Summary of August 2009 Elizabeth Condo Board Meeting

The August meeting was not a regularly scheduled event because normally the Board takes a month off during this period. However, the treasurer Monique Fridell requested this meeting to address financial issues in this transition period to Legum & Norman management. Highlighted in the August meeting of the Elizabeth Condo Board were: : financial issues particularly related to the refurbishment; the pipe replacement contract; and appointment of committee to address the issue of irresponsible dog-owners and dogs in the building.

Present at the meeting besides all the Board members were the following Legum & Norman representatives:
John Rhodes, Executive Vice President
John Algner, Senior Community Manager (assigned to the Elizabeth and other buildings in Friendship Heights)
Mike Horan, Site Manager

The ECA treasurer expressed disappointment in the service from Legum and Norman relative to the way ECA investments are handled. Apparently while other condominiums use a brokerage firm like Merrill Lynch, our money for the reserve fund is managed manually to the degree that a person has to go to a specific bank to meet some requirement. John Rhodes said he would work with our treasurer and the Board to make sure things go more smoothly.

The treasurer also explained that some of the financial reports she expected to have for the August meeting were not ready.

Legum and Norman has gotten involved with the pipe replacement project and contract. L&N along with one of their engineers has met with the Heath Company to discuss a plan for replacement. They expect to have the work completed by early January 2010 to allow the Hartman Design Group to move forward with renovations on the first floor of the building. Also it should be noted here that ECA president Woody Cunningham said that he uses a “run-to-failure” plan for replacement of things in the building, but this is tempered by many factors including how critical it is for some element of our physical plant to always be working. Cunningham’s approach is tempered by the wish to spread out costs over time but not to put the well being of the ECA community at risk.

A long discussion took place regarding the 5-year plan and how condo fees would rise to replenish the reserve fund. The discussion had no decision points but seemed to be associated with long-term planning including a new budget for completion of building refurbishment. As it stands the current $1.2 million budget for refurbishment will only address areas of the lobby level. As it stands, the current $1.2 million budget for refurbishment will cover areas of the lobby level but not include the party room or washrooms.

Work in the garage has ceased at this time though there are still some remaining items to be attended to. However, nothing in the pending garage repairs is critical at this time to the safety and well being of the building and its residents.

Board member Charles Bressler has met with landscape architect and is waiting for a proposal. (The maintenance contract has already been signed with a different company than the one the ECA used for the last year.)

From the management report, it was noted that some unknown resident contacted the Montgomery County Fire Marshall concerning the lack of fire horns in the arcade area. The Fire Marshall has given the Elizabeth 30 days to initiate review with contractors to address this problem.

ECA president in response to new complaints about a dog having an accident in an elevator that was not cleaned up, has appointed a committee to make recommendations. That committee includes Karren Alenier, Tobi Esler, and Helen Soderberg.

Window cleaning was approved and will begin with screen removal assistance from the ECA staff August 24. Sign up at the front desk if you need help removing screens.