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GOVERNOR
SCOTT…THE DEMOCRAT
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published
March 31, 2014
Republicans
always knock the Democrats for never actually solving a problem,
but choosing instead to form a committee to investigate
solutions that may one day hypothetically come up with the
answer to the problem and which may ultimately and possibly be
utilized in the future to solve the problem, after running it
through a few more investigative committees first.
If
that’s how Democrats solve problems, this year we found out
that Governor Scott is a Democrat.
Last year, while C.C.F.J. and I worked so hard to finally
get the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR)
to provide consumer assistance to homeowner associations in our
state, just like they already do for condominium associations,
The Governor chose instead to wait it out another year.
Instead, he signed an apparently useless bill which made
homeowner associations register with the DBPR by basically
providing their name, address and number of parcels.
He created needless bureaucratic red tape under the guise
that before allowing the
DBPR to assist HOAs, let’s learn how many there are first.
The
results are in. Over
13,000 HOAs registered. We
learned that well over 2.5 million of us live in HOAs throughout
the state. We
learned quickly that there is an even greater need to provide
consumer assistance to HOAs than condominiums.
In light of these findings which were not surprising at
all, Senator Alan Hays, a conservative Republican from Umatilla
filed Senate Bill 1348 which would simply get HOAs the
same equal treatment with the DBPR as does condominiums.
In fact, the plan was actually to decrease the fee that
condo owners pay from $4.00 per year to $2.00 per year and HOA
owners would also pay only $2.00 per year.
It was a win win.
Despite
the fact that a Conservative Republican from his own party filed
the bill, Governor Scott would not allow a House companion bill
to even be filed. Instead,
remarkably the Governor lined up with a few Democratic
organizations in Palm Beach and Broward (who will never vote for
him in a million years) and whose members consist of Board
members of community associations.
In other words the Governor backed Board members who want
to stay in power and don’t want any governmental agency
investigating whether or not they are following the law.
Instead of Governor Scott standing with Senator Hays and
protecting the 2.5 million of you who live in HOAs and complain
about the failure of your Boards to abide by Florida law,
Governor Scott partnered up with the guys who want no oversight,
and no relief for owners who dare complain about an illegal
action of the Board, other than being forced to hire a lawyer at
their own cost to file a lawsuit.
So…..when
the Governor is told about the HOA problem last year, he punts
and says “let’s do a study.”
When the study confirms the problem, he pretends not to
see it and kills legislation that his own party filed in order
to fix the problem. Instead
of his slogan being “Let’s Get to Work” maybe it should be
“Let’s Pass the Buck.”
How about “Let’s turn a blind eye.”
Maybe “Let’s Look the Other Way.”
When
the survey results came out, I previously blogged that now that
we actually have a list of all of these HOAs, the members of
Florida HOAs instantly became one of the most powerful voting
blocs in the state. A swing of 1% of eligible voters of HOAs is
enough to determine an election in this state.
If those of you who live in HOAs are simply tired of
being ignored by Governor Scott, here’s some advice come
November…….”Let’s get to work”
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About
HOA & Condo Blog
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Eric Glazer graduated from the University of
Miami School of Law in 1992 after receiving a B.A. from
NYU. He is currently entering his 20th year as a
Florida
lawyer practicing |
community association law and is the owner of
Glazer and Associates, P.A. an eight attorney law firm in
Orlando
and Hollywood. For the past two years Eric has been the host of Condo Craze and
HOAs, a weekly one hour radio show on 850 WFTL. See: www.condocrazeandhoas.com.
He is the first attorney in the State of Florida
that designed a course that certifies condominium residents as
eligible to serve on a condominium Board of Directors and has
now certified more than 7,000 Floridians. He is certified as a
Circuit Court Mediator by The Florida Supreme Court and has
mediated dozens of disputes between associations and unit
owners. Finally, he recently argued the Cohn v. Grand
Condominium case before The Florida Supreme Court, which is
perhaps the single most important association law case decided
by the court in a decade.
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