A signed copy of these and all minutes going back to the 1980’s are available from the Management Office upon request.

Special Pet Rule Board of Directors Meeting

In Attendance

Bob Pierce, President; Phoebe Helm, 1st Vice President; Sandra Goldberg, 2ndVice President; Herbert Hellauer, Treasurer; Dan Harvey, Property Supervisor; Christina Epple, Property Manager; Mavis Mather, Assistant Manager

Time meeting started (6:35 pm)

Comments Regarding Agenda (Board response in italics)

Donald Yurkovic – Don’t we have to get a vote from the majority of the owners in the building before you can change a rule such as this? This is a rule change and not a change to the original Declarations. What about registering my pet boa? This rule change is only to extend the grandfather clause for cats in the building. If you are grandfathering cats in and not other animals won’t this start other legal problems? On our lawyers advise the idea is to register everyone within a set period of time.  Reptiles are illegal and will still be illegal.

Nancy Smith-Ledvina – For many years a number of people in the building would have liked to amend the bylaws to allow at least cats, not only because of the amount of cats in the building but also because it is helpful when trying to sell your unit.  More and more buildings now are allowing at least cats.  Maybe we should entertain the idea of putting this issue to vote and change the Declarations.  Also I would like there to be a humane policy to take care of abandoned cats. The Board thanked Ms. Smith-Ledvina for her comments.

Chris Parker – I agree that there should be consideration to changing the pet policy in the Declarations with a unit owners vote.  I also agree that other animals in the building should be considered since cats have been brought up.  This is opening the door to revisit this issue again and again as new Boards are elected.  This rule sets precedents with cats but does not address what would happen when other animals are found in the building. The way that this will be enforced is that residents would have to register their cats within 14 days and going forward residents will be sited for rule violations.

Beverly Stormont – The Board should consider health issues as well; cats are known to give fevers to babies. The Board thanked Ms. Stormont for her comment.

Miriam Moss – I think that it is better to pass this resolution than to change the Declarations but wouldn’t this just mean that we will have to do this again in a couple of years?  Wouldn’t it be easier to establish a fine for all owners that have cats? The Board thanked Mrs. Moss for her comment.

Nancy Smith-Ledvina – There has always been knowledge of cats in the building so there would be no way to fine retroactively.  Not all owners may be happy about registering cats but they are in a different class then dogs or lizards. The Board thanked Ms. Smith-Ledvina for her comment.

John Curran – How is passing a rule that selectively favors cats going to protect against litigation?  Won’t this action bring on more litigation from favoring cats? The Board is passing this rule based on the advice of the Association’s Attorney based on the original wording of the Declarations.

Phoebe Helm – The building has behaved for a number of years as if the language in the Declarations did not exist.  We cannot start enforcing a rule without giving notice to the owners.  There still exists an option of asking all unit owners if they want to allow cats in the building.

Sandra Goldberg – I received a notice from an owner in the building with a dog requesting that the dog be grandfathered.  We should be grandfathering all pets and have everyone register all of their pets, not just limiting this to cats.

Adoption of Pet Rule Change

Upon due motion by Phoebe Helm and seconded by Herbert Hellauer, the Board voted to approve the proposed pet rule as distributed to the unit owners with registration to begin in one week and to last for duration of two weeks.  Bob Pierce and Phoebe Helm voted in favor; Sandra Goldberg and Herbert Hellauer opposed.  The motion failed.

Phoebe Helm made a motion to reconsider the motion due to a misunderstanding of the proposed rule change and was seconded by Herbert Hellauer, the Board voted to approve the proposed pet rule as distributed to the unit owners with registration to begin in one week and to last for duration of two weeks.  Bob Pierce, Phoebe Helm, and Herbert Hellauer voted in favor; Sandra Goldberg opposed.  The motion passed.

Adjournment

Upon due motion by Sandra Goldberg and seconded by Herbert Hellauer the meeting adjourned at 7:10 pm.

Bob Pierce, President

Phoebe Helm, 1st Vice President