Condo association acted unethically in calling out Cooke

I was disappointed to see the Kent Reporter story used to disparage the personal character of Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke (“Kent Mayor Cooke fails to pay condo assessment fee,” May 9).

The article read like a supermarket tabloid.

As a former vice president of Fairwood Greens Home Owners Association, I was concerned about her condo association’s “spokeswoman” contacting the media to report the mayor’s personal financial, legal situation and the group’s plan to sue for a payment.

Now, obviously, the mayor needs to pay the bill or come to an agreement of a payment of some type with her condo association and her lender. But my understanding of the state’s RCW’s on condos and homeowners associations do not allow an association to engage in malicious gossip against an owner or resident.

It is one thing in the association meeting that other owners may hear certain information while in attendance, but the condo or homeowners association directors are responsible to not allow personal details about its dealings with an owner to be released to the general public. It is their fiduciary responsibility to protect the integrity of their association and the financial information of owners private accounts as members.

This was a violation of the mayor’s right to privacy and to be treated just as any other owner within the association.

Instead, the “spokeswoman” has turned on an owner, in this case the mayor, herself a former president of the association. The person has gone to the media in order to personally embarrass and smear her reputation. There is simply no other way to read the article.

It has been a well-known fact that Cooke’s late husband took his own life five years ago, and she had to file bankruptcy because the bills from his failed business were so high. This was not merely an attempt to collect the bill, which was 30 days late, but an act of punitive retribution. This is unethical behavior.

It was explained in the article that Cooke was living with her mother, not at the condo at the time of writing. It may be that her condo is now in foreclosure due to her bankruptcy of a few years ago.

While I served as my HOA’s vice president and trustee, we were instructed by our association’s legal counsel to protect all owners’ privacy by not publishing the names or addresses of owners who were being fined, have liens on their property, lawsuits, tenant issues, etc., within the minutes that were made available to the homeowners and the public on our website or published in the Fairwood Flyer newspaper.

Instead, this information is published in a code form to protect an owner’s privacy. This is a more ethical way to handle such a situation.

– Erin Aboudara