Deadline Passes with No New Directors
Despite extensive publicity and a front-page story last month, not a single resident or building association stepped forward to fill any of the 75 vacant COOCVE director positions before the November 29 deadline.
The opportunity to address this critical leadership shortfall has now passed, leaving approximately 18% of the director seats unfilled and over 1,500 residents without representation in the upcoming January elections.
This inaction cements a leadership void across the Village. Of the 414 available director slots, the vacancies remain untouched. Only two neighborhoods, Islewood and Keswick, have managed to meet their director requirements, while major neighborhoods like Durham, Newport, and Oakridge continue to face significant representation deficits. Durham, the village’s largest neighborhood with 25 buildings, failed to fill over 30% of its available positions. Newport and Oakridge, each with 22 buildings, are similarly short, leaving residents in these areas without a voice in critical governance decisions.
The Chairman of the COOCVE Election Committee, Ron Sandler, told the CVE Reporter he wasn’t sure if the absence of new volunteers was a total surprise, but he also emphasized that in general, the number of directors participating in election is high when compared to past years.
COOCVE directors are essential to the Village's governance, responsible for electing board members who oversee the management of approximately $30 million in resident dues. These funds are critical for infrastructure, landscaping, and amenities like the clubhouse and pools. Without full representation, many residents now face the prospect of being excluded from representation in decisions that directly impact their quality of life and property values.
The silence from the community throughout the nomination period could be the latest example of a growing disengagement. In a series of stories last season, the CVE Reporter highlighted the struggle facing individual building associations to bill their own board of directors’ seats. The problem has reached such a level that some buildings are either considering or already paying residents to serve on their building boards. Other buildings, unable to entice any of their own residents to serve, have resorted to paying outsiders from other buildings to fill vacancies.
