This week marks the final three weeks of the 2010 Legislative Session. The Regular Session is scheduled to end “Sine Die” on Friday, April 30. This, folks, is when things get…how shall…I say it….uh, interesting.
Every Session about 3000 bills are filed and about 10 percent, or 300 bills are actually passed by the Legislature. Therefore, as Committee meetings shut down and bills are no longer being heard, Sponsors start looking for moving bills (or vehicles) which are heading to each Chambers’ Floor to amend their bill language onto. This is a two-edged sword. Nothing is ever really dead until that final gavel raps the Session’s end. So if you are a proponent of certain language you are trying to pass you can attempt to load it onto a germane bill but so can those trying to pass language you are opposed to. The CALL team is pouring over the many, many Floor amendments which are being filed to make certain the Legislature passes those things which are helpful to community association residents and the volunteers who serve their communities and doesn’t pass language deemed harmful.
The most important Community Association package CALL is diligently working with the Legislature and Governor on is SB 1196 and its companion bill, HB 561. Both bills have successfully passed several Committees and are still on track to head to each Chambers’ Floor in a timely manner. As is the manner of the “give and take” legislative process, the bills have changed since their initial introduction. The latest version can be found at http://www.flsenate.gov/data/session/2010/Senate/bills/billtext/pdf/s1196c3.pdf and we urge you to visit the link and review the 102 pages in the coming days and provide your feedback. Language addressing mortgagee liability was added in the last Committee. As of this version, it increases the liability cap from 6 months to 12 months. Given the VIGOROUS opposition of the lending industry, this is a significant move in the right direction but CALL isn’t through pushing for even more fair and appropriate reforms. For example, removing the “or 1 percent of the mortgage debt, whichever is less” language found in current law, requiring lenders to pay for necessary repair assessments, etc. The language pertaining to the fire sprinkler retrofit opt out appears to be acceptable to the Governor’s office. There is helpful language pertaining to elevators, fire alarms, etc. which are all helpful to association residents who have been called upon in recent years to bear higher retrofitting costs.
Please stay engaged as we make the final push. This is the most imperative, “volatile”, sensitive time. Don’t assume anything and don’t walk away from the process now. We aren’t.
