Article
Courtesy of Key Biscayne Independent
By John Pacenti
Published January 13, 2024
State Rep. Vicki Lopez, as promised,
dropped a massive bill to address condo board corruption, a
measure that would create stronger criminal penalties for
officials who engage in kickbacks or election fraud. It also
sets a new level of transparency.
Lopez, appearing on
the Anti-Social podcast, said the 117-page HB1021 – dubbed
Condo 3.0 – is the next logical step in tweaking Florida
laws in the wake of the collapse of Champlain Towers South
in Surfside in June 2021. She filed it just before
Christmas.
The representative of District 113, which includes Key
Biscayne, fashioned the bill after conducting listening
tours throughout the state. She was part of a Key Biscayne
town hall on the issue in November.
While she said there are a lot of good condo boards where
members volunteer their time and work tirelessly to make
their building a better place to live, her bill addresses
the “bad actors.”
“They were placed there by the condo owners to represent
their voice and they had become adversaries of condo
owners,” she said.
Many complaints from condo owners to Lopez were about boards
refusing to turn over records – even when the Department of
Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) ordered them to
do so. The new law requires that condominiums of more than
25 units must post their budgets, meeting minutes and
contracts to a website.
“It’s a game-changer,” Lopez said. |
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Click on the picture to listen to the Podcast: John
Pacenti and Tony Winton talk with Rep. Vicki Lopez about her condo
bill HB 1021.
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In the last two sessions the focus was on
making sure another Surfside never happened again by
requiring “milestone” inspections to catch and fix
structural defects — and to ensure that prudent reserve
funds were available to make those repairs.
The central part of her bill would give
state regulators more authority to hold rogue condo boards
accountable. “Now the same jurisdiction that they (DBPR) had
when the developer first developed the property is the same
they’re going to have now,” Lopez said.
Lopez said when it came to elections, residents who lived
part-time in another country were often disenfranchised. Or
there was outright fraud at the ballot box.
The bill adds criminal penalties for election fraud that are
the same as existing penalties for political offices.
“That’s how important it is to us that these elections are
done properly,” Lopez said. “I think that is going to send a
strong message.”
The bill also makes it a third-degree felony punishable up
to five years in prison for any board officer, director or
manager of an association who unlawfully solicits, accepts
anything or service as a kickback. Property managers and
condo board members would have to disclose any conflict of
interest. Included would be “favors” done for board members
by condo employees.
“We learned from many property managers that either the
board members or the property managers have been doing
business with their family members, their business partners,
and whomever,” Lopez said. Even “favors” done for board
members by building employees could be prosecuted, she said,
if her bill becomes law.
Key Biscayne is not immune to allegations of condo
corruption. A property manager at EmeraldBay is charged with
funneling maintenance fees into a private company she
formed.
The president of EmeraldBay at the time – Louisa Conway –
said property manager Maria Ferrer Rodriguez resigned due to
illness when police revealed an investigation into a
misappropriation of funds in May.
“I’m a little worried about your Condo 3.0,” Conway told
Lopez at the November town hall. Conway, a former Village
Council candidate who remains a political firebrand, was
voted out as Board president of EmeraldBay in June.
A similar measure has been sponsored in the Florida Senate
by fellow Republican, Sen. Jennifer Bradley of Fleming
Island and Sen. Jason Pizzo of Miami, a Democrat.
Lopez is also co-sponsoring an unrelated bill, HB1029, to
create a pilot program where condo owners and associations
can obtain home-hardening grants – already available to
homeowners – through the My Safe Florida Home program.
“Once we harden these condominium buildings, the insurance
rates will go down,” Lopez said.
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