You can find out more about the organization at http://www.ccfj.net.
- As you see by the article below, we now have a
secret agent on our side!!!
Jerry...Jerry Melvin, 007
Ex-Legislator Hired To Lobby For Homeowners
Article Courtesy of the Sun Sentinel
Published 12 - 03 - 2004
By Joe Kollin
Citing the continuing need for laws to rein in
the power of abusive condominium and homeowner associations, a statewide
organization of volunteer owners has hired a professional lobbyist to prowl
the halls of Tallahassee next year.
Jerry Melvin of Fort Walton Beach will lobby the Legislature at the annual
60-day session that begins March 8, St. Augustine-based Cyber Citizens for
Justice announced Thursday. Melvin spent 18 years in the state House of
Representatives.
"It will be the first time that homeowners and
condo owners have their own organization and their own voice in
Tallahassee," said Jan Bergemann, founder and president of the organization.
In the past, grassroots organizations, such as the now-defunct Secure
Condominium Owners' Rights Now, or SCORN, never had a professional lobbyist
to sway legislators. CCFJ is the only current association known to represent
owners.
About half the condo units in the state are in Broward, Palm Beach and
Miami-Dade counties.
Melvin's presence will help counter the influence of law firms and
management companies whose lobbyists represent the position of association
boards, Bergemann said.
CCFJ, using volunteers, this spring got the Legislature to make major
changes to condo and homeowner association laws. But Bergemann said members,
at their annual meeting in Ocala last month, overwhelmingly voted to hire a
professional.
"We've got to do it if we want to get anything done; it's how our system
works," said Karen Gottlieb of Dania Beach, a member of CCFJ and Gov. Jeb
Bush's appointee to the newly created state Advisory Council on
Condominiums.
Working with state Rep. Julio Robaina, R-Miami, CCFJ this year got the state
to create an ombudsman to help educate owners and resolve disputes between
condo boards and owners. Bush is expected to appoint the ombudsman within a
few days.
Neither Bergemann nor Melvin would say how much money he will receive. The
money, however, won't come from the $20 annual dues that the 200 members,
who are condo owners and homeowners, pay. Bergemann said that "big donations
from members and friends and allies" will finance the lobbyist.
See also http://www.ccfj.net/Taskforce.htm.