Rep. Julio Robaina Ousted as Chair of the Criminal and Civil Justice Policy Council

Dear Broward Coalition,

Florida's Speaker of the House Pro Temp, Larry Cretul, announced yesterday that he has removed Representative Julio Robaina as chairman of the House Criminal and Civil Justice Policy Council. The speaker's memorandum is posted below. Since many, if not all, of this year's community association legislation would have been heard in that committee, this announcement has significant impact. Representative Robaina remains on the Council but not as chairman.


MEMORANDUM

To:                     Members, Florida House of Representatives
From:                Speaker Larry Cretul
Date:                 March 11, 2009
Re:                    New Council Chair and Vice-Chair Appointments

This memo is to advise you of two changes in the leadership of the
House. Today, I am appointing Representative William Snyder as the new
Chair of the Criminal and Civil Justice Policy Council, replacing
Representative Julio Robaina. I am also naming Representative Sandy
Adams as Vice-Chair of the Council.  This decision is effective
immediately. 

As Speaker, one of my jobs is to provide a leadership organi zation that
best serves the House over the next two years.  These decisions today
are in keeping with that responsibility.

Please continue to let your legislators know that the provisions contained in SB 998 (CAN's bill drafted for Senator Ring) are useful and beneficial for your communities.  SB 998 provides as follows:

1.  Lenders must complete their foreclosure actions on abandoned or investor-owned units/homes within 12 months from filing or risk losing their statutory cap on liability (this would apply to condominium and homeowners' associations);
2.  Section 718.110(13) of the Condominium Act would be amended to allow associations to amend their documents to require tenants to pay rent directly to the association when the owner/landlord is delinquent without having to obtain the landlord/owner's approval for such amendment so long as the amendment passes by the threshold set forth in the governing documents;
3.  The ability to suspend common area use rights currently found it the HOA Act would be transported over to the Condominium Act so condominium associations could suspend the right of delinquent owners to use the common areas such as the pool, clubhouse, recreational facilities, etc.;
4.  Email addresses would not be open to inspection requests by other owners in a condominium or HOA; and
5.  HOA's with cumbersome lender conse nt requirements in their documents could utilize the same statutory procedure as condominium owners to pass amendments.

Lastly, the City of Sunny Isles Beach recently asked Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum whether a city could pass an ordinance requiring condominium associations to hire private security guards. The AG said that municipalities could pass such an ordinance which is very good news for private security companies but maybe not such good news for your community if your city were to pass such an ordinance. 

It would appear to be a strange time for cities to abdicate some of their policing responsibilities to private residential communities that are already struggling financially. When most associations are looking to trim their budgets, adding a line item for private security guards when there has not been a history of crime in the community or a foreseeability of crime in the near future might be wasteful.

For more information, please click on the link to yesterday's Sun Sentinel article on point. Please use the Capitol Connection email tool to discuss the ramifications of the AG's opinion with your legislators as well as local media outlets. You can use the Capitol Connection tool to quickly and easily send your opinion as a Letter to the Editor or to tv stations.

http://www.canfl.com/pdfs/3-11-09%20Sun%20Sentinel-Condo%20guards.pdf

We have posted a new Ask the Experts quest ion on the CAN website at http://www.canfl.com regarding the new digital switchover requirements from our CAN corporate sponsor, CSI Associates.

As always, if you have any questions or comments about any of the information provided herein, please let me know.


Best Regards,

Donna D. Berger, Esq.
Executive Director of the Community Advocacy Network (CAN)
Telephone: 954.315.0372
Facsimile: 954.315.0373
Web: www.canfl.com
Email: dberger@canfl.com