Can We Afford It? and Other Issues

During the most recent “official” Association meeting, which all unit owners were invited to attend, there were a number of discussions about budgeting and cost increases. As usual, this meeting was attended by about 5% of the unit owners. There have apparently been other meetings between a member or members of the Board of Managers and unit owners. However, these have not been formally announced or publicized. I state that because unit owners have been coming to Association meetings and appear to be prepared for some of the issues or topics discussed. For example, during the May meeting, when the Landscaping Director announced that he was evaluating the grounds and could use suggestions, prepared notes were passed to him from some of the unit owners attending.

As I am not invited to other, special meetings, I must limit my observations to "official" announced Association meetings, including the one of June 12, and the information provided in the official newsletter.

During the June 12 meeting, there was a continuation of discussions or statements made during previous meetings. The discussions included requests for approval of expenditures for landscaping, the expanded newsletter, block party insurance, and so on. The Treasurer advised that some of these items were not in the current budget. He advised that he will make a brief presentation during the July meeting.

During Association meetings, discussions by Board members regarding the pros and cons of expenditures, are frequently met with boos, jeers and other taunts from unit owners. This has gradually and continuously escalated. Now some unit owners have actually asked the question of the Board of Managers "What do I get for the money you spend?"; in other words, what's in it for me? It would seem some unit owners are willing to attempt to do something about this and that some board members are willing to go along.

I find some of this confusing. During the most recent Association budget and finance meeting, the board voted for an assessment fee increase. However, the Communications Director did not want to pass the measure. She attempted to abstain but finally voted “NO”. I do understand that unit owners were under pressure last year because of significant increases in gasoline and certain other commodities.

However, the arguments for a zero fee increase, for reducing and controlling expenditures through more rigorous bidding procedures, discussions about “wasting money” and attacks on some of the members of the Board of Managers (I recall one manager telling another that what he was doing or saying was “stupid”) all led me to believe that the principal goal of our newly elected board members was to reduce expenditures and substantially improved "communications".

Now that the fee increases have been passed, these measures and concerns seem to have largely abated. The term "competitive bidding" is used as a club to intimidate board members, but doesn't apply to all projects or landscaping. There have been statements about reducing costs by firing or replacing our construction maintenance company and one of the Board of Managers has apparently befriended a contractor who arrived at a unit owner meeting and made a presentation to the unit owners and announced his willingness to do the work. He dangled some carrots and implied that he would do it for less than the Childs Company.

However, an issue has now surfaced that seems to be how to spend the money that is being collected. Inflation is currently low, but it is a certainty that it will increase and electricity, natural gas and fuel and material prices will also increase, and there will again be substantial pressure on unit owner personal budgets. So why not save the money or prioritize the spending on driveways, etc. During the May meeting, it was revealed that there were insufficient reserves to do the driveways that have been identified as requiring immediate repair or replacement.

Certainly, the association can choose to spend money on an expanded newsletter, on insurance for a block party, landscaping, etc. And certainly, some unit owners will see this as a waste. I am sure some unit owners will not attend a block party and some probably never read the newsletter. That is a reasonable statement to make about a diverse group of 336 or so individuals.

So the questions are, how to create a newsletter that everyone would want to read and how to create a block party that everyone would want to attend?

Another question is, what are the priorities for expenditures of funds at BLMH? I would think a prudent individual would realize that core services come first, and reserves and emergency funds after that. However, fees collected for reserves and emergency funds cannot be ignored or spent on expanded services. There are choices to be made. But the problem seems to be in the details, and differences about what are “core” services and reasonable savings rates for reserves and emergency funds. There are brief discussion of some of these issues among the board members during Association meetings. However, the vast majority, or 95% of unit owners do not attend and are not provided with this information. Unfortunately, the official newsletter does not elaborate on the meetings and on the issues that unit owners have about budgeting and differences about how to spend the monies collected by the Association.

I’ve done what I can to provide some insights into the issues here on this blog. However, for the 95% of the unit owners who do not attend the official, announced Association meetings, their only source of information is the newsletter, which seems to have morphed into some sort of National Geographic with full page articles about the “resident of the month” and English architecture. With 336 unit owners, it will take 28 years to hear about each one of us. Obviously, that will never happen.

I would really like to know about the issues and perspectives of our past presidents. I would then like detailed statements from each of the members of the Board of Managers regarding their positions, concerns and how during their tenure they will address them. Subjects would include finance and balancing the needs, wants and desires of unit owners who vacillate between wanting improved and expanded services, totally maintained buildings, grounds and streets, and also want no fee increases. Then I would like to see similar statements from each approved candidate for the Board of Managers. I have emailed our Communications Director about this.