Nov 14 at 2:26 PM
During last night’s Annual Meeting, the presentation for the 2018
proposed budget contained a new line item—Comcast. It was stated that the
Association had a contract with Comcast for 15 years. No other
explanation was provided since I was required to follow president Max Roe’s
process despite my request for point of information. So, in order to
minimize Mr. Roe and the board’s hostile exchange with my asking questions, I
did not press the issue to include Mr. Roe and the board for not adhering to
Roberts Rules of Order. Therefore, as a homeowner and member of the
Association, it would be greatly appreciated if you would respond to the
following questions since the Comcast item is new for 2018:
1. Where in the Association’s governing documents, specifically
the covenants and bylaws as it relates to the Indiana Code, that allows the
board to enter into an exclusive contract with Comcast particularly without
notification to the membership and restricted dollar amounts for entering into
such an agreement/contract?
2. Who signed and when was the Agreement/contract signed?
Can I obtain a copy of the Agreement/contract since it has now been
finalized?
3. What are the terms of the Comcast Agreement/contract such
as years in effect, base rate, current rate and percentage rate increase each
year for the life of the Agreement/contract?
4. How does the association benefit from this bulk service
agreement/contract compared to having each homeowner be responsible for cable
and/or internet service?
5. What other cable or fiber optic companies did the board
seek to compare pricing and services that would be more beneficial to the
Association?
6. Why did the board select Comcast other than it held the
Agreement/contract previously?
7. It was stated that the Association would receive $100 per
unit from Comcast for having exclusive rights to provide cable and internet
service. Does this mean that all 108 units will be required to pay
Comcast whether or not it uses the service?
8. How will homeowners be notified that the Comcast is the
board’s preferred cable and internet service provider and how to upgrade
services?
9. Will homeowners be required to pay an additional fee or
see an increase in assessment fees for the board selecting comcast? If
so, when?
10. When and/or wIll there be a special assessment
implemented in order to pay Comcast? If so, how much and when to
anticipate the special assessment?
roni
Veronica,
I
recall you asking for a "Point of Order" (PoO) while Susan was giving
the financial report. Below is the PoO definition.
Point of order definition: A term of
parliamentary law and procedure which refers to an interjection during a
meeting by a member, who does not have the floor, to call the attention of the
chair to an alleged violation or breach of the assembly's or meeting's rules of
order.
If, in
fact, you did ask for "Request for Information", you were out of
order for not rising and addressing the chair with your request.
This was copied from Robert's Rules Online:
RulesOnline.com.
Article IV. Incidental Motions.
Section 27. Requests Growing out of the Business of the Assembly.
(b) Request for Information. A request for information relating to the
pending business is treated just as a parliamentary inquiry, and has the same
privileges. The inquirer rises and says, "Mr. Chairman, I rise for
information," or, "I rise to a point of information," whereupon
the chair directs him to state the point upon which he desires information, and
the procedure continues as in case of a parliamentary inquiry. If the
information is desired of the speaker, instead of the chair, the inquirer upon
rising says, "Mr. Chairman, I should like to ask the gentleman a question."
The chairman inquires if the speaker is willing to be interrupted, and if he
consents, he directs the inquirer to proceed. The inquirer then asks the
question through the chair, thus, "Mr. Chairman, I should like to ask the
gentleman," etc. The reply is made in the same way, as it is not in order
for members to address one another in the assembly. While each speaker
addresses the chair, the chair remains silent during the conversation. If the
speaker consents to the interruption the time consumed is taken out of his
time.
The
2018 proposed budget does not have a line item for Comcast. Comcast approached
Country Village Homeowners Association in 2017 for the right to be the only
cable company to be allowed to bury cable in the community to provide
homeowners interested in having Comcast services.
This
was explained eloquently by Susan after the financials were presented.
This
agreement in no way costs the Association, nor its membership anything. The
membership is not required to patronize Comcast in any way unless the member
desires Comcast to provide service to them.
The
Association benefits from the fact that Comcast has gifted Country Village
Homeowners Association with $10,800.00.
It was
never stated that Comcast would have exclusive rights to provide cable and
internet service. Please refer to the third paragraph starting "The
2018 proposed budget..." So, with that in mind, the membership
will never be required to pay Comcast for services the member has not signed up
to receive.
Because
Comcast has never been touted as Country Village Homeowners Association
preferred cable and internet service, there is no need to notify the
membership. All members are free to chose any service they want.
Be
assured that there will not be any increase in association fees, nor will there
ever be a assessment fee because of Comcast.
The
questions that were in your email were all answered. It is hoped that this will
ease your anxiety on this issue.
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Max Roe,
Country Village Homeowners Association
Board of Directors
