|
Article
Courtesy of the Sun Sentinel
Published
12 - 03 - 2004
By
Joe Kollin
Citing
the continuing need for laws to rein in the power of abusive condominium
and homeowner associations, a statewide organization of volunteer owners
has hired a professional lobbyist to prowl the halls of Tallahassee next
year.
Jerry Melvin of Fort Walton Beach will lobby the Legislature at the
annual 60-day session that begins March 8, St. Augustine-based Cyber
Citizens for Justice announced Thursday. Melvin spent 18 years in the
state House of Representatives.
"It
will be the first time that homeowners and condo owners have their own
organization and their own voice in Tallahassee," said Jan
Bergemann, founder and president of the organization.
In the past, grassroots organizations, such as the now-defunct Secure
Condominium Owners' Rights Now, or SCORN, never had a professional
lobbyist to sway legislators. CCFJ is the only current association known
to represent owners.
About half the condo units in the state are in Broward, Palm Beach and
Miami-Dade counties.
Melvin's presence will help counter the influence of law firms and
management companies whose lobbyists represent the position of
association boards, Bergemann said.
CCFJ, using volunteers, this spring got the Legislature to make major
changes to condo and homeowner association laws. But Bergemann said
members, at their annual meeting in Ocala last month, overwhelmingly
voted to hire a professional.
"We've got to do it if we want to get anything done; it's how our
system works," said Karen Gottlieb of Dania Beach, a member of CCFJ
and Gov. Jeb Bush's appointee to the newly created state Advisory
Council on Condominiums.
Working with state Rep. Julio Robaina, R-Miami, CCFJ this year got the
state to create an ombudsman to help educate owners and resolve disputes
between condo boards and owners. Bush is expected to appoint the
ombudsman within a few days.
Neither Bergemann nor Melvin would say how much money he will receive.
The money, however, won't come from the $20 annual dues that the 200
members, who are condo owners and homeowners, pay. Bergemann said that
"big donations from members and friends and allies" will
finance the lobbyist.
Bergemann
said he answers hundreds of calls each month from owners with problems,
60 percent coming from Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. In
the past 12 months, the organization's Web site cover page has recorded
52,391 hits, about 145 a day.
|