The meeting was called to order at 11:00 a.m. by President Pio Ieraci.
Board Members present: Ieraci, Berkowitz, Glickfield, Gill, Guttman, Hamaker, McBride, Casier, Creal, Freismuth, Gilligan, Gonzalez and Mayer.
Approval of Minutes - The minutes of March 15, 2007 were approved.
Old & New Business
President Ieraci welcomed and introduced Patrick Shavloskey, Development Director of Bonnet House. Mr. Shavloskey gave a presentation on the history and programming available at Bonnet House for children and adults.
President Ieraci welcomed and introduced Broward County Commissioner Ken Keechl, who shared information/updates on the following subjects:
entities contributing to the property tax millage rate,
the Broward County budget,
airport expansion,
statutory lobbying restrictions,
a development located on A1A and Atlantic Avenue in Pompano,
beach renourishment,
property tax reform and
Save Our Homes tax protection portability.
Jim Gill will be celebrating his 98th birthday next week. He was congratulated and we sang �Happy Birthday.�
George Mayer: Winn Dixie building has been sold. CVS will be opening in the location formerly occupied by SouthTrust.
Applications for the Galt Mile Windstorm Self-Insurance Trust should be delivered soon.
Denny�s - City turned down a proposed 121 room hotel.
Il Lugano � Ralph Hamaker - Occupancy is expected to begin in mid-May. They claim there are only six units left.
Beach Renourishment - No problem with financing � under control.
Legislative Update � Eric Berkowitz -
- SB 314 sponsored by Sen. Geller is a condominium termination bill which is very likely to pass as it has the strong support of the Real Property Section of the Florida Bar. A similar bill that unanimously passed the Legislature last session was vetoed by Gov. Bush because he felt the threshold to terminate could be too easily attained. Hearings were held around the state this summer to strike a balance between the property rights of condominium owners as a whole against the rights of a lone holdout who opposes the termination plan. Since the bill was modified to address those concerns, neither Governor Crist nor the DBPR is currently opposing the bill. The bill provides a method of terminating condominiums in the event of: economic waste, disrepair of the property, and when continued operation of the condominium is made impossible by law or regulation.
In the event of economic waste, the percentage needed to terminate is the lesser of the lowest percentage of voting interests needed to amend the declaration or as provided in the Declaration for termination of condominiums. There are special provisions in this bill for the termination of timeshare units. Optional termination can be effectuated by 80% of the unit owners. Mortgagee consent is not required unless the plan of termination will result in less than full satisfaction of the mortgage lien. This bill has gone through all of its committee stops and will go to the full Senate for a vote as soon as it is put on the Special Order Calendar. On April 2nd, it was placed on the calendar.
HB 433 sponsored by Rep. Carl Domino passed out of the Safety and Security Council with one negative vote cast by Rep. Luis R. Garcia. It contains language which would make it easier to amend condominium documents that are currently burdened with lender consent requirements and a host of provisions relevant to Homeowner Associations.
SB 396 sponsored by Sen. Margolis is a Condominium Conversion bill which deals with certain converter reserves and insurance fixes. This bill would require additional disclosures in contracts for the sale or lease of residential units and clarifies that the definition of condominium common expenses includes the costs of certain insurance or self insurance. The bill also requires notice for special assessments for self insurance purposes. This bill contains incremental �insurance fixes� that attempt to make commercial self-insurance funds more attainable. On April 11th, it was replaced by similar House Bill 7031, passed the Senate and is now in �messages�.
SB 348 sponsored by Sen. Mandy Dawson would prohibit associations from requiring a prospective buyer of a property to present evidence of any financial status or to make a monetary deposit to the association so long as such prospective buyer has been approved by a lending institution to obtain the financing that is necessary to purchase the property. If it passes, this bill would impact many communities that run background financial checks on potential purchasers to ensure that those purchasers can meet their monetary obligations once they become community residents. After filing, this bill has been static.
SB 714 sponsored by Sen. Gary Siplin, would functionally transfer any shortfall through delinquency to other owners. This bill would prohibit associations from liening/foreclosing and/or pursuing a monetary judgment for amounts less than $2,500 and would remove the association's ability to recoup attorney's fees and collection costs. Its passage would make assessments optional. This bill has been static since being filed.
SB 1844 sponsored by Sen. Ring would require attorneys handling collection matters for association clients to accept a 90-day payment plan for their attorney's fees when pursuing a delinquent owner. It was anticipated that this bill would be amended with more reasonable language. Amended in April, it is now in Judiciary.
HB 1373 sponsored by Rep. Robaina, was amended several weeks ago at its first committee stop. It was pared down from 221 pages to 80 pages. The regulations regarding homeowners� associations were removed but all of the onerous condominium and cooperative restrictions still remain. This bill�s next stop will be the House Council on Jobs & Entrepreneurship which is chaired by Rep. Ron Reagan. Its sister bill in the Senate, SB 2816, was pared down on Monday in the Committee on Regulated Industries from 209 pages to 72 pages, the bulk of which affects condominiums and coops. Its next stop is the Committee on Community Affairs.
HB 1365 sponsored by Rep. Gibbons contains emergency powers language to assist boards dealing with community preparations pre-storm as well as dealing with post-storm reconstruction issues Currently, this bill is not moving and would need help if it is to be amended on to a moving community association bill.
Galt Roving Security Patrol - Project now moving along; all buildings have received new invoices.
Treasurer�s Report - Leah Glickfield reported $15,926.09 in our Treasury. Everyone has paid. New invoices go out at the end of May. A motion was made and approved to keep the dues at $250.
Next Advisory Board Meeting - The next regular Advisory Board Meeting will be held on Thursday, May 31, 2007 at Nick�s Italian Restaurant.
No meetings in July and August. Last President�s Council meeting will be in June and resume in October. Last Advisory Council meeting will be in June and resume in September.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:35 p.m
Fern McBride, Secretary
APRIL 19, 2007
