attorney was also present). What I read was four or five pages of correspondences between Dan Vermut, his attorney (not the Association's attorney), a forensic accountant, etc. (Find them appended here.) I didn't get a chance to read them thoroughly, but there seemed to be some antagonism expressed in the writings by Vermut toward W2ndy H1ll. Maybe I misread ...

I missed the discussion of the important items on the agenda. Can anyone tell me:

• who had resigned (Yvonne, Dan?) and how many seats are up for election in the near future, if any?
• did the BOD really and truly vote to pay themselves $50/month?
• have we really lost another vendor (the lawn crew)
• do we actually have a new bookkeeping firm to take over?
• is there progress with the FPL lighting project (have we gotten anything to show for the money that we have paid to them for the lighting project?)
• is there a list of the committee members and ways to contact those members with our concerns?

What else did I miss? Let me know -- let us all know...
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The following summary was provided by Jay Stahl:

1. Aprroval of the May 5th Board Meeting - Tabled until next meeting.
"Changes had to made to the minutes before they could be approved".

2. Still in the process of hiring new accountants. Payments continue to go to Management Assist.

3. FPL project on hold because FPL price for poles seems to be too high.
Looking for another contractor. What happens to the monies we are presently being assessed for in our monthly maintenance and the fees which were already charged by and paid to FPL was left unspecified.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Discussed whether to assess building 10 for just a repair over one unit ($7500 approx.) or replace entire roof which is approx. 13 years old. No decision was made.

2. New lawn maintenance company takes over on July 1 - Luscious Landscaping and Pavers

3. Board suggested contracting a pest control company to termite treat ALL buildings. After discussion from floor, it looks like Board will look into treating only those buildings which actually have damage. No decision was made.

4. The agenda to residents had Dan Capobianco and Yvonne Fabozzi resigning. W2ndi H1ll said that Yvonne's resignation was never submitted and that the Board's agenda did not have her name on it. There was some heated discussion.

5. The Board set August 18th as the date for a re-election. At the time of the meeting they said that there were only to be two (2) openings. At this time there are 4 openings. Technically we only have 3 duly elected Board members, W2ndi, John and Ben.

The next 4 items followed the agenda and are skipped here.

6. New rules and regulations was tabled until the next meeting.

7. W2ndi H1ll suggested that all Board members be reimbursed for their cell phones at $50 per month per member ($4200 annual). John Lovell jumped right in to say he wouldn't accept it. WH and Yvonne are the members who are constantly using their phones for Association business (President and Treasurer). Discussion from the floor, mostly opposed to the plan. Questions were raised concerning accountability for phone usage. All agreed there should be no blank check issued without proof (accountability) of usage. Another suggestion was to look into getting a commercial contract with a cell carrier and to issue an association cell phone to the President and Treasurer for their use for TAJ business. The discussion ended with the Board agreeing to look into this idea.

The meeting adjourned at about 10 pm.

Thanks to Jay Stahl for providing this information!

BOD Meeting Agenda For Monday, June 2, 2008

There are several items of interest on the agenda for the next BOD meeting:

• BOD members to pay their cell phone bills with Association funds ($50/month) -- a practice that has never before, to my knowledge, happened at TAJ
• There will be an election to fill the BOD vacancies. Manny Solomon, Theresa Levy, Augusta Alvarez, Yvonne Fabozzi, and Dan Capobianco have all resigned. Inside sources report that Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulations (DBPR) has deemed that the BOD appointment of directors to fill the resulting vacancies was in violation** of regulatory documents. That means that at this point only Ben Odebralski, John Lovell, and W2ndy H1ll are properly seated Board of Director members.
• Bob Balch resigned, Douglas Broadhead is apparently to be a new maintenance engineer.
• A new lawn maintenance company
• A new bookkeeping company, again (Weinberg and Black was voted to be our new bookkeeping company to replace MAI on May 16th, and then shortly thereafter that was rescinded)
  
• Termite treatment of all buildings?
• Bob Allen settlement information
• The community lighting project by FPL progress (this project has been underway in one form or another for at least five years, maybe longer)
• Building #10's Roof Assessment
  
• Committees and Building Captains to be established, or recognized

**

BOD Meeting 15 May 2008

Una traducción española está disponible en Web site: www.TAJWatchSpanish.blogspot.com

The meeting began at 7:45pm, with BOD members WH, Dan Vermut, John Lovell, Mark Morgenstern, and Ben Odebralski. About 16 owners eventually joined the meeting.

The Agenda item was to approve, by BOD vote (it was unanimous), the hiring of a new accounting firm: Miele Brothers. The BOD reported that the new accountants claim to have over 30 years of experience and that they currently do the bookwork for Gingerwood properties in Plantation and Century Village in Pembroke Pines. They stated that their specialty the maximization of collections of delinquent accounts through personal phone calls to unit owners. Other information about the firm includes that they have no CPA on their staff, that they will provide a specific person dedicated to the TAJ bookkeeping needs, and that the BOD believes that they have a staff large enough to accommodate our needs. They are also believed to have been in the business of property management and landscaping. A google search of Miele Brothers does not return a website dedicated to Miele Bothers.
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The BOD determined that it was okay to add to the meeting Agenda if the BOD voted to do so (thereby avoiding the need to give the normal 48 hour posted notice of agenda items), so they voted to add the item of considering recent BOD resignations.
**Dan Capobianco's resignation was accepted with a nice speech of appreciation from John Lovell and a round of applause by the other BOD members and the unit owners who were present. John explained that Dan's departure has to do with deeply held differences between him and the BOD.
**Yvonne Fabazzio's resignation is in some dispute. John Lovell stated that she had been reprimanded by other BOD members for 1) being verbally abusive to the office staff, 2) for ordering a maintenance man to cut his hair, 3) for ordering the office manager out on a golf-cart to inspect the property as if she were the property manager. He went on to say that "I cannot work with her at all -- she is abusive" and recommended that the BOD accept her emailed letter of resignation.

Other BOD members countered with the thought that even though she did say she resigned in her email, since then she has continued to act in the capacity of treasurer and therefore maybe she is not serious about her resignation. Dan Vermut said let's give her the benefit of the doubt, WH stated that they would have a conversation with Yvonne with the attorney present (therefore it could be closed to the public) to see if she would agree to change the way she treats the office staff. Ben and Mark voted to wait and see about the resignation. So, as of now, there is one vacancy on the BOD and possibly two, but it is still up in the air.
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Another item that was voted to add to the agenda was the hiring of another attorney to represent TAJ in addition to Beth Lindie. The firm of Weinberg and Black was unanimously agreed upon. At least we think that is the name of the firm. There was no paperwork, no contract, no business card available for review by the BOD members or unit owners. Dan Vermut promised that the firm could be retained without cost to TAJ. He also said that any contract or agreement that was going to be signed by the BOD would be reviewed by his own personal litigation attorney, Athony J Titone (sp?) [It is unclear who is paying Titone for his service -- TAJ or Vermut]

WH said that we need another attorney in addition to Beth Lindie because of all the construction concerns that we have. Dan Vermut added that in the future Beth Lindie might possibly have a conflict of interest, although he did not go into specifics.
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Another item added to the agenda, brought by a unit owner, is the creation of a Yard Sale Day on June 7 & 8th during daylight hours. On those days it is okay for individual unit owners to have yard sales in front of their own units. Ideas of how to advertise the sale were discussed.
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Another piece of information that came to light is that apparently Lue, the current office manager, is preparing to take her CAM license and will at that time be promoted to the position of property manager.
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I left the meeting at 8:30pm to attend to other business, and the meeting was still on-going.

Letter of Resignation from Dan Capobianco

Una traducción española está disponible en Web site: www.TAJWatchSpanish.blogspot.com

Dan submitted the following letter and asked for it to be posted on the blog. I am sorry to see you leave the BOD, Dan.

PRESIDENT, AND ALL BOARD DIRECTORS;

TOWNHOUSE AT JACARANDA.

8201 N.W. 8 STREET

PLANTATION,FL.33324

May / 10 /2008

PLEASE BE INFORMED, AS OF THIS DAY, I AM RESIGNING AS A DIRECTOR OF TOWNHOUSES AT JACARANDA.

REGARDS AND GOOD LUCK

DANIEL CAPOBIANCO

2008-9 BOD Makes/Faces Big Changes Quickly

This story was first published in the TAJ Newsletter
Una traducción española está disponible en Web site: www.TAJWatchSpanish.blogspot.com
by Steve Frahm

On March 5th, Townhouses at Jacaranda (TAJ) home owners voted to fill three seats on the Board of Directors (BOD). Augusta Alvarez, Yvonne Fabozzi, and WH were elected by wide margins that night (the full election details and results can be found on TAJWatch.blogspot.com, March 5th).

In the weeks since the election, the following events have occurred:

Special Assessment Vote
The BOD voted to postpone a Special Assessment on Building 1, had a subsequent meeting with the attorney, and then in a third meeting voted to pass that same Special Assessment.

Property Management Office
On March 20th the Property Manager (Bette Ann DiSalvo) abruptly resigned. That same day was the planned last day of her assistant (Charlotte Rivera), who had given two weeks warning of her own resignation. The third office worker, former receptionist Lue Cooper, has been promoted to Office Manager while the search for a Property Manager continues.

Maintenance Staff
On March 27th Bob Balch was recruited to supervise the maintenance crew. (See the TAJWatch blog, March 28th, for a maintenance crew report.)

Board of Directors Membership
The President of the BOD, Manny Salomon, resigned (his resignation letter is posted on the blog, March 24th). The Board officers realigned and now Wendi is President, John is Vice President, Yvonne is Treasurer, and Ben is Secretary.

Theresa Levy also resigned from the BOD.

Changes to Come
Soon the Board will have two new members. Eventually the Association will have a new Property Manager. It is possible that there will be new construction General Contractors, roofing contractors, etc. The one thing that can always be certain is that CHANGE is the most enduring constant.

Manny Salomon's Letter of Resignation

Una traducción española está disponible en Web site: www.TAJWatchSpanish.blogspot.com

Date: March 20, 2008
To: Townhouses At Jacaranda
Re: Letter of Resignation

Dear TAJ-BOD,
In light of continued circumvention and non-confidence of the execution of duties and
responsibilities directed by the Board of Directors and position of President by current Board
Members; WH, John Lovell, Yvonne Fabozzi and Augusta Alverez, I no longer see a
possibility of fulfilling my responsibilities and vision for our community as it’s President and
no longer feel a cooperative environment to continue as a Director.

I regretfully submit this letter of resignation as President and Board Member, transferring
all responsibilities and obligations of the position to it’s current Vice President, WH,
effective immediately.

Respectfully,
Emanuel Salomon

Sent via email to:
Association Attorney:
Beth Lindie

Hand delivered to TAJ-Board of Directors:
WH
John Lovell
Ben Oderbralski
Yvonne Fabozzi
Augusta Alverez
Theresa Levy

[This apparently open-letter was submitted by Manny via email and no substantial changes were made to it prior to posting it here.]