Summary of ECA Board Meeting July 31, 2018

Board Present: Zlatan Beca, Makarand (Mak) Dehejia, Monique Fridell, Al Muller, Lyle Schwartz, Christopher Wemple

Board Absent: Rhonda Taller

Others Present: ECA General Manager MaryAnn Hall, Assistant Manager Romaine Cureton, Jeremy Tucker (ECA legal counsel, Lerch Early & Brewer)

President’s Report:

President’s Report had two items: the garage project which was covered in the GM report with more detail and that a monthly newsletter will be restarted with a first publication planned for 8/15. Gary Costello, Robin Schattman and Dorothy Marette will work on it but more volunteers were encouraged to contact either Board members or Gary to help.  Gary also provided more detail in his subsequent Committee report.  No legal report was presented. 

Treasurer’s Report:

ECA Treasurer Lyle Schwartz on the shift to having the B&F committee, with the members’ financial expertise, vet financial issues and provide their recommendations to the Board for possible action.  Jimmy Whalen’s report was the outcome of their first project to streamline the financial reports.  The next project would be making recommendations on investment of excess funds since the Board has to make decisions quarterly on paying down the loan principal.  To facilitate that process, ECA’s investment advisor from Morgan Stanley would attend the 8/27 B&F meeting to provide some general education and background on investment management in condos. The Board must make a decision on payout amount in October.

Budget and Finance Committee:

Jimmy Whalen reported on the Committee’s successful effort to re-organize the financial reports to make them more understandable, tying together various related accounts so the Committee and owners could, among other things, gauge cash flows and reserve levels more easily.  The committee unanimously approved the changes and asked Gates Hudson to produce the financials in the new format for the B&F August meeting to ensure the accounting system could capture all of the necessary detail.  If the committee was satisfied the report was accurate, the Board could vote on the changes at their September 25 meeting.

Management Report:

Garage Project: An update from written report is that Phase 1B of the garage project would start on 8/2. 

Window washing—The window cleaners return was delayed to the week of August 13 because of bad weather

Humidity Problems—High humidity in hallways and units seem to be at the top of the complaint list for residents. West Tower had a cooling coil replaced and same has been ordered for East Tower. Nonetheless humidity seems to be causing sweating in various ways.

More information may be seen in the July 31, 2018 Management Report which may be obtained in the office.

Committee Reports: 

Newsletter Committee:  Gary Costello described his experience in managing newsletters for other organizations and that Robin Schattman who had  professional experience in graphics and layout was his partner.  With a goal of producing a monthly edition to be distributed electronically with some printed copies available at the desk, he had contacted various committee chairs to provided regular updates on building activities.  Contacted were: B&F- Jimmy Whalen; Library- Stephanie Olshan; Social – Celesta Jurkovich; Fire & Safety – Folake & Monique Fridell; Short term Refurbishment of Halls – Judy Gann, Tobi Esler, Suzan Stafford; Ad hoc Task Force on Communications & Party Room rules – Celesta Jurkovich, Judy Gann & Connie Row, Making a Difference Committee – Molly Frantz. 

An email account now exists ElizCondoNewsletter@Gmail.com  to allow any Elizabeth resident to communicate about the newsletter.

Old Business: 

1.     Fire & Safety would be working to let residents with mobility issues about what to do if a fire alarm sounds.

2.     Al Muller described renewed effort to address smoking in the building.  ECA’s attorney drafted changes to the ECA rules to prohibit smoking in common areas and semi-common areas which includes balconies.  Such rules can be implemented by a vote of the Board.  The draft rule would impose a $250 penalty if balcony smoking was reported after a unit owner had received a warning for a first infraction.  Repeated offenses would also impose additional $250 penalties.  The amount was intended to create both a penalty and a deterrent for violations. The Board voted to distribute the proposed rule to owners per Bylaw requirements, so it can be considered at the September 25 Board meeting.  Owners can comment on the draft rule both before and at the Board meeting.

A draft Bylaw amendment was also produced that would prohibit smoking in individual units.  An effort was previously made to amend the Bylaws, a process which requires a vote by owners, a more time-consuming process.

3.     Response to recommendations for minimally refurbishing the halls made at the last Board meeting:  President Beca reported that no additional hall wallpaper exists to do any patching.  However, ceiling tile replacements could be made as a maintenance project and cords holding furniture in place removed by in-house staff as time permits.  He thought experimenting with brighter and consistent bulbs in the sconces was a good idea since they could be purchased at a minimal cost and replaced by in-house staff as part of regular maintenance.  He asked the committee to pursue the lighting issue.  A former Board member provided information that ECA’s lobby designer recommended using CREE brand 2700 Kelvin (which determines color) bulbs in the sconces to achieve the appropriate level of hallway lighting.  Another resident also identified some repairs that were needed in the lobby areas.  Residents can make these suggestions for additional maintenance needs using BuildingLink’s work order system to alert the Management Office to the problems.   

Resident comment session:

·       Board minutes should be posted on BuildingLink and on the  bulletin Board.  Chris Wemple is working on ensuring that past and future documents will be posted. 

·       Regarding issues related to evacuating during a fire alarm, the office maintains a list of residents for Fire Department use who are unable to evacuate, BuildingLink has a capability for issuing notices to users about such emergencies and early September dates are being arranged for the County Fire Marshall to do both a daytime and an evening town hall-type meeting to educate residents about best procedures for responding to a fire alarm.

·       It was suggested that ECA management shift to using organic cleaners (especially for marble and brass cleaning which affect residents with pulmonary issues) and for weed control, both for environmental and health reasons.  Contractors who do this are available.

·       All notices of building meetings should list the date, time & location of the event.  This is especially important to encourage new residents to attend.

Summary of ECA Board Meeting June 26, 2018

Board Present: Makarand (Mak) Dehejia, Monique Fridell, Al Muller, Lyle Schwartz, Rhonda Taller, Christopher Wemple

Board Absent: Zlatan Beca

Others Present: ECA General Manager MaryAnn Hall, Assistant Manager Romaine Cureton, Jeremy Tucker (ECA legal counsel, Lerch Early & Brewer)

This summation will focus on highlights of the meeting. Mac Dehejia chaired this Board meeting.

Legal Report:

Legal counsel provided new information on building-wide non-smoking policies as is happening in other comparable Montgomery County, MD condominiums and co-ops (Grovesnor Park 2 & 3 and Promenade). The Board has directed him to draft new ECA rules to eliminate smoking in all common elements which include balconies and a new bylaw proposal to eliminate smoking in all units. The bylaw proposal was considered previously by the owners but did not pass. The rule proposal will be sent to all owners who will have 15 days to submit comments before the potential Board vote which is binding on the rule change. 

He will also draft the bylaw change which will be put to a vote by all owners.  It will include a grandfathering provision, which will likely have a town hall meeting about it before going to a positive vote of 60% of the total ownership in good standing to be approved. Another bylaw change be drafted for ownership consideration requiring owners to have insurance to cover damages not covered by the ECA master insurance policy as well as covering any required deductible if the damage starts in an individual unit. New Montgomery County law emphasizing that owners have adequate home-owners insurance to cover claims requires only a positive vote of 50% of the total ownership percentage. He said a new bylaw will be written to conform with new Montgomery County law emphasizing that owners have adequate home-owners insurance to cover claims.

Treasurer’s Report:

ECA Treasurer Lyle Schwartz reported that the Elizabeth is back on the desirable list regarding real estate sales and accessing mortgages and insurance. The Budget & Finance Committee has new leadership in Jimmy Whalen. The Committee is working on improving financial information packages to eliminate redundancy, improve clarity, and provide useful information to the Board for better decision-making. The Treasurer’s report, which is more detailed, will be accessible on BuildingLink.

Management Report:

Garage Project:

Step one (chain dragging, to find cement weakness that needs repair) will be completed June 28, 2018. Results show more work needed than expected on G-1 & G-4 but less work needed for G2 & G-3.

Step two (concrete repair) is expected to begin July 9. So far, our contractor CPR does not have the work permit needed from Montgomery County. CPR will use week of July 2 to bring in equipment and supplies.

Landscaping—Legend Landscaping will replace certain shrubs on the pool patio next week.

HVAC filters—Despite recent efforts to educate attendees in other monthly board meetings, the question continues to surface as to whether a suitable grade of HVAC filter is being supplied by the Association. The MERV 4 filters used by our maintenance staff is ideal for our purpose as long as they are changed every six months. Those wishing other MERV graded filter may choose to buy themselves and can get help from our staff in replacing the old filter at no charge.

Window washing—The window cleaners will return July 2-6 to correct any windows not properly washed this spring. The Fall window washing will take place November 1-2, 2018.

Fire Marshall Inspection—June 18 inspection was completed and passed. However, the Fire Marshall asked for: a door closer put on the Diving School door in the Arcade, trash chute door locks replacement on three different floors. Our GM is arranging meetings for Elizabeth residents to review what they should do when the fire alarm sounds and to ask questions.

More information may be seen in the June 26, 2018 Management Report which may be obtained in the office.

Communications Committee:

Celesta Jurkovich and Judy Gann are working on a review of existing Elizabeth rules on building-wide communications and use of public spaces in the building.  As a first step, they are surveying the policies of three other FH condos (4620, Carleton and Willoughby) to gather information about their experiences/rules on these topics.  The Carleton is also has begun reviewing their communication rules and their Board lead person on the project is interested in having ongoing contact.  They also use Building Link for communications.   

Gary Costello and Chris Wemple have also volunteered to get involved in the building communication issues, including restarting a regular newsletter for owners/residents.  However, to develop consensus concepts on each of these reviews and identify what is possible and practical for new initiatives, more Building owners and residents’ participation is needed.  It is likely these two projects will be split up as they move forward so volunteers can participate in whichever issue is of interest to them.   Anyone interested in participating in either of these reviews and research should contact Celesta Jurkovich, #1211 who is available at cjurkovich@verizon.net or 301-657-8134. 

Refurbishing Committee:

This group (Tobi Esler, Judy Gann, and Suzan Stafford) met to recommend immediate measures to spruce up the hallways. Five recommendations were made: replace chairs with benches (if there is a budget for a temporary fix), use uniform light bulbs throughout the property, repair wallpaper as needed, remove notices from tables, and procurement inexpensive centerpieces for these tables.

Other Items:

Car Charging Stations: The Board is again exploring the installation of electric car charging stations in the garage.  Information on the concept which was considered previously will be reviewed and costs involved will be determined as well how to charge those who would use such facilities

Owner Maintenance Requirements for HVAC Units: The Board also discussed distributing general information to all owners on appropriate unit owner maintenance requirements for HVAC units to avoid leak problems.

Summary of ECA Board Meeting May 22, 2018

Board Present: Zlatan Beca, Makarand (Mac) Dehejia, Monique Fridell, Al Muller, Lyle Schwartz, Rhonda Taller, Christopher Wemple

Others Present: ECA General Manager MaryAnn Hall, Assistant Manager Romaine Cureton, Jeremy Tucker (ECA legal counsel, Lerch Early & Brewer) and several CPR staff members

President’s Report:

ECA president Z Beca announced names of those heading up various committees:

—Budget & Finance: Jimmy Whalen

—Library: Stephanie Olshan

—Social: Judy Gann & Celesta Jurkovich

—Safety: Folake Funbunmi

—Newsletter: looking for additional members

Garage Project:

ECA General Manager provided a comprehensive report on the Garage Project and her notes were copied and put under every door in the Elizabeth the next day.

Here are some of the highlights of that report and other things learned:

Why it has to be done: There are serious structural problems that involve falling concrete and unseen holes in the concrete.

Frquency of such projects: CPR said the Elizabeth was very lucky that the last major repair was done 16 years ago. He indicated these kinds of repairs are required more frequently than that.

By-products of project: loud noise and dust. Lower floors will hear the noise more than upper floors.

The process involves 4 steps and will operate on multiple levels at a time:

—Chain dragging to find unseen holes in concrete (about 3 weeks).

—Concrete repairs (expected to start July 2 and depends on permit from Montgomery County)

—Application of coating to garage floor

—Paint vertical walls

Estimated duration of project: from June to early December.

Working crews: 2 crews working from 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday. (Noise starts at 9 am.)

No Guest Parking: beginning June 7, there will be no guest parking. It will be used to move cars out of work areas. 50 parking spaces will be worked on at a time.

Protecting your car: do not wipe concrete dust from your vehicle. It will scratch the paint. Notify GM and crew will use water spray to remove the dust. Plastic will not be issued to cover the cars. Move your car when asked and make arrangements for moving your car if you are on travel. Photos will be taken of your car before the project starts to establish baseline in case repairs are requested.

Work areas: Do not disturb working areas which will be established by plastic “curtains.”

Questions: go to ECA Management office. Do not approach workers—it will slow the process and you will not necessarily get correct information.

Communications: for the most part will be through BuildingLink.

Legal Report:

Legal counsel is preparing a bylaw amendment for building-wide non-smoking as is happening in other Montgomery County, MD condominiums.

Financial Report:

Since many financial activities have been moved in-house, the GM MaryAnn Hall has been able to recover additional funds.

Treasurer’s Report:

The ECA Treasurer Lyle Schwartz is calling for more input from the Budget & Finance Committee in advising the Board on a regular basis.

Management Report:

Landscaping—new spring flowers have been planted.

HVAC filters—GM Hall has researched the issue about the MERV rating. It is recommended that we continue to use MERV 4 filters and have them changed every 6 months. Higher MERV filters require more frequent change and may burn out the motor of the HVAC system if not properly attended to..

Window washing will be Saturday May 26 & Sunday May 27 just ahead of the garage project. Fall windowing washing will be in early November.

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Analysis of the Voting for 2018 Board Members

Because our voting system at The Elizabeth is a weighted vote such that the square footage of one's property and how high up the unit is located increases your points, it is hard to understand what the published percentage of the vote means. This year the six candidates, running for four positions on the Board, got these percentage points:

Winning Candidates
Wemple: 44.80
Schwartz: 44.34
Dehejia: 43.57
Taller: 40.82

Other Candidates
Schattman: 24.15
Bressler: 22.39

Because these numbers do not add up to 100%, we are fortunate to have Jim Jones translating these numbers.  Here is his pie chart which shows how the voting relates across the entire Association and in relation to the concept of one hundred percent.

What the picture shows is the majority of those voting supported the Board of Directors we already had since three of the winners had already been working Board members. This was not a close count for any of the candidates elected to the Board.

What is disturbing is that nearly 45% of the Association cast no vote at all. Owning property in Chevy Chase is no small investment. What elected Board members decide on behalf of the Association can make or break our property values as we saw when our reserve fund was spent down with Board approval.

Note: The 232 ballots cast includes parking spaces that are not counted in apartment ownership. This count does not figure in how Jim calculated the pie chart.

Jim  has also provided a graph showing Association member voting abstention rates from 2002 to 2018.

What this chart shows is that more votes were cast in 2009 than any other year during this 16 year period. What the downward trend (as documented by the red line) in Association members NOT voting might mean is that we have more rentals in the building and some of the owners of those rented units may be investors as opposed to people who formerly lived here or who intend to live here in the future. Off-site owners typically make little effort to vote.

New Board Members Elected

It's official, here are the winners in the order of most votes:

Christopher Wemple
Lyle Schwartz
Mak Dehejia
Rhonda Taller


More info will follow anon.

Kudos to Z Beca who provided a touch of levity to the annual meeting. I think it was the best annual meeting we ever had because everyone laughed at some aspect of what Z delivered.

Congratulations to the new Board. Thank you Connie Row for helping the Elizabeth do an amazing financial turn around.

Summary of ECA Board Meeting April 30, 2018

Board Present: Zlatan Beca, Makarand (Mac) Dehejia, Monique Fridell, Al Muller, Connie Row, Lyle Schwartz, Rhonda Taller

Others Present: ECA General Manager MaryAnn Hall, Assistant Manager Romaine Cureton, Jeremy Tucker (ECA legal counsel, Lerch Early & Brewer)

President’s Report:

ECA president Z Beca acknowledged this is the final meeting of this sitting board and the final meeting for Treasurer Connie Row who led the project to create a financial strategic plan which played a large role in turning around failing finances at the Elizabeth.

Beca urged Association members to vote carefully in the upcoming election saying, somewhat wryly, "If you elect a clown you get a circus."

During the next fiscal year, he would like to work on getting more people for the newsletter and for getting down complaints which is he says comes from 2% of the Association.

Financial and Treasurer’s Reports:

Connie Row presented both reports touting the work that has been achieved to turn around Association finances and saying she was very proud of the accomplishments by this board, the last board, the Budget and Finance Committee, and the General Manager MaryAnn Hall. She said the financial strategic plan should serve as a guide for the future and that she was very pleased that they could manage everything they hoped to achieve with just a 2% raise in the condo fee

Management Report:

Garage Project—CPR, the firm that will do the garage work, has received our letter of award and will start negotiations with Montgomery County to get their approval and necessary permits. The project is expected to run five to six months with three phases involving 50 parking spaces on different levels in each phase. Expect noise, dirt, and inconvenience but remember this must be done for everyone’s safety since there is concrete falling in the garage.

FY 2019 Budget—prepared for approval.

Insurance Renewal—We have moved into the primary insurance market with water deductible down from $100,000 to $15,000 per occurrence. No claims were submitted in 2017. The cost of our insurance is high (triple what we paid before our substantial water claims from 2014 through 2016). Factors making our insurance high are our recent five-year claims that include six large claims and our lack of a full sprinkler system throughout the building. We should get better rates if we continue to have a falloff in claims and this is based on a five-year review.

West Tower Patio Restoration—completed but an additional area of repair was found in the roof on either side of the entrance canopy. The repair will be under $5,000 and get done this week.

Annual Meeting—May 2, 2018 in West Lobby with registration beginning 6 pm. Meeting starts at 7:30 pm providing we have 51% quorum. Vote your proxy now and take it to the management office or vote at the meeting but be sure to vote.

Delinquencies—Given we now have a financial only contract with Gates Hudson, all delinquencies are being handled in the ECA management office.

Cooling Tower— standard spring cleaning and maintenance in advance of the summer heat was performed.

Marble and Metal Cleaning—completed.

Landscaping—new spring flowers will be planted the week of May 7.

HVAC filters—those wishing specific filters may request or self-purchase in advance of the six-month routine unit maintenance. Mak Dehejia explained that the MERV rating for filters in commercial buildings is 8, which is what the ECA supplies at no cost to each unit. More information: http://www.mechreps.com/PDF/Merv_Rating_Chart.pdf

New Business:

Al Muller questioned why there was a rise in office expenses. Our GM said past expenses reflected the overlap between our temporary office assistant and our new assistant manager as well as money paid to the former GM. New budget reflects a rise in expense to pay for paper, toner, and maintenance for excessive copying done by Association members in the business center.

Motions:

Unanimous approval of 2018-2019 operating and capital budget including a 2% condo fee increase, approved capital projects at $1.531 M including garage and hallways Phase I and pay down of loan principal by approximately $300,000.

Unanimous approval of building insurance Renewal for FY 2018-19.

Unanimous approval of three-year window washing contract.

Other Items:

Manougian Letter—Parts of the letter written by our master insurance broker Robin Manougian was read into the record. Monique Fridell asked for a copy of the letter to be included with the minutes and she said the EPipe project was instrumental in helping us get back into the insurance market at our lowest point. Rhonda Taller read the closing remarks of the letter which stated that Manougian knows of no other condominium that came back to the primary market as quick as the Elizabeth from its lapse to the secondary market. Again, much of this achievement has to do with the hard and smart work done by Connie Row as Treasurer, the Board support, the work done by the Budget and Finance Committee under Rhonda Taller, and the cost saving measures by our General Manager MaryAnn Hall.

Community News:

Muller reported that Parcel 6 briefing put on delay. There will be no briefing at the FHV center in May.

Owner Comments:

Schattman & his association with spending down the reserves—Marge McNerney said that Karren Alenier provided misleading information in her recent blog post on Steven Schattman who should not be blamed for spending down the reserves.

The blog post on Meet the Candidates (April 18, 2018) reads: “Steven Schattman bought into the Elizabeth in 1996. He was on the Board that voted to draw down the Reserve Fund to what became an historic low…”  My blog post of August 29, 2013  reads: “Reserve funds will be drawn down before loan funding is used.” Sitting board members were David Robinson, Ted Ariev, Jim Jones, John McNerney, Dr. Alfred Muller, Steven Schattman, Jim Vuko.

Here is what was recorded in the official ECA August 2013 minutes:

Mr. McNerney stated that Premier lending has approved ECA for a $5 million loan. The plan set for the maintenance, repair and replacement program, outlined that $3.25 million would be needed in the third year of the program, and then would decline after that. Mr. McNerney clarified that the Association would pay on only what is owed, and there would be no prepayment penalty. Interest costs will not incur until the loan begins.

A resident questioned what the dollar amount this loan will cost to the ECA. Mr. McNerney calculated that it would cost $600,000 for the 8-year period of the loan. The first 3 years would be interest only, and reserves would be drawn down before taking the loan. Dr. Muller added that although he does not favor borrowing, the Treasurer has obtained the best loan options. Mr. Santos stated that the longer some projects are put off, the more it costs the Association in repairs.

MOTION Mr. McNerney moved, and Mr. Schattman, seconded for the Board of Directors for the Elizabeth Condominium Association to enter into a loan agreement with Premier Association Lending in the principal amount of up to $5,000,000. The motion passed unanimously (7-0-0). 

Here is what was recorded in the official ECA October 2013 minutes (same board members):

 

Here’s how the paragraph reads:

On 15 October your association finalized a line of credit with Premier Association Lending in the amount of $5,000,000. Interest rate for the first 3 years is 3.9%. We only withdraw funds as needed for the improvement program, and we only pay interest on the amount provided to us. We anticipate that the first withdrawals will take place in the spring, after we have first drawn down our reserves.

Respectfully submitted:
John C. McNerney
Treasurer, Board of Directors, Elizabeth Condominium Association

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Handling of Proxy Ballots: An accusation was made that our General Manager was mishandling proxy ballots. GM Hall said proxies are deposited in a box in her office. Some are in envelopes and others not. Legal Counsel Jeremy Tucker said there was no direct evidence of any mishandling based on information he has received.

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