A Real Forum for Your Concerns

7337 S. South Shore Drive - Located South or Heading There?

Published on August 14, 2004 By perfectbiz In Welcome

Attendees at the last Board meeting are still buzzing over the anger manifested by Owners. Open discourtesy was frequently displayed as the financial status of the building was discussed.

On August 6, 2004, Owners received an Amended Budget which calls for a 12.79% increase to be collected beginning with the October assessment. Critical repairs must be made, and our reserves are insufficient to meet the costs which will be incurred.

This is a good time to thoroughly discuss our concerns about 7337 and where it's headed. It now seems too long ago that we were all looking up at the new face on our building, and complimenting one another on the energy efficiency of the newly installed windows. Today there seems to be much that is unsatisfactory.

This is your Blog. Please add your comments, thoughts, insights, inside knowledge, advice, your praise and your rants. Maybe this can become our little democracy, wherein every person has a voice and an idea, and no one is shouted down or out of order. Maybe we can fashion something worthy out of those voices: a better 7337 S. South Shore Drive.

Comments

perfectbiz

on Aug 17, 2004

The initial meeting of the Ad Hoc Committe was held on August 16, 2004, at 7:00 PM. T. Taylor, Board President presided over the meeting in its initial tasks:

Definition of Charge (Scope) of the Committee

Simply put, the charge of the Committee is to locate management group candidates, determine their capability to manage our Association, and to present its recommendation(s) to the Board for its approval and selection.

Selection of Committee Chairperson

By ballot vote Dr Susan Gaffney was chosen as Chairperson and immediately assumed her position for the balance of the meeting.

Committee Actions

Selection of a Secretary was deferred until the next meeting. Each member was tasked to bring several candidate management group suggestions to the attention of the Chairperson so that initial contacts can be made prior to the issuance of formal Requests for Proposals.

A tentative completion date for the process was established: October 31, 2004.

The next meeting is scheduled for 7:00 PM. August 30, 2004.

The Ad Hoc Committee meeting was adjourned at 9:00 PM

perfectbiz

on Aug 17, 2004

Mr. Benjamin Henry (Unit 901) is sponsoring a charter meeting for Seniors in 7337 on August 20th 2004 at the South Shore Cultural Center. Hope you got your invite if you're a Senior here, and hope even more that you'll be there. Expect to have Mr Henry's comments blogged soon.

perfectbiz

on Oct 12, 2004

Residents of 7337 - We need to talk!

To: Owners of Lake Terrace Condominium Association
From: Greg Samuels, An Owner
Subject: Cheer up! Things could be worse!

First of all I'd like to remind us all of the winter of 1999, when I bought my unit overlooking the lake. (At least that's what I was told it did) The windows were cracked and dirty, letting in more cold air than light, except in summer when they let in more insects than either light or air! The façade was dangerous and filthy. Any view from the street or lake was of a dilapidated old building praying for a wrecker's ball to put it out of its misery. You remember. I remember.

Then, our management group, Board of Directors and we grudgingly approved that whopping 2.5 million dollar assessment; and we got a makeover that had heads turning all over South Shore. I calculated that the value of this property rose by nearly 100% (based on capitalization of my owner percentage property value between 1999 and 2003) You can challenge my assumptions, my arithmetic and even my sanity - but I bet you can't deny the intense interest of the predatory investors circling around LTCA's increased investment value like sharks in a feeding frenzy. Your unit(s) are the best investment you've likely made unless you sold Enron short.

So what did we do with our spiffed up home at 7337? Well, first we booted the management company that had worked to restore this building out of here, then got ourselves someone who'd go along with operations on the cheap. We paid the lowest dollar possible for everything and everybody and every service - and you all know we got what we paid for. And we're still going to have to pay! (Apparently pipes, boilers and buildings don't know how to deteriorate within our budget)

By the way, I keep writing "we" and "our" and sometimes "they"; but what I mean in all cases is you and me. The Board is you and me, too. Your vote and my vote put them onto the Board, sustain their actions and keeps them there. Attacking the Board is slapping our own faces. Remember Walt Kelly, and what Pogo discovered?

"I have seen the enemy...and he is us"

I can say all this stuff because I'm the laziest owner in the building. I've sat on my …. hands for years and watched all this go on. I've gone to few meetings (not many at all) and watched the goings on, shrugged - and done nothing. Oh yeah, I've insulted a few people, yelled a bit, and been yelled at, but mostly stood idly by - like you.

But now I feel that 7337 is on a glide path to some place I don't want to go. I look around and I see or feel or smell the dreariness of public housing. You do too. I'm not going to list complaints you're all too familiar with if you live here, but I'd sure like you to get a forum going where we can exchange ideas, plans, actions, complaints, advice…all about and for making 7337 the ideal place to live it must become again. And there is such a forum on the web - right now!

Point your browsers to: http://perfectbiz.joeuser.com

When you get there, read the latest news about happenings at 7337, and add your comments. No censoring, no interruption of your thoughts and speech and ideas. Just some good old fashioned street corner democracy, and maybe a chance to change a mind and opinion, or the direction this building is taking.

Please don't deprive us of your ideas because you don't do computers. Make the effort to find a neighbor, or a friend who does, and tell him to get you to that address. Then go for it! You can even call the library, make an appointment for an hour of librarian assisted computer time, and give us all the benefit of your experience, your perspective and your thoughts for 7337.

perfectbiz

on Oct 12, 2004

October 12, 2004

We're voting this time!

In less than a month we will all be faced with making choices, with selecting leaders, with deciding what will be our future and our destiny. And because this is a democracy, we've got the privilege of doing nothing, of letting our silence cast its own vote. That's what we've done in the past.

In the past, we've let others decide our future; in the past, we've given away our right to determine how we will exist. But not this time. This time it matters - it desperately matters what we do. We must act as if our lives depend on what we do in this election.

And so, we will seek out the candidates and ask them what they stand for - besides election. We want explanation of their philosophy, statements of their principles and determined hope for our future. Simple tenure isn't enough either; after all, we got to this bad place we're in under someone's nose- or direction, or neglect.

We want to know that anyone we vote for has a goal if not a plan, dedication if not credentials, ethical foundation if not executive experience. We want anyone we vote for to be committed to openness, to communication, to be willing to call for sacrifice, when needed, from a groundwork of his own personal integrity- and willingness to share equally in that sacrifice.

November can usher in a new day. November can sweep away some of those old failed processes and behaviors that have lead us to this ledge overlooking disaster. What we do (and you do) on that November day will mean much for 2005, or nothing. So we're going to look, listen and choose. By ballot or by carefully considered proxy, we're going to have our say in the future of LTCA.

Hope you will too.

The Save7337 Committee Contact: save7337@sbcglobal.net

perfectbiz

on Oct 12, 2004

To: All Unit Owners and Residents of LTCA
From: Greg Samuels

Subject: A Fresh Start

I have just concluded a committee assignment (my first in 6 years of residence at LTCA). I considered it an important assignment: the Ad Hoc Committee charged with making recommendations to the Board for an appropriate management company for the next year(s).

I considered it vital that the Committee be active, responsible, and determined to discharge the obligation that it accepted. To my mind, it was. Dr Susan Gaffney served as our Chairperson, and her energy, humor, dedication and relentless pursuit of a quality result kept us all at the tasks assigned to us.

We worked in harmony, but not in lock step. We disagreed on points- then resolved them in fervent, sincere amiability. The result was the report prepared by Dr Gaffney and supported by us all.

Along the way I developed a deeper understanding of the influences brought to bear on the Board members who worked with us, and I began to admire the trait they displayed that Hemmingway termed bravery: grace under pressure.

The firm we favor, Liebermen, has the potential to move us toward being among the most envied condominiums in this area. I say "potential" because we, all of us, Board members and Owners, have the means handy to ensure that they do not succeed. All we have to do is know more than they do. All we have to do is show them how to do their job. All we have to do is their personnel evaluations, set performance standards, and generally show them how things are done. We can be back to where we are now in no time at all.

And we must be clear on where we are. Today we have no water, none; neither hot nor cold. Two elevators are out instead of 1 as is usual. A large, flapping banner at the entrance to our fine condominium invites the casual passerby to drop by for doughnuts, cigarettes, candy, and liquor. A stroll into the building is facilitated by a wide open
Dumpster removal door, with no one standing watchfully by. Anyone wishing to use our Laundry room may oblige him/herself by pulling open the seriously damaged door. But who would use that room?

And our hallways, from the 14th floor to the 2nd offer a meld of embarrassments too funny to be infuriating - and too infuriating to be funny. Some benighted intellect has decided to play mix and match with our beautiful hallway lights. Ace hardware 60's, clears, frosties, floodlights - what ever will illuminate- a gross descent into a subsistence environment for which we pay! And enormous signs announcing the floor and direction, and evacuation signs that have us living on S. Shore Drive not S. South Shore Drive, and flood soaked rugs, and the smells of stagnant water, and garbage not collected, and our bills not paid, our assessments not collected, our funds not deposited…., and some scary renters, and some scary owners, and everybody so damned angry at things, each other and the world!

Yeah, we really know how to run it. And we have. Into the ground.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give the reins to Lieberman. I'm going to trust the Board to tell them to make things better - not worse; then I'm going to let them do what they can do better than me - and better than you too. I'm going to trust their judgement that they will bring in managers who can pull us out of this hole we're in. See, this is my house. (Yours too) I live here, but not in the comfort I desire. (You don't either) It's dirty. When I see a mess and call in a professional housecleaner to make it presentable, I don't tell him to use my Dirt Devil carpet sweeper to vacuum, and to leave his Hoover at home. I want and I expect him to bring in his own tools.

Our Home is also a small business. It's got revenues of 1.5 million yearly, and a population of a thousand to serve.
We have no right to expect an unpaid Board of Directors to have the time (or talent) to micro-manage this complex enterprise. We do have the right, and they the duty, to establish our objectives, aims and philosophy in broad outline, to ensure that we move toward those objectives and aims within that philosophical framework. That's what good Boards of Directors do. Then they hire a rippin' good CEO, pay him the bucks, and watch him do the things they want done. That's how it's done. That's what I want. What do you want?

perfectbiz

on Oct 12, 2004

Well, after October 4th I'm pumped. The Management Review committee did its job, recommended new management blood, in the form of Lieberman Management Group - and the Board ok'd it. The candidates asked to present were Lieberman and Draper & Kramer (managers for 8 years until 2 years ago when we went with Habitat).

Lieberman did a first rate presentation, and D&K made a poor one. I think they thought their prior experience made them a slam dunk. A 5 minute dissertation on gas futures did little to inspire the Owners in attendance.

Anyway, we're off to a good start if we give Lieberman a fair shot.

perfectbiz

on Oct 12, 2004

perfectbiz

on Oct 12, 2004

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