Guest Pool Issue reply from Ms. Anita Cruz

Thank you for sending me a copy of your letter posted to Dave’s Blog. I’m sorry that you are disappointed with the service provided by the security as it relates to ID checks for users of the Guest Pool. Please allow me to clarify a couple of points:

· Anyone using a WPRF pool MUST have an approved Century Village® ID.
· All users of WPRF pools MUST abide by the rules posted at each pool.

Security is required to do “random checks” of pool users as they do their rounds. This requires pool users to provide their ID’s to the officer upon request, and the random nature of the checks is designed to come as a surprise to those who choose to violate the rules, while at the same time allowing those in compliance to swim and/or sun without being continuously interrupted.

As for your closing statement, “I think that all adult users of the Guest Pool, resident and guest, should be requested to show their ID every time that the guard comes around”: this is a policy change to the security post orders that would be made by the UCO Operations Committee. WPRF enforces all policies set by the UCO Operations Committee.

Thank you for your continued interest and comments.

Anita J. Cruz
Vice President
W.P.R.F., Inc.
200 Century Boulevard
West Palm Beach, FL 33417-2247
Phone: (561) 640-3111
Fax: (561) 640-0075

Acceptable Mail, for UCO Reporter - Mail Bag Column

Prior to closing this afternoon's Exec. Bd. Meeting, Pres. Loewenstein,

announced that the Mail Bag Column, would no longer accept or print

inflamatory ( my words) letters, after several were aired, in last month's

edition, including his own, by his own admission.

---

Unfortunately, others and I, no longer have the opportunity to respond

to criticsm's that appeared in that column, particularly the ones

that attempted to vilify, Frank Cornish, for his October's column,

in which he took to task, the action taken at the August Operations

Committee meeting, that eliminated Tuesday night's Karaoke, only

to re-instate it, in September, following his presentation of a Petition

gathered by several residents.

---

I believe all three individuals, Jerry Karpf, Claudette LaBonte and

Avis Blank, had better take a LONG HARD LOOK, at their actions.

as well as the Agenda's of both Karpf and LaBonte, self serving?

Next President & VP of UCO????????

---

" HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!"

UCO OFFICE BLDG. AUG. 22, 2008

Hi All,

Shown above, The new UCO Office Building is well advanced in construction.

Photo by Ken Davis.

Dave Israel

OPEN MEETING RESOLUTION via ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING

Please be advised that the Open Meeting Resolution, Section 3, has been unanimously approved by the Advisory Committee this morning. It was referred to the Officers' Committee, which will refer this matter to the Executive Board, with or without recommendation. It will be presented at the next meeting of the Delegate Assembly for final adoption. The following proposed amendment to the Open Meeting Resolution, Section 3, is as follows:

Section 3: THAT the Officers’ Committee shall be exempt from these meeting provisions in order to make the mundane and low impact decisions necessary to be made on a regular basis or to hold meetings for the purpose of information sharing and informal discussion on matters of importance, except, that the monthly meetings or Special Meetings or informal meetings on any matter that requires AND produces a final Officers’ Committee recommendation or final report to the Executive Board shall be bound by the provisions of this Resolution. In addition, meetings of any committee which are of such a time sensitive nature that they cannot reasonably meet the 48 hour noticing requirement may be held without such notice. The minutes of any such “Emergency Meetings” shall be recorded and distributed to the Executive Board and Delegate Assembly along with the minutes of the monthly meetings of the Officers’ Committee and Executive Board.

KEN DAVIS NEW VICE PRESIDENT

Hi Ken,

It is wonderful to see one of the "Good Guys" get elected.

I hope among other things you resume control of the CV Q & A and open it up into the vibrant channel for Unit Owner Communications it was before the Dark Age.

Please encourage Officers of UCO, the LCAM Pat Blunck and other KNOWLEDGABLE persons to respond to questions on the CV Q & A and perhaps even on this BLOG.

You can bring some Sunshine into the UCO dark space, and put the Unit Owners in the know.

All the Vice Presidents must remember that you were elected by the Delegates and King George has no real Administrative control of you.

Open up the closed space; Sunshine is a fine disinfectant.

Dave Israel

THINKING ABOUT THE FUTURE

WHAT DIRECTION CENTURY VILLAGE

New Beginning!

If you have not been watching, permit me to observe that we have just undergone a transformational event here in Century Village. The Board of Directors of UCO voted against the President on a matter of significance, as a result, the President has resigned along with a Vice President. Additionally, a second Vice President had resigned earlier over basic philosophical differences with the President. Hence the first order of business is to fill these critical UCO positions.

Open meetings are now the buzzword of the moment; clarified and cemented into our bylaws, we must be ever vigilant and make sure it works. We now enter what I hope will be an "Era of Cooperation and Good Feeling."

We must leave behind fighting, blaming and divisions of groups and work together for the good of all.

Now is the time! Now is our chance! Let's use our heads and not our emotions! Let's stop fighting and start working!

Listed below is some of the business that needs to be addressed:

1. Open communication so everyone knows first-hand what is happening in the village by conversion of the UCO paper to a full-service paper with more news coverage and less personal columns. Also develop Channel 63 to a full serviceTV station with talk shows on items of interest in the village, news broadcasts and other live programming.

2. Streamline services for more efficiency and less waiting. For example, do all passes in the same place and do transponders instantly with no appointments, better yet, explore new technology like License Plate Recognition, and eliminate transponders altogether.

3. Computerization of all UCO operations and records for more accuracy and faster, more uniform service.

4. Run UCO like the $5 million business that it is.

5. Consolidation of willing associations to streamline operations, records,
management and to increase purchasing power.

6. Create a better informed and revamped Delegate Assembly with more power.

7. Reopen the Q and A to allow residents to express themselves.

8. Place professional talent in key UCO positions. For instance, finance and accounting

9. We pay the salaries of UCO staff and also the clubhouse staff. By combining some of their tasks we will be able to bring savings to these budgets.

10. We need to get started on addressing shoreline restoration.

11. Recruit and place talented, thinking people in committee chair positions. The newly elected President should appoint a "Volunteer Committee". The purpose of this committee would be to actively search and compile lists of willing and experienced residents, along with their bios, for submission to each committee chair.

12. Reaffirm term limits.

13. Bring back help for associations.

Dave Israel

UCO COMMITTEES

IS THERE A LIST OF UCO COMMITTEES , NAMING THE CHAIR AND THE MEMBERS OF SAID COMMITTEES? WHERE MIGHT A UNIT OWNER GET THIS LIST AND A PHONE # TO CONTACT THE CHAIR ?

MIKE

OFFICERS COMMITTEE MEETING

Hi All,
Just a reminder, there will be a meeting of the Officers Committee of UCO:

Day and date:............... Wednesday July 16, 2008

Time:............................. 10:00am

Place:............................. Clubhouse, Classroom C

Let's have a good turnout.

Dave Israel

LOEWENSTEIN AND UCO WAS AGAINST OPEN MEETINGS

Hi All,
There have been a few questions in this BLOG as to when George expressed a negative view of Open Meetings. In addition, at the Delegate Assembly meeting of July 11, 2008 George stated from the stage that he was in favor of open meetings, with prior approval of the Committee Chair person (not an open meeting at all).

One might ask exactly what was/is the mind set of President Loewenstein and most of the other UCO Officers on this issue. Fortunately, they provided a very strong indication of what they were thinking in a Flyer which they signed and had distributed to the Delegates.

Following is a copy of that document for all to view, you read it and decide what this crew thinks of Unit Owner rights in Century Village; it is signed by

George Loewenstein President
Howard Silver VP
Sal Bummolo VP
Dorothy Tetro Treasurer

To his credit Frank Cornish did not sign this travesty.

BLOGGED by Dave Israel

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

VOTE NO

Against the motion that all committee meetings should be subject to the Sunshine Law.

First, let's look at those pushing for the approval of this motion.

1 - An individual who, during his/her term as Vice President of UCO in the prior administration never felt the need to have open committee meetings. (S)he has lost two subsequent elections and his/her motivation now seems to be that if this motion is passed,. (s)he can try to control the workings of the committee.

2 - The Vice President who, in the current issue of the UCO Reporter, has strongly come out against all open meetings. Given an opportunity to remove the article prior to publication, (s)he elected not to. Now, (s)he has flip-flopped and joined the other side. (S)he might want to re-read his/her prior article dealing with the definition of malcontents.

Next, let's get to the substance of the motion. Several years ago, the Finance Committee held Power Point presentations of the proposed budgets so that every resident could be involved in the process, They were free to ask questions, suggest changes, etc. Next, the delegate assembly gets to look at the budget and vote on it. This process will continue.

If this motion were to pass, potentially 13,000 residents could attend a committee meeting, thereby creating mass confusion, and impede the workings of the committee. Further, and most important:

Your officers continuously meet to deal with the daily problems in running our Village. Under this motion, we would no longer be able to do this, since 5 officers constitute a quorum. This would create a chaotic situation. The officers also meet with providers and support agencies to get information which is passed on to the residents though reports at Executive meetings, Delegate meeting and yes, even through many Town meetings for which our administration has been responsible.

The result of the passage of this motion would result in an ungovernable and non-functioning administration of Century Village. The question to be asked is if that is the ultimate goal of those forces pushing for this motion. Our administration prides itself on its openness, availability and constant transmission of information to our residents.

You can always volunteer to serve on a committee or call a chairman if you have an issue that you wish to discuss with the committee. You always have the right to review the minutes of all committee meetings.

Just four months ago, you elected this administration, giving us an overwhelming vote of confidence. If you still feel that we are living up to your expectations, we urge you to vote against this motion.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This diatribe of non-sequitur absurdity was rejected and the Resolution passed with overwhelming approval

Dave Israel

HOW WILL THE RESIGNED OFFICERS BE REPLACED!

Hi All,
In a comment stream on this BLOG; Randall Borchardt has published an extract from the UCO Bylaws which directly answers the question of filling the vacancies. Following is the extracted Bylaw:

Dave Israel

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Randall said...

Mike,

ARTICLE VI (UCO BYLAWS)

OFFICERS.

Any vacancy of an elected office occurring before the expiration of a term shall be filled by the President on an emergency basis.

In the event that the vacancy is in the Office of President, such vacancy shall be filled by a majority of the remaining Officers’ Committee Members.

The filling of any vacancy in office must be approved at the next meeting of the Delegate Assembly at which a quorum is present.

In the alternative, an election by the Delegate Assembly shall be held to fill the vacancy. Such officer shall serve for the un-expired term of the seat being filled.

Jul 11, 2008 3:36:00 PM

BLOGMEISTER RESIGNATION - NOT AN OPTION

Hi All,
There has been an occasional Post (always A Nony Mouse) that I, being a member of the Executive Board, should resign.

The Non-Sequitur "reasoning" being that; "I am part and parcel of the Administration" and thus I should go.

Why? I have not supported any of the major bad decisions of the Loewenstein regime.

1) I was utterly opposed to the Law suit; because I researched the issues and knew there was no case. I wrote an open letter stating that it was an "Illegal Rent Strike" and my opinion was ultimately supported by Federal Judge Hurley.

2) I was/am opposed to removing term limits; Autocrats abhor Term Limits because they preclude their becoming permanently ensconced in their Autocratic positions.

3) I was/am opposed to closed meetings (requesting permission to attend); this restriction along with item 2 above are fundamentally Un-American.

There are many other issues that I disagreed with George, but I remained in the Administration to attempt change.

Remember; I was Elected by the Delegates, just like George, Only they have the power to remove me.

I hope to continue to serve the Unit Owners of CV for as long as they will have me.

Dave Israel

OPEN COMMITTEE MEETINGS, Critical Vote

Hi All,

The President of UCO has issued a decree, closing UCO Committee meetings to the Unit Owners of Century Village. This action was taken Sui Generis, without approval of the Board of Directors.

This is an egregious arrogation of power for which there is no precedent or authority in the UCO Bylaws.

On the contrary, it is stated in the Bylaws that the Sunshine Laws shall be used as a guide as regards Committee meeting attendance.



In order to rectify this offront; Randall Borchardt has drafted a resolution of clarification of the exact intent of the Sunshine Law provision in our Bylaws.



This resolution will be moved "From the Floor" of the July 11th. Delegate Assembly meeting on Friday.



All Delegates must attend and restore Democracy to Century Village.



Please print and publish this BLOG Post on all Association Bulletin Boards



Dave Israel



====================================================




A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS CONFIRMING THE
MEANING AND INTENT OF THE GOVERNMENT-IN-THE-SUNSHINE
PROVISION OF THE UCO BYLAWS (ARTICLE XI, PARAGRAPH H)


WHEREAS the Board of Directors must determine for itself the meaning of its Bylaws;


WHEREAS the meaning of the "Sunshine Amendment" to the UCO Bylaws has been broadly construed, whereby the established custom of open meetings has been altered by a new policy without the approval of the Board of Directors of UCO;


BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED by the Board of Directors of the United Civic Organization, Inc. as follows:


Section 1: THAT the Sunshine Amendment to the UCO Bylaws requires that 1) non-exempted meetings of boards and committees must be open; 2) reasonable notice of such meetings must be given, and 3) minutes of such meetings must be taken and made available upon request.


Section 2: THAT the Sunshine Amendment to the UCO Bylaws applies to all discussions or deliberations as well as formal action taken by boards and committees of UCO, except for those meetings or portions of meetings specifically exempted by this Amendment. It is applicable to any gathering, whether formal or casual, of a quorum of members of the same board or committee to discuss some matter on which foreseeable action or recommendations for action will be taken.


Section 3: THAT boards and committees are permitted to adopt written reasonable rules and regulations which ensure the orderly conduct of a meeting and which require orderly behavior on the part of the non-members attending. This includes limiting the time and frequency that an individual can speak and, when a large number of people attend and wish to speak, requesting that a representative on each side of the issue speak rather than everyone present. In addition, the manner of participation should also be adopted as a written reasonable rule. The board or committee shall determine that non-members are permitted to speak to each agenda item at the beginning of the meeting, or in the alternative, prior to the deliberation of each item of business. In the event that items of business not listed on the agenda are considered, non-member participation shall also be ensured by the board or committee. Agendas shall be posted along with the notice of the board or committee meeting at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting. Voting by secret ballot shall not be permitted except for the appointment or dismissal of committee members by the committee itself.

Town Meeting

Why are we paying a lawyer to come and tell us about the new State condo laws when one of our State reps would come and tell us for free???

VP RESIGNATION FROM UCO BOARD

Consult CV - Q& A, for thoese of you, who ever had any doubts, as to why this took place!

Closed Committee Meetings

WHAT'S NEXT, BOOK BURNING??????????????

Haverhill Entrance

UCO has a painting contractor painting the
entrance, only to be postponed on account of much needed 2.85"
of rain.............more later.

Ed

Open the Door

There is a gate between Century Village and the building that encompasses the MRI, X-rays, a number of other medical doctors and people of the same persuasion. This gate has been locked shut. A large number of people have been voicing their disapproval of this situation. It seems if they go for a treatment and it leaves them a little weak or if they went to an ophthalmologist and their eyes were dilated, therefore, making it difficult to drive in traffic going over 50 miles an hour on Okeechobee Boulevard. If someone can get that gate to be opened for, let's say, six to eight hours a day, it would be a great advantage to the people in Century Village. Perhaps if you know someone that drives to that building built of green windows and they explained why the entranceway was so advantageous and necessary, you would get a better sense of what I'm trying to say. Even if it would cost some money, perhaps shared by both the building and our village, I feel our people would vote for it.

UCO

One of our Unit owners informed the board that UCO told her it was ok for people to stay in her unit when she was not there. Our By laws clearly state that no one can use a unit unless the owner is there and 30 days is the maximum stay. Has anyone run into this situation ? Mike

TRAFFIC CONTROL IN CV; IS ANY OF IT "LEGAL"

Hi all,
In another Comment stream, Larry Kall and Ed black said:

LARRY KALL said...

Ed,
Your question about Stop signs is most interesting. When we completed putting transponders on the 40 cars last Thursday there was slightly more than a hour left on the sheriffs time ( they have to be hired for at least 3 hours).

I then requested that he patrol the village and pay special attention to the stops signs. His next question was "Are the stop signs approved by Palm Beach County".

I told him that I did know that the two stop signs at both 4 corners are approved stop signs. (ADMIN. Note; The Evidence please?)

The sheriff then told me he could therefore issue tickets at those locations.

How many other stop signs in the village are "approved stop signs" I do not know. I was also informed that the red "no turn on red sign by the east gate is NOT AN APPROVED SIGN but the one hanging on the traffic light pole with the black letters "no turn on red" was approved. I know that there are many other Stop signs in the village that probably were never approved by the county.

I do know that there are many areas in the village where stop signs are not only necessary but vital.It appears that many communities like ours just goes out and buy stop signs and just put them up.

I will therefore suggest to the new Safety Committee that this is a matter that they should consider looking into.

I know nothing about the Hastings edict but will look into it.
The presidents of the Somerset Area buildings will meet, will discuss the tennis court matter, and will make a decision. While we have little control on what goes on inside the tennis courts we do have control on what goes on our properties and our portions of the roads and parking areas.

Apr 15, 2008 9:24:00 PM

edeveblack said...

Larry,

The issue of enforcement of stop signs is that we are a private community and only the perimeter roads STOP signs are county dictates, and accordingly enforceable. (ADMIN. Note; The Evidence please?)

If you own a dirt road and decide the speed limit entering your property, the authorities CAN NOT enforce private speed limit signs even when they appear like those the that State or County place for the safety of the public.

The whole issue of our being forced into situations when no vote or poll was taken, and no information of a decision that UCO makes, is just a proof of the need for Professional Management to stop this inappropriate behavior.

Stop signs that are unenforceable only encourage everyone to “IGNORE ALL STOP AND NO TURN ON RED SIGNS". Aren’t we encouraging drivers to disregard the many Stop signs by ADDING more that are unenforceable?

Ed Black
Apr 15, 2008 10:23:00 PM
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There is an interesting Legal Advisory Opinion on the issue of the PB County Commission's authority to install enforceable traffic control devices on various types of roads in the County. It is not clear to me that they have any authority to do so on private roads whatsoever. You read the reference and be the judge:

http://myfloridalegal.com/ago.nsf/Opinions/25B52B35ABF0822C8525658C00605DA8

Dave

CV DOCUMENT CHECKLIST

Who, wot, where, and how is a Recreation Lease, as referred to by Larry?

I like my info dry and dusty, I have:

Articles of Incorporation of UCO, Amendment, & Resolution
UCO Bylaws Dec 1 ‘06
Millennium Agreement with Exhibits A & B +Schedule 2
UCO-Associations Bilateral-Agreement
Clubhouse Information Packet (old - no date)
UCO Welcome to CV 2006

My Association Condominium Documents (Declaration, Bylaws, and Incorporation) with Amendments and Survey w/map

Florida Statutes Condominium Act Chapter 718
Florida Administrative Code 61B-15 thru 25
Condominium Unit Owner Rights & Responsibilities