Pound the Table: ECA President Lends an Ear

On July 23, 2017, ECA Board President Zlatan Beca invited members of the Association to a free-for-all gripe session.  He had hoped by naming the event “Pound the Table” that he would attract some younger and newer residents living at the Elizabeth.

Nope. Same folks who attend such events, including the monthly board meetings, showed up and, without any rules stated, proceeded to beat dead horses by mindlessly repeating their complaints as if no one else had not already discussed their topics of choice. Additionally, some people used the time as if it were a therapy session wandering aimlessly from one thought to the next.

After running out of patience, I left after 45 minutes. Others, including a couple of Board directors, had already started slipping away. Among the topics addressed:

—Discontent with the neighborhood developer's briefing and how they are offering nothing of interest to Friendship Heights.

—Cigarette smoke has been detected wafting into the pool area through the open doors.

—Motorists continue to park in the circular driveway.

[Z said action is being taken soon to paint the curb yellow and to line up towing.]

—EPipe put us in debt.

[No one mentioned that the Association was going to lose our insurance if such an action had not been taken.]

—The Association needs options for income to erase debt and continue to build our reserve fund. Coupled with this were gripes about the large condo fee increases. Some people said they prefer an assessment but no one said they would work on the bylaws that keep us from successfully imposing an assessment.

—The community at the Elizabeth needs an attitude adjustment.

[Note: while I was present, most people were polite and appropriately behaved.]

—People are leaving carts that belong at the front door of the lobby on their floors without regard to returning them to their proper station.

—Owners are failing to clean up after their dogs.

—Hallways are a disgrace and are keeping our property values down.

[There are 16 apartments currently on the market and about 1/3, according to Z, maybe people who can’t stand the bad behavior of our community members.]

—The swimming pool has seen better days.

TIME TO REPLACE YOUR OLD HVACs

The reason I came to the meeting (but I never had a chance to speak) was to urge owners who have not updated their HVAC systems to give D&A their business. After twice rejecting contracts with Quality Air for replacement of my heating and cooling units, I was pleased by D&A’s service and price.

I also wanted to commend our Engineering team—Chief Engineer Ricardo Castro, Hollis Alleyne and Marcel Straker. For over 6 weeks, I had a leak in my apartment during the high humidity periods we have been getting this summer. This problem also happened in my apartment about two years ago and was never resolved. This time Marcel suggested trying dye to trace the water’s path. The dye helped Hollis find broken water run off lines under an old HVAC system two floors above me.

Ricardo said if folks would replace their old HVAC systems, we would suffer fewer problems with leaking related to condensate lines and the old water pans and hoses under those old HVACs.

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.