ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW
Fellow Unit Owners,
Below are letters from two unit owners currently under attack by president John Labriola and the Association.
Notice the dramatic differences compared with the reports by Mr. Labriola in his recent email and blogpost.
Please bear in mind that Mr. Labriola is an accomplished writer. While these two unit owners may not have his writing skills, they certainly have a point of view worth understanding.
You should note that Mr. Labriola states that his writings represent the official position of our Association.
Mr. Labriola has a First Amendment right to state his opinions. But all members of the Board of Directors are individually and collectively responsible for the publication of those writings under the name of the Association, and are responsible for the consequences.
Respectfully,
CIVOC
Concerned International Village Owners Committee
Charles Addison, Zurich
Liljana Baic, Zurich
Lilo Beigel, Marseilles
Sandy Best, Interlaken
William Brackett, Bordeaux
Israel Bruch, Orleans
Elaine Campbell, Yorkshire
Joan Clemente, Cabana, Edelweiss
Marsha Curliss, Marseilles
Geoffrey Edwards, Cabanas
Joe Frederick, Heidelberg
Richard Goodheart, Bordeaux
Lily Gordon, Edelweiss
Miriam Gordon, St. Moritz
Harriet Handler, Edelweiss
Robert Hoffecker, Yorkshire
Pauline Jean, Heidelberg
Raymond Jean, Orleans
Louis Kornbluth, Yorkshire
Abe Landau, Zurich
Alice Large, Yorkshire
Marty Lattanzi, Marseilles
Miriam Lehrer, Zurich
Phyllis Lloyd, Edelweiss
Betsy Mendelson, Nottingham
Frances Mesirow, Yorkshire
Marilyn Navarre, Bordeaux
Irene Pressner, Yorkshire
Marc Richman, Bordeaux
Ray Rizzo, Bordeaux
Judy Rosen, Heidelberg
Helene Scharfman, Yorkshire
Sid Schulman, Bordeaux
Gladys and Lisasue Sherman, Nottingham
Molly 'Jane' Sird, Marseilles
Nina Spiegel, Heidelberg
Larry Topolowski, Edelwiess, Heidelberg, Orleans
Marvin Tow, Zurich
Ilan Weiss, Interlocken, Zurich
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From: Wendy Hernandez
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2015 4:44 PM
Subject: LEGAL FEES ASSESSMENT
Dear Unit Owners,
It brings me great sadness to have to construct this email. There is so much going on behind the scenes at International Village that it would take a lifetime to fill you in. But I feel that it is my FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITY to update you with the utmost honesty and truthfulness.
First of all, there was a time, when I was misled also by the current board president. I’ll admit, he had me fooled in the beginning and I believed that he was for us and our community. It was soon after, when he became an officer that I began to see that everything was a political campaign and he showed his true colors. Over the last year, more than I could ever share has transpired. I have seen so much corruption, abuse of power/access and misuse of monies but nothing has been done in favor of the association. The problems with John and I began once I figured out his plan and when I began to oppose and contradict him. Once I stated that we should do the right things for the community, as we promised in our campaign, is when I became his #1 enemy. I am embarrassed to even admit that I started out as part of the problem. Well, please afford me the opportunity to redeem myself.
During the last board meeting in March, I asked the property manager, David Friedman, about the problems that I noticed in my building. I shared with the attendees that the building structure was crumbling and the manager stated that that was a board decision and not his. Needless to say, the current and present board members ignored my request. As a result, I felt compelled to take matters into my own hands and report my concerns to city hall. I am utterly embarrassed that I had to take this course of action because the voted members of the board did not think that my concerns were valid or of importance. So, I did what I felt I had to do as a paying owner of this community. I’m appalled to know, that each month, most of us are paying our maintenance and some are still paying past assessment fees but it does not seem like anything is being done to maintain the infrastructure of our community. Please see attached pictures.
It is also shocking and borderline criminal that he is using the scare tactics of a possible assessment because of my actions. He wants to blame me now if there is a future assessment but believe me when I say, THAT WILL HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ME. Our monies are being so misappropriated, misused and abused at this time that it is egregious and I’d dare to say felonious what this current board is doing. I am the scape goat because accusing me and filing a lawsuit against me distracts you from the real issues that this board’s president does not want you to become privy to. I have no axe to grind. I am not out for vengeance. This is not a vindictive ploy to get back at him for not allowing me to have my way. That could not be further from the truth. But it sounds good doesn’t it? This board’s president believes that you’re all fools and not smart enough or courageous enough to see straight through him and challenge him on his actions. He wants you to sit back and give him carte blanche over our community and our monies.
As far as the lawsuit that he has filed against me, this lawsuit is frivolous to say the least. Now let’s talk about vindictive, this is the epitome of vindictive. His purpose for this lawsuit is to exact revenge against me for being “disobedient” to him. I must make it clear that as the Board’s Secretary I was entitled to have access to ALL records, but that right was never granted. It is a lie that I wanted to have total access to residents’ files for my own personal use. It was only and always for the purposes of association’s business. It is also a LIE that I provided confidential information to Mr. Weiss.
John is suing me, and he is using our money to pay for his prosecuting attorney. There are a number of lawsuits pending and being filed against the association because of his arrogance and all of his legal fees will be funded WITH YOUR MONEY. So, he could not care less how many lawsuits are filed because he is hiding behind the legal coverage provided to him as a board member and president. Many of the lawsuits filed, if not all, are a result of John not following condo docs, changing them as he pleases. He denies the owners to have access to what is rightfully theirs as owners.
Be not confused owners, there have been 2 lawsuits against John personally and the rest are against the association because of his reluctance to provide information to owners, and there is more to come. Nonetheless, in ALL of these cases, John’s defense is being funded with the association’s money. AMG and Mr. Weiss are suing him personally and the insurance company refused coverage for his defense when they realized that these suits were personal and had nothing to do with his fiduciary duties as a board member. John had the opportunity to ascertain evidence about AMG’s wrongdoings and Jason’s “criminal activities” by getting an official audit of our finances, as I suggested. But John refused to do things the right way and chose instead to blast Mr. Levy on his personal blog. John was fully aware of what was going on. In addition, Marcio Jaspan and Duv Wolff, supported John knowing that his actions were irresponsible. John said that “International Village is now forced to pay for his defense.” WE ARE PAYING FOR ALL HIS LEGAL FEES on personal cases not cases against him as a board member. Now it is MY FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE YOU AWARE OF WHAT THIS CURRENT PRESIDENT IS DOING!
In Mr. Labriola’s blast email, he posed the question,” How do YOU, the unit owners, think that we should proceed”?
Owners, I now pose this question. HOW DO YOU THINK THAT WE SHOULD PROCEED IN DEALING WITH THE ACTIONS OF THIS CURRENT PRESIDENT?
Please make it a priority to attend tonight’s board’s meeting in the clubhouse at 7:15. The agenda is filled with items that I’m sure that you would be interested to hear about.
Sincerely,
Wendy Hernandez
Board Director
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TO ALL OWNERS – BOARD MEMBERS – MANAGEMENT
From: msg53@att.net
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 4:28 PM
Subject: FINAL NOTICE
To: International Village All Board of Directors
David Friedman Property Manager
This is about the Board of Directors open board meeting that took place on 4/28/2015. Every owner has the right to complain to the City of Lauderhill Code enforcement that the way repairs and the upkeep are being neglected and are in need of repair, on the reports from code violation there are structural damage in spite of what John Labriola said in his Village View point letter, once again John Labriola is misinforming you owners however I and others owners have the report in writing from code violation.
If you go against John Labriola and do not agree with what John does or tells you this is where the harassment, personal attacks, retaliate, insulting comments, scare tactics and threats. If you are a paying owner who is current with the fees if you do not agree with John Labriola he will not let you talk in the board meeting then you are forced to talk out of turn then his threats to have you removed out of the meeting. I can understand somewhat that the employee's that are scared of losing their job if they do not obey John Labriola and do what he tells them to do. What I do not understand is the other Board Members that allow this type of unprofessional behavior to take place every meeting and they just sit there, what are they scared of it can't be they get paid and scared of losing their jobs. I know what is wrong you cannot act like grown men there is something very wrong when men are scared of other men and scared to speak up and let John Labriola harass women.
John Labriola if you keep on taking away my right to my freedom of speech and any form of harassment as a owner in the board meetings and continue to practice this type of behavior without any reason or cause. I am putting John Labriola on notice to cease this behavior at once if you make the choice not to stop this and it does continue then you can add to your long list of legal lawsuits against John Labriola and International Village for allowing sexual harassment to take place in a work place.
For the harassment, personal attacks, retaliate, insulting comments, scare tactics, threats and damaging her character I advise Wendy Hernandez to submit a cease letter to John Labriola and the board of directors if these attacks continue then a legal lawsuit should be filed.
Miriam Gordon S1C
