More on the Former Front Desk Staff

A number of people have expressed to me and others their dismay at the sudden dismissal of our Front Desk Staff. Brian Murphy wrote a letter to the ECA Board of Directors and got this reply from ECA Board President Steven Schattman.

There are a number of things to keep in mind as you read this.
--The elected board of directors is a volunteer group. In the recent elections, we had just enough volunteers to cover vacant board positions. The job is not easy and there is a guarantee that for every decision, there will be many people who will disagree and be unhappy. What can be done? You can run for the Board in the spring of 2015.
--One of the biggest jobs that the board takes on is managing the financial resources that we as an association entrust to the board. The fact is the Association is spending a lot of money to bring this building back to the original standards required of a luxury high-rise dwelling. It is very painful to have to make changes but especially to the staff we have employed for years. But what do you do when jobs are not getting done because the system in place is not working? Do you ignore the situation or take action? How do you know what action to employ? What do you think happens when personnel decisions are opened up to a large group--that is, if this were possible?
--Yes, perhaps there was another way to address the problems of our Front Desk Staff that would have been less shocking for everyone but I bet behind close doors some of these concerns were actually discussed with our legal counsel, Legum & Norman  managers, and officials of other condos that faced this kind of situation.

 The letter from Steve Schattman:

Let me address the fact that the decision to outsource the front desk staff was made in Executive session not in an open meeting. The Board is under certain legal obligations when it comes to personnel. There are confidentially requirements. In the entire 40 year history of the association personnel issues have always been dealt with in Executive session. The disposition of a new Chief Engineer was an entirely different set of circumstances as it did not deal with existing personnel rather a potential hire.

 

With regards to the decision itself, it was not made in the Executive session following Tuesday’s meeting. It was made some time ago. Several months were required to complete the preparation for the changeover. There were a number of issues that needed to be settled first including severance pay for the affected employees. Just so you are aware these people were not simply shoved out the door and waved goodbye to. Every one of them received a generous severance package. As we speak, our Management company Legum & Norman is working to place several of them in positions at other properties they manage. We were not heartless thugs.

 

If you will allow me I will give you a brief history of what lead to this decision. I believe after reading this you will come to understand this was not a hasty, shoot from the hip decision.

 

It is no secret that our operating expenses are very high. This puts a strain on the finances of the Association especially given the 10 year renovation project now under way. Approximately two years ago the then President of the Board asked L&N to do an analysis of our operating expenses and offer recommendations as to how to reduce them. The first problem area identified was our utility costs. L&N, mostly Jim Santos, worked diligently to reduce them. They were successful. Notwithstanding the fact that utility costs have gone up ours are now lower than they were two years ago. The second problem area they identified was our staffing costs. They were way out of line for a building and community of this size. The main culprits were insurance and overtime. The single biggest staffing problem was the Front desk. We were in a catch 22 if you will. The desk was understaffed causing massive amounts of overtime. Adding personnel would have driven already out of line insurance costs through the roof. The suggested solution was to employ a concierge company to man the front desk. The transition to a concierge company saves the Association a minimum of $50,000.00 a year.

 

This was not a quick nor hasty decision by the Board. We had L&N identify three suitable companies to take over this task. Early in the year they were brought in to make presentations to the Board. The who now mans the front desk was selected as the best option. Debate continued and a decision was put off until the new Board was formed in May. Additional research was conducted. Several Board members including Ms. Bobb and Ms. Batey visited buildings that employed the service. Sometimes they announced themselves, other times they went incognito to see what kind of reception they received. Board members from other Associations were contacted to ascertain their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the service. Finally the decision was made to forward with this in June.

 

In a very short time allowing for a learning curve to be digested, I honestly believe that in addition the monetary savings you will see a much more efficient and higher level of service from the front desk. Within a very short time frame a plethora of new services will be available to the residents of the Elizabeth.    

 

Several people were unhappy with the abruptness of the changeover but we felt this was the most humane and efficient way to do it. The Board was elected to represent the owners. It is not an easy job and as Ms. Batey pointed out in last Tuesday’s meeting, the pay sucks! The Board acted in what it felt was the best interests of the Association. Difficult decisions have been made over the last several months but because  of them our future financial picture is  looking much better. Quite frankly every time we make a decision no matter what it is there are always 20 owners who are firmly convinced we’re idiots and they have 40 reasons for believing that. Regrettably that’s just a fact of condominium life.                

   

 

Steven Schattman

Change in Front Desk Coverage—Questions & Answers

Background:

On August 28, 2014, the Elizabeth front desk staff was dismissed.

The Board of Directors decided to “outsource the front desk function to a concierge service in order to provide more expanded front office coverage for our owners and a resident [sic] in what the Board believes is a more cost-effective manner.” A notice was put under the doors of all the apartments.

Why wasn’t this decision announced at the August 26, 2014, board meeting?

The front desk staff had not been notified at that time and our legal counsel had to review various aspects of this change.

What will happen or did happen to the dismissed employees?

They were notified the morning of August 28 and given severance packages. Some of the employees will be offered other positions at other Legum & Norman managed properties.

Why did the ECA Board decide to do this?

Progressively, we have noticed that our front desk services were deteriorating. Often we were seeing other service or staff people sitting at the front desk and most of these folks like a Securitas guard, engineers, maintenance crew members were not trained to help people coming to the desk for service. And this kind of substitution was happening for needed and authorized breaks for our front staff.

When sudden needs for substitutes occurred (for example illness), management had to pull others from their own work assignments and we as an Association ended up double paying for this disrupted service.

According to James Santos whom I spoke with this morning, there will be as much as $40,000 per year savings with this new arrangement.

Who is the new service provider and what can we expect?

NFC Amenity Management is an 8-year-old firm providing professional concierge service in the Greater DC area. The staff manager Sam Gras and his regional manager were on duty this morning August 28.

We can expect complete coverage including when the front desk concierge takes a break. We can expect courteous and efficient service. And remember there is a transition period not only for the NFC Amenity staff assigned to the Elizabeth but also until we get our new Building Link services up and running. However, the quality of service should match any concierge service experienced in a high-rise luxury condo such as the Elizabeth.

Were other concierge services considered?

Yes, but I don’t recall the details. The memo sent out does describe the procedure and measures that our management office employed to find us the best service. This includes such things as interviewing the vendors, going into the field to see these vendors at work, and interviewing references.

Who can answer my questions about this change of front desk staff?

Check with our General Manager Terry Lee or our Regional Manager Jim Santos.

When did Karren Alenier find out about this change?

When I got the notice under my door.

Summary of ECA Board Meeting August 26, 2014

Board Present: Steven Schattman, Patricia Batey, Sharon Bobb, Jim Jones, McNerney, Dr. Alfred Muller, John McNerney, Jim Vuko

Others Present: ECA General Manager Terrence Lee, Legum & Norman Regional Manager James Santos

Treasurer’s Report: First time in 4 years that the treasury has a surplus.

Comment from Dr. Muller: Financial Committee needs to take this into account that we did not need a 4% condo increase.

Management Report

Adverse possession—unit c16 now belongs to the ECA – judicial decision.

Lack of light in the arcade – due to scaffolding. We will install some temporary lighting.

New parking regulations are being observed on G1.

Terry Lee commends the unit owners of the 07 tier for getting their apartments ready for window installation.

Report from Ken Kosteva

Now at a point for producing a meaningful schedule for window and balcony door replacement. He hopes to have the new schedule August 27.

By Tier

07-17—expects the window-door installation done in November.

18-06—expects the window-door installation done in early 2015

Next week:

Increasing window replacement crew. There will be as many as 20 people working on site. Deliveries being made on a regular basis.

New windows –issue with trim pieces in the 07 tier – deals with dry wall inside the unit and how the trim pieces were cut in advance. Had to do custom fitting for 07. Now the cutting will be done as the window is fitted for installation.

Rita Miller (unit 607) very pleased with the installation.

Some of the upper units in the 07 tier have a problem with the trim pieces and now blinds do not fit. Kostevia said they will do level best to fix the problem.

Screens will be installed after the complete window installation is done in that whole tier. This is a measure to protect the screens. Screens will be installed from the exterior.

Level of noise will last well into 2015. They hope to finish balcony work by mid December but that is not clear.

Using dustless grinder but this is not totally effective for holding down the dust.

All work must be done in sequence. So travel plans cannot stop the work.

Curing for balcony repair – takes 30 days!

Committee Report

Social Committee – Julie Cantor, Lydia Clary – new co-chairs.

Old Business

Discussion about hiring a consultant to coordinate communications, surveillance (including Building Link system) They have identified this consultant MR&R. Board approved this consultant.

Discussion on Building Link:

Request work, Track work order, great notification system on the web or will print out a paper copy.

False fire alarm – Terry will be able to push a button to send a canned phone message. Will be a screen in the mailbox corridor. All sorts of info – bus schedule in Village, packages, weather, etc. screen will be customized for our building. Motion passed.

Approved replacement equipment for hot water system.

Approved Heat Pumps on G-2 & G-4

Hiring of Chief Engineer by Legum & Norman

The Board after extensive discussion and comments from those attending this board meeting, decided in a vote of 4 to 3 to move the chief engineer position to Legum & Norman. There were compelling arguments on both sides.

--This puts the chief engineer under L&N management.

--This will be less costly for ECA.

--No candidate interviewed wanted to live in the building. After hours emergencies will have to be handled in other ways.

--Prime candidate is described as a super star who will undoubtedly move on after several years.

--It was generally agreed that it would be extremely rare to find another engineer like Jimmy Keeting. 

Deciding to Replace your HVAC Systems

--This is additional information as follow up to the post I made titled:

Fancoil Units (HVAC) Replacement 

I have also added some information about the the schedule of balcony repairs and window and door replacement, since all these major improvements impact living conditions.

Advantages of getting new HVAC systems

It's a big decision about buying new HVAC system because they cost a significant amount of money and the installation will interrupt daily living. Going with the group buy will save you as an indiviudal money and should also help stablize our condo fees in the long run with better energy efficiency.

1.     Accurate control over the temperature in your apartment.

2.     Significant energy savings.

3.     Reduce chance of unexpected problems that might effect your apartment and apartments below yours.

4.     Increase your property value.

5.     Reduced cost per HVAC unit if the decision is made now to take advantage of the group purchase and its discount.

How the installation works

1.     The contract is between you and Quality Air.

2.     Quality Air will coordinate with ECA management and determine which tier goes first.

3.     It’s about 10 weeks to manufacture the HVAC units which have been spec’d by our contracting engineer firm Mendoza based on various building requirement. The first installations are expected in October 2014.

4.     Vertical units (installed inside a wall) take about 2 days. If there are problems with ECA piping behind the HVAC, the contractor will fix it but the charge will be paid from ECA funds. There might be an extra day needed.

5.     Horizontal units take a day to install.

6.     Heating-cooling shutdowns would affect every apartment within a tier. If your apartment has two HVAC units there would be two separate shutdowns. If you apartment has three HVACs, there would be three separate shutdowns. These shutdowns will affect even those apartments not installing new HVACs.

.   

Did You Know:

1.     For years, some of the original McQuay HVACs (now over 40 years old) have been leaking heat even when you think the unit was turned off? For years, I thought I was getting radiated heat from neighboring apartments. No, said our chief building engineer Jimmy Keeting, the unit was leaking heat.

2.     Yes, it is possible to get the building engineer to manually close the valve to stop the leaking heat but this further limits the “life” of your old HVAC as well as making you dependent on the aid of the engineer.

 Service and Maintence:

--This is up to the individual owners.

--You will want to ask Quality Air Services for contract information.

What you need to know about the schedule of balcony repairs and window and door replacement.

1.     If you have a balcony, there are 9 separate sequential activities that have to be fully completed before your tier has been totally updated. For apartments with no balcony there are seven activities. Currently there are ten tiers being worked on. It takes on average over 90 working business days to complete the nine activities. The backside of the building, Phase I of the balcony-window-door project, is estimated to take 224 days to complete from start to finish. Phase II is the front side with a similar estibmate of time.

2.     The 07 tier will be the first tier to be completed followed rapidly by 08 which has no balcony and will go through fewer activities and therefore take less time to finish.

3.     Once windows and doors are delivered for the 07 tier, it will much easier for our General Manager to provide a better idea about the scheduling of other tiers. He expects these windows to arrive the end of July (one week behind the original schedule).

4.     Once a tier has been fully inspected and deemed complete, the scaffolding with be moved to a tier on the front of the building. The scaffolding will not come back to a completed tier.

Summary of ECA Board Meeting July 22, 2014

Board Present: Steven Schattman, Patricia Batey, Sharon Bobb, Jim Jones, Dr. Alfred Muller, John McNerney, Jim Vuko

Others Present: ECA General Manager Terrence Lee, Legum & Norman Regional Manager James Santos

Highlights from the July 22, 2014meeting:

Window & Door Replacement

Window and balcony door replacement on Tier 07 has been delayed by a week by the manufacturer. Expected delivery now scheduled for the week of July 27, 2014. It takes five to twelve days to complete a tier depending on the level of complexity and timing. The company doing the installations has a one year period to complete the work but it was unclear whether there are any contractual penalties if they feel to meet that schedule. Terry Lee will be visiting the plant in New Jersey on August 28.

ECA Chief Engineer Is Retiring

Jimmy Keating, our ECA Chief Engineer, will be retiring as of the end of August. There is some discussion that he will consult with the Elizabeth on an as needed basis. Interviews are being conducted now to hire a new chief engineer. This change of personnel could potentially impact our major improvement projects, including replacement of HVAC units within individual apartments.

Design Committee Decides Against LCD Screens

Deeming the LCD screen expensive, unattractive and easily outdated, the Design Committee has nixed purchase and use of LCD screens in the lobby. LCD screens were to be used for owner notifications, like package delivery and emergency conditions.

Website Project

The recommendation is to use the Building Link service that has many advantages. The service would be available within the Elizabeth and not made public as it would be in the Internet. It offers package notification, secure key keeping, a work order system, an emergency communication system, a calendar, newsletter function, databases for documents like meeting minutes and condo documents, etc. The system is user friendly. In our neighborhood Somerset House uses the system. The Board has approved a plan to get an ECA briefing for all owners and residents in the near future.

Major Building Equipment Approved

The ECA Board unanimously approved two separate purchases for replacing an air handling unit and retention tanks. The major contention was that alternative bids had not been collected though ECA General Manager Lee felt sure he was getting the best price and quality for these purchases.

Accessible Doors in the Arcade

An arcade owner asked for accessible doors to placed in the Arcade. ECA General Manager Lee said he was working on this for compliance with ADA requirements.

Parking

The continuing problems of guests and commercial use of guest parking was brought to the Board’s attention by Charles Bressler. ECA General Manager Lee said the problem was exacerbated by construction workers using some of the spaces and that he would like funding to move ECA employees cars temporarily into paid parking.

Fancoil Units (HVAC) Replacement

FANCOIL UNITS (HVAC) REPLACEMENT

Background

Every ECA owner is responsible for replacing the heating and cooling units (HVAC) within their apartments.

The original units are still in most of the Elizabeth condo apartments and have outlived their life expectancy.

Here are some links that discuss HVAC life expectancy which seems to be 15 years, though with luck and proper maintenance most last much longer than 15 years. Our general manager has said our old McQuay units had a life expectancy of 30 years but now these units are 40 years old.

http://www.jonwayneair.com/blog/2011/12/06/what-is-the-typical-life-span-for-heating-and-cooling-systems-how-to-prepare-for-replacement/

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hvac/msg0520020714253.html

Old HVAC systems can fail without the owners realizing it. The individual fancoil (HVAC system) may continue to provide modest amounts of heat or a/c even when your thermostat says the system is off. This happens since the heated or chilled water from the building's central plant is still circulating through the "coil" of the individual HVAC devices in your condominium. The valves controlling the flow of heated or chilled water must be in working condidtion or the different temperature waters will mix and the fancoil unit will not perform as designed. Manual manipulation of the  valves, by the in-house staff, has been the past method of extending the life and performance of the fancoil units. But this procedure defeats the purpose of the thermostat and is usually inconvenient to the occupants of the apartment.

Issues with HVAC Systems

HVAC systems can be noisy depending on how much insulation surround the unit and how the unit operates in general. There is the sound of the fan blowing, and the sound when the unit turns on.

HVAC may be free standing or installed inside a wall. Vertical units are large and are typically installed inside a wall while the freestanding horizontal units are hopefully installed in an out of the way spot against a wall. Installation of the vertical units requires opening up a wall and usually removing an old unit. This is the time to ensure that the pipes are properly insulated and that all is well with your unit hooking into the overall heating-cooling system that operates throughout the condo building.

The Daikin-McQuay units that have been recommended by our ECA Boards with assistance from our Legum & Norman managers have been vetted as quality units. Most HVAC systems are made by one manufacturer and then customized for various vendors. Quality Air Services, the company coordinating our HVAC replacements, does not promote one vendor over another.

Two other options that have come to the attention of some ECA members are units by a vendor known as International. They are offering a comparable unit to the Daikin-McQuay unit and something called a cartridge unit. Both of these units have a larger metallic facing than the Daikin-McQuay unit, particularly in regard to the height of the air return grill.

The cartridge unit uses the old casing that exists with the old HVAC.  Using the old casing can cause problems in the future because there is no opportunity to examine the pipes that hook into the overall heating-cooling system. Also there is no opportunity to examine the casing itself to see if it is corroded from past leaks. While the installation costs may be lower for cartridge units, future problems with the pipes behind the casing would obviate any saving realized. There is a free-standing but unhooked up cartridge unit in the ECA management office.

The International unit most like the Daikin-McQuay unit could possibly be quieter than the Daikin-McQuay unit but it is likely to cost more since quantity pricing has not been organized for this option. The Quality Air Representative says that this International unit is comparable in quality to the Daikin-McQuay unit. Anyone interested in this option should contact Quality Air to learn how to see and experience this unit.

About the Unit Installed in the Management Office

The Daikin-McQuay  unit is installed in the wall in the ECA Management Office. When this unit was originally installed the front cover was not properly secured and this caused more noise in the operation of the HVAC unit. That problem was fixed.

Things to Know about Group Purchase Versus Single Owner Purchase

Purchasing new HVAC units is up to each unit owner. Unit owners are not required to purchase replacement HVACs. The decision to do so is entirely up to the owners.

Group purchase brings down the price of the selected units. The target number of HVAC units that need to be purchased is 250 (HVAC) units to achieve the price break. (Note that some apartments have more than one fancoil units.) The Quality Air representative feels certain that this goal will be met based on the current level of contracts received (7/16/14).

Installation requires that an entire vertical tier must be interrupted for heat and cooling service during installation of HVAC units. This means that single purchases that are installed at a time not compatible with installation of the group buy of  Daikin-McQuay  units will cause additional inconvenience to other residents of the tier.

The target date for signing up for group purchase (July 31) is coordinated with an October-November installation schedule to minimize the inconvenience of heat-cooling shutdowns as well as give the manufacturer ample time to produce the units. (Installation of HVACs during the coldest or hottest months may be a hardship depending on the weather.)

Financing

Credit cards may be used for the initial deposit and subsequent completion of payment. However, you must contact the Quality Air Service representative (Vicky Liderman) at 301-495-9500 x100 to request and arrange credit card payment. Your card will not be charged until Quality Air has received your signed and dated contract, which shows how much the units for your apartment will cost. Send your signed and dated contract to:

Quality Air Services

12288-I Wilkins Avenue

Rockville, MD 20852

The deadline is July 31, 2014.