THE TWO FACES OF "SENATOR" MARIA SACHS

SHE CAN DECEIVE VOTERS WITH A STRAIGHT FACE!

An Opinion By Jan Bergemann 
President, Cyber Citizens For Justice, Inc.

Published May 10, 2011

Remember the four-hour CCFJ TOWN HALL MEETING in Boca Raton on January 31, 2009 at Florida Atlantic University? 

Remember how [at that time] House Representative Maria Sachs [now Senator] was sitting next to me on the panel, promising to work hard to pass owner-friendly community association bills after listening to the many outrageous complaints by owners in attendance?

Remember Sachs' statement to the press after listening to the complaints by the members of the audience at the town hall meeting: "I am shocked that it is so egregious. I had no idea that the transgressions are so egregious and so shocking."

Sachs' claim to the audience made with a straight face turned out to be nothing but a statement intended to deceive the owners of property in Florida's community associations in order to get their votes -- a promise she conveniently forgot really fast.

Sachs showed her true face when she was one of the sponsors of House Bill 561 in the 2010 legislative session, the companion bill of S1196. This year as a co-sponsor she helped to push Senator Fasano's anti-owner bill S530 as a listed co-sponsor. Both bills are anything but owner-friendly. Both bills actually trample upon owners' contractual rights.

Let's face it: These bills, pushed by Maria Sachs, are an insult to every honest citizen that lives in and/or owns property in one of the many community associations in Florida . 

These two bills pushed by Maria Sachs are nothing but a way to fill the pockets of Maria Sachs' husband Peter Sachs -- Managing Director and President of the law firm of Sachs Sax Caplan. As soon as I saw that Maria Sachs was sponsoring H561, I made it very clear that this bill was exactly the opposite of what Sachs had promised at the Boca Raton Town Hall Meeting -- in front of more of 150 condo owners and homeowners and the media -- deceiving the audience with a straight face.

And latest in May 2011 it became very obvious that my claim was absolutely correct. Maria Sachs has a conflict of interest and uses her position in the Florida legislature to fill her husband's (meaning her own) pockets. Just read the MAY 2011 MONTHLY COLUMN of the law firm Sachs Sax Caplan.  It tells the whole story -- in writing!

The Monthly Column is not even ashamed to point out how badly the bill sponsored by Maria Sachs is trampling upon the contractual rights of the owners. The important part of the column:  "In the past, both condominium and homeowners associations only had the authority to levy fines if such authority was provided in the association's governing documents. However, due to the recent changes in both the Homeowners Association Act and Condominium Act, which went into effect in July, 2010 [courtesy of H561], the language requiring that such fining authority be in the governing documents was removed. Therefore, there is now arguably a statutory right to fine a member, or such member's tenants, guests, invitees or licensees."

This is what it doesn't say, but what it means in reality: "Hire our law firm to go after the poor slobs who bought into a community association, relying on their contractual rights that didn't allow fining in the community he/she was buying into. But with the help of the wife [Maria Sachs] of our law firm's president Peter Sachs we can now as well fleece the owners who thought they were safe against such abuses. Maria Sachs passed the bill, now we want to profit from it!" That surely is my interpretation of this paragraph in the column.

Two big questions:

Is this behavior by Maria Sachs just 'BUSINESS AS USUAL' conducted by a corrupt political system in Tallahassee with elected officials that claim to serve Florida's citizens, but in reality fill their own pockets and the pockets of their husbands?

Or is Maria Sachs just the exception to the rule?