Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke still hasn’t paid Meridian Valley Country Club condo association fees and assessments that have reached more than $25,000 for new roofs and painting, according to a condo owner in the same complex.
But Cooke told the Kent Reporter on Tuesday that she hasn’t paid any fees and assessments because the condo isn’t hers.
“It’s not my condo,” she said. “It belonged to my husband and his estate. He leveraged the condo for his business and the estate is bankrupt. …It now belongs to the mortgage company.”
Cooke moved out of the complex the end of March and now lives with her mother in Kent. Cooke received notice in May from the Meridian Valley Condo Five Association that her payment for the $4,071 painting fee was 30 days late, according to documents obtained for a May 9 Kent Reporter story. Cooke declined to comment to the paper for that story.
Now the fees and assessments have reached more than $25,000, said Susan St. Clair, a condo owner in the six-unit complex, who spoke last week to the Kent Reporter. The other condo owners picked up Cooke’s share of the cost, which included roof replacements as well as new lighting. The condo complex sits along the No. 5 hole fairway at the Meridian Valley Country Club golf course.
“She’s out of the condo but she still has stuff in the garage,” St. Clair said. “My household alone has paid out in excess of $5,000 this year to cover our portion of Mayor Cooke’s condo assessments and fees.”
Cooke said she turned over foreclosure notices to those handling her husband’s estate. The property remains in the name of her late husband David Cooke, who died in 2009. Suzette Cooke filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2011 because of the high costs of dealing with her husband’s estate. He was in deep financial debt.
Cooke also found out everything they owned was only in her husband’s name. The property taxes for the condo are being paid, according to King County property tax records.
“We’re trying to get the money,” St. Clair said. “But we’re probably resigned to the fact that we are not getting the money.”
But St. Clair hasn’t given up yet.
“I am personally exploring avenues to have her wages and or pension garnished if it takes that long and believe I will be part of a long list of people looking for reimbursement,” she said.
St. Clair said she has not seen any foreclosure notices posted on the condo. St. Clair said she has tried to contact Cooke to see what the mayor plans to do.
“She has not submitted a written document to me explaining her plan of action or an apology for putting seniors and a veteran on the hook for her financial problems,” St. Clair said about fellow condo owners. “Mayor Cooke has not responded to any of my emails sent to her office.”
Cooke said she received the emails from St. Clair.
“She has not tried to reach out,” Cooke said. “She sent allegations to me and threats that she was going to go the newspaper. … She has never met me. She is still angry over her situation and I’m sorry.”
St. Clair said she went public last spring with the financial dispute because Cooke is mayor and helps set the city budget each year. Cooke makes an annual salary of $102,192 and recently requested the City Council look into raising the salary by $31,000 per year to put it more in line with peer cities, including Renton and Auburn.
“I find it disgusting and deplorable that an elected official just walks away with no explanation and dumps her financial garbage on our household,” St. Clair said. “With the money that we have spent on Mayor Cooke (her condo assessments) this year, we could have purchased a more energy efficient furnace this winter.”
A realtor told St. Clair last year when she was looking at a Kent condo to buy that Cooke lived just a couple of houses down the street.
“Little did he know that was not an asset but a liability,” St. Clair said.
Cooke said she’s tried dealing with the mortgage company about the condo.
“The bank will not talk to me because I’m not David Cooke,” she said. “It’s a crazy legal conundrum.”
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