Two years ago, International Village hired American Management Group (AMG) to perform property management services in this community. AMG promised competence and professionalism and a commitment to serving the best interests of unit owners, in exchange for generous salaries for its top staff. Like many owners, I was willing to trust in the company’s integrity and commitment to quality, as well as its ability to remain above the political fray and work with any Board of Directors the owners chose to elect. So it is with great sadness that I must report our property manager’s role in precipitating a recent visit by a City of Lauderhill building official that will result in fines for illegal balcony work. His actions also appear to have led to an accelerated 40-year re-certification process that could cost the association more than $1 million in repairs under a County law requiring extensive upgrades when a property reaches the four-decade mark.
At the Board’s March 25 meeting, our Board President Marcio Jaspan, a licensed engineer, pointed out that a number of balconies that are due for repairs could be handled by our in-house maintenance staff at a significant savings to the association. At no point did he say that all the balconies could be done without the use of a contractor. In fact, he stated the opposite, and he specifically asked for only one balcony to be repaired as a pilot project. He also stated that the city’s permission should be obtained before starting any work. (See the video HERE.)
Instead, work was performed on three balconies that were apparently in a considerable state of disrepair without consulting the city. When I spoke to our Property Manager Jason Levy on Friday, he told me that management was “shocked” one day to discover our maintenance personnel working on the balconies, claiming the work had been done behind management’s back. This is patently false. In a March 27 email to the President, our assistant manager requested (in fact, his words were “we need”) approval for various materials purchases including several bags of concrete “to do a test balcony.” Management also specifically ordered our maintenance personnel to take before and after pictures of the work (which had never been done before, suggesting a setup). The before picture was taken and the camera returned to the office THE DAY BEFORE any work had been done. The following day, our assistant manager performed a site inspection of the balcony work and did not order the work to be stopped. It was only the next day that our maintenance crew was told not to proceed with the work.
We pay our manager a lot of money to supervise any work being done in the community and to ensure that it is done legally, as provided in AMG’s contract with the association. While the President can give direction, our maintenance personnel answer directly to the manager as per AMG’s contract. Our President was not on the property and was not involved in the selection of the balconies that were worked on.
Soon after the work was done, Geoffrey Edwards, a cabana unit owner affiliated with former Board members Marvin Tow and Sandra Best and their supporters, requested and obtained from the office the before and after pictures of the balcony work from the manager, along with numerous photos documenting required repairs throughout the property that were included in the association’s 2012 Engineering Report, which was prematurely commissioned at a cost of $22,000 at the manager's specific recommendation. Mr. Edwards took those pictures to City of Lauderhill building official Randy Youse and invited him to International Village. When the official came on April 9, he ordered the association to hire a contractor to undo the work that had been performed and complete it to code specifications. Mr. Youse also put the association on notice to expect to receive its 40-year re-certification letter within the next week, which could force International Village to perform more than $1 million worth of repairs throughout the property and jeopardize the extension of our $2 million Hurricane Wilma loan.
I asked Mr. Levy on Friday, April 11 how Mr. Youse got the information regarding the age of our buildings, since the Broward County Property Appraiser’s website had been identifying International Village’s construction date as 1979. He told me that Mr. Youse came “armed with information” about the actual build date. I was able to contact Mr. Youse the next day and found out that he had no such information other than Mr. Edwards’ prior verbal assurance that the buildings were over 40 years old. In fact, it was Mr. Levy who volunteered to Mr. Youse during his April 9 visit that the buildings were built in “1971, 2 and 3.” You can hear it for yourself HERE since the meeting was recorded, and it's obvious from the conversation that Mr. Youse did not know the age of the buildings. We also now know that Mr. Edwards had been pushing both the city and the Broward Board of Rules and Appeals (which is responsible for compiling the annual list of properties due for the 40-year certification based on county property records) to add International Village to the list. In an email Mr. Edwards sent to Board of Rules and Appeals official Jim DiPietro just hours before Mr. Youse’s visit, he provided very specific information about each building’s folio number and virtually begged Mr. DiPietro to add International Village to the 40-year certification list. Where did Mr. Edwards get his information? Did management provide it? In any event, thanks to Mr. Edwards’ actions, the Property Appraiser’s Office on Tuesday, April 14 apparently managed to locate the “correct” construction dates for the condominium, and the city may soon force us to begin the process of upgrading the entire property.
Based on this disturbing series of events, I can only conclude that there was deliberate collusion between Mr. Edwards and our property manager to engineer a crisis that would result in embarrassing our new Board President by unfairly blaming him for the illegal balcony work and deceptively linking that incident to the accelerated 40-year certification process – when in fact the two issues were unrelated and were both instigated by his opponents, who clearly appear to include our property manager.
What could our property manager’s motivation have been for such a deliberate act of sabotage that may end up costing owners a lot of money and even force some into foreclosure? It may help to know that when AMG recently announced its plans to promote Mr. Levy to the position of Vice President of Operations of the company, Mr. Jaspan rejected AMG’s proposal to keep Mr. Levy on International Village property indefinitely while letting him draw half his VP salary from our association’s budget. Mr. Levy's anger about the decision, which in his mind amounted to a 30 days’ notice of dismissal, was hardly a secret. Engineering a crisis designed to pressure Mr. Jaspan and another recently smeared Board member to resign, if successfully carried out, would have given his three allies on the Board (Frances Mesirow, Marc Richman and Collette Goslin) the opportunity to reverse Mr. Jaspan’s decision, keep Mr. Levy on the property for several more months as VP of AMG, and allow AMG to lead International Village through its 40-year re-certification – which would amount to a huge financial bonanza for the company.
But instead of admitting wrongdoing and apologizing for his actions, our property manager's first reaction was to place all the blame for this crisis on our Board President in a sneering and misleading email sent to the Board on April 9 that reeks of twisted delight at our misfortune. I invite you to read it for yourself HERE.
This is unacceptable, and it’s an insult to those of us serving on the Board as volunteers. Unlike Mr. Levy, we don’t get paid close to $100,000 a year for what we do for International Village. We have ideas and we make recommendations and rely on our manager to carry them out properly. But when our highly paid professional managers purposely and gleefully fail us, and then blame our Board President for their own failure, there must be consequences. Although AMG's CEO Jonathan Louis, in an email yesterday (April 15) to the entire Board, agreed to remove Mr. Levy as International Village's manager effective today (April 16), this is not enough. The Board of Directors will hold a special meeting tonight, April 16, at 8 p.m. in the clubhouse to revisit AMG’s management contract and take the appropriate actions. I invite all unit owners to attend.
At the Board’s March 25 meeting, our Board President Marcio Jaspan, a licensed engineer, pointed out that a number of balconies that are due for repairs could be handled by our in-house maintenance staff at a significant savings to the association. At no point did he say that all the balconies could be done without the use of a contractor. In fact, he stated the opposite, and he specifically asked for only one balcony to be repaired as a pilot project. He also stated that the city’s permission should be obtained before starting any work. (See the video HERE.)
Instead, work was performed on three balconies that were apparently in a considerable state of disrepair without consulting the city. When I spoke to our Property Manager Jason Levy on Friday, he told me that management was “shocked” one day to discover our maintenance personnel working on the balconies, claiming the work had been done behind management’s back. This is patently false. In a March 27 email to the President, our assistant manager requested (in fact, his words were “we need”) approval for various materials purchases including several bags of concrete “to do a test balcony.” Management also specifically ordered our maintenance personnel to take before and after pictures of the work (which had never been done before, suggesting a setup). The before picture was taken and the camera returned to the office THE DAY BEFORE any work had been done. The following day, our assistant manager performed a site inspection of the balcony work and did not order the work to be stopped. It was only the next day that our maintenance crew was told not to proceed with the work.
We pay our manager a lot of money to supervise any work being done in the community and to ensure that it is done legally, as provided in AMG’s contract with the association. While the President can give direction, our maintenance personnel answer directly to the manager as per AMG’s contract. Our President was not on the property and was not involved in the selection of the balconies that were worked on.
Soon after the work was done, Geoffrey Edwards, a cabana unit owner affiliated with former Board members Marvin Tow and Sandra Best and their supporters, requested and obtained from the office the before and after pictures of the balcony work from the manager, along with numerous photos documenting required repairs throughout the property that were included in the association’s 2012 Engineering Report, which was prematurely commissioned at a cost of $22,000 at the manager's specific recommendation. Mr. Edwards took those pictures to City of Lauderhill building official Randy Youse and invited him to International Village. When the official came on April 9, he ordered the association to hire a contractor to undo the work that had been performed and complete it to code specifications. Mr. Youse also put the association on notice to expect to receive its 40-year re-certification letter within the next week, which could force International Village to perform more than $1 million worth of repairs throughout the property and jeopardize the extension of our $2 million Hurricane Wilma loan.
I asked Mr. Levy on Friday, April 11 how Mr. Youse got the information regarding the age of our buildings, since the Broward County Property Appraiser’s website had been identifying International Village’s construction date as 1979. He told me that Mr. Youse came “armed with information” about the actual build date. I was able to contact Mr. Youse the next day and found out that he had no such information other than Mr. Edwards’ prior verbal assurance that the buildings were over 40 years old. In fact, it was Mr. Levy who volunteered to Mr. Youse during his April 9 visit that the buildings were built in “1971, 2 and 3.” You can hear it for yourself HERE since the meeting was recorded, and it's obvious from the conversation that Mr. Youse did not know the age of the buildings. We also now know that Mr. Edwards had been pushing both the city and the Broward Board of Rules and Appeals (which is responsible for compiling the annual list of properties due for the 40-year certification based on county property records) to add International Village to the list. In an email Mr. Edwards sent to Board of Rules and Appeals official Jim DiPietro just hours before Mr. Youse’s visit, he provided very specific information about each building’s folio number and virtually begged Mr. DiPietro to add International Village to the 40-year certification list. Where did Mr. Edwards get his information? Did management provide it? In any event, thanks to Mr. Edwards’ actions, the Property Appraiser’s Office on Tuesday, April 14 apparently managed to locate the “correct” construction dates for the condominium, and the city may soon force us to begin the process of upgrading the entire property.
Based on this disturbing series of events, I can only conclude that there was deliberate collusion between Mr. Edwards and our property manager to engineer a crisis that would result in embarrassing our new Board President by unfairly blaming him for the illegal balcony work and deceptively linking that incident to the accelerated 40-year certification process – when in fact the two issues were unrelated and were both instigated by his opponents, who clearly appear to include our property manager.
What could our property manager’s motivation have been for such a deliberate act of sabotage that may end up costing owners a lot of money and even force some into foreclosure? It may help to know that when AMG recently announced its plans to promote Mr. Levy to the position of Vice President of Operations of the company, Mr. Jaspan rejected AMG’s proposal to keep Mr. Levy on International Village property indefinitely while letting him draw half his VP salary from our association’s budget. Mr. Levy's anger about the decision, which in his mind amounted to a 30 days’ notice of dismissal, was hardly a secret. Engineering a crisis designed to pressure Mr. Jaspan and another recently smeared Board member to resign, if successfully carried out, would have given his three allies on the Board (Frances Mesirow, Marc Richman and Collette Goslin) the opportunity to reverse Mr. Jaspan’s decision, keep Mr. Levy on the property for several more months as VP of AMG, and allow AMG to lead International Village through its 40-year re-certification – which would amount to a huge financial bonanza for the company.
But instead of admitting wrongdoing and apologizing for his actions, our property manager's first reaction was to place all the blame for this crisis on our Board President in a sneering and misleading email sent to the Board on April 9 that reeks of twisted delight at our misfortune. I invite you to read it for yourself HERE.
This is unacceptable, and it’s an insult to those of us serving on the Board as volunteers. Unlike Mr. Levy, we don’t get paid close to $100,000 a year for what we do for International Village. We have ideas and we make recommendations and rely on our manager to carry them out properly. But when our highly paid professional managers purposely and gleefully fail us, and then blame our Board President for their own failure, there must be consequences. Although AMG's CEO Jonathan Louis, in an email yesterday (April 15) to the entire Board, agreed to remove Mr. Levy as International Village's manager effective today (April 16), this is not enough. The Board of Directors will hold a special meeting tonight, April 16, at 8 p.m. in the clubhouse to revisit AMG’s management contract and take the appropriate actions. I invite all unit owners to attend.
Marcio, Duv, John and Wendy don't worry about what the older people say about your qualifications, they don't know what is going on around them even if it happens in front of their noses. I, like the rest of the people who voted for the you, believe in you and trust you want the best for our community.
ReplyDeleteI went to the meeting on Wednesday, April 16, and all I could do was shake my head in embarrassment for all the thing the people said about the four of you. They believe want the want to believe and there is nothing you can do about it.
I heard the comments this crazy woman, Miriam Gordon, was saying to Wendy and my advise is to ignore her Miriam Gordon is well known to be a troubled woman who has, over the years, being manipulated by the opposition to make noise and say that they don't dare to say themselves.
The only reason I am not posting my name is because I don't want any confrontation with these maniacs, but you should know you have my support.
I trust that all of you will do a great job in improving our community, keep it up. God Bless you.
Sid Shulman is another Miriam Gordon, but Miriam is much smarter.
DeleteFolks, I have been receiving several emails from a unit owner who acts like he's the bully of the village. If anyone is leading us faster to the brink of ruins are the two men who are out to "get" the new board members. That is, one who complained to the City of Lauderhill, about the 40-year re-certification, and the other who went to his bank in New York. I see both men as vicious, vindictive, vengeful, and full of enmity.
ReplyDeleteNow what kind of gains are they looking to make? It's clear that they don't want "poor"folks buying and living in International Village. They aren't looking out for you and me, they are looking to boot the members whom we voted into office. When the ship sinks, they won't be going with it, they are going to abandon ship and leave us all to suffer. This is their plan, if you can't pay the assessments and maintenance, get the hell out of here!
I am sure that not everyone is in agreement with the "haters" of the new board. It's time for those of you who have an investment in the Village to show your support for the new board members, and let them know that we do want to see them succeed.
If AMG was doing such a wonderful job, why don't we have any money?
We have had two maintenance increases and an assessment in last two years. This is like a bottomless sinkhole that keeps getting bigger and bigger.
This is a sad day in International Village, and I rue the day I bought a unit here.
So does AMG's sudden epiphany about Jason Levy and the treachery of our oppositional clique do anything to reverse the town of Lauderhill's decision to schedule a 40 Year Certification? Why isn't the build date a matter of public record, one that should be automatically referenced by our government representatives?
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that there must be some sort of legal restraint on these past board members and their allies, who in their selfishness try to sabotage any forward progress initiated by the legally elected new board.
If John would allow me to publish this instead of you going to the board meeting and screaming and not listening even though your mind is made up and just want to be !!!!!!! Take a breather and relax and try to put your bp down so we won't have to pay for your medical. If you have insurance or not. It is true that Jeff did that and so did Illam. He just and they do just want to sue IV and take pictures. Is it true about Wendy, it is. Is it true about the illegal washers and dryers that we have to pay for and they might not have insurance and we have to pay for it. It is. Will the past board help us, they have tried, but they need more people in here to stay alive, but with all that Illam needs is just one person on the board so he can sue us. Why doesn't he take care of his own place and put in automatic doors, fix his wiring etc. You have so much money you take care of it!!!!! Your an ass!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAmg takes kickbacks from their contactor's the roof repair you had recently Jonathan Louis got a kick back he has been ripping you and every association he manages trust me audit the books and you'll see
ReplyDeleteJonathan Louis was behind pushing the 40 year certificate he gets 20% kick backs from all of his contracts he does it at every property does your self a favor like our building in hallandale did get rid of Amg and you'll see the savings right off the bat
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. What property in Hallandale was this? I would like to get in touch with them.
DeleteAmerican Management Group is IV´s biggest mistake ever, like Charlie Fitzgerald and Marvin Tow being presidents. My family, friends and I can't wait to get rid of them to get back to normality and start saving money. I hope the new board can find a better management company, because this one is ruining us all!!!
ReplyDelete