Article
Courtesy of The St. Petersburg Times
By
JACKIE RIPLEY
Friday, July 30, 2004
TOWN 'N COUNTRY - Henry Ludwig doesn't like the
way the board of directors at Tudor Cay Condominiums does business, and he's
not afraid to say so.
"There are important things going on that
people don't know about," said Ludwig, who has lived in the condominiums
on W Hillsborough Avenue with his wife, Lorraine, for 12 years. "They're
doing things like putting in cheap stairways, and they're not going out for
bids on projects."
Those kinds of comments have created problems
for the 79-year-old retired engineer. The condominiums' board of directors has
fined him hundreds of dollars for refusing to stop distributing his
newsletter, which sometimes criticizes board members.
The question is, does Ludwig have a right to
deliver his newsletter door-to-door throughout the condos' 262 units?
Ludwig sees it as freedom of expression. The
condo board views it as a nuisance, something akin to littering.
* * *
Ludwig types up his one-sheet newsletter and
leaves it on his neighbors' doors at the beginning of every month.
"It's a matter of freedom of speech,"
said Ludwig, who argued his case before a state arbitrator last year and won.
"It's freedom of the press."
The arbitrator for the Florida Department of
Professional Regulation decided that the Tudor Cay rule that Ludwig was
accused of violating actually prohibits only the distribution of commercial
advertising, not newsletters. The arbitrator said Ludwig didn't have to pay
the fine because his communication was personal.
"Now they're saying I won on a
technicality, and they've changed the rule to include newsletters,"
Ludwig said. Consequently, he must again appear before a fining committee,
made up of Tudor Cay residents, to argue why he should not be penalized for
continuing to distribute his newsletters.
According to the condominiums' five elected
board members, the problem is not what Ludwig is saying but how he is saying
it.
"I admire the guy," said Tampa
lawyer Steven Mezer, attorney for the Tudor Cay homeowner's association.
"He has a right to push the First Amendment, but the law doesn't
apply" here, Mezer said.
Mezer said freedom of speech does not apply
in the Tudor Cay case because homeowners associations concern themselves with
private property, not public property.
"Most condos have an antisolicitation
rule of some type," Mezer said. "It's in their declaration of rules
and regulations." He argues that those rules supersede even
constitutional rights.
The reasons most homeowners associations
prohibit door-to-door solicitation have mostly to do with safety concerns and
aesthetics, Mezer said, explaining that piled-up newsletters or fliers can
attract criminals.
"They also deteriorate the
appearance," Mezer said.
Mitch Turner, the board president, said,
"The rule is clear." Residents "are not supposed to place any
literature on doors," he said.
"It's pretty clear that the rules were
enacted to prevent all kinds of notices from being posted," Turner said.
"But he's still going door-to-door and ignoring" the rule.
Turner said the board has offered to include
Ludwig's bulletins in its quarterly newsletter - but he added that they would
be edited for content and length.
He also said that Ludwig could post a copy of
his newsletters on public bulletin boards in Tudor Cay's laundry rooms. Or he
could e-mail his newsletters or send them by the U.S. mail without violating
association rules.
"We tried every way to give him access
without putting his newsletters on doors," Turner said. "Henry just
doesn't want to spend his own money to mail them."
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