Two Issues from August 2018 Board Meeting

After talking to a number of people, I decided that I should add this post to the last one concerning the August meeting of the ECA Board.

There were two items I left out because I felt disappointed by how the Board leadership handled them.

The first concerned Molly Frantz insisting again that we should be using MERV 8 filters in our HVACs. So, the Board president made Frantz chair of a new committee on HVAC filters instead of reviewing the history of this request. Luckily the problem was quickly solved and of course there is no reason to have such a committee.

The second item plays with our financial health and remains tabled for further consideration. Board member Monique Fridell proposed that a cap be placed on ECA debt with a new bylaw amendment. This means that if we had a major expense to fix something that exceeded that debt limit, the Association would have no way of fixing the problem since we cannot impose a special assessment and none of us want to raise our condo fees in any extreme way. A debt limit would affect our ability to take out a loan of an adequate amount to fix something as expensive as replacement of windows and doors.

While Board Vice President Mak Dehejia pointed out that Fridell’s proposal was not realistic, the Board President Z Beca and Board Treasurer Lyle Schwartz lent sympathetic ears to this proposal. Schwartz went so far to suggest (erroneously) that the Board has a limited capacity to impose a special assessment under certain circumstances that might help if we had a debt limit. This limited capacity for special assessment did not apply to replacing windows and doors according to our legal counsel who researched this.

Capping debt is totally wrong headed and speaks to the fact that Fridell doesn’t live in the building and doesn’t care who would suffer if something of major cost breaks without means to fix it.

Fridell’s rule of thumb is to spend as little money as possible no matter the need. All her comments speak to this extreme frugality and doesn’t speak to a balance of quality of life.

In 2007 when folks like me starting lobbying for new windows and balcony doors, Treasurer Fridell and ECA Board President Woody Cunningham subscribed to the rule “run to failure” and they said that those people with water, wind and grit coming in through the failed weathering stripping of the windows and doors were just wanting to spend money unnecessarily. Furthermore, they believed they could control high energy cost by refusing to give people year-round a/c.

So, in the hot days of fall, winter and spring, residents were unable to cool down their apartments. Having a four-pipe system which provides a choice between heat or air-conditioning, such as The Elizabeth has, is a feature of a luxury high-rise building. Some of the owners at The Elizabeth specifically bought here for that option.

The other thing to note is that some people who attended the meeting walked away thinking that Fridell is financially astute and that members of the Board leadership were endorsing her ideas.