Highlights from the Town Hall Meeting on Selection of New Property Management Company

Board Members present: Sharon Bobb, Pat Batey, Clifford Cohen, Peg Downey, Jim Jones, John McNerney, Steven Schattman

BACKGROUND:

On November 30, 2015, the Elizabeth Condominium Board of Directors held a town hall meeting to discuss the selection of a new property management company. This was the result of months of work including development of a request for proposal, answering questions from owners and from applying property management companies, development of evaluation criteria, evaluation of submitted proposals, town hall meeting on the subject prior to this one, interviews of prospective property management companies, checking references and other methods of vetting the prospective companies.

In a unanimous decision by the Board, Gates Hudson Community Management was selected on November 17, 2015. Owners were notified on November 25, once a contracted was signed.

WHAT THIS MEANS

We have hired a new property management company to oversee the business of the ECA. This includes preserving our assets; maintaining and enhancing our property values; providing fluid communication between owners, residents, management, and the ECA Board; and providing professional assistance in the management, governance and financial matters.

The entire in-house management team will work directly for the ECA including the general manager, assistant manager and chief engineer as well as other staff currently on board. The new Chief Engineer will live on-site.

Legum & Norman will remain on staff until February 1, 2016. Meanwhile Gates Hudson Community Management will be working behind the scenes on transition tasks, including transfer of all personal and financial data, setting up bank accounts and much more. The new management company will assist in the hiring of our in-house management team and if these staff members are not on board by February 1, 2016, Gates Hudson Community Management will provide temporary employees.

The Gates Hudson Community Management executive team assigned to oversee ECA business is Lynn M. Kiley Executive Vice-President of Operations, Carty Massey, Chief Financial Officer, and Larry Hirschman, Vice-President of Operations. Their biographies can be seen the November 2015 Special Edition of The Elizabeth Condo Newsletter edited by Jackie Lapidus. Our community manager Larry Hirschman, who lives in Bethesda, will only be overseeing only one other building.

The contract is for one year with renewal possible for four times at one year contracts. There is a 60 day cancellation clause (the same arrangement made originally when ECA hired Legum & Norman).

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS FROM THE TOWN HALL MEETING

Q:  Will new coupon books be issued?

A:   This will be part of the transition effort. Pay attention to paper mail correspondence to stay on top of communications from our new property management company.

Q:  What happens to staff associated with our concierge services, pool management, and cleaning staff?

A:   These are all separate contracts and the staff for these services will remain in place.

Q:   Will Gates Hudson Community Management being using BuildingLink?

A:   Yes, our new management company uses BuildingLink in other properties that they manage and will help us enhance our own use here at the Elizabeth. Residents should continue to use BuildingLink to request maintenance services. There is also possibility that some residents who speak other languages may be able to receive communications in their language. This feature of BuildingLink is something we have not yet explored here at the Elizabeth.

Q:   Why wasn’t the decision to hire Gates Hudson Community Management done at a public meeting of the ECA Board?

A:   The decision involved matters involving contract negotiation, high-level personnel matters and proprietary information from other property management companies not selected so it is not possible to hold this kind of public discussion. Moreover, a former Board member who was on the Board that selected Legum & Norman said that the process they used was much less transparent and matters were debated and decisions made in Executive Session.  Furthermore, the situation at that time was entirely different, in that the Elizabeth were not changing management companies, but considering going from being self-managed to contracting out its property management responsibilities.  Two former ECA Board members stated that they thought the sitting board had been very transparent and commended them for holding other town hall meeting, regularly communicating the status of the activity, and going out for proposals for property management companies.

Q:   Will the ECA be using Gates Hudson Community Management’s sister company which offers a variety of services including engineering services, handyman services, and much more?

A:   ECA will continue to send out Request for Proposals as needed. Whether we use the Gates Hudson Community Management’s sister company remains to be seen. Gates Hudson Community Management is not pushing this option but has just let us know that it is available and offers certain discounts and timely services to the Association as well as to our residents.

Q:   What other buildings do Gates Hudson Community Management manage?

A:   The Gallery at White Flint in North Bethesda, the Victoria at Rockville Town Center, and Essex House in Washington, DC are three nearby buildings they manage. Sharon Bobb and Pat Batey visited The Gallery at White Flint and the Essex as well as some others managed by other companies to see how well they were managed and were satisfactorily impressed with Gates Hudson Community Management.

Q:   Why can’t we keep some of the Legum & Norman staff?

A:   The L&N parent company Associa does not allow waiver of the employee non-compete clause. This means L&N employees do not have the option of leaving L&N to work for the ECA.

Q:   Why couldn’t we keep Legum & Norman until the end of their contract?

A:   The ECA Board is elected to act in the best interest of the ECA members to protect and enhance their investments. The contract with Gates Hudson Community Management was signed on November 25, and notice had to be given by the end of the month in order to have a February 1 start date.  Pricing offered was only good until December 1. 

Terry Lee, Wanda Powell, and Keith Huey are employees of L&N and as such will remain their employees even after the contract is terminated.  It is the responsibility of L&N to place them elsewhere at the expiration of the contract. This also might mean that current L&N staff could be moved sooner than the February 1 transition date.

Q:  Will this new combination of outside property management company and inside staff cost the ECA more money?

A:   The Association is already saving a significant amount of money insofar as both the management fee and payroll processing costs are concerned. The actual savings depends on what salaries we pay our new in-house management team.

Closing remarks praised the Board for reading all the property management proposals and acting as a team to make this difficult decision as well as for the Request for Proposal team who spent many long months of work that made it easier for the Board to proceed.