Nothing could more clearly illustrate the stark choice facing unit owners in next month’s Board of Directors election than this past Tuesday’s budget meeting. (See 12/17/13 video HERE.) From the moment the meeting began, it was clear that the current Board majority had no interest in making any meaningful cuts to the budget to avoid saddling unit owners with another significant maintenance fee increase. That big-spending majority includes all three Board members who are running for reelection next month – Board President Marvin Tow, Board Treasurer Marc Richman and Board member Sandy Best.Despite my pre-meeting challenge to Mr. Tow, Mr. Richman and our property manager to cut the proposed budget before it came before us at the meeting, we were presented with the same exact $3.5 million budget document.
Board member Jerry Mirrow (who sadly has decided not to run for reelection) and I did the best we could to trim the budget by making a series of motions to cut spending on various line items, but virtually all of them were rejected – including Jerry’s motion to cut the litigation budget and my motions to reduce the painting and social activities budgets and stop paying for the Board of Directors President's $1,350-per-year cell phone. The majority’s only concession was to reduce the proposed increase in employee salaries from over 3% to 2% (for a total savings of $10,000) after a number of owners complained they haven’t gotten a raise in years.
But the handwriting on the wall was clear when one Board member emphatically expressed her impatience with the process of going through the two-page budget line by line (which I guess would have meant missing the finale of The Voice). Faced with the Board majority’s obvious rush to get through the meeting, Jerry proposed sending the budget back to management with a directive to reduce overall spending by 4%, but that would have required Mr. Tow and Vice President Collette Goslin to withdraw their original motion to approve the budget, which they refused to do.
The end result is that maintenance fees will go up 7.1%, about six times the current U.S. inflation rate. (See the final approved budget and maintenance fee breakdown HERE.) Beginning in January, the owner of an average one-bedroom unit currently paying $282 in monthly maintenance will pay $302 a month, while the owner of an average two-bedroom unit who is now paying $393 monthly will pay $421 per month in maintenance. This raw deal for unit owners was approved by a 5-2 vote, with Jerry and I voting no.
I believe we owe it to unit owners to be more sensitive about how we spend their money so they don’t have to keep paying more and more to live here.
Fortunately, you will have a chance next month to change the direction of International Village and replace the current Board majority with candidates who are committed to actually saving unit owners’ money by restraining spending. I will be reaching out to these candidates over the next days and weeks to bring you the facts about their ideas and platforms so you can make an informed choice. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, I would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas. If you happen to be in town, our social activities chairman John Henderson is organizing a Christmas party on Sunday, Dec. 22 from 5-9 p.m. in the clubhouse with music, dancing and cake.
I went from paying $366.41 in in 2012 to $435 in 2013 and now I am paying $465, that's $100 increase in a 2 years period and we still face the possibility of another assessment.
ReplyDeleteThere is not reason for more increase; with a lower delinquency rate, we should be paying less not more, but It's like the more money we get the more is the need to add stuff into the budget and the important items like repairing the buildings pass to a second place.
People if we want this to change, please vote this people out of the board!