In an unfortunate but predictable development, the GIL Board has ignored repeated homeowner demands that they seek homeowner approval before borrowing nearly a half a million dollars. Further, the Board has has refused to allow any homeowner involvement in the process whatsoever.
If anything, the growing demand for answers seems only to have resulted in an effort on the part of the GIL Board to move faster to secure a loan that has grown in size from an initial projected request of about $300,000 to nearly a half a million dollars, at last mention. When added to the budget that was pushed through at the most recent Annual Meeting, the present Board will have a total haul of homeowner cash for 2012 of almost a million dollars. And, so far, they have done all of this behind closed doors, without any homeowner input or involvement.
Their position is as clear as it is untenable - they want our money,
but they don't want to have to answer to anyone about what they choose
to do with it.
Your help is urgently needed to put an end to what has become a very costly imperial system of Association governance, whereby those who have controlled the GIL Board for nearly a decade are so entrenched and removed from the rest of us, that they no longer even bother to stand for election or see any need to consult homeowners before borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars in our name.
Join your neighbors in putting an end to this madness and restoring transparency and accountability to our Board of Directors by sending an e-mail with the simple subject line 'Count me in". There isn't any time to delay - join the effort to save Glen Iris Lofts today.
The Sutherlands are a way to comfortable. That's my take on it. You can count us in.
ReplyDeleteIs it legal for them to take out a loan for capital improvement projects and pay it back by tossing the loan payments into the operating budget? Seems as though they are trying to go around the intent of the condo docs. Is that acting in a fiduciary capacity? Doesn't sound like it to me, but in just a prisoner trapped at GIL
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your question, our By-Laws do allow the Board to take out a loan without homeowner approval. HOWEVER, you hit on the nail on the head when you said that it violates the intent of the governing documents. Were the Board to levy a special assessment, they would have to get homeowner approval for anything beyond 1/30th of what they intend to borrow - so clearly they are circumventing the spirit of the By-Laws, if nothing else. And because they build the payments into the annual budget that homeowners DO NOT get the ability to approve (the budget can only be "not approved" by a majority of homeowners), they slip the loan payments (which will be HUGE, by the way - almost $10,000 a month, every month for FIVE YEARS - to put it in perspective, our loan payment will consume nearly 30% of all revenues our Association takes in every month that's left over after the mandatory monthly reserve fund transfer is taken out).
DeleteNot only does this loan ensure high - and going higher - HOA dues for the next 5 years, we better PRAY that we don't have to repair anything for the next 5 years because we will be tapped out and leveraged to the hilt.
And it WILL put a damper on any sales for the next five years as well. No one is going to buy a unit in a building that has high HOA dues and negative equity.
But the Sutherlands love to borrow themselves into an oblivion - they have first and seconds on their unit that total way more than it's worth. But it should come as no surprise that they are going to drive this Association into the ground financially. After all, housewives turned historic preservationists aren't exactly legendary for their business acumen. And attorneys are the butt of a million jokes for their ability to find a bankruptcy in a haystack they are so clueless when it comes to business.
The only way to save our Association is to get rid of the barnacles stuck to the bottom of our boat - email us at gil@go.to if you would like to join the effort to do so.
-Peace