Candidates Night winners and losers

Congratulations to Duv Wolff and Wendy Hernandez for winning the debate at Candidates Night this past week. (See video HERE.) These two impressive candidates scored the most points on substance and logic. They made a convincing case for why we need new people and new thinking on the Board of Directors to prioritize spending, exercise fiscal discipline and implement innovative programs that will save money by increasing efficiency. Just from the volume of the applause in the room, it’s clear that Duv Wolff and Wendy Hernandez have won the hearts and minds of International Village owners. Marcio Jaspan also did a convincing job of establishing his credentials as an engineer who can help us explore ways to bring down our large annual water bill, as well as someone who will listen to what the owners want before spending their money.

On the other hand, I was very disappointed in Marvin Tow, Sandra Best and Marc Richman and their disingenuous, dishonest, and sometimes downright insulting answers to owners’ questions. But more on that later…

Duv Wolff, a small business owner and active member of the community, discussed his plans for bringing International Village into the 21^st century with a forward-looking energy efficiency program that will shave about 40 percent off our annual $200,000 electricity bill by installing motion detectors at strategic locations to reduce the use of lights when they’re not being used. In return for a nominal initial investment, this environmentally responsible program will pay for itself many times over in just months’ time through major energy savings. These savings, along with his other ideas for reducing wasteful spending, would allow us to reverse most or all of the 7 percent maintenance fee increase approved last year.

Wendy Hernandez, who has a strong accounting background, advocated setting clear cost-cutting targets and reducing our reliance on expensive outside contractors for projects that could be done much more economically by our qualified in-house maintenance staff, such as painting and completing the remodeling of the buildings. Combined with prioritizing spending by delaying or canceling unnecessary projects (such as the proposed massive camera surveillance scheme and electronic key access system), implementing these proposals will eliminate the need for a special assessment of the magnitude of the recently proposed $1.4 million assessment. 

Marcio Jaspan, a licensed engineer, pledged to tackle our $600,000 yearly water bill by examining metering options. If successful, this would result in a significant reduction in the monthly maintenance fees and would especially reward unit owners who do a better job of conserving water. He also proposed an online portal to allow unit owners to register their approval or opposition to proposed spending projects before the Board votes on them. I would be interested to learn how this idea would be implemented, but I certainly welcome his obvious willingness to listen to how owners want their money spent before spending it. It's a refreshing change from the current Board.

And now for the losers...

Marvin Tow gave a very unsatisfactory and rambling answer to my question about why he spent 47 minutes on his association-paid phone with Mr. Ilan Weiss of New York just a month before voting in a closed (secret) Board meeting on April 25, 2013 to award Mr. Weiss an outrageous $56,500 settlement in his most recent lawsuit against the association. The questions still remain: Why was Mr. Tow speaking privately to a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the association without consulting the rest of the Board? What did Mr. Tow get from Mr. Weiss in exchange for his vote for this obscene settlement award (other than Mr. Weiss’ enthusiastic endorsement in the current Board election)? As I reported last week, Mr. Tow had flown up to New York the year before to testify on behalf of Mr. Weiss in a related lawsuit between Mr. Weiss and a former Board member (it was a libel suit in which Mr. Weiss was the defendant). Mr. Tow is now claiming, incredibly, that he paid his own way. I have spoken to two former Board members who are prepared to testify that Mr. Tow and Mr. Weiss told them at the time that Mr. Weiss paid for Mr. Tow’s plane ticket. If what Mr. Tow is saying now about purchasing his own ticket is true (which would almost be worse since it would reveal an inordinate fondness for Mr. Weiss), he could easily prove it by providing his flight receipt. Why hasn't he done so? In any event, his prior relationship with Mr. Weiss clearly created a conflict of interest that should have led him to recuse himself (abstain) from voting for the shameful settlement.

In response to another question by retired Board member Jerry Mirrow, Mr. Tow announced that his decision last year to ban Board members from all committees (except for his ally Frances Mesirow on the Sales & Lease Committee) was because of my election to the Board. Other than being another sign of his vindictiveness and lack of respect for the democratic process, this arbitrary decision essentially allowed Mr. Tow to act as dictator by handpicking only his supporters to be on important committees such as the Budget Committee, which incidentally signed off on the budget that resulted in a 7 percent maintenance fee increase this year, with obviously no input from opposing Board members. Now you know whom to blame.

Sandra Best, as she did in her now notorious Dec. 26 email blast message in which she cast herself as a struggling widow, again claimed to be someone who will watch spending because she is on a fixed income and knows what it means to have to pinch pennies. It’s worth noting that Mrs. Best voted to fully fund reserves in 2014, which would have resulted in a 34 percent maintenance increase this year instead of the 7 percent hike we experienced. (This would have meant about $100 extra per month for the average one-bedroom unit owner and $130 more monthly for the owner of the average two-bedroom unit.) Does this sound like the action of a penny-pinching widow? Mrs. Best, nobody begrudges you your wealth, and I’m happy that you can afford to own three gorgeous homes, drive the latest-model Cadillac and cruise the world as you did in 2012, but please don’t insult our intelligence by claiming to be an impoverished widow on a fixed income who knows how to be economical.

But Mrs. Best’s most revealing moment came in her answer to my question about what she considers her three main accomplishments as a Board member. See it for yourself HERE.

Marc Richman, as expected, claimed to be the only person in the world capable of saving International Village from financial ruin, but he couldn't adequately explain why he thought it was OK for him to profit to the tune of $21,300, while on the Board, from his deal to finance former Board President Charles Fitzpatrick’s purchase of a unit in the St. Moritz building. He also refused to answer a unit owner’s question about how he would be transparent, accountable and stable, and he even appeared to mock her question to make her feel bad. Not very nice, Mr. Richman.

There you have it. The choice couldn't be clearer. It's time for change in International Village. Vote for Duv Wolff, Wendy Hernandez and Marcio Jaspan.