ST. PETERSBURG - Several residents at Bayfront Tower, the first of the city's high-rise condominiums, have filed an extensive complaint with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. 

They are angry about a range of issues, from how this year's elections were conducted by the building's association to what they have termed "financial improprieties and illegalities" to the way the condominium board plans to handle repairs at the upscale waterfront property. Much of the dissatisfaction appears to have been generated from disagreements concerning costly repairs proposed to the complex of about 250 units.

Board president Jacqueline Ley Brown downplays the dispute at One Beach Drive SE. "We are working with concerned owners and other owners in the building to come up with a satisfactory solution," she said.

In any event, on June 16, seven residents, Donald Jenkins, Robert P. Kalle, Michael McDowell, William H. Mills Sr., Emil A. Pavone Jr., Edmund Schmidt and W. Gordon Spoor, registered their dissatisfaction with Bayfront Tower's board in a 27-page complaint to the Division of Florida Land Sales, Condominiums and Mobile Homes.

They listed 14 items of concern, among them the association's February elections. Only one of five board members, retired Navy Capt. William Walker, the board's secretary, "was indisputably elected to office," the complaint states.

The residents allege that the board improperly used the association's financial reserves and illegally entered into contracts. As an example, they say one board member engaged a public insurance adjuster without competitive bids.

The seven apartment owners, who are asking the state to find that board members "repeatedly and illegally acted beyond their authority," say Bayfront residents have been denied the right to attend board meetings and have access to association records.

Specifically, they state in the complaint, Mills was denied access to records of cash distributions made by the association to its employees, despite a written request. Pavone was not allowed to see computer records of a vote tally for the 2003 election of board members. Among other concerns, the complaint also alleges that unit owners have been denied the right to attend committee meetings, that a committee to recruit a new building manager met in secret and that the board of directors meets to discuss association business without posting required notices.

Meg Shannon, acting communications director for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, said the state's investigation is in the preliminary stages.

Reached by telephone, Spoor, one of the residents who signed the complaint, declined to comment. Others did not return calls. In a June 30 letter, though, those who submitted the complaint explained their position to other Bayfront Tower residents. Calling themselves the Concerned Owners Committee, they said it was with "heavy hearts" that they had filed the complaint with the state.

It was about two years ago that the announcement was made that moisture had seeped into the 29-story building and rusted steel studs that hold the outside walls in place. An engineer hired by the condominium board reported that the building - completed in 1975 - was structurally sound, but that sections of its exterior walls, from the eighth to the 27th floor, would have to be replaced.

Deciding how to fix the problem pit some residents against the board. The residents who are complaining said in their letter to fellow condominium owners that the association's building committee had announced it would fix the problems at a cost of "well over" $4-million. The residents contend, however, that engineers who live at Bayfront Tower - "men far more experienced and qualified in matters relating to building construction than anyone on the Building Committee or Board," indicate that the work can be done for far less.

One person who is undisturbed by the course the dispute has taken is board secretary Walker.

The state will tell the condominium what it is doing correctly and provide guidance for the things that need correcting, "which we will implement immediately," said Walker, who has been described by the concerned residents as "a member of the board who shares our concerns."

Bayfront Tower will work through this problem, said Louie Adcock, treasurer of the board and an attorney with Fisher & Sauls.