Present: Directors: Seth Levine, Judi Barth, Ilo-Mai Harding, Alexandra Kielty, Alfred Muller, David Robinson, ECA General Manager Jim Santos, ECA Assistant Manager Wanda Powell, Legum & Norman Community Manager Greg Roby, recording secretary
Absent: Director Charles Bressler
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS:
Allen DeLeon of DeLeone & Stang, CPAs, presented its 2011 draft audit of the condominium's financial statements for discussion and consideration by the board. Later in the meeting, the board voted to accept the draft audit.
A second presentation was made by a representative of Hartman Design Group. The purpose of the presentation was to show "tweaked" renderings of the two previously shown "design concepts" and color "palettes." The "tweaking" occurred following discussions with the board held since Hartman's first presentation to the residents at an earlier monthly board meeting. The "mock-ups" were larger and showed the wall covering materials, carpet material, and lighting fixtures, along with large drawings of how the two designs would look along the full length of the hallways. (The previous display showed the designs as they would look "straight-on" in the elevator-lobby areas of the hallways.)
Residents had numerous questions for the Hartman representative. Many of the questions had to do with furniture items, which, according to the Hartman representative, were not the focus of the presentation. The representative clarified that Hartman Design was offering design "concepts" - colors and lighting - and therefore its focus was on carpeting, wall-covering, and lighting. Although some furniture samples had been included to fill out the overall picture of how the hallways might look with the different color schemes, the furniture items - chairs vs. benches; tables vs. consoles; table lamps vs. wall sconces, etc. - represented a different topic, which the condominium association could make decisions about at a later time, and would not require the services of Hartman Design.
Other items of interest growing out of the exchange with Hartman:
> the wall sconces shown take two 13-watt fluorescent bulbs (13-15-watt fluorescent = 60-watt incandescent bulb)
> although Hartman could not make a direct comparison between the quality and life-expectancy of our current hallway carpeting and that being offered by Hartman, the representative did say that the carpet offered reflects the industry standard of 80% wool content, with a minimum lifespan of 15 years.
Overall, the concerns of both board members and residents related more to furniture choices/options; costs of alternative design options (high-medium-low); percentage of overall cost involved in "warehousing," freight, administrative costs, and commissions; and how the "Ariev Committee's" assessment and report to the board would relate to the timing of any hallway refurbishment.
Al Muller stated that he and two other board members would be revising and distributing soon, on behalf of the board, a "survey-questionnaire" to get input from residents on hallway refurbishment issues.
OTHER MEETING ITEMS NOTED:
> Legum & Norman has made available, under a one-year service agreement with Associa, a new "financial software package" that allows current board members to view the association's financials in real time, without having to wait for the close of the operating period. It also allows individual residents to view their respective accounts.
> Lerch, Early & Brewer, the condominium's law firm, has sent a second opinion letter reinforcing our attorney's previous opinion that individual unit owners are responsible for the replacement of their units' fan coils (McQuay/HVAC.) The board is now waiting for attorney-approved language of a proposed amendment to the By-laws that would provide for a one-time assumption by the association of the cost of replacing the fan coils in all units.
> General Manager, Jim Santos, will send out a notice concerning a change in our contract with Complete Building Services. Because of degraded state of so many of the valves involved in our "four-pipe system" (allowing individual units to have heat and air-conditioning year-round), CBC has announced that it can no longer afford to repair/replace the remaining non-working valves in the building. CBC is currently on a month to month contract. The board voted not to renew its $33,000 a year maintenance contract. For the immediate future, the Elizabeth's own staff will continue to diagnose problems occurring in individual units, and will then advice residents of options for repair/replacement of the non-working valves.
> The board passed a recommendation by Jim Santos that $1950 be used to refine/update and incorporate written position descriptions into the Employees' Handbook. All Elizabeth staff, except for the General Manager (Santos) and the Assistant Manager (Powell), are employees of the association. The previous board had developed the first written position descriptions for Elizabeth employees, so no one will have to start "from scratch."
> The association has received its new HUD certification, good for two years.
> Loose tiles in the pool area were repaired. Some of the dust or loose debris from this work may have led to a few residents' complaints about cleanliness in the pool area. G.M. Santos reminded residents to present complaints to him rather than sending emails to other residents or to board members. He cannot address complaints unless he is informed of them.
> Based on a recommendation of the G.M., the board passed a motion to replace older, smaller elevator cameras, with a newer, wider angle camera that can capture more and provide more useful resolution. ($3975)
> Al Muller recommended that the association host a Wine & Cheese event on the evening of March 25 to show appreciation to our hardworking and dedicated Library Committee. Specifics to follow.
COMMENT PERIOD: Several comments related to the pool and to the exercise room: e.g., request for another wastebasket in one of the exercise rooms; request for signs in the exercise rooms that explain how to use the TVs and the headphones; and safety-focused signs reminding users not to track water, via bare feet, from the pool down to the exercise room.
Finally, on a different note, there was an impassioned plea for the board or the management office to distribute to all residents, an explanation or description of "McQuay Units" and residents' responsibility in the maintenance of them.
A second presentation was made by a representative of Hartman Design Group. The purpose of the presentation was to show "tweaked" renderings of the two previously shown "design concepts" and color "palettes." The "tweaking" occurred following discussions with the board held since Hartman's first presentation to the residents at an earlier monthly board meeting. The "mock-ups" were larger and showed the wall covering materials, carpet material, and lighting fixtures, along with large drawings of how the two designs would look along the full length of the hallways. (The previous display showed the designs as they would look "straight-on" in the elevator-lobby areas of the hallways.)
Residents had numerous questions for the Hartman representative. Many of the questions had to do with furniture items, which, according to the Hartman representative, were not the focus of the presentation. The representative clarified that Hartman Design was offering design "concepts" - colors and lighting - and therefore its focus was on carpeting, wall-covering, and lighting. Although some furniture samples had been included to fill out the overall picture of how the hallways might look with the different color schemes, the furniture items - chairs vs. benches; tables vs. consoles; table lamps vs. wall sconces, etc. - represented a different topic, which the condominium association could make decisions about at a later time, and would not require the services of Hartman Design.
Other items of interest growing out of the exchange with Hartman:
> the wall sconces shown take two 13-watt fluorescent bulbs (13-15-watt fluorescent = 60-watt incandescent bulb)
> although Hartman could not make a direct comparison between the quality and life-expectancy of our current hallway carpeting and that being offered by Hartman, the representative did say that the carpet offered reflects the industry standard of 80% wool content, with a minimum lifespan of 15 years.
Overall, the concerns of both board members and residents related more to furniture choices/options; costs of alternative design options (high-medium-low); percentage of overall cost involved in "warehousing," freight, administrative costs, and commissions; and how the "Ariev Committee's" assessment and report to the board would relate to the timing of any hallway refurbishment.
Al Muller stated that he and two other board members would be revising and distributing soon, on behalf of the board, a "survey-questionnaire" to get input from residents on hallway refurbishment issues.
OTHER MEETING ITEMS NOTED:
> Legum & Norman has made available, under a one-year service agreement with Associa, a new "financial software package" that allows current board members to view the association's financials in real time, without having to wait for the close of the operating period. It also allows individual residents to view their respective accounts.
> Lerch, Early & Brewer, the condominium's law firm, has sent a second opinion letter reinforcing our attorney's previous opinion that individual unit owners are responsible for the replacement of their units' fan coils (McQuay/HVAC.) The board is now waiting for attorney-approved language of a proposed amendment to the By-laws that would provide for a one-time assumption by the association of the cost of replacing the fan coils in all units.
> General Manager, Jim Santos, will send out a notice concerning a change in our contract with Complete Building Services. Because of degraded state of so many of the valves involved in our "four-pipe system" (allowing individual units to have heat and air-conditioning year-round), CBC has announced that it can no longer afford to repair/replace the remaining non-working valves in the building. CBC is currently on a month to month contract. The board voted not to renew its $33,000 a year maintenance contract. For the immediate future, the Elizabeth's own staff will continue to diagnose problems occurring in individual units, and will then advice residents of options for repair/replacement of the non-working valves.
> The board passed a recommendation by Jim Santos that $1950 be used to refine/update and incorporate written position descriptions into the Employees' Handbook. All Elizabeth staff, except for the General Manager (Santos) and the Assistant Manager (Powell), are employees of the association. The previous board had developed the first written position descriptions for Elizabeth employees, so no one will have to start "from scratch."
> The association has received its new HUD certification, good for two years.
> Loose tiles in the pool area were repaired. Some of the dust or loose debris from this work may have led to a few residents' complaints about cleanliness in the pool area. G.M. Santos reminded residents to present complaints to him rather than sending emails to other residents or to board members. He cannot address complaints unless he is informed of them.
> Based on a recommendation of the G.M., the board passed a motion to replace older, smaller elevator cameras, with a newer, wider angle camera that can capture more and provide more useful resolution. ($3975)
> Al Muller recommended that the association host a Wine & Cheese event on the evening of March 25 to show appreciation to our hardworking and dedicated Library Committee. Specifics to follow.
COMMENT PERIOD: Several comments related to the pool and to the exercise room: e.g., request for another wastebasket in one of the exercise rooms; request for signs in the exercise rooms that explain how to use the TVs and the headphones; and safety-focused signs reminding users not to track water, via bare feet, from the pool down to the exercise room.
Finally, on a different note, there was an impassioned plea for the board or the management office to distribute to all residents, an explanation or description of "McQuay Units" and residents' responsibility in the maintenance of them.
NOTE: Other business discussed included At-Home Net versus website services of Associa; elevator updating work; new MD insurance law and coverage implications for residents; progress & timelines re: Ariev Committee assessment work.
Feel free to add comments about these topics for which I have no specific information at this time.
No comments:
Post a Comment