Happy Holidays and

MERRY CHRISTMAS

TO ALL

The Managed

The Board of Directors stated in mid-November that they were going out for tender regarding the hiring of a permanent Property Manager and that co-op members would be notified in January as to who they hired.  It now appears that our present Property Manager is the chosen one as she has circulated calendar notices for January and February, when she will be in the office.  A backgrounder:  Our present Property Manager was one of three 'experts' who were foisted upon us in April, 2009 for a 3-year stint in order to prevent the co-op from going into bankruptcy.  Quite abruptly, when the co-op parted ways with our then Office Co-ordinator, this Board member suddenly became our temporary Property Manager.  She, too, parted with the co-op for a bit and in a re-invented sort of way re-emerged to be our Property Manager once again.  As stated above, the co-op, in order to legitimize the whole affair, while simultaneously appearing to be neutral, has now initiated a so-called tender process.  It appears that this will be the third blessing of our Property Manager.

In August a Must Read notice was delivered to members.  It stated, in part, that 'Over night parking must now be registered through the office either by collecting a visitors parking pass during open office hours or by leaving a message at the office' ... and that  ... 'Members parked in visitors parking will be towed'. The latest notice circulated to members stated that 'After hours parking will still be enforced'.*

There's a problem with the implementation of the above instructions.  There are no Visitor or Member parking signs in our part of the co-op.  In the summer time parking spots were enumerated in bright paint on the pavement.  It is now winter and the yellow lines, letters and numbers are no longer visible. 

The notice reminds members that the office is open from 9:00-12:00 p.m. until December 31, 2012 with the exception of the holiday closure.  The holiday closures are from December 21, 2012-January 1, 2013 - a veritable mind-numbing oxymoron!

The co-op is now looking for members to volunteer on three committees, a By-law review being one of them.  However, the Board of Directors will approve the four members for this committee, and no doubt, will closely monitor the input and impact this committee will have on the By-laws.  Translation:  The Will of the Board of Directors will be imposed.

The newsletter ends with a quote by the Property Manager. Although the quote is rather lame, it is a step above other quotes, the likes of Abraham Lincoln and the German writer, Goethe, plucked from the internet and which has no relevance whatsoever, other than an egotisical attempt to appear to be well read.


* I have yet to see a Visitor's Parking Pass in the windshield of any car in the co-op.  For a satirical take on this public parking fiasco, see my September 4th blog post entitled The Strange & Loving Saga of Stéfan & Stéfane.
 

Time Frame

When our mortage is paid out in 2023, CMHC will stop providing housing subsidies to our members - the co-op will have to foot the bill.  The money which will not be going out for mortgage payments will, in turn, finance the housing subsidies.  However, co-ops are aging and will need expensive upgrading.  Co-op's are being encouraged by CHF to carefully plan for this step out phase by building up their Capital Reserves and to keep in mind Vision 2020, a series of videos and articles, featured on their web site.

Here's a link to one such co-op which is now undergoing their loss of subsidies:

http://www.ctvlondon.ca/2012/12/subsidies-gone/ 

Re-financing is being discussed as a possible solution to this financial crunch, but would aging co-op buildings be sufficient collateral for a long-term loan?  In addition to co-ops having to finance expensive structural repairs, they'd also have another mortage to pay off.  Is this sustainable?  

The Federal goverment might also be approached to provide subsidy funding.  To my mind this should be linked to co-op oversight by the Federal government, as I don't think co-ops will be able to go it alone.

Our Diner

My husband and I love to pop in to the Zeller's restaurant and have a belated breakfast together and a whole booth to ourselves.  The waitress in this Sunday Edition clip is so kind.

The last time we were there a camera man was patiently waiting for the right time to interview a very elderly patron.  My husband and are newbie seniors and not part of the regular crowd.  Nevertheless, we will really miss this out-of-the-way gem.

http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/popupaudio.html?clipIds=2313438336 

PIPES

A few weeks ago we had our furnace cleaned.  It took all of ten minutes.  The technician did not vacuum our furnace and pipes as did the previous furnace contractor we had for many years.  The technician replicated this half-hearted inspection in other units in the co-op.

On Friday our sewers were semi-cleaned.  Plugs were placed in basement floor drains, while the sanitary sewer company flushed the main street drains.  It was a 'quiet' affair - no vacuuming occurred, as our very competent contractors had done in the past, and sewer lines from individual units were not flushed out to the main drains.  The technician placed a plug over our basement one-way sewer check valve and destroyed it in the process.

When I approached the technician outside to ask if he knew what had happened, our Property Manager in a very loud voice told the technician NOT to talk to me - that she would deal with it.

This was extremely rude behaviour on the part of our Property Manager.  Members are coming forth with horror stories. This must stop, but how?  Members must not communicate with individual Board Members, as declared in a recent newsletter.  Everything must first go through the office.  Who opens confidential Board letters - the Property Manager!  And word has it that the Board of Directors are absolutely delighted with the dictates of our employee.  

It seems that we will have to raise our voices higher and louder to see if anyone cares to listen.

April, 2009 - April, 2012

It was stated in the Board Correspondence newsletter which we received earlier this month that arrears owing to the co-op have been lowered to approximately $40,000 by our Property Manager since April, 2012.

The Property Manager, however, was one of the three external Board Members foisted upon the co-op under our Solvency By-law to resolve our financial difficulties.  The 3-yr. Solvency By-law ended in April, 2012.  What did the co-op inherit after the Solvency By-law ended?  Over $40,000. in arrears!

The external Board of Directors who were depicted as 'experts' did not monitor arrears, nor did they oversee the errant ways of our Office Co-ordinator - to the detriment of the entire co-op.

The co-op is now congratulating our Property Manager (ex-Board Member) for not doing her job under the Solvency By-law.  

Only in co-ops, you say?