Summary of ECA Board Meeting June 27, 2017

Board Present: Zlatan Beca, Patricia Batey, Mark Day, Monique Fridell, Al Muller, Connie Row

Others Present: ECA General Manager MaryAnn Hall, Gates Hudson Portfolio Manager Larry Hirschman, Jeremy Tucker (ECA legal counsel, Lerch Early & Brewer, Chtd.), Shirley Steinbeck (ECA legal counsel backup, Lerch Early & Brewer, Chtd.)

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MEETING

President’s Report

President Beca announced that Sharon Bobb has stepped down from the Board. He made a general call for Association members interested in being appointed to the vacant Board position.

Other things in the President’s report included his plan to bring back discussions with the Board possibly Sundays and once a month. He will chair this function. He also made a call for people to step forward to lead various committees like the social committee and possibly a new pool committee to encourage some activities for children.

Legal Counsel’s Report

Legal Counsel Jeremy Tucker reports that delinquent payments continue to increase cash flow, including the $10,000 garnishment on a foreclosure where the owner had moved to Florida hoping to avoid paying money due the Association.

Legal Counsel also mentioned a bill that is being fought to keep Air BnB rentals out of condominiums.

General Manager’s Report

The fire marshal found 8 violations, all but one were minor. The main concern was the cabinet located in the concierge work area that had a bad electrical configuration. The problems have been corrected.

A chiller was replaced ($4225) and roof repairs done ($3374).

The General Manager has a bid for $16,100 to clean kitchen, laundry and bathroom drains throughout the building. (This is called hydrogening.) Until the process is done several times it will have to be done every six months.

Final cost details for renovating Unit 10 are being worked out. The cost is just under $50,000 and was the lowest of several bids.

There have been some minor EPipe issues that included small pieces of epoxy clogging washer input lines. Residents advised to put in a work order to fix such problems.

Garage cleaning starts July 10.

Elevator inspection scheduled for July 14.

Sale of Unit #10

After a long discussion with two board members advocating for delay so that Association members could be given further information, the Board voted  5 to 1 to move ahead with the sale of Unit 10.

Monique Fridell wanted to be sure everyone in the Association understood this was a major asset that would be sold, however, she voted to move ahead with the sale. Al Muller seemed to think, contrary to documented board meeting minutes, that this was a startling new development and since he was unaware of any discussion to sell the apartment on the first floor which had been a long time rental, then very few others knew about this plan. His contribution to this discussion was overly long and repetitive. He did not vote in favor of selling the apartment.

Comments from the Floor

Need to stop motorists from prolonged parking in the circular driveway which causes problems for our community bus and the people who ride it, not to mention it is a fire lane. The suggestion was made again to paint the curb yellow and to stencil in black letters “No Parking. Fire Lane.”

Question was raised about whether our Articles and Bylaws allowed the sale of unit #10 since one of the documents says common elements cannot be sold. Legal Counsel answered yes it can be sold because it is not a common element like our lobbies. Unit #10 has it’s on deed.

Question was raised about Unit #10 be next door to the party room and whether there would be consequences in selling that property. Legal Counsel essentially said there is no secret about the party and there is a noise limitation.

Saving money on energy costs

A number of ECA members have been suggesting ways to save money on energy bills. Here is a message from Brad Bickford and a response from ECA president Z Becca:

Hi Karren:

Thanks for your excellent board/meeting notes.  I have a suggestion to save Elizabeth money and cut wasteful energy.  Can we cut off the hallway lights on lobby floor during the day time especially when it is a bright sunny day?  Or at a minimum turn off every other light?  Global warming is REAL TOO!

Thanks 

Brad Bickford , owner 1601

Hi Karren,

Thank you for the note from Mr. Bickford.  We are already taking these suggestions into consideration because couple of other residents had similar ideas.  Before any steps are taken we need to figure out the liability component of implementation, accessibility, reach and obviously the cost.  One solution could potentially be the following: 

GE Indoor Motion Activated Light Control 

by GE
Link: http://a.co/iCvGQYL

I'm loving the fact that people are thinking outside the box to help us save money.  Although the savings would be insignificant with the control of the lobby lights, they still add up.  I would love it even more if somebody had a cost saving idea on a grand scale.  Someone in one of the surveys mentioned renting our roof top space to a cell phone provider for a tower.  Now that could be big if feasible.  I'm assuming the cell phone providers would have already approached us if our building was of interest to them, but totally worth looking into. 

Best, -Z

Summary of ECA Board Meeting May 23, 2017

Board Present: Zlatan Becca, Sharon Bobb, Patricia Batey, Mark Day, Monique Fridell, Al Muller, Connie Row

Others Present: ECA General Manager MaryAnn Hall, Gates Hudson Portfolio Manager Larry Hirschman, Jeremy Tucker (ECA legal counsel, Lerch Early & Brewer, Chtd.)

Typical of the April Board meeting, this was a short meeting.

Highlights of the Meeting

President Becca named his new Budget and Finance Committee headed by Rhonda Taller. The committee of five plus ECA treasurer Connie Row are individuals with significant financial and management credentials. The hope is that this all-new team will help resolve some of our financial issues and continued the momentum from last year toward financial stability.

Legal Counsel Jeremy Tucker reports that delinquent payments are being made increasing cash flow.

The FY 2017-18 operating budget was approved by a vote of six to one. Al Muller was the lone holdout.

By unanimous vote, the Goldklang Group was approved for FY 2018 and 2019 auditing work including income tax returns.

EPipe will be done this week.

One of our chillers has been shutting off due to a faulty chilled water valve. Waiting on a delivery of the new valve.

Condensate line blockages were discovered and cleared but not before some leaks had been experienced. Last year vertical lines were cleared but not the horizontal main lines. This year, O’Conner Plumbing used cameras to inspect these lines and found them full of debris. It was a significantly hard job this year to clear them but, next year, with the expanded maintenance program and enzymes poured into the lines from the roof will make it easier to maintain free flowing lines.

Leaks from the pool roof due to improper repairs done last year have been fixed.

The General Manager is collecting bids to clean kitchen, laundry and bathroom drains throughout the building.

Landscaping was delayed due to cold weather but is now on track.

Annual Meeting amendments were tabled until October because we only had a 59.1% quorum when passage requires a 66 2/3% positive vote from all owners.

Comments from the Floor

Friendship Height Village is threatening to stop bus pickups at the Elizabeth because of vehicles parked in the circular drive which block the bus from entering. The General Manager will be painting the curb with yellow paint weather permitting.

Need for a speedbump in the garage suggested because motorists entering drive too fast. We recently had a resident crash her car into one of the building columns and then left her car for more than a week at the entrance to the garage.

Suggestion for a civility committee.

One resident owner is urging the Association to require owners with old HVAC systems to replace their cutoff valves to help cut down on leaks and the need to ask House staff to change the HVACs from summer to winter (or vice versa) settings.

This resident who lives on a lower floor is asking the Association to replace horizontal pipes to avoid leaks. She has had to replace her floors three times.