Article Courtesy of The Tallahassee Democrat
By Jeffrey Schweers
Published November 25, 2017
It's been months since Anthony Dewees and Lynda Tiefel
asked to see the financial records of their condominium association over
concerns about maintenance issues, bills being paid late and the
association’s reserves being depleted.
Their attempts to obtain the financial records they’re entitled to under
state law have been ignored, they say, prompting them to sue the Adams
Street Lofts Condominium Association run by Paige Carter-Smith and City
Commissioner Scott Maddox, and the management company they hired, Lewis
Association Property Management.
Carter-Smith and Maddox are longtime friends and
political and business associates who are named in federal
subpoenas delivered to City Hall over the last five months
as part of a probe into the city’s Community Redevelopment
Agency.
In a complaint filed in Leon County Circuit Court two weeks
ago, Dewees and Tiefel claim that the association refused to
let them inspect and photocopy the association’s financial
records. They're demanding records going back seven years,
including invoices, itemized receipts, statements of account
for each unit owner, audits, reviews and accounting
statements, and contracts and bids for work.
They’re also seeking damages because the association failed
to provide the requested records within 10 days of their
request as outlined in Florida statutes. As unit owners in
the building, Dewees and Tiefel are entitled to seek actual
or minimum damages of $50 per calendar day for up to 10 days
beginning on the 11th day after request was received, as
well as attorney fees.
In a previous report, Carter-Smith said the two are
disgruntled property owners who bought their units when
prices were high before the real estate bubble burst. She's
also said they are politically motivated friends of city
critic Erwin Jackson, a student housing developer who has
filed ethics complaints and lawsuits against Maddox. |
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Scott Maddox conducts the annual condo owner’s
meetings for the Adams Street Lofts in his law office across the
street.
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She did not return email seeking comment for this story. But in a previous
email several weeks ago Carter-Smith said, "The association management is
the custodian of records and I assume they have complied with any request
from Mr. Dewees and Mrs. Tiefel."
Dewees and Tiefel are the only two owners in the 31-unit Adams Street Lofts
who actually live in the building. The handful of other owners who own
single units, including developer John "J.T." Burnette, rent theirs out.
Burnette's dealings are also under FBI scrutiny.
The other 26 units are owned by Governance Services, a company Carter-Smith
set up in 2007 to make up for the money that Maddox’s consulting business,
Governance Inc. lost in the recession. Carter-Smith took possession of the
remaining 17 units she didn't already own and the condominium’s common area
as the result of a 2014 bankruptcy hearing.
After Carter-Smith obtained title in February 2015, Steve Leoni, the
previous owner, sent out an email announcing the new owners and that his
management company, Student Housing Solutions, would be replaced by Lewis
Association Property Management.
"All accounts should have been transferred on Friday by Scott or Paige.
Please make sure that they are read and put into the new owners name today,"
Leoni said in a subsequent email.
Carter-Smith, who had served on the condo association since 2012, took over
as president. Other current board members are her sister, who was Maddox's
campaign treasurer, former employee Jeremy Branch, and Burnette.
Maddox holds the board's annual meetings at his law office across the
street.
Dewees and Tiefel say the condo association board is doing a poor job
running the place and they're concerned about their investment.
Their concerns go back to January 2017, when Dewees attended an association
meeting conducted by Maddox. Dewees received financial records from Lewis
Management showing that Governance Services, a consulting company owned by
Carter-Smith, was close $90,000 behind on its dues.
At that meeting, Dewees told the Democrat, Maddox asked that its arrears be
reduced or offset by payments for maintenance -- including $22,500 for bat
removal and $17,539 to Mr. Johnson and Crew.
Governance Services also said it would no longer seek to offset its dues
with maintenance costs.
Records handed over by the city to the FBI as part of its investigation show
an email exchange between the property manager and Carter-Smith, and cc'd to
Maddox at his city hall email address, expressing concern over Governance's
unpaid dues.
Invoices obtained by the Democrat add up to more than $110,000.
"The association had the amount owed wrong," Carter-Smith said in an email
to the Democrat. "My bookkeeper got with the association bookkeeper,
determined the correct amount and my business wrote a check to become
current."
In June, Dewees asked Lewis's manager Cheri Garbark to provide records of
individual unit owner accounts, which showed Governance Services still had
outstanding dues so in August he sent a certified letter asking asked for a
unit-by-unit accounting.
When that went unanswered, he sent another request in September through his
attorney for invoices receipts and other supporting documentation for the
bat removal and Mr. Johnson expenditures. That request also went unanswered,
according to the lawsuit.
Tiefel sent a letter in September also asking to examine the condo
association's records, specifically a facsimile of a check for $7,817
submitted by Governance for dues, documentation of any "in-kind" offsets
from dues, and receipts or other proof of a $13,750 payment for air
conditioning services by "A&W Service."
Maddox has refused to answer any specific questions or discuss his
involvement with Governance Services and Adams Street Lofts with the
Democrat, claiming Florida Bar rules didn't allow him to disclose his
clients or the nature of their business with him. He added that his "private
business has never intersected with my public responsibilities."
Dewees said he met Maddox in August to discuss the financial records
situation. At the time, the association was still $20,000 in arrears, Dewees
said, but Maddox assured him that would soon be cleared up.
"One thing he told me is they’d be current with their dues," Dewees said.
"They made some cash payments."
As of Oct. 12, Governance was current on its dues on all its units,
according to an email from Garbark forwarded by Carter-Smith to the
Democrat.
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