By now, all Baywinds residents should have received the official notice package and had the opportunity to attend a community information meeting on December 5^th about the proposed amendments to our governing documents. On the recommendation of the Document Review Committee and our legal counsel, the Board has voted to lower the voting requirements from the current 75% of the members in the Association (i.e., 812 out of 1082 votes) to a simple majority (i.e., 542 out of 1082). Now it is up to us members to vote on this proposed amendment.

While there may be some minor advantages to voting to amend our documents, there are numerous disadvantages that may far outweigh these advantages. Unfortunately, few, if any, of the Board or Committee members are either aware of or appreciate the risks associated with amending our documents. The bar was set high to amend our documents (i.e., 75% of the members in the Association) for good reason and any change to this voting requirement can and will have unintended consequences.

At the Dec 5^th community information meeting, three justifications were provided in support of amending our documents: 1) the 12 year age of the documents, 2) alleged conflicts between Board promulgated policies/procedures and our docs, and 3) better alignment with the ever-changing Florida Statutes.

Regarding the justification related to the age of our documents, it is unclear why the 12-year age of our documents is a problem. Our 12-year old docs are well written and have passed the test of time, so why change something that isn’t broken and only gets stronger with time?

Regarding the justification related to alleged conflicts between our documents and our policies and procedures, in response to a request by a homeowner as to a specific example of a conflict, Marvin Levine, the Board liaison to the Document Committee and spokesperson at the information meeting, acknowledged that they were “not necessarily conflicting but incomplete.” (click here to listen to Marvin's actual words.)

Marvin elaborated on this statement by referencing the section of our docs relative to fining. Marvin incorrectly stated that the section “consists of four lines of information” when in fact Section 20.6 of our Declaration on fines is an 11-line paragraph declaring clearly the “right” of the Association to “levy reasonable fines” against any owner who violates our documents, policies, rules, etc. Marvin also incorrectly stated that “state statutes are very specific and probably is 7 or 8 paragraphs that are specific as to what the fining policies should be.” In fact, Florida Statute 702.305 (2) only contains a single paragraph exclusively on fining and another paragraph referencing a “fine or suspension.” (click here to listen to Marvin's complete statement)

I’m sure Marvin was not attempting to deceive the homeowners, but given his demonstrable lack of understanding of both our documents and the Florida Statutes and the fact that no one on the Board or the Document Committee corrected Marvin’s misstatements, it is fair to ask whether or not these people can do a good job of amending our documents or will this document amendment process be a repeat of the clubhouse mold remediation project that kept our clubhouse closed for over a year and cost a ton of money?

Regarding the justification related to better alignment of our docs with the ever-changing Florida statutes, George Singer acknowledged that in some cases our documents supersede the Florida Statutes and in those cases those sections of our documents would be “grandfathered” in and be legal and enforceable. (click here to listen to George's actual words.) Why would we, as a community, willingly relinquish a legal right we now enjoy and hand it over to the State? It doesn’t make any sense.

Additionally, it was reported that we have already spent a little over $7,000 legal fees and mailing costs and hope to reduce an estimated future cost of around $20,000 in legal fees and mailings for another amendment by having residents do most of the document updates.

One question numerous homeowners continue to ask is “What has the Board NOT been able to do because of our documents?” The answer at the meeting from our property manager Matt Ball was “NOTHING.” (click here to listen to the actual response) While the Board says that it wants to “avoid legal challenges for existing amendments,” the risk of legal challenges is likely to increase not decrease with more amendments.

I would like to leave you with one final thought. One homeowner towards the end of the question and answer period made the following statement: “Forget all the discussion about what if and if we could and what does this mean and who did what to who back in 2002 and 2000, NONE OF THAT MATTERS.” (Click here to listen to these comments) Let me take this opportunity to remind this person and the rest of the community of Sir Winston Churchill’s statement “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Have those who were involved when Amendments to our docs were legally challenged back in 2006 learned from history? Have those who were involved in the clubhouse mold remediation project learned that it can end up being more expensive when you try a do-it-yourself approach to save money? Given the above homeowner’s statement that “NONE OF THAT MATTERS,” I doubt that we have learned much from our past successes and failures.

I have cast my vote AGAINST amending our documents and I strongly urge you to do the same. If you have already submitted your proxy, you can always change your vote. All you need to do is ask for your proxy to be returned and submit a new proxy. If you want to avoid having someone come to your door to solicit your proxy, then please return your signed and marked proxy to the clubhouse.

Feel free to forward this message to your friends and neighbors.

Bernie Amero, A Baywinder for Improved Governance Through Full Disclosure