On May 20th, 2020 the Secretary of the DBPR entered an Order putting an end to the Emergency Powers that were temporarily granted to directors and officers of community associations, effective June 1st, 2020.
So what does that mean? It means, back to the strict requirements of the statutes regarding meetings, notices, the right to attend a meeting, the right to speak and the inability of the board to vote by e-mail, a right the board never had in the first place.
More importantly, here is what the new order does not mean:
It does not mean that board members can’t appear by electronic means at board meetings; they can.
It does not mean that boards should not give unit owners the right to attend and participate electronically at board and unit owner meetings. They should.
It does not mean that boards can ignore other orders that may remain in effect regarding social distancing. They must continue to follow such orders. So while normal meetings must resume, seating accommodations need to be taken into consideration.
In addition, you must now get your year end financial statements for 2019 completed and made available to the owners.
Here’s my advice…………don’t go backward. Go forward a little wiser. Many of you have learned to utilize amazing technology that in some cases have allowed greater unit owner participation than ever before. Why not continue using it, even though you no longer have to? In fact, I anticipate legislation being filed which is going to require use of this technology starting in 2021.
While portions of the emergency powers statute may have been necessary, I am glad to see steps taken that takes us back to as much transparency as possible.
