CHANGES NEEDED... Does anyone even give a damn?

 The recall for Mary Patrick has failed...why?

Although the President and Every Vice  President has agreed that Mary should've stepped down, very little has been done to accomplish this.

I have gone door to door of over 120 Delegates and Alternate Delegates, using the sign in sheets for Delegate Assembly and they only allowed 72 of the signatures to be allowed. No one else has attempted to get signatures. No one.

Apparently no one cares that an ELECTED UCO Officer, in over a year and a half HAS NOT attended meetings, HAS NOT performed ANY of her duties, and has refused to participate in anything to do with UCO. 

Why does she hold on to the position she obviously cares nothing about? Is it the prestige of having a title? Let me tell you, there is nothing prestigious about that. 

We now have a very capable Administrative Assistant. She is being paid to perform the administrative duties, BUT, she is being paid to perform the duties of the Corresponding Secretary also. If the Corresponding Secretary does not want to do her job, why does she insist on keeping her job/title? Maybe that is just it. It gives her a title. If she can go to the meeting at the synagogue, why can't she show up at UCO? Why does her position even exist? She is proof that her position is not necessary. Eliminate it. 

I, as an officer, have requested a change to the by-laws to eliminate the position of Corresponding  Secretary and have been told that it requires a change to the original documents. So it gets put on hold... I am told that trying to change the by-law is out of order... yet no one can explain the order things need to be to effect change.

I submit that in order to make the change, it needs to be in front of the Advisory committee, the executive board, the officers committee, and then to the Delegate assembly. it has been to officers obviously, as that is where it started. It went to Advisory, which wanted to table it for further research, and it was mentioned at executive board, but not voted on as it was brought up to inform of pending work being done. Advisory determined that it would not be a by-law change but a change to the original documents and would have to go to the state.

This is being ignored, and of course it seems my voice doesn't in this matter doesn't count, or does it?

I ran for office with the strong desire to do what is RIGHT for the residents/owners of Century Village West Palm Beach. I have loved living here for over 10 years. I got involved in the first year, with the UCO Reporter, wrote a few things, did a monthly cartoon, and ran the Advertising Department. Created ads and other artwork for the paper.

The Golf course issue was brought to my attention in those first years, and it was brought to my attention that the CV could have bought it for about $800,000. They turned it down... Dumb move. I now wonder how much has been spent trying to stop what is going to happen anyway? They are going to build... there will be more traffic, the need for walls or fences or both is still there. 

I tried to get Reflection Bay to Give us the parts of their property that spur into the village. They want to be able to use our drainage, so I asked for the property to be added to the easement request and money they offered. While we did not get the property transferred, they are going to fence off the areas AND maintain them. Reflection Bay residents will not have access to the properties in question.  A pretty good victory in my book. 

The current situation with contract negotiations with WPRFs owners, The Bennison Corp. which is now in arbitration, IS IMPORTANT to all the owners in the village. We need to show Bennison that the village is UNITED in correcting a giant mistake made 20 years ago, and cutting the huge profit they have been getting. We need to put a stranglehold on the goose laying the golden eggs (which happens to be the people in their golden years at Century Village).

Atlantic Broadband... their proposal, although great for a small majority (about 60% or so) that have and pay for internet, it would save then a few bucks. The problem that I see is that all those snowbirds, that currently pay $5 a month while they are away and have their internet on hold, would lose that ability and have to pay the full price every month as it would be in their monthly association fees. That would give ABB Millions of dollars a year over and above what they are currently contracted for. Let me not forget to mention the "Internet Recovery Fees" that they have been collecting and raising. That basically boils down to increasing our fees without our consent. They call it internet recovery fee, I call it robbery. In Washington state, they sued and won to get rid of that fee and they were refunded what the cable companies pretty much stole from their customers. We need to also sue and get rid of these fees and get refunded all they have taken in the past.

So, just to sum up, what needs to be done:

1. Get the change to the documents to eliminate the position of Corresponding Secretary

2. Make a by-law change to make officers (any officer) accountable for their action or inaction of their offices. If an Executive Board member can be dismissed for missing 3-5 meeting without excuse, then the officers should also be held to the same standard. No more getting elected and not doing the job. No more putting people on the ballot just to keep someone from running or getting a position. If you run for office, be prepared to do the job or get removed automatically without having to get petitions that are ludacris.

3. the associations that have been refusing to sign on to have UCO represent them in the current arbitration need to realize that if they have to individually negotiate their Rec Rental and Entertainment contracts will become BIG TIME losers in the end. Expect to pay MUCH MUCH more. To put it bluntly, IF you refuse to join and have a united front against Bennison, then you are just plain STUPID. Don't like what I say? Tough... I would love to see what kind of deal you get when you have to negotiate your own deal. You will deserve what you get.

4. Atlantic Broadband- As much as I would save, I will, and encourage everyone to turn down any proposal that would be unfair to the people that are not here to be represented (Snowbirds). I vote NO to ABBs proposal. 

Apologies for the long post... Had a few things to get off my chest.

oh yeah, one more thing... will someone make sure that our Village President, David Israel is given a NON-CLICKING pen for any and ALL meetings!!!! The camera's audio picks it up and is not only distracting, it at times makes it hard to hear what is being said. GIVE HIM AN OLD SCHOOL NUMBER TWO PENCIL!!!!!

Bob Rivera, USN Ret. (UCO Recording Secretary)

Disclaimer: The opinions above are mostly my own, anyone not liking it... well, who cares? Like it or not, it's the truth and what needs to be said. There is more so stay tuned...same bat-time, same bat channel.