Summary of February 2009 Elizabeth Condo Board Meeting

The February meeting of Elizabeth Condo Board highlighted such items as the annual audit, the energy audit, financial issues, security services, house rules, and the contract with Phyllis Hartman related to the building refurbishment. Here is a thumbnail list of what took place.

While the December Board meeting minutes were approved unanimously (they have been posted to this blog), Jeffery Axelrad took exception to the minutes of the special January meeting of the ECA Board that were prepared by Monique Fridell in the lieu of Judy Gann, the ECA Board secretary. See his statement and the January minutes, which are posted separately.

President Woody Cunningham stated that the annual audit would be completed in the next two weeks. From the floor, Pam Dillon (a former Board president criticized the Board that annual audit had not been done on schedule and by the requirements of law because she said providing the audit so late in the cycle means a useless report.)

The preliminary energy audit was delivered and was schedule for review by the energy committee February 12. No details of the report were offered in this board meeting.

Among the items reported by treasurer Monique Fridell was that delinquencies doubled in January and February and some cases may have to go to our legal council. (I understand this to be non-payment of condo fees.)

Two committees are being formed to work with Phyllis Hartman on the building refurbishment. One committee will be board members and the other formed from people who worked on the committee in the past. First step is to get the contract signed.

New issues about security services arose with a request from our in-house manager for an additional security guard on the weekend. No action was taken until more information is collected.

House Rules -- 12 sets of comments were received and some were incorporated into the new house rules. One issue involving noise concerned allowing live music in the party room.

Look for an offer to get your heat & a/c ducts cleaned. There will be a price break if enough residents purchase this service. Info will be distributed soon.

Decision to procure a new emergency generator was tabled to collect additional bids.

Some important upcoming dates are March—Nominating Committee meeting, April—Meet the Candidates night, May—Annual Meeting. Also in February, there will be a seminar on reverse mortgages.

Comments from the floor included concerns about replacing windows and doors because our windows conduct heat and cold but new windows with thermal break technology would not. Uniformly updating windows now will give the ECA price break advantages and will increase the value of our property as well as make a significant energy savings. A call for public display showing a map of how the refurbishment will proceed was made. Request made to ensure the audit report is delivered in October of every year. Request to limit live music in the party room to avoid bothering residents who live near and above the party room. Request made to have a referendum on hiring an outside management company. Cautioned stated about ensuring that the reverse mortgage seminar is not a commercially pitched event but just informational.