PRELIMINARY DRAFT 

This “Preliminary Draft” may differ in some particulars from the official minutes (PDF icon at upper right-hand corner of this page).

In Attendance

George Pauley, President; Lorraine Meyers, 1st Vice President; Sandra Goldberg, 2nd Vice President; William Fortuna, Secretary; Steve Hanna, Property Supervisor; Tim Patricio, Steve Bisping, Chief Engineer; Property Manager; Mavis Mather, Assistant Manager Business Operations

Absent

Laura Cossa, Treasurer

Call to Order at8:26 pm

Four Board Members were present constituting a Quorum as defined by the Association’s Declarations and the Illinois Condominium Property Act.

Agenda

Upon due motion by George Pauley and seconded by Lorraine Meyers, the Board voted unanimously to accept the proposed agenda with the addition of an action item to discuss electric purchase.

ASCO Report (Lorraine Meyers)

ASCO met on Tuesday night.  One of the things that was discussed was the park over at 6151, they should be working on it and it should be finished by the end of the month.  Once it is finished it will be open for everyone’s use.  There were two suggestions that ASCO made; one was that they did not want the chairs in the back next to El Largo.  Instead they would like the chairs closer to the front and another set put into the middle.  The other thing was about Osterman beach, and near the Osterman outlet.  The thing that concerned us was that the Saddle and Cycle sidewalk alongside Saddle and Cycle is underwater most of the time.   Right now it hasn’t rained for over a month so consequently there is no water there.  We wanted the Alderman notified and the suggestions made for correcting that water that sits in the middle of Foster avenue.  This needs to be noted because they are going to start working on Foster avenue for the new Dominicks.  They will be closing the Dominicks on the 23rd of October to begin working on building the new one.  This will cause Cycle and Saddle to use the Foster entrance more and this could become an issue.

Budget and Finance Committee (Paul Groeninger)

We held the meeting on June 23rd.  Some of the items that we discussed were ways to come up with some new revenue for our garage since we are loosing some of the revenue by not being at capacity any longer.  We had a presentation by Tim on how to implement the life safety system and an update from management on the results of the curtainwall.  We had an update on whether there was any impact in the removal of third shift from security and we discussed the financial statements.  That was pretty much the agenda, it took quite a while.

We came up with about six different possible ways to entice people to park in our garage.  We felt that the Board should consider adopting one or more of them, these are all detailed in the notes and please do review them.  One that sticks out is making seasonal rates to encourage people to park in the off season instead of having the same rate all year round.

One of the things that we did do was discuss the alternatives to the life safety system.  By that what I am talking about is whether we will have a consultant oversee the whole project, or are we going to throw it into our manager’s lap, by that I mean take the whole project and be responsible for certification, or are we going to do some variations.  Consensus of the committee was that we need to take our hands off of it since it is required certification by the City of Chicago.  We don’t want to be faulted for not meeting their requirements; therefore we should hire a consultant.  Our recommendation to the Board is that they hire a consultant to oversee the project.

George Pauley stated that the Board would be voting on this issue tonight.

Our next meeting is scheduled for tomorrow night and part of the agenda will be setting up the dates for review of the next year’s budget.  The meeting will be held at 4:30PM here in the party room.

George Pauley stated that the committee would soon be starting the budgeting process for next year.

We already have some tentative dates and tomorrow night we will approve those dates.  Just to let everyone know, those meetings, unless there is an objection to the meeting, typically start at 6:30PM to give residents a chance to get home and listen to the discussion on the budget.

George Pauley stated that one of the most important things that you can do as a resident is if you want to have input on the budget, it is these meetings that you need to attend to give that input.  The committee will spend seven meetings at an hour to an hour and half per meeting going over every item in that budget.  By the time that the budget gets to the Board, we tinker with it and make some changes to it, but by that time your input is a little late.  If you want to have input, please go to those meetings and speak up.  Don’t come here after all those meetings have occurred and say that you are unhappy with it, by then it is too late.  I say that particularly to the group here because you are the most interested homeowners in the building because you come to these Board meetings.  We want your input, we want your ideas and suggestions, particularly on how to run the building in the most cost effective way as possible, so please attend these meetings.

Just as a reminder, these are official meetings and I do expect protocol.  That is being courteous.  We will take comments at specific times, not just in general.  If you raise your hand I may not recognize you at that moment, but I will give you an opportunity.

Garage Committee (Gregor Hamilton)

I want to invite everybody to become a part of the garage committee, unlike Paul we do not have protocol and are a particularly rowdy bunch.  What I would like to let you know are the topics that we discussed in our meeting on the 27th.  We started by welcoming a representative from Lettuce Entertain You, we felt that those folks were a big part of the garage, they could be part of the problem or part of the solution, so we welcomed a member.

One of the big issues that we were talking about was the idea of speeding.  It was pointed out that children often run from their guardians into the path of traffic.  Kids are kids; we have to alert parents and guardians, owners and hikers, who would need to be involved in any speeding policing.   We wouldn’t want to note names or plate numbers unless we have something in writing that is an official report, we can’t even send out a letter.  If we do feel that speeding is a problem, it’s up to us to do something about it.

Accidentally forgetting to leave keys in the car so that hikers can valet park.  Guidelines are currently in place; this is not a new issue.  We want to remind everyone that parkers may leave duplicate keys with hikers in the lockbox to avoid a fine.  If somebody does forget and take their key it’s alright because we know that there is a key in the lockbox over there so that the hiker can valet park.  Anything like this we feel that it’s a good idea to go over and maybe have an article or two in the newsletter so that we get the word out instead of just having 12-15 people in the building aware of it.  One member suggested the idea of three strikes and you’re out in regards with taking the key with you.  I’m not sure that it is necessarily the way to go, but it was pointed out that it is a really aggravating issue to have someone’s car blocking the way for a number of hours.

This is an important one, the idea of pulling up to the office to allow the maximum number of cars to be staged while folks are coming in.  We need to stop cars from blocking the access on the north roadway and the problem is that contrarian instructions have been given in the past.  We have had a situation of don’t block this area because it is going to be used this way or that way.  So many times people are doing something that is really causing a problem, but it is because two years ago or five years ago they were told to do it.  We really need to make sure that we have determined how cars are to pull up to the office and then get that information out there.  The current sign that says ‘Pull to Here’ is as dark and faded and dull as to be nearly invisible.   We were talking about the possibility of painting yellow arrows on the floor because one of the things that happened is that the speed bump is painted yellow and very visible and it is possible that people think that you are only to pull up to the speed bump.  We really need to have clear instructions.  A thought was given to the idea of a programmable electric sign with moving letters; this could be placed in front of the office and could say pull up to here.  It could welcome folks to our building, give instructions, or cautions; it could even be used to announce Board of Director or Committee meetings.  The idea is that if one of these signs is affordable, there are lots of different things that it could be used for besides just saying pull up to here.

Wrong and incomplete prices are on the mall sign near the elevator.  The hikers are saying that it really gives them a hard time when the prices are wrong or incomplete.

One of the main reasons for holding the meeting is that the committee was given the job of reviewing the proposed hiker handbook.  Somebody brought up the idea of making sure that the assessments for parking go to the proper owners, so we looked into that.  A question of returning deposits when we first start out in the garage.  We wanted to make sure that adequate records were being kept about the amount of the deposit.  Some owners who have been in the building thirty years ago had given deposits of some lower amount than what it is now.

There was a question of parking bicycles in the garage.  Currently the remodeled bike room is adequate.  We were concerned that handle bars could scratch adjacent cars, we are not real eager to mix bicycles with automobiles.  Since we don’t allow pedestrians on the ramps to prevent walk in thieves, we don’t really want hikers to get used to seeing people walking up and down the ramps with bicycles.  We want to keep pedestrians off the ramp.  If someone is walking there who is not an employee then we need to get a hold of security fast.

A question was brought up, and this is something minor and quirky, we just want you to know what our thinking was, we wanted to know if we should invite the garage hikers to the meetings.  It was pointed out that this is not really a good idea.  We have management there to manage and are trying to avoid some form of loss of boundaries.  We are not really interested in a fraternizing situation.  These people are our employees and although it might have been a noble thought it is not necessarily a good management practice.  So that is what happened to that idea.

The meeting concluded at 7:25PM.  We try to have these meetings at 6:30, we want to have them late enough that people can get home and have a little dinner, but early enough that the folks who are staying late from our office are not there until forever and ever.

Laura Cossa arrived for the meeting at 8:42 pm.

Management Contract

Upon due motion by Sandra Goldberg and seconded by Lorraine Meyers, the Board voted to start the bidding process for the management contract by having management create and send out an RFP.  Sandra Goldberg and Lorraine Meyers voted in favor; George Pauley and Laura Cossa voted against; William Fortuna abstained.  The motion failed.

Upon due motion by William Fortuna and seconded by George Pauley, the Board voted unanimously to negotiate a renewal contract with Draper and Kramer, if the Board is not satisfied with their negotiations, then the Board will instruct management to send out an RFP.

Life Safety Consultant

Upon due motion by Lorraine Meyers and seconded by Sandra Goldberg, the Board voted unanimously to approve Schirmer Engineering to provide consulting for the Life Safety Project, as submitted, in the amount of $25,350.

Health Club Flooring

Upon due motion by William Fortuna and seconded by Lorraine Meyers, the Board voted unanimously to approve Chicago Floor Systems to install a rubber interlocking tile flooring in the health club, along with 30 extra replacement tiles, as submitted, in the amount of $10,218.

Laura Cossa left the meeting at 9:25 pm.

Motions from Closed Session

A1.  Upon due motion by Sandra Goldberg and seconded by Lorraine Meyers, the Board voted unanimously to approve insurance violation fines in the amount of $100.00 per unit plus the cost of forced place insurance.  A2. Upon due motion by George Pauley and seconded by Lorraine Meyers, the Board voted unanimously not fine the unit.  A3.  Upon due motion by Sandra Goldberg and seconded by Lorraine Meyers, the Board voted unanimously to not fine the unit.  A4.  Upon due motion by Lorraine Meyers and seconded by Sandra Goldberg, the Board voted unanimously to approve a $100.00 fine for a construction violation.

Minutes August 10, 2009 Board Meeting

Upon due motion by George Pauley and seconded by William Fortuna, the Board voted to approve the August 10, 2009 Board Minutes.  George Pauley, Lorraine Meyers, and Bill Fortuna voted in favor; Sandra Goldberg voted against; the motion passed.

Minutes August 31, 2009 Board Meeting

Upon due motion by Lorraine Meyers and seconded by Sandra Goldberg, the Board voted to approve the August 31, 2009 Board Minutes.  Lorraine Meyers, Sandra Goldberg, and Bill Fortuna voted in favor; George Pauley abstained; the motion passed.

Letter to ABOMA

Upon due motion by George Pauley and seconded by Lorraine Meyers, the Board voted unanimously to approve sending the proposed letter to ABOMA to be cosigned by the Board and Management.

Construction Requests

Upon due motion by Sandra Goldberg and seconded by William Fortuna, the Board voted unanimously to approve the remodeling of units 2202, 2612, 3806, 3901, 3915, 4404, and 5109 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.

Electric Contract

Upon due motion by William Fortuna and seconded by Sandra Goldberg, the Board voted to approve Midamerican Energy to provide electric for 2012 and 2013.  Lorraine Meyers, Sandra Goldberg, and Bill Fortuna voted in favor; George Pauley voted against; the motion passed.

Treasurers Report (Tim Patricio)

As of July 31, 2009 the total operating funds were $114,195.17.  The total replacement reserve funds were $1,260,732.31.  The total of all cash and investments was $1,376,437.32.

Upon due motion by George Pauley and seconded by Lorraine Meyers, the Board voted to approve the purchase of a CD at Lakeside Bank for 15 months in the amount of $100,000.00 at a rate of 2.23%.

Board Report (George Pauley)

There is no Board Report.

Management Report (Tim Patricio)

The mailing list is working.  If you are here and not on the mailing list that people have been talking about, all you have to do is get one of the office members your email address and what type of groups you would like to receive emails for, whether the committees or everything.  We have gotten a lot of positive feedback about this, people are very happy with it.  I don’t try to inundate people with every little detail, but it seems like we have been able to measure it pretty well because everybody that has responded has been very appreciative of that step that we took in improving communication.  So if you are not getting these emails and want to, just give me or one of the ladies your email address.

There were 58 work orders in the month of August with charges of almost $4,000.  There were 189 non chargeable work orders.  Health Club income for the month was $6,534 and we added net 5 memberships for a total membership right now of 305.  Garage late fees were $930 there were 35 building late fees in the amount of $1,750.  There were two sales in the month of August bringing the year to date total sales to nine.  One was a 1-bedroom in the amount of $139,500 and another 1-bedroom in the amount of $148,000.  These were cash sales.  Leasing has been steady there were seven new leases bringing the year to date total to 49.

Garage Report (Tim Patricio)

There is no activity to report that Gregor did not already report on.  There is no valet wait list for the garage although we are maintaining at the budgeted number right now, but we could fit 17 more into the garage.  If you look back there seems to be a trend, but things look to be improving right now.  We will be talking about that much more in the budget meetings.

Adjournment

Upon due motion by William Fortuna and seconded by Lorraine Meyers, the meeting adjourned at 9:53 pm.

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

George Pauley, President

William Fortuna, Secretary