Beware! – UCO’s Next Move – Cashing In on the Next BREEZELINE CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS!

Okay guys and gals, I know I get long-winded and I’m trying to do better. This post is going to be straight to the point. This may be one of the most important posts that you will read as a resident.

This post relates to the fact that for the last at least ten years, UCO has been using a particular consultant to negotiate the bulk telecom agreements for Century Village. This consultant is not an attorney. I’m waiting on a records request to come back to see what the contracts have looked like, but my understanding is that he’s been paid close to $500,000 to negotiate these multiple telecom contracts for us.

More shockingly, at the last delegates meeting:

I asked the UCO president if the delegates were the final approval authority for  any contracts needed to hire a negotiator to negotiate any new telecom contracts that comes up. Surprisingly, he said “No. That’s why you elected us, to pay the bills for you.”

Keep in mind, the last two negotiators cost we the people close to $500,000!!!

I’m sure most of you will beg to differ with him, as I do.  My understanding is that anything over $2500 that is not already in the budget must be approved by the delegates. Let me know down below in the comments section if that is the case. I will find out when I read the UCO bylaws again.

Fortunately for us, we have discovered a great alternative to negotiate our future contracts. It just so happened that I discovered that a webinar was being presented by two attorneys from a local law firm.

The subject was:

“How to Negotiate Bulk Telecommunications Agreements for Community Associations”.

Can you believe it?? What a coincidence! Wait – it gets better!

Coincidentally, attorneys from that same law firm have been to the Synergy Club meetings to do presentations for us on FHA Housing Discrimination, Service Animals and ESA’s!  Thank you Lord!

As our Synergy Club members already know, one of the attorneys that gave us a presentation on housing discrimination, Michael Kassower, is also an expert and specialist in bulk telecommunication contract compliance for community associations! What?! No way! His partner, Michael Kammer, is an expert in the art of the actual  negotiation of  bulk telecom contracts. He’s been doing it for over twenty years and has   negotiated with just about all  of the major telecom companies.

The first words out of the mouths of the telecom representatives when they see him walk through the door is, “OH S— !!”

I’ve met with them both already and they have provided me with many insights on how we can negotiate our next proposal in a way that will save us millions of dollars, including the door fee, (referred to as the “Beautification Fee” in the Breezeline agreement) which totaled $3.8 million this last time, the final disposition of which is unknown to me, could be exchanged for free services such as, for example,  having free cable TV and/or internet for the first 6 months or 1 year, which would also eliminate any taxes we would have to pay on that money, and they could negotiate our legal and negotiation fees to be paid  by the telecom providers. I wonder why the consultant never thought of that! When I read the agreement, I could have sworn the negotiator negotiated on the behalf of Breezeline, by the way it was written! They explain much more  in the webinar video I hope you will watch.

Also, the attorneys work on an hourly basis as disinterested parties, meaning that their negotiations are not based upon the total amount of the contract, so they have no commissions tied to the highest amount they can negotiate, which is exactly what the consultant was doing. His fee was based on the amount of the contract. The higher the contract, the more he got paid. Instead of paying $500,000, the attorneys can do the same negotiation for less than $50,000. As I mentioned earlier, that $50,000 would be paid for by the telecom provider! By the way, the consultant, after receiving the ungodly sum of close to $500,000.00, was unable to give the contract a legal review.

Yes, my friends, UCO had to pay AN ATTORNEY ANOTHER $30,000 just to review the contract! The attorneys spoke with can DO IT ALL! No extra charge! 

I’m looking forward to seeing the previous contracts signed between UCO and the negotiating company.

I have attached a video of a webinar on “Negotiating Bulk Telecom Contracts for Community Associations”, which was recently presented in September regarding this exact subject. You will see the definite advantages to using lawyers who are experts on the subject instead of what UCO has been doing for a much higher price.

I strongly encourage all owners who are currently receiving cable TV service from Breezeline attend the UCO Broadband Committee Meetings that are held every month at UCO. They need to know that we are very interested in the status of the current contract and the imminent proposal that Breezeline is about to make.

We also need to make sure that we have the ability to approve a company or law firm of our choice to do the negotiations of any future telecom contracts for the reasons cited above. I encourage anyone and everyone who has an interest in the price that we are paying for cable TV to watch this webinar. Breezeline is currently trying desperately to provide us with a new proposal because they can no longer provide adequate service to us with their current business model. They want to go to streaming TV which requires Internet, and they want us to pay for it, even though they still have three years remaining on the current contract.

My position is simply that if your current model doesn’t work, and you prefer to change your business model to streaming TV with Internet, I’m all for it. But for the next three years it must be on your dime, as that’s your obligation under the current contract. I don’t care how you get us the TV as long as it’s good quality TV with good quality service to back it up, which they currently are not able to provide. UCO wants to let them off of the hook by signing a new proposal with no penalties to Breezeline.

Please watch the video webinar as it is extremely insightful. We all learned a lot about negotiating these contracts from Mr. Kassower and Kammer. With the information from the webinar, will be much better prepared to respond to the objections and challenges made by UCO in response to the upcoming proposal from Breezeline.