Election

Thankfully the election is over for another year. I am proud of most candidates for addressing the issues. Now we may return to the Business of this Village.

I thank all who supported my run for Treasurer and congratulate
all who won.


Ed Black

DELEGATES COMPLETE CANDIDATE LIST

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Nominations from the floor produces final list of  Candidates for UCO Office for March elections:
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Candidates for UCO President:

Frank Cornish
Frank LaFountain
David Israel
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Candidates for UCO Vice President:

Barbara Cornish
John Gluszak
Dom Guarnagia
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Candidates for UCO Treasurer:

Ed Black
Dorothy Tetro
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Candidates for Corresponding Secretary:

Avis Blank
Marilyn Pomerantz
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Candidates for Recording Secretary:

Patricia Sealander
Joy Vestal
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Candidates highlighted in red are endorsed by the Blogmeister, Dave Israel. Keep the ball rolling forward, let's not degrade into bad habits of the past. Vote the endorsed candidates for cost containment, continued implementation of modern technology, researched solutions, not ad-hoc decisions.
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Let's hear your opinions in the comment stream!
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Dave Israel, candidate for President of UCO
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Two More Years

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As I listen to all the debates, political updates, negative and positive national campaign ads, I am driven to think that we, here in CV, are also on the brink of an election and I am proclaiming - we need 2 more years of David Israel.

He has brought us into the new millenium with the transference of CV records into the digital age where so much is now accessible to us via computer. Transparency - greatly enhanced and improved.
He works tirelessly and is supported by an enthusiatic and dedicated staff of volunteers.

 Everyone may not like or agree with every change and improvement but must admit ---there is action rather than inaction.

CV is moving forward in so many areas even in this time of economic trauma and falling real estate values. Projects are proposed and completed.

If only the undertones of the disgruntled were not pervasive--yes, disagree but in an adult, intelligent dialogue- please let us not tolerate or endure any mud slinging or character assassinations in the upcoming months.

I am definitely anticpating two more years of David Israel as our CV leader. The sun shines brighter with David as our President.
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UCO ELECTIONS - CANDIDATE ANNOUNCES

Hi all,
As you are aware, elections for UCO Officers will occur in March 2012. I am pleased to advise you all that on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 Barbara Cornish advised me that she would be a candidate for Vice President of UCO.

Barbara has advised me that she is an independent candidate, not affiliated with any organization nor is she necessarily supporting any other candidate as yet.

I wish to heartily endorse Barbara's candidacy for VP. I have personally observed Barbara take on difficult issues and through a combination of research and native intelligence resolve the problem.

Barbara is the personification of the type of Officer we need in UCO, and I strongly recommend that she is deserving of your vote.

Dave Israel

SEARCH/NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE

It's almost that time again.....time to prepare the bio for those who want to run for office in Century Village.

President, two vice presidents, treasurer, recording and corresponding secretary and ten executive board members are up for election.

The process of submitting your bio has changed. All bios must be e mailed to me. You will receive acknowledgment of your bio within a few days. In the subject box, please insert "UCO bio". It will then be sent to the REPORTER. THERE IS NO EXCEPTION AS TO HOW TO SUBMIT A BIO. It must be done this way.

Let us know what experience you've had as a volunteer in Century Village along with a short bio of your life.

The e mail address to send your bio to is rgwlbf@gmail.com. If you have any questions, call me between 9am and 5pm. If I'm not home, leave your name, phone number and a short message. 712 0259 is the number to call. Of course, I will return your call.

GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL,
Roberta Boehm-Fromkin

ELECTION FOR EXECUTIVE BOARD

Hi all,
In another Post, a BLOGGER asks the names of the incumbent Executive Board members and implies that they have made UCO better; and thus should all be returned to office.

As UCO President I Post to advise you that the basic premise of that Post is erroneous.

Some of the incumbents and candidates for the Executive Board provide no new ideas whatever, they simply disrupt meetings, and do not research the issues. They bring noise but no signal; they bring heat but no light!

I will remind you all that you do not have to vote for ten (10) candidates, vote only for those proven candidates who have given years of service and provided new ideas consistently.

Your UCO President recommends the following Candidates for Executive Board:

Dom Guarnagia


Lanny Howe


Myron Silverman


Ken Davis

Help make UCO better - Period, end of message.

Dave Israel
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Upcoming UCO Elections

Need to know the names of all incumbents running in this Friday's UCO elections so we can vote them all "back in." First time in eons that our UCO has run so efficiently. Thank you all for a very well done job.

WHAT IS "ONE PERSON, ONE VOTE"

At today's delegates meeting it was voted for there to be an ad hoc committee to discuss the pros and cons of the Village adopting "One Person, One Vote." Can someone explain to me, in the context of the Village goings-on, what this MEANS?

Obviously it means that every owner gets a vote, but a vote on WHAT, and what are the mechanics for tallying these votes?

Are these votes only for electing UCO officers? Does One Person, One Vote apply to ISSUES that come up for a decision? How workable is this? And what legal changes would be necessary in order for this to be implemented?

I'd like to see this thoroughly hashed out—pros and cons on all sides of the issue—in the UCO Reporter.

Lanny Howe

vicepresident4@gmail

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of the blogsters for their kind words. After the assembly your words were like a breath of clean air. Thank you all again.

Congratulations Mr. President

IS THERE ANY BOTTOM TO THIS TOXIC BARREL?

Hi all,

The principal purposes I had in mind, when creating this BLOG were as follows:


1) To provide an uncensored communications channel for our unit owners that was free from the draconian suppression of the CV Q & A.


2) To provide a channel for our unit owners to ask questions, and have accurate replies by those knowing the answer or those who were willing to research the correct response.


3) To air, for our unit owners, odious behavior within UCO itself; which is being hidden not only from the unit owners; but from most of the Officers of UCO.

This report is in the third category. So, here it is and you be the judge of what should be done; because, IMHO, this “new low” in UCO behavior; threatens to destroy the effectiveness of UCO for the foreseeable future, if not forever.

A written statement has been presented by one of the observers of the UCO election counting process; that he observed some sort of fraud during the counting. (Apparently this observer is a supporter of my opponent; so why did he not make his observation known at the time he allegedly observed it).

The President of UCO, apparently determined to sabotage my nascent Administration before I am even sworn in, forwarded a request to the UCO Attorney seeking an opinion as to how to proceed. (Probably seeking some avenue to overturning the result and re-running the election)


Being the designated victim in this “conspiracy”; I spoke to the attorney by telephone and specifically requested all correspondence related to this affair and was denied, based on “attorney client privilege”; the client cited being the current President of UCO.


I cannot help but wonder who will be asked to pay the attorney fees to the UCO attorney for an opinion denied to all officers of UCO, save the President himself; or perhaps the cabalists are bearing the costs themselves.


How can they proceed with questioning ballots which have not been properly sequestered and are now tainted since being out of the control of the election counters and which have undergone, I am advised, five recounts directed by the current UCO President, who should not have been anywhere near the process.


Is there any bottom to this toxic barrel?


Dave Israel

SUPPORT PHYLLIS FOR UCO VP

Hi all,
The following is forwarded by Phyllis Richland. Your BLOGMEISTER supports Phyllis for VP 100%.

Dave Israel
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I AM PHYLLIS RICHLAND AND THANKS TO YOU I RECEIVED 113 VOTES TO BECOME A VICE PRESIDENT OF UCO TO FILL THE SPOT VACATED BY DAVE ISRAEL AS HE BECOMES UCO'S NEXT PRESIDENT.

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I CAME IN THIRD PLACE AND NOW I NEED A VOTE FROM THE OFFICERS COMMITTEE, AND THE DELEGATE ASSEMBLY IN ORDER TO RATIFY MY PLACEMENT AS A V.P. OF UCO.

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THERE IS, AND THERE ALWAYS WILL BE, A FACTION, THAT REGARDLESS OF THE ISSUE ,WILL TRY TO CLOUD THAT ISSUE WITH NON-FACTS OR SIMPLY NON-TRUTHS.

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FORTUNATELY WE HAVE A SET OF BY-LAWS THAT WE MUST ABIDE BY TO KEEP ORDER AND RULE.

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I HAVE WAITED TWO YEARS FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE THE VILLAGE AGAIN AS I HAVE IN THE PAST.
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AND NOW I COME TO YOU TO ASK FOR YOUR HELP IN ORDER THAT I MAY HELP YOU. I ASK THAT YOU VOTE TO RATIFY MY APPOINTMENT SO WE CAN GET DOWN TO THE BUSINESS OF DOING GOOD WORKS FOR CENTURY VILLAGE.

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I THANK YOU.

Congratulations, Dave

Dave,
Congratulations on winning the hotly contested election for president of UCO. I wish you much luck and success in implementing all the excellent ideas and programs about which you spoke at various meetings.
I encourage you to make more use of the full time owners, who are part-time residents, (winter residents or "snow birds"). We represent at least 50 % of the owners, but 0 % of the decision makers!
I know that UCO by-laws require that an officer be at least a 9 month resident, and to chair various committees, but the members of those committees can be staffed with owners who are not here for the full 9 months. I' sure we could make ourselves available for conference calls, computer conferencing, or other means of helping in the decision making processes.
We pay our financial responsibilities in the same manner and the same amount as those who are here for most of the year.
We are entitled to a voice in our community!
I encourage you, as part of your new planning and administrative efforts, to include winter residents ("snow birds") as part of your team.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Again, best congratulations.

Bob Bell

congrats

Sorry I am late with this, but just wanted to add my CONGRATULATIONS to Dave the new President of UCO. THE ONE FOR THE JOB!!!

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

PHYLLIS RICHLAND FOR UCO VICE PRESIDENT

Hi All,

AFTER A TWO YEAR HIATUS I AM THROWING MY HAT IN THE RING AGAIN TO RUN FOR VICE PRESIDENT OF U.C.O.

I LEFT BECAUSE I COULD NOT IN ALL GOOD CONSCIENCE BE PART OF AN ADMINISTRATION THAT HAD SUCH DIAMETRICALLY DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS AND ATTITUDES THAN I HAD.

NOW WE ARE AT A CROSS ROADS IN CENTURY VILLAGE AND I BELIEVE THAT WITH DAVE ISRAEL AT THE HELM AND FRANK CORNISH AND I IN PLACE AS VICE PRESIDENTS WE HAVE A NUCLEUS TO DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE HERE FOR THE BETTERMENT OF ALL.

IF WE WIN, YOU WIN !!!

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ALWAYS VOTE YOUR CONSCIENCE, BUT THINK ABOUT IT AND ALWAYS DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR ASSOCIATION.

THANK YOU,

PHYLLIS RICHLAND

UCO ELECTIONS AND THE BLOG

Hi all,
There was some discussion at the Officers Committee meeting this morning, about the kind words posted by Elaine in this BLOG regarding my candidacy for President of UCO.

The issue being one of maintaining a level playing field. I stated at the meeting that any Candidate, for any UCO Office, who wanted their message posted in this BLOG, may simply provide me with the content and I will Post it for them; of course, if you are a registered BLOG member you may Post your own.

You may Email the desired input to me at nsasigint@comcast.net or drop off hard copy at the UCO Office.

Dave Israel

WHERE ARE YOU??????????

WHERE ARE YOU??????????

At times all of us criticize and have complaints about what goes on in the Village as a result of the Officers and Executive Board motions and activities. Here is your opportunity to help change and be a part of what occurs:

But you have to RUN FOR OFFICE.

Its time you ACT...... Write a bio giving a short history of what you've done before coming to CV and what you have done since living here in Paradise:

1) You must live here a minimum of nine months out of the year,
2) You must be a member of UCO,.
3) And if running for the Executive Board volunteer to serve on two committees.

Bring the bio stating what you are running for, along with a picture, into the UCO office. A form affirming the requirements is at the office for you to sign.

All positions except two vice presidents are open for a new candidate. Those are the president, two vice presidents, two secretaries, the treasurer and the entire executive board.

Do not wait to the last minute to get your bio into the office.

DO IT NOW AND GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL