June 9, 2021:
The community has the legal right to override the Board’s agreement to contract for the “virtual guard.”
The Board voted to accept the “virtual guard” contract for a free 90-day trial period, after which it would be a charged service, but to terminate the live guard after only 30 days. That is not a true “trial” because as of day 31, there will be NO live guard overnight.
To repeat, the live guard is being terminated after 30 days, so time is of the essence. This means that if the residents don’t act, there will be no live guard overnight starting on day 31. This is, therefore, not a true “trial” period because the trial ends on day 30 and on day 31 this community will not have a live guard overnight.
Here is the pertinent section of Florida Statute 720.309(2)(a) that will allow you to override the Board decision on this “virtual guard” contract:
“(a) Any contract entered into by the board may be canceled by a majority of the voting interests present at the next regular or special meeting of the association, whichever occurs first. Any member may make a motion to cancel such contract, but if no motion is made or if such motion fails to obtain the required vote, the contract shall be deemed ratified for the term expressed therein.”
Therefore, at the very next Board meeting, any one of you can make a motion to cancel it, and once that motion is made, a vote of the voting interests present at the meeting must be taken. (There is no statutory requirement for there to be a second to the motion.) A voting interest is a household, so that means one vote per household present, not per person present. The president, who presides over the meeting, would have to conduct that vote in a proper manner and determine an accurate outcome.
So, for example, if it were determined that there were a total of 40 households at the Zoom meeting, 21 of them could vote to cancel the contract, and that vote would override the Board’s vote, since only a simple majority is required, at which point the Board would be obliged to cancel the contract, including the so-called “trial period.”
The president would first have to determine the number of voting interests/households by taking a tally of those online in the Zoom meeting, and then calling the question, “all in favor of cancelling the contract, raise your hand,” and then count the voting interests from the raised hands (i.e., do not count two hands from the same household).
So, between now and then, gather your co-members and be prepared to be present and vote when a member makes such a motion at the very next Board meeting which is presently scheduled for June 23, 2021 at 9:30am. If you all feel uncomfortable about being the member who actually makes the motion, let me know and I’ll do it, no problem.
In the meantime, since that may be a heavily attended meeting, it is incumbent upon the Zoom operator(s) to make sure that the Zoom meeting can accommodate as many people as possible (and not have the 100 limit cap as happened once before).
I am sending this post to all Board members, the Zoom operators, and the Property Manager so that they can prepare themselves well in advance of the June 23, 2021 Board meeting at 9:30am. See you all then!
Vicki Roberts