In Attendance 

George Pauley, President; Carlos Vargas, 1st Vice President; Sandra Goldberg, Secretary; Laura Cossa, Treasurer; Steve Hanna, Property Supervisor; Tim Patricio, Property Manager; Mavis Mather, Assistant Manager Business Operations; Jacquie Kozinski, Temporary Assistant Manager Security Operations

Absent

Phoebe Helm, 2nd Vice President

Call to Order at 7:38 pm

Unit Owner Comments Regarding Agenda

Robert Laskov – I wanted to find out what the update is on the outside caulking inspection.  I had a lot of water damage yesterday.  When I moved in the building 16 years ago I had a terrible problem in my unit with water damage in the rain.  After the caulking I never had a problem again and now its back just like it was years ago.  It was really bad yesterday and I had 7 windows that had water pouring into the apartment.

George Pauley stated that the project 15 years ago was a major project.  It was much more extensive than just the caulking.  We spent $4million on that project.  Nothing had really been done with inspecting the windows since then.  We as a Board approved the expense for testing of the windows this summer.  We are going to be doing some drops and water testing.  This will be about $75,000 that we approved for the summer.  After this is done then we will have a better understanding as to what is occurring with the water infiltration and what we need to do to repair it.  This was a high priority item when the Board was elected.

What is the responsibility when I have water damage?

Tim Patricio stated that if a resident has water damage, please contact us and we will send someone up to inspect it.

The water comes pouring down from my blinds so they are rusting out now.  If I had hardwood floors they would be totally warped.  This is the fourth flood that I have had this year.

Tim Patricio stated that there were a couple of units where there is water penetration when there is a storm like that with wind blowing at that type of velocity.  We do anticipate that over the next couple Board meetings there will be activities that the Board will be approving related to that project to inspect and hopefully resolve the water infiltration on several tiers that have been reported to us.  Your tier is one of the tiers that are on the list for inspections to try to identify the problems.

We used to send out a flyer notice to the tenants that during the spring and summer, when you leave your apartment to please close your windows.  When we have a flash flood or bad rainfall, when people leave their windows open it comes through those windows and trickles down several floors.  When we had that rain last week it was just that one window that I was getting water in because someone higher had left their windows open.

George Pauley asked if Mr. Laskov called the front desk to request maintenance.

I called maintenance but what can they do?

George Pauley stated that they could check each apartment above for an open window, I had maintenance at my door one night at 3:00am because the people three floors below me were getting water in their unit.  I knew my windows weren’t open but needed to check and see if there was water going down.  Also if people are at work and realize that their windows are open, they can call the office and the office will send someone up to close the window.

You might want to send out a reminder about that.

Tim Patricio stated that it was a good idea and thanked Mr. Laskov for his suggestion.

George Pauley stated that the major issue was that they had spent all that money many years ago, it was caulking, but it was far more extensive in terms of rebuilding portions of the spandrel.  Since then there has been no maintenance done.  We have made a decision that we want regular maintenance, but the first piece that we need to find out is how bad it is and how much it is going to cost.

I am only bringing it up because it was so bad.  Then I had no problem at all and now it’s like it was 15 years ago.

George Pauley stated that his guess is that since there has been no maintenance for 15 years the caulking is bad.  We are hoping it is not more than that.  We will be spending a good chunk of money this summer to investigate this.

When they did the investigation last time they had us put X’s on our windows with masking tape so that they could inspect those windows when inspecting for leakage.

George Pauley stated that Tim Patricio would be sending out a survey to all the units.

Tim Patricio stated that one of the first steps would be sending out a survey to the 05, 06, and 11 tier probably within the next 30-60 days.  This will allow you to identify the windows where you are having problems.  This will help the engineer in their data collection for the inspection.  Once they are out there they will have that information and be able to identify those windows from the survey as well as other problems.

June Baker – What, if anything, is being done about installing an automatic door to the laundry room?  Another quick question is how do we stand with foreclosures in this building?

Tim Patricio stated that the laundry room door was one of the doors that was looked at with the accessibility project that is about to start with the garage.  The first phase will be the improvements to the concrete ramps, which is anticipated to start within the next week and a half.  When we bid out the project we bid out many doors, including the laundry room door.  The Board decision was to budget first for the concrete and automating the 1-P mall elevator doors, and then next year doing the rest of the automating that they looked at.  Because of the expense, it was well over the anticipated budget after we started adding more doors.  It is approximately $3-4,000 per door to automate the door.  Once we added 8-9 doors that the committee and the Board and some of the residents that we had involved with bidding that project it was well over what had been discussed with the budget committee.

What are the 8 or 9 doors?

Tim Patricio stated that it included all of the doors that lead out to the garage, the doors adjacent to the dry cleaners, and the laundry room door.  All of the doors in and through that area would be automated.  On foreclosures, I believe right now we have about 10 units in foreclosure.

Big units or little ones?

Tim Patricio stated that it was mixed.

George Pauley stated that they are automating all of the doors in addition to the handicapped project, but it is a two year project.  Some will be this year, and some next year.

With the foreclosure, does the bank pay the assessments?

Tim Patricio stated that once the bank owns the unit, they become responsible for the assessments that they generate.  When the bank sells it, that new owner is responsible for up to 6 months of the past due assessments from the prior owner that the bank foreclosed on.

George Pauley stated that the associations defaults for the number of units in the building are doing pretty well given what is happening nationally right now.  We think that this is going to go on for a while.

Rosalie Sutcher – Doing pretty well, can you give me a dollar number that you are expecting to loose this year on those?

George Pauley stated that by doing pretty well, what he meant was that given the number of units in this building, our percentage of foreclosures is better than many buildings.

The only thing that bothers me is that if you have $500.00 a month for assessments for up to the year, by ten units, we are looking at $60,000.  This seems to be what we have to worry about.

George Pauley asked what we were at now.

Tim Patricio stated that seven of those foreclosed units the dollar amount was considered already written off by the Board last year.  This was around $24,000.

But we have about $80,000 in accounts over 120 days right now.

Tim Patricio stated that if we wanted to analyze that line item by line item there are explanations for those dollars.  I cant go into specifics about individual units or individual entities.  There may be other entities besides units that owe money to the association.  That $80,000 is not necessarily all past due assessments.

They are not all in foreclosure but they are all past due.

Tim Patricio stated that they are all past due accounts, not necessarily assessments but not necessarily foreclosure units.  Anyone at 120 days is under collections.

George Pauley stated that the association does pursue this aggressively and very quickly.

Paul Groeninger – I was just going to do a follow up; we had a Budget and Finance Committee meeting on April 23rd.  If you would like I can give a report on that.  Some of what Rosalie discussed and what Tim discussed was mentioned at that meeting.  I just wanted to ask if the Board wanted me to deliver that report this evening.

George Pauley stated that they do have committee reports on the agenda before the action items.  Committee reports were moved to the beginning of the agenda so that we do not make you sit here for the exciting agenda.

Sheldon Atovsky – I just quickly wanted to mention that I was very happy to see two particular things in the newsletter.  One was the overview of property improvements, I’ve come to the Board meetings and I hear all this but its very useful to have it all in one place.  The other one was the further explanation about the change in assessments.  This really helped to clarify what was discussed and allowed me to sit down and take my old figure and make sense of the new figure.  It was really great.  The other thing I wanted to say was the last Board meeting was really difficult to sit through and I wanted to say that I appreciate how well you ran the meeting.

George Pauley stated that he appreciated that it was not an easy meeting for anyone.  For the residents and owners I think that it was equally as difficult because I do believe that we share many of the same emotions.  I do want to thank Vince DiFruscio for his article on the cable and assessments, and Betty Terry-Lundy for the great job as the editor, as usual, with the newsletter.

Lorraine Meyers – Tim it’s not only those three tiers that are having infiltration problems.  There are other units like in the 03 tier.  I have a friend who has to keep towels up there all the time.

Tim Patricio asked if she could have that owner contact him.  Do you know what unit that is?

Yes, its unit 2303.

George Pauley stated that to follow up, please disseminate to all of the owners that if they are having window leakage problems they should contact the office.  That is how we are trying to figure out where to do the test drops.  It is based on who has been complaining that they had leaks.  This is one of those situations where complaining is a good thing.

Laura Cossa – Just a quick question, after you called the maintenance staff, what did they do about the window leakage problem?

Robert Laskov stated that they did nothing.

They came and said that they could not do anything?

Robert Laskov – That it was a week ago.  I called downstairs in the evening and no one ever came up.  I just put a towel there.  Yesterday I didn’t call because there was nothing that anyone could do.

Tim Patricio stated that he had previously discussed this with Mr. Laskov and it was addressed immediately.  At the time claimed, the doorman was on break and you were talking to one of the security guards, who for whatever reason may not have believed that we considered leaking an emergency or a reason to call either myself or Chuck.  When this has happened before I have gotten calls at home and our day to day staff is very well aware that we consider leaking an emergency.  I have had a meeting with Admiral and they are required to train their guards so that they understand that leaking, fires, floods, crashing meteors, and alien invasions are all emergencies for which they should contact someone up the ladder.

I understand that, but there is a difference between a leak when its raining out and someone has their windows open, and rain running down through the inoperable windows.  Its one thing to know that it is leaking because the window caulking is not holding up.  This happened before when it turned out that it was a unit that was empty and the realtors had left the windows open.  When you are running around with towels trying to mop up eight windows where it is raining in your apartment, that is really serious.

George Pauley stated that one of the things that the staff can do, even if its water infiltration, is that they do have wet vacs and fans to help dry things out.  I realize that is after the fact, but at least our staff can help you with the cleanup because I don’t think that most of us have a wet vac or the kinds of fans that can dry your carpeting.

What if I had hardwood floors and they were warped from all the rain damage?  Who would be responsible?  Its in my unit but it is from a structural problem with the building.

Laura Cossa stated that someone would have to inspect it right away.  That’s why I am saying that it is in your best interest to have somebody there.

George Pauley stated that he believed that individual owners insurance would be responsible.

Sandra Goldberg stated that fortunately he did not have hard wood floors.

Laura Cossa stated that he could have mold in the padding.

Tim Patricio stated that generally in cases that involve a limited common element, if it was serious damage, which I believe is what you are trying to say, then the unit owner would contact their insurance and we would contact ours.  Generally with limited common elements, depending on the exact language in your Declarations, but generally with limited common elements like windows, the unit owners insurance is responsible.  The insurance companies would work it out between them.

Sandy Massel – What can we do about RCN?  My phones are now malfunctioning seriously.  Today, last month, my DSL doesn’t work and it’s stressful. I don’t use my cell phone I only use the landline.

George Pauley stated that he spent two hours personally on the phone on Saturday when my television, telephone, and internet, went out.  I have and I think that Tim can tell you, I have been aggressively pursuing RCN since last fall and not getting anywhere.  Tim has been pursuing this as well.

Tim Patricio stated that he was aware that we have had several reports about multiple problems including issues with the phone and the DSL.  I have been very aggressive with our representative about getting here, and about several other issues that we have been having.  Its been such a problem that recently, over the past 30 days, I have been emailing RCN and copying the Board President on these communications to show that we are communicating and that we have had a lot of problems.  I am actually requesting a new representative; I think that our current representative is too busy to be responsive.  We are aware of the problems that happened over the weekend and right now.

I took the bundle out a year ago, and I liked the deal but I have had problems since I took the bundle, mostly the telephone.  I can handle the television, but not having telephone is scary.

George Pauley stated that he agreed. He stated that his problem with them for the last year and half has been television.  His phone and internet had been working.  Saturday was a triply play though.

Tim Patricio stated that we had an owner in our office today who didn’t have phone service and we let him use the phone in the office.  When he was put on hold he was there for 40 minutes.  I personally witnessed the type of treatment that you are having.  He was on the phone for over an hour and 50 minutes.  I will be sure to communicate that with the people that we work with for the contract.

Laura Cossa asked if Tim could complain that several channels did not work today.

Carlos Vargas – It is time to look over this contract.  I fought for that before and we should do that in the next few weeks.  We definitely have to do something about it.  Remember that your phone and internet is yours.  You can switch to AT&T anytime that you want, no Comcast, but the television is something that you have to have.  I have an email address that I use in business with RCN and I like it; I would hate to loose it but we have to get those guys out of here.  We will move them out.

George Pauley stated that Carlos and he had a meeting with their VP’s about two months after they were elected to the Board.  All we have seen is a lot of problems and absolutely no follow through.  There has been reluctance from owners to take a look at canceling the contract and switching, but something has to change.  Up until now I have been getting a lot of ‘George you are the only one who is unhappy with RCN’.

Francis Pensiati – I called RCN today three times; I was on hold for about 45 minutes.  When I did get someone they asked me for the buildings account number.  This is not the first time.

George Pauley stated that it has been pretty bad.

They are rude, and its unbearable.

George Pauley stated that while he was on the phone for two hours on Saturday he finally gave up and hung up.  But I did something against my moral values.  I said to them I am the president of the Board here and this is $171,000 a year we pay you; I think that we should get some attention.  It didn’t work.

Don Yuratovic –
I called RCN today and they said that the problem happened on Saturday, but that they couldn’t fix it because they don’t have access to the building.  Can you call RCN and tell them that they have access to our building on Saturday and Sunday?

Mavis Mather stated that she would like to know who Don spoke to.  When she called them they said that they hadn’t had any reports of problems at the building.

When I called I was talking to somebody in Taiwan and they stated that they had no access to the building on Saturdays.

Tim Patricio stated that in one phone call, the owner who was in my office today for over 2 hours, I kept track of it, he was on the phone with five different countries and four different continents.

When we renew the contract tell them that they have access to the building on Saturday and Sunday.

George Pauley stated that they do have access.  That was one of the questions that I asked the representative that I was talking to.  Someplace in the conversation she said that she had just gotten a memo that there was a problem in our area and that someone was out here.  I asked if they were in the building and she said that she didn’t know.  Then I asked the doorman if RCN was in the building and he said no.  He said that lots of people were calling to complain.

Michael Parrie – I have a question about the status of the assistant manager of the garage and security.  Have we filled the position or are we interviewing?  What’s going on with the position?

Tim Patricio stated that we are interviewing.  For those that haven’t met Jacquie, Jacquie Kozinski is acting as my assistant for that function.  For right now I am the acting manager of those areas of the building, and right now Jacquie has been hired temporarily to assist me.  We are interviewing.

Toby Bill -You mentioned that we could use AT&T or Comcast as a provider?

George Pauley stated they could be used for phone and internet, not cable.

That’s fine.  Do we still get stuck with that charge for RCN on our monthly assessment?

Tim Patricio stated that he would like to make a clarification to that.  You can personally legally pursue other options yourself, whether that be direct TV or Comcast.  If Comcast would provide you individual service in the building.  You have a legal right to pursue that.

Steve Hanna stated that you would still be responsible for the cost of the bulk cable.

What about Direct TV?

George Pauley stated that the problem with both of those is the cost of drilling through all of the floors to string the cable.

How soon is this contract up with RCN?

George Pauley stated that he thinks there is one more year in it.

Carlos Vargas stated that the contract was through 2010 but that we can cancel the contract.

I see RCN trucks up and down this place at all three buildings; they sit in front of the building all day long.  Why do you guys put up with this frustration?

George Pauley stated that the prior Board investigated this.  There was a committee that investigated it.  When we went out to bid on it I believe that the cost for Comcast was about $7.00 per month higher for each unit.  Rosalie were you on the Board at that time?

Rosalie Sutcher – I don’t remember so much about what the cost was but there were issues.  Comcast would have to drill through and they had to put cables up on peoples ceilings.  Also they would own the cables so if you ever wanted to change you would have to pay them.  There were about 5-6 guys who really knew what they were doing.  The feasibility report came back that we really didn’t have a choice.  Not that we didn’t all want someone new.

George Pauley stated that Comcast didn’t have a particularly better reputation than RCN.

There were other things like if you had computer service with RCN you wouldn’t be able to have it with Comcast. That was one of the things that you couldn’t have.

Marian Shaw – Just a couple of things.  I would like to propose, if this hasn’t been decided, that no alcoholic beverages be served at the July 4th Party.  It will enable us to keep our cost down and it seems that we had just as good a time without the liquor.  By the way, the newsletter, involves more than just Betty Terry-Lundy who did a great job putting it together.  There are also other people on the editorial board and I do have the moxy to bring that up.  We all worked very hard on that.

George Pauley stated that he was sorry.  He only mentioned Vince because of the article that the gentlemen mentioned.  I do apologize for not having mentioned you, Mike Maglione, and Bob Pierce.  Usually when I have mentioned the newsletter I have remembered to say something about everybody and I sincerely apologize.  I think that as I have said many times, the newsletter is excellent and the committee that is producing it is doing a lot of hard work.

ASCO Report (Lorraine Meyers)

ASCO had their general meeting last week and I am sorry to say that no one from this building was there.  There were two speakers, one was the lawyer from ASCO and he was explaining about the bills that are going through Springfield right now.  Almost all of them are nutty; there are only two that are good.  We are trying to defeat the one where our manager has to be licensed every year because we would have to pay.  They have to be licensed every year and they would just pass along that increase to us.  The other speaker was about the landmarks here in Edgewater.  It really affects all of the people who live north of Hollywood and live in the single-family houses that they designated.  They are trying to preserve it.  One that they are trying to preserve as a landmark is the nursing home that we have been trying to tear down.  Its down at 6330 Sheridan and it is an eyesore.  It looks bad and they want to designate that as a historic spot.  We are opposed to that because we have been trying to have it condemned and torn down for about 10 years.  I talked to the president and she wanted to have our support because the vote is coming up at the next meeting of the 48th Ward zoning commission in two weeks.

George Pauley asked if she was saying that the recommendation should be not to designate landmark status?

For that particular building, because ASCO has been trying to have it torn down for 10 years.

Laura Cossa asked what was the history of the building?  How old is it?

I don’t know exactly but I believe it was built in 1907.  It has been used as a nursing home and I know that the VA uses it to send some of their patients there but it is really in deplorable condition.  There are about 256 violations and I don’t know how they are still up.

Laura Cossa stated that she had two concerns.  What happens to the people there right now?

They will be placed in other nursing homes with no problems.

Laura Cossa stated that secondly is it just bad housekeeping or is the building an eyesore?

The building is in bad condition, and it has bad housekeeping.

George Pauley asked if the Board was in agreement with Lorraine?  Three of us are in agreement.

Health Club Committee Report (Marty Fiesler)

The committee met last Thursday and we solved a lot of issues.  We had one broken machine in the weight room that we are having worked on.  Tim and Jacquie have done a great job of responding quickly and getting things taken care of.  We have clipboards up in both areas so that people can put down suggestions or concerns on that.  The committee is discussing those as they show up.  After the committee discusses it I will be the one to contact the member to let them know what the status is.  Whether it is up for committee review, or it is under committee review, or if it has already been discussed and is not going to be acted on at all.  We will be responding to every one of those.  We still have some open issues that we are still working out.  We need some equipment for the weight room, which is part of the recommendation that will come up later in the meeting.  We got part of the nautilus equipment replaced in the cardio room and now it is time to switch over to the weight room and then switch back to the cardio so that we can satisfy both ends.  Right now we are trying to meet the Thursday before the actual Board meeting so that if there are any issues they are in very close proximity and we are not waiting weeks for a response.  If you have any questions you know how to get a hold of me.

George Pauley stated that there may be questions when they get to the voting on the Health Club issues, I hope that you will stay through the meeting.

Home Improvement Committee Report (Scott Schmidtke)

The Home Improvement will be brought up when we discuss the laundry room.  The plantings are being taken care of so there is nothing to report.  The Social Committee is listed on the action items for the July 4th party so there really is nothing to report either.

Budget and Finance Committee Report (Paul Groeninger)

Budget and Finance Committee held its first meeting since January on April the 23rd and we had an agenda of four items, of which we only got through three.  The first one was timeliness of financial statements presented to the B&F Committee.  The second one was aging of receivables report, which was brought up in the Board meeting tonight.  The third item was an update from Tim on his reserve projections, which we did not get to but will be brought up at the next meeting.  There will be one whole meeting dedicated to the reserves.  The last item was significant revenue variances for the fiscal year.  I am not going to go into too much detail but the first item, the timeliness was resolved.  Tim Patricio agreed that what was holding the financials up was that the statements require a cover letter.  He was going into detail about the variances and that took additional time.  What is going to happen is that we will get the financial statements as soon as they come into the building and then Tim will follow up within 10-15 working days later with the cover letter as well as the analysis of the individual items?  The next item was missing packages.  Apparently in the past some of the packages were not complete.  We resolved that.  Tim is going to review them before they are sent out to the committee to insure that during the copying something doesn’t come out as a blank paper.  Next section was the variances for the year end on the financial statements.  One of the concerns to one of our members was the gas pricing and the hedges on that.  Tim explained that our consultant advised us not to hedge at this time because there are very high prices.  There were a number of questions specific to items on the financial statements.  One of the items that did come up was that we would be having a meeting with the auditors once we get the preliminary audit.  This meeting will be the next time that the Budget and Finance Committee meets.  The fourth item was the aging of the receivables.  Rosalie hinted earlier about the $82,000 number of which $45,987.65 was in foreclosure.  $24,835 of that had already been projected to be written off in the prior year.  That left us with about $21,000 yet to be considered or disposed of.  Whether these will be written off depends on what happens this year.  We do know that with this new ruling that took into effect in December, we will be getting some of our moneys back.  Since December of 2007 the Association is entitled to 6 months of past due assessments at the time that the new owner goes into closing.  Keep that in mind that if you buy a new unit in foreclosure that you will have to pay 6 months of the assessments that they didn’t pay.  A couple of the questions that came up were about the collections process.  For those that are not in foreclosure but are in legal which is about $33,000 of the $82,000.  This means that they have not completed the process, there is the potential that we will collect the delinquent amount, we just don’t know.  Tim went into great detail about the current process for handling collections of which Mavis does a detailed worksheet of every account that is past due whether it is one day or over 120 days.  They are reviewed on a regular basis.  This is a change from what was done in prior years, even before D&K came into the building.  They also told us that one of the things that he is doing is making courtesy calls when people are behind but not quite into legal.  Apparently this seems to be having some impact.  One of the things that Tim mentioned that might help is if we speed up the time that we can send accounts into collections.  Instead of waiting to send accounts at the 60 day mark we could ask that we send them in 45 days.  I asked for a vote of the committee and unanimously we decided that we would like the Board to vote on that to change the time for gong into legal from 60 days to 45 days.  There were a number of questions on the whole process, Tim still owes us some answers, Steve owes us some answers too.  Between the two of them they have promised me that they will get the answers prior to our next meeting.  I didn’t go into all the details of the meeting because I don’t think that all of you would be interested, but the last part of the section we had an overview of general financial questions.  There were quite a few questions that were brought up in that.  One that Don brought up was about what we are going to do if we have a doorman out for an extended period of time.  Rather than pay double coverage to an existing doorman, Tim addressed that issue with fill-ins.  We also decided that we would have quarterly meetings; the next one will be July 23rd at 4:30PM in the party room specifically for reserve questions.  After that we will hold one in October prior to our review of the next year’s budget.  I don’t have an agenda set up for that meeting but will develop it.  Since I was cut off from my questions and answers, I would just like to state that you can always ask for rebates from companies.  As long as you can get through to RCN you can get a credit for the missing service.

Carlos Vargas stated that he was at that meeting and he would like the Board to vote on changing the time for collections from 60 days to 45 days.

George Pauley stated that once the Board meeting was called to order someone should make a motion to add that item to the agenda.

Newsletter Committee (Terry Betty Lundy)

I never had to make a newsletter report before and I have not prepared for one.

George Pauley stated that there were times when the Board has been asked about subjects and given deadlines for the next newsletter.

What we usually do is the month before the newsletter is due we send an email asking if there are subjects for the newsletter.  We will do that again in July for the August newsletter.

Motion to Amend Agenda

Upon due motion by Carlos Vargas and seconded by George Pauley, the Board voted unanimously to approve amending the agenda to include reduce the action time on accounts sent to legal from 60 days to 45 days.

Approval of Motions from Closed Session

A1.  Upon due motion by Carlos Vargas and seconded by Sandra Goldberg, the Board voted unanimously to approve 49 continuing insurance fines of $100.00.  B.  Upon due motion by Carlos Vargas and seconded by Laura Cossa, the Board voted unanimously to deny the request to waive a late fee.  C. No action.  D. No action.

Minutes April 14, 2008 Board Meeting

Upon due motion by Sandra Goldberg and seconded by George Pauley, the Board voted unanimously to approve the minutes of the April 14, 2008 Board Meeting with corrections by the secretary.

Plant Removal

Upon due motion by George Pauley and seconded by Laura Cossa, the Board voted unanimously to ratify the approval of the proposal submitted by Brickman to perform landscaping services associated with the planter repairs in the amount of $16,390.

Owner Requests to Remodel

Upon due motion by Sandra Goldberg and seconded by Carlos Vargas, the Board voted to approve the remodeling of units 314, 602, 1411, 1509, 2001, 4811, and 5006 as submitted by the owners, following the recommendations of the chief engineer as outlined in their written specifications and in accordance with the Rules and Regulations and remodeling guidelines of the Park Tower Condo Association.  Carlos Vargas, Sandra Goldberg, and Laura Cossa voted in favor; George Pauley abstained; the motion passed.

Owner Comments Regarding Laundry Room Paint and Laminate Samples

Scott Schmidtke stated that the Home Improvement Committee met with Tim Patricio in the office, so that there was better lighting.  The committee came up with three selections to redo the laundry room.  If you want I can go into details on what the company is planning to build in the laundry room.  We are looking at putting in new laminate rather than rebuilding what is already down there on the folding tables and countertops.  You have to remember that the choices need to match the flooring down there.  Our first choice is a black granite look for the laminate for the countertops.  The second choice is curry cork and the last choice is the green.  All of these are the same price.  To be perfectly honest the black is the most practical because you can go with different types of wall colors if you want.  When you chose a color laminate you have to be careful to not get too trendy or get stuck with outdated colors.

Rosalie Sutcher stated that she thinks that Scott always does a good job decorating.  The red and the dark granite I agree with but the green looks dirty, and I think it will look dirty down there.  I like the other two much better.

Lorraine Meyers stated that she liked the green.

Sandy Massel stated that she also liked the green.

Don Yuratovic stated that he liked the dark.

Paul Groeninger stated that he doesn’t like the green because it gets boring really quickly.  I have a problem with the black because what about bleach, will that destroy the color?

George Pauley stated that it shouldn’t with the laminate.  This is a Formica type of finish so it should not be affected by bleach.

Paul Groeninger stated that other than that he likes the black.  It’s a nice color and a nice change to the room.

Fransis Pinciati stated that bleach would wipe up very well, if people would wipe it up instead of just leaving it.

George Pauley stated that there was another issue with the laundry room, which the Board has to decide if we are going to redo the laminate.  We have two different bids.  One is that we can go with totally redoing the room and the other is that we can get a similar laminate to what is down there and patch and repair the existing laminate.

Sandra Goldberg asked what he meant by patch and repair.

George Pauley stated that there is damaged laminate down there.  We have the choice in deciding to spend $11,000 to get everything new or spend $3,500 to patch and repair.

Tim Patricio stated that he was not asking the Board to make that decision tonight, for tonight we are just asking the Board to choose a color scheme.  We are hoping to quickly get the options to you within a week.

Sandra Goldberg asked what the colors were with the black laminate.

Tim Patricio stated that the options with color were included in the packet.

George Pauley stated that the consensus seemed to be to approve the granite scheme.

Sandra Goldberg stated that the Board hasn’t decided to spend the $11,000 for the project yet.  Where would the money be coming from to pay for this? Would it be out of reserves or operating?

Carlos Vargas stated that they would be getting the money out of the laundry service from when they increased the amount that they would pay us to 4%.

Sandra Goldberg asked what the 4% was, how many dollars would that be?

Tim Patricio stated it would be approximately $4,000 more per year.

Sandra Goldberg asked where the money would be taken from if they decided to do all of the new laminate.  Would the $11,000 be out of operating or reserve?

Tim Patricio stated that it would be the Boards decision; it would be a legitimate capital expense.

Carlos Vargas stated that it was only $4,000 because the rebuild would be $3,000.

Tim Patricio stated that the next step would be to go to those choices and I will lay out those choices with competitive bids to make sure that they are not trying to break us.  I have actually seen the bid from the contractor that they would have do the work and it is quite a list or work.  The cost for the construction work is very reasonable.  But just to be safe, I am having a couple of contractors look at it.  We have contractors in the building who will give us competitive prices for the work that we have to pay for.

Sandra Goldberg asked if this expense was budgeted for in this years budget?

Tim Patricio stated that it was not but to keep in mind that your contract with Universal is for 7 years.  You are earning about $4,000 more per year so all of the improvements that we are not paying for is value added but this is about $3,500 to just repair to you are really only looking at about $7,000 in cost.  The work that you are doing will pay for itself in 2 years.

Carlos Vargas stated that they deserve to have a brand new laundry room, I would go with whatever it costs.  In his mind it would only be $3,000 and we can do that.

George Pauley stated that they would get the formal proposals on that from Tim at the next meeting to vote on.

Tim Patricio stated that the machines are in production and you may need to vote via email.  Some machines will be ready by the end of the month and it really depends on the timing of that.

George Pauley stated that there was a consensus on the Board and from the owners that people would like to have it done right, replaced rather than patched together.  I think that we are saying we will go ahead with the replacement around $11,000 and will vote on by email and ratify it.

Laundry Room Paint and Laminate Samples

No Action.

Election Committee

Upon due motion by George Pauley and seconded by Carlos Vargas, the Board voted to instruct the Elections Committee to vote the unassigned ballots or proxies in the same percentage as the overall vote by the owners.  George Pauley, Carlos Vargas, and Laura Cossa voted in favor; Sandra Goldberg abstained; the motion passed.

Owner Comments Regarding Elections Committee

Don Yuratovic asked if the people on the election committee had some type of rule sheet that they followed?  I don’t want to be on an election committee that makes up rules and they go along.

George Pauley stated that the Illinois Condominium Act will be down there and that generally the election company gives us an outline of where things are out and what the committee is responsible for.  Since this is a committee that is just for counting condo elections they know what is going on.  And was your hand a volunteer?

Don Yuratovic stated that he would be willing to serve on the committee.

Paul Groeninger stated that he would like to volunteer, and that the Illinois Condominium Act tells you what to do.  He had served on the committee before and knows what is required.

Mavis Mather stated that Laura Carl was not able to make the meeting tonight but that she had stopped by the office to volunteer for the elections committee.

Tim Patricio stated that Nancy had stated that she would volunteer if needed.

Marian Shaw stated that she would volunteer for the elections committee.

Scott Schmidtke stated that he would be willing to volunteer for the committee also, but if Nancy wanted to do it that was fine.

Elections Committee

Upon due motion by George Pauley and seconded by Sandra Goldberg, the Board voted to approve the Board President to chair the Meet the Candidates Night,  George Pauley, Sandra Goldberg, and Laura Cossa voted in favor; Carlos Vargas voted against; the motion passed.

Owner Comments Regarding Social Committee

Don Yuratovic stated that he would volunteer for the social committee but he would not cook.

Lorraine Meyers stated that she would volunteer for the social committee.

Scott Schmidtke stated that many of the girls are thinking of retiring and he didn’t know how many helpers he had for the July 4th party.  At the beginning of June there would be a meeting and that this year they would try to get people to work Thursday and Friday for setting up and shopping.  It is getting more difficult for the girls to help out like they used to.

George Pauley stated that there were a couple of volunteers, but anyone else who would like to volunteer would be appreciated.

Social Committee

No Action.

Health Club Recommendations

Upon due motion by Sandra Goldberg and seconded by George Pauley, the Board voted unanimously to approve $800.00 for the purchase of a variable setting, commercial grade, portable weight bench to be purchased new, with warranties, return options, and a trial period.

Upon due motion by Sandra Goldberg and seconded by George Pauley, the Board voted unanimously to approve $1,200.00 for the purchase of a weight rack to be purchased new, with warranties, return options, and a trial period.

Upon due motion by Sandra Goldberg and seconded by George Pauley, the Board voted unanimously to approve $500.00 for the purchase of a chin dip combo machine to be purchased new, with warranties, return options, and a trial period.

Collections Policy

Upon due motion by George Pauley and seconded by Carlos Vargas, the Board voted unanimously to approve changing the collections policy to submit accounts to legal when they are 45 days delinquent on their assessments.

Comments

Sandra Goldberg stated that she would like to thank the maintenance department and Chuck Brown for the beautiful job in painting on 1-P and 2-P.  It’s bright and clean and looks fabulous.  This looks a thousand times better.

Treasurers Report (Laura Cossa)

According to the March 31, 2008 Financial Statements the total operating funds were $74,360.89.   The MAX SAFE account at Barrington Bank totaled $630,972.55.   The total replacement reserves fund was $1,493,480.99.  The total of all cash and investments was $1,569,345.63.

The CD’s that were expiring were cashed out for April to pay for the projects that we are doing.

Tim Patricio stated that the May CD would be in the next Board meeting for ratification.  The committee received all the information on the CD and the Market and it was renewed at 3.7%.  This was actually the best rate that we could find.

Board Report (George Pauley)

I think that you have been aware of the great job that all of our staff has been doing.  We got our cooling tower up there on schedule and slightly under budget.  We are now starting the process of renovating one planter and fixing the other.  The deck is well along to being finished in terms of the rebuild for the deterioration.  We are still on schedule for Memorial Day depending on the weather.  We have not had the best weather this spring but are so far along schedule.  In another week and a half we will be starting on the handicapped access rebuild.  This is a lot of work for our staff to coordinate.  They may all seem like they are a week or a month apart but all the work that goes into making these things happen has been going on for months.  Chuck, Tim, and the rest of the office and maintenance staff have been doing a great job on all of these projects including the carbon monoxide detectors in the garage, the new lighting in the garage, the painting downstairs on 1-P and 2-P.  Our staff is really working hard.  All of the in-house projects save us money.  We will have other projects coming up to vote in the next meeting.  Shortly after the next meeting the laundry room should be looking much better with brand new equipment.  I hope that as the next month or two goes by we will see the fruit of all of these projects.

Management Report (Tim Patricio)

As we have talked about a lot of the projects that have been pending are slowly getting underway.  The planters that are being worked on should have construction starting on this week; the construction work in the garage should begin this Thursday with the automated doors.  Next week the concrete work should begin.  I just found this out today.  You should expect to see notices tomorrow with the schedule on that.  I have a meeting with the contractor so that owners know what to expect with that work going on.  After two weeks when the concrete has been allowed to cure on the new ramps, the membrane will be applied.  There will be some interruption and detours for 1-2 days while the new membrane is curing on the ramps.

We talked about RCN.  We are aware of many problems that were reported over the weekend and today and we are on top of that.

The laundry room project is starting; the new machines are being manufactured for us.  There are about 6 different types of machines and a different schedule for each type of machine.  I know that the bulk of them are in production and within the next 30-60 days we will be scheduling the install and the improvements once we get that information to the Board.

In April there were 36 chargeable work orders for a total of $1,500 and 151 non-chargeable work orders.  There was $7,055 in health club income with 18 memberships added; the total number of memberships was up from March in the amount of 267.  There were three party room reservations.  There were 24 late fees for a total of $1,200.  The sale so far this year, or one month, in is 3 sales for an average of $168,000.  One Studio at $139,000, and two 1-Bedrooms averaging $182,500.  Rentals, we have had 8 rentals of studios averaging $850, 8 rentals of 1-Bedrooms averaging $1,068, and 1 rental of a 2-Bedroom for $1,900.

Carlos Vargas asked how much money was collected from insurance fines.

The finance committee asked us to start itemizing on the receivables report but we could add that on here if you would like.

Garage Report (Tim Patricio)

The garage revenue was slightly under budget for March.  We were under budget $263.00.  The expenses were over budget $13,000 due to plumbing work and accruals that need to be adjusted by the auditor for last year.

Sandra Goldberg asked if it was in the budget to put security cameras in the garage office.

I believe that we budgeted for one or two cameras but I would need to refer to the budget for those details.  We had several different recommendations for security improvements but I don’t recall them off the top of my head.

Laura Cossa stated that if we were thinking about cameras we might want to consider cameras for the area on 2-P that was being considered for moving bikes to.

Adjournment

Upon due motion by Sandra Goldberg and seconded by Carlos Vargas, the meeting adjourned at 9:22 pm.

Signed (as seen on pdf, clickable at upper right corner of these minutes)

George Pauley, President

Sandra Goldberg, Secretary