Letter to Governor Ron DeSantis
Executive Office of Governor Ron DeSantis
400 S Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399
RE: Emergency Powers in Community Associations
Dear Governor DeSantis,
I serve as Executive Director of the Community Association Leadership Lobby (CALL), an organization that has advocated since 2003 on behalf of the millions of Floridians living in shared ownership communities.
Many of our CALL members are “55 and Over” communities who face the same risks, as it relates to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as nursing homes and assisted care living facilities do. These condominium, cooperative, and homeowners’ associations are governed by volunteer board members who can benefit greatly from state and local government guidance and support as they struggle to safeguard their vulnerable resident populations from the spread of this highly contagious disease.
The State of Emergency you declared on March 9, 2020, provided these boards with the emergency powers they needed to implement protocols to minimize the spread of COVID-19. Your current executive order extended the state of emergency to July 7, 2020. I am writing to you in the hopes that you will extend that order, especially with record numbers of new cases in Florida. Until the risk posed by the virus diminishes, the boards of these private residential communities must have the ability to protect their residents and staff. Respectfully, the residential communities are not commercial enterprises and their need to enforce continued COVID-19 protocols does not negatively impact the reopening of businesses to restart Florida’s economy. However, the ability to continue to protect the health of the residents provided by a continuation of the state of emergency is the only defense available to these community boards.
Thank you for your assistance in this matter and your dedication to the safety of Florida’s most important resource, its residents.
Best Regards,
Donna DiMaggio Berger, Esq.
Enclosure
cc: CALL Team: Anna Cherubin, Michael Casanover & Shayla Mount
