Mayor Joy Cooper

We are owners of a condo in Winter Park Colorado for over 20 years . Our full-time home is in Florida, where I serve as the Mayor in the city in Hallandale Beach.
I have served for over 22 years in my capacity as an elected official and have become very familiar with condominium issues. Our city of 40,000 has over 100 condo and co-ops.
Sadly I am very familiar with the Champlain Tower collapse in Surfside Florida and was actually selected to serve on Broward Counties 40 Year Building Safety Taskforce to evaluate building safety issues , the inspection process and evaluating the weakness in condo laws that lead to many condominiums neglecting their buildings.
We bought at iron horse when it was a Hotel /condo. Over the past years many things in the market changed. Due to the advent of vacation rent by owners many went self managing their units and the building was transferred into a condominium building.

Due to the make up of the property, there are two 10 story buildings that are comprised of one bedroom, and a few two bedroom units (C&D) and
there are two other buildings that are three stories comprised of two bedroom larger unit.(H&J)
The current board president ran with the goal of changing the way that our assessments are calculated. They used to be on pillow count then they moved to one bedroom two bedroom,. For a few years they could not agree and then they moved them to square footage .

While everyone agreed that there should be equity within how assessments and maintenance is calculated once 315 passed on the state level the board who is comprised of all owners from C & D manipulated the process to the extent that H&J buildings are paying for supermajority of maintenance and assessments on areas they are considering common. we do not even have access or use them

The way 315 was crafted provided loopholes within these calculations. That combined with the total controlling power of those with C&D units have created total inequities in assessment and maintence .

In addition to these issues, the current president had fired, five different managers and management companies. Last year they hired a new company. without fully disclosing the hiring the presidents intent was to not only serve as president of the board, but as the paid proerty manager

In addition, her husband serves as chair of the finance committee.

This is certainly a conflict of interest.
This should not be allowed and should be included in any legislation.
It should include a preemption that anyone serving on a condo HOA nonprofit board shall not be an able to manage and collect a salary from the association.
While this is referenced in our bylaws and we have yet to receive any vote by the board it is not against Colorado law.

In addition, there is no requirement for a manager to be certified in any capacity .
This law should be changed specifically for larger properties. I understand the Contro managers are used to be required to carry a certification.

There also should be regulations on building inspections required like there is in Florida. We had balconies and stairwells buildings in H&J that were neglected to the point they were falling down and red tagged .
Currently there was finally a stairwell reconstructed with contracts, executed by the board with no building expertise that is now red tagged as it was built defectively

Dora is to be following electric and plumbing permitting . I could not find any permits filed for material changes to our buildings . It’s just quite difficult to do when you’re in Denver and miles away. There needs to be stricter laws for inspections, permitting, and set milestones for buildings .There needs to be stricter laws for inspections, permitting and enforcement mechanisms in place.

If anyone on your committee would like to discuss my experiences as an elected official here in Florida or to elaborate on our experience with our HOA I welcome the opportunity.
Certainly if I lived full-time in Colorado, I would’ve enjoyed participating in person in your meeting.
Joy Cooper

Iron horse condominium unit J 4109 in Winter Park Colorado
Mayor of, HallandaleBeach, Florida
954-732-5700 joycooper@aol.com