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By MELODY JAMESON
mj@observernews.net
Kings Point – As charges and counter-charges swirl, residents determined to make leadership changes here have formally moved to recall two federation directors.
One of those named directors responded by immediately setting a special federation meeting, reportedly to review a legal opinion related to recall procedures.
Two signature petitions calling for removal of Kings Point Federation Director and President Clifford Seder as well as of Director and Treasurer Paul Hunt were presented to the organization’s board during a federation membership meeting Friday morning.
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| Without further ado — or comment — Donna Hay distributed copies of the signature petition to recall Kings Point Federation Director and President Clifford Seder to him and other directors during a membership meeting Friday. A total of 249 residents in Seder’s District III signed the petition seeking his removal as their representative, and alleging his abuses of power. Hay, a District III resident, formally announced the recall before officially delivering it to the board. Under federation by-laws, a recall meeting in the district is to be set within 30 days.
Melody Jameson photo |
The Seder recall, distributed to the board by Donna Hay, a resident in his election district, was signed by 249 district unit owners, more than three times the number needed to initiate the recall action. Tony Santoro, who lives in Hunt’s election district, presented the recall petition bearing 71 signatures of district residents seeking Hunt’s removal.
Citing Article V of the federation’s by-laws as guiding authority, both petitions allege consistent abuses of power by the two directors. Seder, elected to represent District III, and Hunt, representing District IV. Both are in the middle of two-year terms presently set to end in March, 2011.
Federation by-laws approved by the membership in 2008 outline procedures for recalling an elected district director with or without cause, but with 10 percent of a district’s unit owners evidencing their support of the recall action.
Seder, conducting the membership meeting as president, received his and Hunt’s recall petitions, announcing immediately that he would call for a special federation board meeting and set in motion scheduling of meetings in each of the two districts for the two sets of unit owners. The district sessions to be called within 30 days of petition presentation are prescribed in the by-laws; the special federation meeting is not.
However, by early this week many directors reportedly had been notified of the special session set for 8 a.m. Friday, January 22, in the card room of the north clubhouse.
Hunt, on the other hand, told The Observer Monday that he had not received any special meeting notice. He did, though, allow that if a special session were in the works, it could be called to review a legal opinion obtained from current board attorneys following yet another recall initiated last fall.
Although a recall petition drive in Director Richard Singer’s District VIII, was undertaken at Hunt’s behest, the petition bearing an unknown number of signatures was not officially presented nor pursued by the federation board, Hunt said this week, adding that “it could come up at any time.”
Singer, the subject of this recall, stated this week he has received no notice of a recall petition completed in his district and to date has received no notice of the required district meeting about such a recall.
Hunt indicated that after the unpresented Singer recall petition circulated, the board leadership asked attorneys for specific counsel on recall conduct, including such matters as voting methods to be employed in the district meetings. He suggested that legal advice could be the single agenda item Friday morning.
As the recall saga continued to unfold, diverse interested parties were firing shots across opposing bows. During the Friday membership meeting, Forrest Davis, a former director now running for election again, said he was “shocked” by attempts to circumvent elections and by “interference with the voting process,” calling the culprits “carpetbaggers.” Russ Foti, another board director candidate, publicly commended Seder and Hunt, now subjects of recall movements, for their work. Later, Hunt accused Jim Green, who led the recall petition drive in Seder’s District III, of coercing residents in his (Hunt’s) district into signing his (Hunt’s) recall petition without explaining its purpose. And, Green, another board candidate, suggested the “carpetbagger” label was misapplied. Recalling unacceptable leaders is an integral, long-standing part of the election process in America, he asserted, adding it is those who would try to circumvent such a voters’ right who are the “real carpetbaggers.”
At deadline, no information about scheduled district recall meetings was available.
Neither Davis nor Seder nor Robert Sitzer, federation board secretary, responded to telephone calls from The Observer.
© 2010 Melody Jameson
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