The 2025 legislative session
The 2025 legislative session
Jim and State Senator Jennifer Bradley discuss the condo reform bill, and also the passage of the Tristin Murphy Act, as well as the inability for the legislature to pass a budget plan during the regular legislative session.
Guest: State Sen. Jennifer Bradley/R-6th District
About condo reform
A key senator on Tuesday signaled a willingness to make further changes to safety laws that require inspections of older condominium buildings and adequate reserves for repairs, saying more urgent structural needs should be prioritized.
Senate Regulated Industries Chairwoman Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island, also indicated that lawmakers need to "clarify" some requirements included in measures passed after the 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside that killed 98 people.
A panel of experts — including engineers, accountants and attorneys — gave the Regulated Industries Committee an update on how the laws requiring inspections and adequate reserves have affected the condo industry
Bradley said she wanted to help "smooth the transition" for condominium associations to come into compliance with the laws, which many residents say are causing soaring costs.
"We're here to find solutions. The condo market will be stronger. Floridians will be safer," she said.
About the Tristin Murphy Act
On Friday evening, April 15, 2025, the Florida Legislature formally passed the Tristin Murphy Act, the most comprehensive reform to mental health inside the criminal justice system in decades.
Murphy, a 37-year-old schizophrenic, had been in and out of jail for years because of his mental illness, without ever receiving the treatment or long-term care he needed. Murphy's final arrest came when he allowed his pickup truck to roll into a pond near the Charlotte County Jail. Prosecutors charged him with littering, and because of the weight of the truck, it was deemed a third-degree felony. Arguing he had no other recourse, a judge sentenced him to three years in prison.
On September 16, 2021, a month after arriving at the South Florida prison to begin serving his sentence, Murphy killed himself at the facility with a chainsaw.
Murphy's story was chronicled in the 2023 CBS Miami documentary, "Warehoused: The Life and Death of Tristin Murphy."
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