Show of Solidarity

I want to thank every unit owner who showed up at the last Board of Directors meeting this past Monday, especially those who spoke up to express their disapproval of any proposed new special assessment. You packed the room, and the Board took notice of your show of solidarity. Now owners need to keep the momentum going by continuing to show up in large numbers at meetings and staying vigilant, because we are still not out of the woods and some on the Board, including Board President Marvin Tow, are still gung-ho on a big special assessment, as he made clear in his remarks.

Several owners with experience in construction and engineering who had time to review the $22,000 engineering report (see summary) pointed out that most of the deficiencies listed in the report can easily be handled by our own maintenance crew and don’t require the Association to hire a contractor. In fact, most of these issues wouldn't be a problem in the first place if the Association had been doing proper maintenance all along. I requested our property manager Jason Levy to create a maintenance schedule to address every maintenance-related issue in the report, indicating how often they will be maintained (monthly, semiannually, etc.) so they don’t become problems again in the future.

Jason told us that Criterium Engineers, the company that prepared the report, has agreed to update the report in the future at no cost so we don’t have to pay to commission another one when and if the city requires us to begin our 40-year certification process. Criterium said they will put that agreement in writing. Stay tuned.

The bottom line is that unit owners don’t want another special assessment, and we don’t need one. There may be a very small number of items that present a safety issue and require a contractor, but we can pay for these without busting our budget if we learn to live within our means and stop wasting money on things we don’t need. Case in point: $3,588 to install a wheelchair-accessible automatic door in the Marseilles building at the request of a handicapped resident. The Board approved this item based on our management company’s advice that it was required under the Americans with Disabilities Act. I did a little digging, talked to an attorney and found out that the ADA doesn’t apply to condos. The relevant law is the Fair Housing Act, which allows reasonable modifications for handicap accessibility, but places the financial burden on the individual requesting them, as explained in this statement from the Justice Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. I am trying to see if we can get the Board to reconsider this item. To be continued…

Other highlights of the meeting included Collette Goslin telling Jerry Mirrow “F… you” and the totally illogical perpetuation of a rule banning bicycles on balconies, meaning that yours truly will continue having to make his bike part of his living room décor.

You can watch the meeting here.