SEASIDE VILLAS IN ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH -- BIG FINE$ COMING OVER BIG CODE VIOLATIONS?

A California corporation owned by DEEPAK ISRANI (above), and the current employer of Commissioner and ex-Mayor RICHARD BURTT O'BRIEN (STEVEN CUPOLO, above in top photo at right, above with his tenant-victim Jennifer LeBluff), face the possibility of big fines over horrific housing conditions at Seaside Villas.

The two corporations will be fined -- and could also be punished criminally and found liable in civil litigation -- if they don't comply with orders of the St. Augustine Beach Code Enforcement Board to inspect and to remedy massive code violations at a 35 year old 164 unit condominium complex that is mostly owned by non-resident corporations.

For years, there have been tenant complaints and desuetude (non enforcement) by City staff.  Then triple-dipping incompetent corrupt Planning and Zoning Director GARY LARSON quit.  On December 4, 2018, BRIAN WILLIAM LAW started work.  Suddenly, law enforcement became a priority, where before then it was only favoritism.

The St. Augustine Beach Code Enforcement Board met today and heard unrebutted testimony from Code Enforcement inspector Bill Ward, tenant Jennifer LeBuff, and STEVE CUPELO, developer and owner of COLDWELL BANKER PREMIER PROPERTIES, and a building manager for PACIFICA COMPANIES, a California corporation whose CEO is DEEPAK MISRANI, a businessman with offices in India, whose parent company reportedly does $442 million in business annually and has 2000 employees, doing $8 billion in deals in Mexico, U.S. and India since 1987.

Mr. Ward's testimony about code violations was reasoned and documented, as was Ms. LeBuff's testimony.

Then there was much finger-pointing between unsworn non-lawyer representatives for two reckless, feckless, soulless absentee landlord corporations.  

But the hardy Code Enforcement Board voted to order action.  

Unanimously.  

I wanted to sing the Star Spangled Banner.

I spoke in favor of the tenants, and in favor of stronger law enforcement against landlords who risk tenants' lives with mold and other hazards.

Good job by St. Augustine Beach City government. Kudos.

After the meeting, I was grateful for SABPD's presence (unusual for a Code Enforcement meeting), when STEVE CUPOLO, developer and owner of COLDWELL BANKER PREMIER PROPERTIES emitted insults at me, in the presence of witnesses, in retaliation for First Amendment protected activity.

I wear STEVEN CUPOLO's scorn as a badge of honor.   (CUPOLO is the employer of St. Augustine Beach's disgraced ex-Mayor RICHARD BURTT O'BRIEN, so I can feel his pain, when he called me a "pig," said "you don't even live here," and stuff and stuff.  I did not ask this greedy landlord a single question, and spoke the truth.

CUPOLO on the other hand, who has a COLDWELL BANKER franchise with 49 Realtors, seems to have emotional problems with First Amendment protected activity (just like (O"BRIEN)

The St. Augustine Record's reporter, Jared Keever, was there, covering the meeting.  Mr. Keever and the Record have printed four stories about this troubled property since 2016.  Good work by the Record, good work by the City of St. Augustine Beach, and utter insensitivity by corporations, which are not very well regulated here in Florida.

As former U.S. Department of Labor Chief Administrative Law Judge Nahum Litt, explained to me years ago, coal companies run the government in West Virginia and developers think they own the government in Flori-DUH.  Our job as citizens is to hold the developers accountable for their actions.

Hints to the Code Enforcement Board:

1. Don't engage in ex parte discussions before your meetings.
2. If you do engage in ex parte discussions, disclose them.
3. Swear in all of the witnesses.  (Not one was sworn in.)
4. Televise your meetings.
5. Make witnesses go the microphones, not call out from the audience.
6. Don't put up with disrespectful, condescending unsworn testimony from the likes of PACIFICA and STEVE CUPELO, PREMIER PROPERTIES owner.
7. Make corporations appear through lawyers.
8. Fine PREMIER and PACIFICA.
9. Don't accept excuses about why the City can't inspect 164 apartments, when it can inspect 175 rooms at EMBASSY SUITES.
10. Enforce the laws without fear or favor of Big Business.
11. Hold City Attorney JAMES PATRICK WILSON to a higher standard of care -- he sat there like a proverbial bump on a log, not making any suggestions and responding incompletely to one direct question.
12. Direct the City Attorney to contact the Florida and California Attorneys General.
13. Direct the City Attorney to contact the General Counsel for PACIFICA:

Thomas Preston Sayer Jr #120715

14. Direct the City Attorney to contact the General Counsel for the parent company of COLDWELL BANKER, REALOLOGY:
15. Disclose contacts from Commissioner RICHARD BURTT O'BRIEN on behalf of his employer, STEVEN CUPOLO, franchisee owner of COLDWELL BANKER PREMIER PROPERTIES.


Here's CUPOLO pleading and wheedling with City staff after the meeting.

Here's City staffers BRIAN WILLIAM LAW and WILLIAM WARD avoiding photography, not unlike Mafiosi afraid of news photos:






From St. Augustine Record:

Beach officials demand action from Seaside Villas, while company denies responsibility


By Jared Keever
Posted Oct 26, 2018 at 6:10 PM
Updated Oct 26, 2018 at 6:10 PM

After years of complaints from tenants, St. Augustine Beach officials are demanding action at a troubled apartment complex on Pope Road.

In a letter dated Oct. 16, the city’s code enforcement officer, Bill Ward, told Pacifica Anastasia LLC, that the “time for further action has now presented itself” at Seaside Villas and requested correspondence to include a maintenance plan from the company to rehabilitate the properties and address documented safety and building violations.

“This letter sets the tone and steers them down the right path,” city building director Brian Law told The Record on Thursday. “If they choose not respond ... we will proceed without them.”

That, Law said, can include code enforcement action that, if ignored, might end up in daily fines being levied.

“That’s a worst-case scenario, nobody wants that,” he said.

The letter was sent following completion of exterior inspections in the complex (the law does not allow officials access to the inside of the apartments without being invited in by an owner or a tenant), and Law said he is aware that some permits have been issued to begin work on the exteriors of some of the buildings, but in light of recent history further action seemed warranted.

It’s not the first time the city has sent a letter to the San Diego office of Pacifica Anastasia — a subsidiary of California-based Pacifica SD Management.

A representative from that company, Sharlene Blake, a regional manager, told The Record on Friday though that there is a good deal of confusion about who is responsible for what at the property.

Pacifica, she said, does not own the buildings, but rather 110 individual units inside the overall complex. The remaining 54 units in the complex, she said, are owned by private individuals. She described the situation as a “broken condo” and said that as owners of the units they pay dues to a homeowner’s association that is managed by a local company called Premier Properties.

A call to Premier on Friday was not immediately returned.

It is that company, Blake said, who is responsible for fixing many of the exterior problems.

“They are sending letters to the wrong office,” she said.

Blake, like Law, pointed out that some of the exterior problems are starting to be addressed.

But in an August letter to the company, Ward also referenced concerns about interior issues including tenant mold exposure and mildew as well as a litany of other problems both inside and out including wood rot, “major plumbing issues,” “windows screwed shut,” air conditioners in disrepair or not working, air handlers leaking into units, and stairways and railings in need of repair.

The list appears nearly identical to a list in a letter that the city’s former building official, Gary Larson, sent to the company in September 2016.

The August letter noted that tenants said on-site management had been “slow at best in responding to their needs,” and Ward referenced two specific units in which tenants had paid to have independent mold inspections done.

Results of those inspections had been sent to the city by the tenants and The Record received them as part of a public records request in September.

In both apartments an inspection company detected the presence of mold including Stachybotrys, a mold commonly referred to as “black mold” that literature included with one report says has the ability to produce “mycotoxins” which “may cause a burning sensation in the mouth, throat and nasal passages.” Chronic exposure, the information says, “has been known to cause headaches, diarrhea, memory loss and brain damage.”

Blake said that her company, too, had paid for an expert to inspect the units.

“I think they found spores, but it was nothing where the units were unlivable,” she said.

Asked whether that disagreed with the findings of the tenants’ experts, she declined to comment further.

Blake said Friday that much of the management arrangement at the complex has been explained to city officials in the past.

In response to The Record’s recent public records request that generated roughly 300 pages of documents there was little sign of response from Pacifica to the city’s previous letters and Law, who started with city less than a year ago, said it was his understanding that it had been “very challenging” to communicate with the company.

“Which is why we sent the certified letter,” he said.

(The request did turn up correspondence from the “community association manager” with Premier who, in one email, said they are “responsible for the exterior of the buildings except windows and doors or equipment such as a/c or electric boxes that exclusively serves one unit.”)

Apart from a maintenance plan that the city has asked to be submitted within 30 days, the most recent letter also asks that the company carry out a “proper investigation” to rule out water intrusion in all units and to address concerns about recent “re-piping” efforts that were noted to have been performed with “a variety of non-compliant installations and proper call-in inspections.”

How Pacifica will manage those demands in conjunction with Premier Properties remains unclear, though Blake said concerns about the interiors of the units they own, where livability is involved, will always be addressed.

“If it is reported to us then we are going to get in there,” she said. “Absolutely we are going to jump on that.”







From Jax Daily Record:

TUESDAY, NOV. 13, 201212:00 PM EST
OFFICE Profile: Coldwell Banker Premier Properties

by: Daily Record Staff

Broker/owner Steve Cupolo opened Premier Properties in 1999 and got a Coldwell Banker franchise in 2010. The company is a full-service real estate company located in St. Augustine Beach at 661 A1A Beach Blvd. The broker/manager of the office is Rob West.

Who does what?

Cupolo oversees all branch offices and departments including sales, long term rentals, vacation rentals and community association management. He is the ultimate decision maker on most every issue including personnel and budgeting. His main responsibility is to manage the growth of the company through expansion, recruiting and mergers/acquisitions. He is very involved in the day-to-day operations and is available to all agents in any office for any issue requiring his attention.

West oversees the day-to-day operations of the main office. He implements and manages strategic organizational systems, procedures and policies for the company as a whole. He also trains, mentors, supports sales associates and support staff, produces and interprets monthly performance and financial reports for short and long term business planning, budgeting and organizational goals.

How many agents?

There are 49 agents and they are actively recruiting more.

Why go with a franchise?

"Two years ago, we came to the realization that as an independent company you can kind of reach a plateau and can't go any further," said Cupolo. "The advent of Coldwell Banker has been phenomenal for us. It's allowed us to bring on the top most motivated professionals and it's given us the opportunity to enhance our training program." Coldwell Banker has an international presence in 52 countries with 1,500 offices and 130,000 agents worldwide.

Other locations?

Coldwell Banker Premier Properties has seven locations including St. Augustine Beach, Palm Coast, Ormond Beach/Daytona Beach, World Golf Village, two onsite condo offices and an office that does strictly property management and short-term rentals in St. Augustine. There are 95 agents in the seven offices.

Newest office?

Their newest location is in the World Golf Village and opened last month. Karen Palmer is the broker/manager of that office which has 14 agents so far, but they are actively recruiting. Sharon McCafferty is the office manager. Mo Hotchkiss of International Golf Realty merged her office with the new office and brought her agents and rentals with her.

"With her 300 rentals and our rentals I think we will become unquestionably the largest real estate rental office in the area," said Cupolo.

What will new office do for you?

Cupolo said it will open a whole new area for his company to handle including greater WGV area, Palencia, Nocatee, 210 corridor and Vilano Beach. "The reason we chose that location is because it is right in the center of the hub," said Cupolo. "If you take an eight-mile circle from our office, you pick up everything in the Northwest quadrant. It was the perfect location for a new office."

Team meetings?

The office has meetings the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. During those meetings they touch base on current events and what is happening in the community. "We will often take a specific contract and break it down individually," said Cupolo. "We will then do virtual tours on our flat screen television. We used to do caravans and the neighbors suffered because we parked all over the place and it was invasive. Now with the advent of videos, Youtube.com and virtual tours we can sit in that room for 30 minutes and see virtual tours of our nicest properties. We are saving gas and conserving energy and not ticking off the neighbors."

Who is in the office?

Beth Clark, Bill Miller, Caleb Cooper, Carmen Gilliland, Charles Ellis, Chris Philcox, Gay Marsh, Cindy Zimmermann, D.J. Della Sala, David Youngblood, Diane Grady, Donia and Doug Carr, Doug Detrick, Ellen Banob, Eric Huey, Jane Wolfe, Jean Meme, Jeanne Somerset, Jennifer Sauvage, Jill Little, John McKrow, Joy Tomlinson, Judi Schuyler, Julie Knowles, Karol Young, Kathy Addison, Lindsey Maguire, Manu Ruggeri, Maureen Loliva, Max Vinzant, Noel David, Paula David, Rick Mc Chesney, Robert Spence, Roxanne Gibes, Steve Gay, Teri Krause, Vicki Sicuranza, Vince Fattizzi, Wanda Chambers, Wendy Echols and Winston Burrell are agents. Cindy Reis is the Relocation director, Brittney Lewis is the Marketing & Social Media director, Gail Griswold is the agent/property manager, Janice Lindsey is the agent/rental manager, Joanne Gray is the rental assistant, Matt Kelley is an agent/rental manager, Kathy Trela is the office manager and Susan Strump is the marketing and public relations director.

Specialize in?

Residential and commercial real estate sales, long and short-term rentals and community association management.

Current real estate market in St. Augustine?

"It is a stabilized market," said West. "The balance of supply and demand is equitable and in balance. The inventory is low and the median prices have seen a modest increase this year."

Cupolo said the market is really coming back and his office has been swamped with business.

Is Vilano Beach an up and coming area?

With the new Publix and various new shops in the area, business is picking up in the Vilano Beach area. "It is an up and coming area," said Cupolo. "For years the Vilano Beach had beautiful beaches, but the Vilano Bridge was questionable and not reliable. The advent of the bridge in 1995 has put it in a much more desirable location. That is why we thought having an office close to it will be advantageous to us. Vilano does not have a lot of empty space to build, but since the values have leveled, re-sales are coming on strong."

Type of agents?

Cupolo said he hires new and experienced full-time real estate professionals.

How do you compete in this market?

Cupolo said his agents are heavily involved in the community giving them a presence and allowing the people in the community to see them getting involved. "People want to see Realtors more than just the day they are trying to list their home for sale," said Cupolo.

Training?

"We offer probably the most extensive, professional training programs in any real estate company." The agents have access to Coldwell Banker University and there is also in-house training often at the office.

Area your office covers?

The office covers St. Augustine, St. Augustine Beach, Flagler Beach, Palm Coast, Ormond Beach and Daytona.

How do you compete in this market?

"Though the name helps, it's all about the people.

—by Michele Gillis