Feb. 19 UPDATE: After submitting a supplemental affidavit, satisfying legal requirements, a hearing on whether or not certain votes should be accepted and counted will be scheduled. It appears the hearing will take place in April.
Last Friday I petitioned the First Judicial Circuit for a temporary injunction against Holley-Navarre Water System, asking the court to stop the utility’s board of directors from intentionally not counting certain proxy votes during yesterday’s annual meeting.
When it comes to the HNWS corporation, a proxy is a document used by one member to grant another member the authority to vote on their behalf. Per HNWS bylaws and Florida State Statute 617.0721, proxies are allowed.
Proxies are useful when members don’t keep up with HNWS matters and prefer to entrust their vote to a better informed member.
This case developed after a Feb. 10 special meeting when 5 members of the HNWS board voted to only count ballots from proxy forms requested in person at HNWS and “hold and not count” any member-generated proxies turned into the ballot box, which was located inside the lobby.
HNWS Attorney Will Dunaway, during that Feb. 10 special meeting, said the utility’s Canvassing Board had been asked, “Is it required that we use the proxy form that the company puts out, and the answer under state law is no.”
Dunaway went on to explain that when there aren’t specifics in bylaws, you rely on state law. Dunaway also said the Canvassing Board could determine if the person is a member and eligible to give their proxy to someone else as per state law.
The board didn’t heed the legal advice. Subsequently, it appears dozens of HNWS members were denied a vote yesterday after the board voted rejected their proxy forms.
Please understand that many of us recognize how proxies can be problematic. However, the way to resolve that is not by the board taking a legally questionable shortcut.
The proper way to address proxies is by taking a much-needed step. The corporation’s bylaws are outdated. They were created decades ago – before the utility served more than 14,000 customers. However, per the bylaws, it will take a vote from thousands of HNWS members to amend them, and typically only a few hundred show up to vote in HNWS elections.
I had several people ask me to serve as their proxy and several people/businesses made me their proxy without asking. I was ok either way but became frustrated after finding out some of their votes wouldn’t be counted.
Therefore, I reached out to a couple of attorneys to ask if they could immediately file the petition for an emergency temporary injunction. Unfortunately, they were unavailable at the time. One who was going out of town encouraged me to try it myself. Ha! That didn’t end very well! The judge, appropriately, denied it (without prejudice) for not satisfying legal requirements per Rule 1.610 of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure.
After submitting a supplemental affidavit, satisfying aforementioned legal requirements, a hearing on whether or not certain votes should be accepted and counted will be scheduled.
Romi White, Navarre
ATTENTION: If you submitted a proxy form, your vote may not have been counted during the utility’s rescheduled Feb. 18 election. A lawsuit has been filed against the utility, and a hearing is being scheduled. If you signed a proxy form, contact Romi White at 850-503-6242.
