The Switch

A part of the history of this co-op not to be forgotten:

A previous Office Co-ordinator assigned a 2-bedroom unit in Phase II of this co-op to a member. The member was in the process of cleaning the unit, when the Office Co-ordinator informed her that she had changed her mind and was going to rent the unit to someone else. The Office Co-ordinator then assigned her a 2-bedroom unit in Phase I. The excuse was that a single person could not occupy a 2-bedroom in Phase II. We have no 1-bedroom units in this co-op. This sounded absolutely preposterous and so we began to investigate. The Ministry of Housing's half-hearted response to my letter was that it would make better use of the housing stock. I wrote back and said how could this be in light of the fact that the co-op was transferring a member from a 2-bedroom unit to a 2-bedroom unit, incurring maintenance costs as well. To substantiate her first decision, the Office Co-ordinator took it upon herself to transfer two other single member households from 2-bedroom units in Phase II to 2-bedroom units in Phase I. In order to placate one member, the Office Co-ordinator had the unit in Phase I upgraded with new linoleum and thickly padded wall-to-wall carpeting. After the switching of these units, the Office Co-ordinator produced a letter to the Board of Directors indicating that she was so stressed out she could no longer work and demanded a $40,000. buy out. The Board of Directors promptly agreed and immediately issued her a $40,000. cheque without the consent of the membership.

The ink had barely dried on the cheque when the Office Co-ordinator started her new job at another co-op the following week. The President of the co-op shortly thereafter bought a house and moved out.

A new Board member soon after found documentation in the office which confirmed our assertion that the transferring of members from a 2-bedroom unit in Phase II to a 2-bedroom unit in Phase I had been a scam from the start - a contrivance by the Office Co-ordinator to give the 2-bedroom unit in Phase II to a 'preferred' member.

Single people are once again peacefully occupying 2-bedroom units in Phase II. The corruption on the part of the Office Co-ordinator and the Board member has never been resolved. My husband, who sat on the new Board of Directors, was advised by a lawyer that it would cost the co-op more to pursue reclaiming the money from the Office Co-ordinator than the buy out itself. The matter was dropped.