UCO ELECTIONS

Hi all,

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Normally I would not dignify an unsigned letter with a response, but the following document, being circulated in an attempt to influence the upcoming UCO Elections, is so replete with errors and misconceptions, that I thought to attempt to give you, our unit owners some facts. My responses to various statements in the following will be highligted in BOLD. Before beginning, I note that in this campaign for Office, I have NOT circulated a single line criticizing any person running for Office.

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Would you like to know?

David Israel is not the person you may think he is this man has made a total mess of the Comcast program, In the beginning he started off by having what he called sub-committee meetings for the cable committee which violated the Sunshine amendments that were passed by the delegate assembly a short time ago.

(All meetings, of which there were many, on the subject of obtaining television content for our Unit Owners were announced and open, with the exception of three meetings where Company Proprietary issues were discussed . These were indeed restricted to Principals of the Cable Committee, including Officers of UCO.)

These Cable Committee meetings had to do with hiring a company to work out a contract with Comcast. All this was done in closed meetings without anyone knowing what was going on, David must think by-laws are made for other people and not him.

( Other than the three Company Proprietary executive sessions noted above, all meetings were open to our Unit Owners; I am a strict constructionist as regards adherence to Law and applicable Bylaws, unlike some who proudly announce that "shortcuts are necessary", and there is no need to go "by the book". ) 

With two years to go; why was he pushing to sign a new contract with Comcast?

( Thanks, whoever you are, for this question. It may have escaped your notice that we received the largest "signing bonus" that our Cable Contract Law expert attorney has seen. If we had waited for our contract to expire, we would have had no leverage whatsoever in negotiating a new contract, because we would have had nowhere to go. We would have been stuck with a major increase in price and NO signing bonus at all. )

David found a company to do the negotiating for UCO

( Actually, we hired a company to prepare an RFP (Request For Proposal) and to distribute it to viable companies, capable of delivering television entertainment content. This is the way a real business (UCO is a business) negotiates a major contract. The RFP is a complex document and must be prepared by experts in the field. The RFP presents to all bidders exactly the same contractual parameters, so there is no question of impropriety. )

When we did hire a telecommunication law firm, we found out that they could have saved us over $300,000. That breaks down to about $38.00 per unit that could have been saved and put back into the pockets of every unit owner in Century Village.

( This statement demonstrates a total lack of understanding of the process. After the RFP responses were received by UCO, the Cable Committee, with the cooperation of the company that prepared the RFP, constructed a decision matrix, which spread-sheeted all key parameters of the various responses to the RFP; we received 4 responses. They were from AT&T, Comcast, Hawkins Broadband and Hotwire Communications. There were multiple meetings of the Committee; ALL of which were open and announced. Many of these meetings were well attended. When a Provider was selected by this process we requested them, in this case Comcast, to forward a draft contract. Then and only then did we engage a Telecommunications law firm to carefully check out the contract. This is the next logical step after the vendor acquisition step and distinct and seperate from it. )

Here is a fact that most people have forgotten about-In 2011 our Comcast bill will go from the $16 dollars to the new price of about $36.00 per unit for Comcast service, We received some deal! What has David Israel done For Century Village? THE ANSWER IS NOTHING!

( Actually, the current monthly rate for cable is $22.95 plus taxes and fees. We have no control over Taxes and Fees and they add 14% to the bill. This brings the monthly rate to $26.16. Across the street from Century Village the same programming package that we have is charged at $56.00 plus taxes and fees, which means our negotiated bulk rate represents a discount of some 55%. The reason we are paying less than $26.16,  is that a big chunk of our signing bonus is offsetting this amount to about $16.00 . So! what will the actual rate be next year; $26.16 plus 5% which comes to $27.47; not the absurd number noted above. )

David Israel is chair of the Century Village Blog, which has turned into a new version of the Star news paper filled with misinformation and accusations instead of being a source of what's going on in the village. Is this the kind of man you want to run UCO ?

( It is clear that the writer(s) are not believers in the American Democratic process or the right of our unit owners to express their views without the vile censorship exhibited by the UCO Reporter, or the old CV Q&A. The Reporter, this  month, managed to "lose" VP Frank Cornish's article. Yes, this is a free and open channel; long may it live and serve the people. If I am  elected, the era of sweeping things under the rug will be over. And by the way, the UCO Reporter will be made editorially independent; and it will be run and staffed by people with newspaper experience and independent minds. )

This man has been running one of the dirtiest campaigns we have seen because he has nothing to show for his one year in office .. DON’T VOTE FOR DAVID ISRAEL! Surprise: Jean Dowling is David's new campaign manager.

( An incredible statement, insofar as I have not, as noted above, circulated a single line, anonymous or otherwise in this campaign trashing any other candidate.

A few  words about Jean Dowling; yes, she has consented to run my bid for President of UCO. Over the past 5 years she has been relentlessly criticised for no valid reason whatsoever. When next you are in our main Clubhouse, look around, it is a palace compared to other CV Clubhouses, this is the result of Jean's work, after Hurricanes Francis and Jeanne, she labored tirelessly in a trailer on the job site for thousands of hours to produce the result we now enjoy, it was 98% complete before the current President came in and took credit. Jean is a jewel in this Village endeavoring to help all in need. It is Jean who is directly involved in dealing with the current travesty of unit owners out of their apartments for months for no good reason. Let's have an end here and now to bashing Jean dowling. )

Frank Cornish who has been absent approximately 80 days since he was elected, he has done, almost nothing except chairs for the pools because he likes to sun bathe. Do we want another do-nothing in the Village? (But I understand he makes good coffee)

( Having observed Frank at work for a full year, I must tell you all that he is truly passionate in support of our Unit Owners. He has been involved in attempting to reduce the problem of friction between our UCO volunteers and our unit owners. You may joke about the chairs; he has waged a battle for over two years against the forces in UCO who don't care about our residents using rotting old furniture at our pools. It has nothing to do with sunbathing; which by the way, is a very important pastime here in Florida. Where does this nonesense about "80 days absent" come from; what sort of malcontent manufactures such records; perhaps one who has nothing of value to do. )

THE ANSWER IS YES!!! KNOW THE TRUTH AND VOTE FOR DAVE.
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Dave Israel