Official sued after criticizing work
at his St. Lucie condo

 
By Jim Reeder
Article Courtesy of The Palm Beach Post
Posted Saturday, September 6, 2003

FORT PIERCE -- Accusing one of its residents of brewing confusion with slanderous lies, a condo developer sued Friday, saying the man wrote a letter full of falsehoods -- questioning the structural soundness of the apartments' outdoor decks -- and then disseminated it to his neighbors. 

That resident, Ray Wazny, isn't just another condo commando. And he has more than a passing familiarity with the construction details of the condominiums known as Atrium I and Atrium II on North State Road A1A on North Hutchinson Island.

He's assistant St. Lucie County administrator and the county's former community development director and public works director. And he once was responsible for approving one of the projects for the county, an attorney for the developer says.

"He was employed by the building department and signed off on Atrium I, then went ahead and bought in Atrium II," said Alan S. Polackwich, of Vero Beach. 

Surf 'N Sand Properties of St. Lucie County filed suit Friday against Wazny in St. Lucie Circuit Court, alleging libel and slander for a letter it says Wazny wrote, accusing the developers of illegally cutting corners. 

Wazny said in his letter, which was attached to the lawsuit as an exhibit, that Surf 'N Sand should set aside $880,000 -- $20,000 for each outdoor deck of Atrium II's 44 apartments -- for potential repairs. He also wrote that he wants Surf 'N Sand to have every deck tested by an independent, professional engineer. And that the Atrium II Homeowners Association shouldn't accept the work until the tests are complete. 

"There are large areas of the exterior deck where the concrete coverage over the steel reinforcement doesn't meet the inch-and-a-half minimum as required on the original building plans for Atrium II," Wazny wrote. 

The lawsuit said, however, that the law requires concrete covers to be only 1 inch thick, and even that is subject to variations. 

Wazny wrote that the concrete coverage is an inch thick in some places and five-eighths of an inch in other spots. 

Reached at work late Friday, Wazny declined to comment on a pending lawsuit. 

"Gosh, if there's litigation, I hesitate to answer any questions," he said. 

But another Atrium I is what Wazny said, in his letter, he is trying to avoid. 

Homeowners in Atrium I have had 286 steel reinforcement bars replaced and repaired on their decks because they were installed with inadequate concrete cover, he writes, and homeowners there are looking at $74,000 in attorneys' fees to resolve their building problems. 

Polackwich, though, said he wondered why Wazny -- with his level of expertise -- would move into a place that he didn't feel was constructed properly. 

And he called Wazny's letter "the straw that broke the camel's back." He said Wazny has been a bit of a handful since moving into Atrium II a year ago.

"I think most homeowners are confused by his statements and that's why we feel the need to set the record straight," Polackwich said. "He has been very aggressive in making his position known and we have no choice but to respond equally."