Rep. Juan Zapata

Galt Mile Residents with Sen. Jeffrey Atwater

Fortunately, the Community Association Leadership Lobby (CALL) is spearheading opposition to this egregious abrogation of our rights. The vocal opposition is cynically claiming that they represent the interests of condo owners. To send a clear message to our public policy makers that the vast majority of condo owners do not want to see their homes regulated like public housing, they organized another Community Association Day event. On March 15^th, hundreds of homeowners from across the State converged on Tallahassee to oppose these destructive regulations. CALL chartered a plane to transport Broward homeowners to the State Capitol. The Galt Mile Community Association joined with the GSAC (Gulf Shore Association of Condominiums), the SCCA (Space Coast Condominium Association), OCHAA (Orange County Homeowners Association Alliance), and a newly formed coalition of mobile home park owners (among others) to pro-actively oppose this legislation that seriously threatens to destabilize the Condominium system in Florida.

Dott Nicholson-Brown and Rep. Juan Zapata

While members from several Galt Mile Associations attended the event, Regency Tower was ably represented by President Dott Nicholson-Brown, James Rigney and Eric Berkowitz.

Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff

Although there were slightly fewer people at this year’s event, since it was more effectively organized, it had a significant impact. We met with Senator Jeffrey Atwater who agreed to help us oppose the bill. His assistance is particularly desirable since he will probably be the next Senate President. We also met with District 91 Representative Ellyn Bogdanoff who also committed herself to defeat this legislation. After we completed our goal of aligning the support of our local representatives, we decided to take a stab at the unlikely prospect of arranging an impromptu meeting with the bill’s sponsors, Representatives Garcia and Zapata. They had declined to see anyone participating in this organized opposition to their bill. Upon arriving at Representative Garcia’s office, his Secretary notified us that he wasn’t available. Undiscouraged, the Galt Mile group trudged to Representative Zapata’s office. Not surprisingly, his secretary also claimed that not only was he unavailable, but that he would be unavailable for the rest of the day. Disappointed at having been foiled, as our contingent prepared to leave, we noticed that someone was missing. Not to be denied, Dott Nicholson-Brown slipped past the secretary into Zapata’s private office. Moments later, she rejoined the group, admonishing that, “We have two minutes.” While we questioned Mr. Zapata about his suspect motives for sponsoring such a bad piece of legislation, he had occasion to ask Jim Rigney what he didn’t like about the bill.

Marty Glazer and Eric Berkowitz discuss bad bill with Juan Zapata

Jim growled back, “Everything... the whole thing stinks.” Sarcastically, Zapata retorted, “Please, say what you think” to which Rigney reconfirmed, “I did!”

Zapata admitted that the bill was fraught with terrible deficiencies, characterizing it as, “a work in progress.” After a few more minutes of discourse, Zapata challenged us, asking that we send him constructive criticism of his bill as opposed to an across the board thumbs down. As he is wont to do, Pio Ieraci accepted the challenge, agreeing to volunteer me to write a critique of the bill’s 48 pages of regressive regulations. The response will be reviewed by the Galt Mile Community Association Board of Directors and forwarded to Mr. Zapata, who promised to take our concerns into consideration when passing the bill through the committee process.

Sen. Diaz de la Portilla

An explanation of the bill’s provisions is currently posted on the Galt Mile web site . In fact, there are links from the Regency Tower web site to this summary of HB 1227.