ELECTION RESULT CHALLENGED, PETITION FILED WITH ARBITRATION SECTION

---

On February 28th, the Quail Meadow membership met to conduct the Association's annual meeting and to elect a board of directors. Although an election was held, multiple failures to follow established election procedures raised concerns that the election result did not reflect the will of the voting membership and should be invalidated under governing law. After two letters to the board of directors detailing the election irregularities went unanswered, a group of homeowners, including two board members elected on February 28th, commenced an election dispute proceeding against the Association before the Arbitration Division of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation in Tallahassee. The arbitration petition seeks to invalidate the election and restore the board of directors in place immediately preceding the election, i.e., Valerie Halaby, Brenda Mueller and Linda Ward. The petition cites the following irregularities as supporting a determination that the election be voided: (1) The Association failed to provide proper “conspicuous” physical notice of the annual meeting and election at least five (5) days prior to the meeting for which the notice was given; (2) The physical notice boards originally posted at Quail Meadow were those belonging to another IBIS community, mistakenly installed at the Quail Meadow entrances, providing erroneous meeting information to the Association members. Specifically, the date and time were erroneous, reflecting the meeting details of another Ibis community. The erroneous annual meeting misinformation was never corrected with a mailing, email or other corrective communication to the Association’s membership; (3) The Association does not maintain a current – or any – ledger of voting certificates, and failed to cross-check the ballots cast against such a ledger as required by the Association’s Bylaws Article III, subsections “B” and “C”. The failure to maintain a voting certificate ledger is a violation of the Association Bylaws, rendering the Association incapable of determining whether the signatory on any voting package envelope is properly designated and duly authorized to vote that lot’s allocated ballot. Examination of the voting tallies show that at least six (6) ballots cast by lot owners that are required to submit a voting certificate (corporations, limited liability companies or trusts) were not accompanied by the required voting certificate, requiring disqualification of those ballots pursuant to Bylaws Article III.B. (4) The Association Bylaw provision permitting a “secret ballot” to be used for votes taken at a meeting of the Association members, requires three (3) inspectors of election be elected by a majority of the membership. At the election, there were only two inspectors of election and how they were selected is unclear. (5) The annual meeting, though separate from the election, should have been conducted according to the meeting agenda (that included the election) but it was not. There was a complete failure to bring the agenda items to the floor, including, specifically, for the purposes of the election dispute petition, the “Proof of Notice of Meeting” item, Agenda item No. 3.

On May 12th, the arbitrator filed an order requiring the Association to respond to the petition. Elected to the board based on the votes tallied at the election were Sharon Bross, Anthony Chiarello, Lucy Connery, Valerie Halaby, Brenda Mueller, Harriet Sacher and Linda Ward.

Board members Bross, Chiarello, Connery and Mueller voted to have Mueller serve as President and Chiarello as Treasurer. Linda Ward, a professional financial manager, was passed over to serve as Treasurer despite over three decades in the banking industry, in favor of Chiarello, who, according to his "intent to run" form submitted prior to the election, has no professional financial background or experience. Chiarello was absent from "candidates night" and so was unavailable to answer questions about his qualifications, why he is returning specifically to serve as treasurer and about alleged mismanagement of the Association's finances during the eighteen years he previously served as Treasurer. During his previous tenure as Association Treasurer, quarterly fees were raised only once, in 2006, from $475 to $500, but the compound U.S. inflation rate over the same period exceeded 48%, averaging 3.1% annually from 2000 to 2019. Quail Meadow homeowners and Underground readers deserve an explanation. Sources report that the Board, after passing over Ward for Treasurer, aggressively recruited Ward to lend her expertise to the Board's financial work. Ward, who received the most votes of any candidate for a board seat, declined the requests.