Highlights from Town Hall Meeting on Smoke-Free Housing

Highlights from Town Hall Meeting on Smoke-Free Housing
November 10, 2015

The Smoking Exploratory Committee invited William Tilburg, JD, Deputy Director of the Legal Resource Center for Public Health at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law to speak about Smoke-Free Housing: Legal Issues and Implications.

Mr. Tilburg came right to the point—condominiums depending on their articles and bylaws are within their rights to impose an entirely smoke-free environment.

This means in the best case scenario:
—The condo association has a bylaw prohibiting smoking within the individual units (if so desired) and/or on balconies (if so desired). Maryland state law already prohibits smoking in common areas like hallways and lobbies.
—A smoke-free environment can be established through house rules but this is not the best method since it would be much easier to overturn the rules. The Elizabeth has a bylaw that addresses noxious odors but this is not sufficient.
—In a law suit, a condo has these conditions to back up imposing a smoke-free environment: second-hand smoke is a recognized health hazard and smoking is a leading cause of fires.

In the last year, there are already two condo associations within Maryland that have imposed a totally smoke-free environment. One has grandfathered several unit owners to avoid prolonged lawsuits. The estimated time for establishing a smoke-free environment is about one year.

And for the record, there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that guarantees the right to smoke. Prohibition of smoking is not covered under the laws governing privacy.

This Town Hall meeting was attended by approximately 35 people. Mr. Tilburg said he would be happy to return for any further educational purposes. The essentials including his talk and a Q&A ran about one hour. Kudos to the Smoking Exploratory Committee for an informative well run meeting.

Summary of ECA Board Meeting November 27, 2015

Board Present: Sharon Bobb, Patricia Batey, Clifford Cohen, Peg Downey, Jim Jones, John McNerney, Steven Schattman

Others Present: ECA General Manager Terry Lee; Legum & Norman Regional Manager James Santos; Jeremy Tucker, Lerch Early and Brewer

Highlights of the meeting:

Duct cleaning in individual apartments will take 3-5 days to complete once it is scheduled. Management is working on obtaining discounted prices for unit owners who wish to have AmeriClean clean the ducts in their individual units.  Management will make that information available shortly.  Unit owners wishing to take advantage of the discounted price will be invoiced separately.

Access problem to resident garage door was caused by a burned out laser reader. The part responsible for the door being blocked had to be ordered, which is why the door was blocked for so many days.

Out-of-order Garage elevator— a part is on order. The Board asked if is this covered in the contract ECA has with Otis. General Manager Terry Lee said probably the labor is covered but not the part.

Two motions unanimously passed. One motion was to change to LED lights [in the garage and associated stairwells) for a cost of $15,000.  The energy savings would result in a payback of that cost in two years or less.  The other motion was to remove sections of domestic hot water pipes in tiers that have had pinhole leaks or tiers with pipes that showed erosion in 2012.  Highly eroded pipes are susceptible to pinhole leaks. The sections removed will be sent out for testing to determine the extent of erosion and to guide us in effective treatment.  14 samples from the East and West towers will be tested.

Committee Reports

Conversation with Board October 24 addressed issues with pool use and pool temperature. This is resulting in a survey on pool usage and why some folks don't use the pool.

Design Committee has an upcoming meeting November 2.

Budget is reviewing ways of presenting the budget and finance matters to make it easier for people to understand— perhaps pie charts.

Ad hoc smoking committee is having a presentation by an attorney with U MD Law Center on Nov 10 in the West Lobby to discuss legal issues associated with smoking in a high-rise building. Also, survey questionnaire has been distributed and results will be analyzed and tabulated in a few weeks and provided to all residents.

RFP Committee—work nearly done.

Special report that Compared the Elizabeth to other condos in Friendship Heights—Barbara Pollack went over her report since there were some questions about the process and emphasis.

Thanks to attending neighbors for helping me prepare this summary of highlights.

Notes from the ECA Town Hall Meeting on ePIPE, October 6, 2015

Board Members present: Sharon Bobb, Pat Batey, Peg Downey, Jim Jones, John McNerney

http://www.restoremypipes.com

As an alternative to re-piping (tearing out walls to replace failed domestic water pipes) in the Elizabeth, a vendor named ePIPE gave a presentation to a large number of ECA members.

ePIPE benefits include:

—Patented epoxy that lines old pipes to close pinhole leaks.

—No walls need to be torn out unless the pipe is beyond repair.

—Relatively low cost because construction costs are diminished since walls, ceilings, and floors are not torn out. Price is 20 to 50% cheaper than re-piping.

—Epoxy lining dries in two hours and water goes back on the same day in most cases.

—The process is quiet unlike re-piping.

—ePIPE process restores water flow. (This happens in the pipe-cleaning phase of the process.)

—Rust is removed from the pipe that causes water to turn brown. ECA may not have this problem.

—Accreditations by NSF (The Public Health and Safety Organization) http://www.nsf.org/regulatory/regulator-nsf-certification

  and IAMPMO (http://pld.iapmo.org/file_info.asp?file_no=0004058)

http://www.iapmo.org/pages/getcertified.aspx

—Process is done in short runs and in a building like the Elizabeth, it is done tier by tier.

—Environmentally safe and causes no change in water quality (does not cause water to taste strange). The epoxy is solvent free.

—Comes with a 10-year warranty while new pipe comes with a one-year warranty.

ePIPE caveats:

—Bathroom and kitchen renovations may require consultation with ePIPE representative. Sweating of pipes is not permitted because high temperatures will damage the epoxy lining. Every valve is tagged warning that this pipe may not be soldered.

—Better to do ePIPE process before pinhole leaks become pervasive.

More information: http://www.restoremypipes.com

Neighboring condominiums that have used ePIPE and report satisfaction with the service:

—The Carlton

—Somerset 1

Major Competitor:

CuraFlo from Arizona. Does not offer two-hour curing.

10/4/15 Town Hall Meeting on Property Management RFP Process

Board Members present: Sharon Bobb, Pat Batey, John McNerney

Folake Fabunmi, a member of the RFP Committee currently reviewing proposals from property management companies, presented an overview of the RFP process. Then questions and comments were invited from Association members. Here are some of the highlights.

Communications between the residents, owners (onsite and off), Board, and management company was commented on and emphasized in a variety of ways. Association members are interested in timely responses to their inquiries (whether done through email, BuildingLink, and/or phone calls) from a management company and some, though not all, were interested in more use of BuildingLink, our web-based service. Most agreed that communications should be done in a variety of ways to ensure that everyone can expect to receive timely information. This would include paper, email, BuildingLink, elevator notices, etc. In particular, the management company should follow up on issues reported to front desk and have clear procedures to encourage office/front desk coordination.

Financial Management was a matter of big concern. Such concerns voiced included:

—Integrating the financials with the maintenance budget and improvement plan (MR&R capital improvement plan); communicating on budget matters more clearly, especially dealing with condo fees.

—Presenting financial information in as simple a way possible so that everyone can understand.

—Budgeting and accounting for capital expenditures and appropriately tracking variances need to be emphasized.

—Understanding how to manage and update a capital management plan, such as the one the Elizabeth is currently undergoing.

—Understanding the management company’s responsibility in the procurement processes done on behalf of the Association, especially when the management company has made a vendor recommendation.

—Acquiring a robust database for daily updated and integrated information to provide custom reports as needed.

Human Resources. A number of questions were raised, particularly around the issue of keeping our current property management company. Some people advocated for keeping the Legum & Norman to maintain continuity with the employees.

—Can we keep some of the current employees if Legum & Norman is not selected as the ECA property management company?

—Can we give some points to Legum & Norman given their work on the capital improvement projects that the Elizabeth has completed?

—What are the trade offs between having a general manager who works directly for the ECA versus one who works for the property management company? The focus should be on competence.

—Can we start doing annual evaluations of property management personnel who work for the ECA?

Other areas of concern for our next property management team:

— Record Keeping.  There should be a clear record of current residents and owners in the building.

—Rentals. Ability of the management company to work proactively with the Board in an advisory capacity, especially around the topic of limiting the number of rentals in the building.

—Teamwork among management, Board and residents.

For the record, in the six years that Legum & Norman has been our management company, they have never been evaluated. While L&N has been in our employ, they have been given salary increase without annual performance evaluations.

Summary of ECA Board Meeting September 29, 2015

Board Present: Sharon Bobb, Patricia Batey, Clifford Cohen, Peg Downey, Jim Jones, John McNerney (by phone), Steven Schattman

Others Present: ECA General Manager Terry Lee, Legum & Norman Regional Manager James Santos, ECA legal counsel Jason Fisher

What follows are highlights from the meeting.

President’s Report

—Executive meetings of the Board were stated with dates and purpose including mention of a meeting with our concierge service provider NFC to ensure that they stabilize staff and reduce the rapid turnover at our front desk.

—The Request for Proposal (RFP) process was discussed in light of petitions being signed to keep the current property management company (Legum & Norman) and bypass the RFP process, which is mandated, by good business practice and fiduciary responsibilities of the ECA Board members.

—Second Town Hall meeting on the property management company RFP process scheduled for Sunday October 4 from 4 to 6 pm.

—Town Hall meeting on building pipes Tuesday October 6 from 7-8 pm.

—More bids collected on duct cleaning companies relative to common area systems (as opposed to duct cleaning inside individually owned units).

Special Report.

Barbara Pollack collected data from area condominiums and produced a stunning report that compares the Elizabeth to other condos in Friendship Heights. The bottom line is that average condo fee per square foot is well within average condo fees charged in other condos.

That said, it is not an exact science because every condo association in the neighborhood is different from ours and how condo fees are calculated varies from association to association. For example, the ECA has 353 residential units and 13 commercial while the closest comparison is 4620 North Park with 292 units. Like the ECA, 4620 includes utilities in their condo fees, owners own their own parking, and has an average condo fee per square foot only pennies lower (4620: $.63 vs. ECA: $.67). However, the Elizabeth has amenities and services that 4620 doesn’t have like an indoor pool, guest parking, etc.  and 4620 had a $13,000-$14,000 assessment per unit in the early 1990s while ECA has never had any assessments.

Of more concern is that the Elizabeth’s price per square foot is the lowest among buildings surveyed. Those buildings surveyed include 4620, the Carleton, Somerset I, and the Willoughby. This is again a wakeup call to continue our capital improvement projects, improve maintenance and address problems with leaks as well as get our percent of rented units under control.

General Manager’s Report:

—Humidity problems are cropping up in apartments with new HVACs but the problem also involves a tighter building envelope subsequent to renovations. Management is working with contractors Mendoza, Quality Air, and Daikin to resolve the problems.

—Installation of an ADA power-assisted door at East lobby and arcade.

—Work continues on the domestic hot water system with upper and lower system piping installed and electrical work completed. Projected completion last week of October 2015.

Board actions:

—House Rules amended for a $500 elevator usage moving-in fee and $200 elevator usage moving-out fee (of which $75 may be refunded if no damage is confirmed). (Unanimous approval)

—Installation of vibration isolators to the domestic water piping by Densel Company to eliminate vibration noise, amount not to exceed $15,912.

—Approval to hire Eric Cunningham as a part-time Live-on maintenance technician under the Legum & Norman contract.

—Approval of corridor duct cleaning by AmeriClean, a fully vetted company.

Petition to keep Legum & Norman as the ECA property management company. A petition with 100 signatures was presented to the ECA Board. You may want to ask each Board member if he or she signed this petition. Note: Board members are obligated under their fiduciary responsibilities to put aside their personal opinions to support the RFP process currently underway, which is looking at what property management companies have to offer.

Committee Reports:

Fitness- equipment will need to be replaced and needs to be factored into the next budget.

Library-Committee is planning a book giveaway after the November Board meeting.

Making a Difference-Volunteers being solicited to continue work of making knitted and crocheted items in preparation for the holiday gift-giving event targeted for the homeless.

Ad-hoc Committees

Smoking—Speakers are being scheduled on topics of interest. Dates and times will be announced for this fall.

Management Company RFP—The four members continue their review of proposals sent by vetted property management companies. Each review takes about 18 hours (4 hours by each committee member and at least two in a group meeting). Results will be turned over to the ECA Board and the Board will check references, conduct interviews, and make site visits as required.

Newsletter—a new edition of the newsletter has been published and can be obtained in paper or online through BuildingLink.

Web—Pat Batey has posted the RFP for Property Management Services FAQs and the latest newsletter on BuildingLink.