Board Present: Joe Bucherer (president), Karen Bues, Bianca Coles, Francine Klein, Elisa Siegel, Jeremy Siegfried, Christopher Wemple
Others Present: Richard Springer, former General Manager; Jeremy Tucker (ECA Legal Counsel, Lerch Early & Brewer), Leeanne Weir (incoming General Manager as of Feb 1, 2023)
Friendship Heights Village News
Friendship Heights Village (FHV) purchased the “Red House” 4608 North Park Avenue (across from the Elizabeth) September 2022 and currently is running a survey until February 3 to see how the community thinks the building should be used. To take the survey use this link: https://friendshipheights.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cUfcqmw2fsmFxqe (Find the survey on the FHVC website under ‘What’s New” / Red House Survey.
Try adding this suggestion for how to use the Red House: Create an Activity Room for children, teens and adults that has a ping pong table, pool table, board games.
President’s Report
The President kept his remarks short due to time set aside to discuss proposed House Rules.
—Next big project: Elevator renovation. Timeframe to start spring or summer 2023 and will run for one year. Very disruptive but necessary project.
—Replacement of the 50 year old boilers
—Why there was no hot water at the new year: the igniters failed.
—Storage: last chance to claim your things that are illegally in our common storage areas before they are disposed of. Check with Management office for deadline and access.
—Security Audit by Montgomery County Police: done January 6. Meeting set for February 22 to hear recommendations.
—Upcoming events:
· April 13—Townhall on Budget
· April 26—Final Budget
Discussion of proposed House Rules
Over 50 people attended this monthly Board meeting and many residents spoke about the proposed house rules which were written by a committee led by Board member Francine Klein. Many non-committee members attended the open meetings, and many meetings were attended by Board president Joe Bucherer and then General Manager Richard Springer. While many people asked for a townhall meeting on this subject, the Board felt that the public nature of the committee meetings were adequate and that the two hours spent in this Board meeting with resident and Board discussions were additionally adequate coverage.
With a couple of points added to the proposed House Rules, this document was unanimously passed. There was some discussion that certain features of the House Rules, particularly pertaining to use of the West Lobby, might be reviewed in six months as to their acceptability to the overall community. Jeremy Tucker commented that the Board should keep an open mind if infractions of the Rules yield abuse that change to the House Rules might be in order.
The Board had no interest in editing the document for clarity and conciseness. The Board president said it would be up to the General Manager to carry out enforcement of the rules. One particularly disturbing incident reported at this meeting that points out how our rules are not enforced involved two large dogs living in the building, one of which lunged at the throat of one of our resident owners. Was this dog banished from our building? No, the dog now wears a muzzle.
The discussion of the New House Rules raises many questions. For example:
—What is the definition of a large dog?
—How many residents have more than one dog?
—What does the Board plan to instruct the General Manager to do with infractions of House Rules?
