WHY FACT CHECK?
It doesn't exactly take the observational skills of Angela Lansbury for one to put together pretty quickly that Stuart Sutherland is a man that is seldom wrong about anything.
In fact, Stuart comes across as so right about everything, some might even label him a bit of a Renaissance man - well versed in everything from the nuts and bolts of commercial construction to the nitty-gritty nuances of accounting and business math. So, the Glen Iris Blog thought it might be educational to take several statements and claims made by Stuart Sutherland at our Annual Meeting and do a little fact checking to see if, in fact, he is as knowledgeable as he would have us believe.
DISINFORMATION At the recent Annual Meeting, one homeowner proposed turning down or off the electric space heaters that dot the stairwells of both the 660 and 640 buildings. I don't recall the exact dollar figure that the homeowner maintained could be saved annually by this proposed cost cutting measure, but I believe it was on the order of $4,000.
Upon hearing this suggestion, I was awestruck by how quickly and firmly the money saving suggestion was discarded out of hand by Stuart Sutherland. What was even more telling, to me anyway, was the certainty with which Stuart announced that no money could be saved by the homeowner's suggestion whatsoever. And if I've learned one thing about Stuart Sutherland, it's that the more adamantly certain he sounds, the more likely it is that what he's saying is pulled straight out of his arse and highly unlikely to have much, if any, truth to it whatsoever.
But, admittedly, that's just my opinion. So, in an effort to add a measure of empiricism to the debate, the Glen Iris Blog decided to take an independent look at both the claims made by the homeowner and the claims made by Stuart.
FACT Using actual Georgia Power usage and cost data provided to the Blog by CMA, it turns out that the homeowner and Stuart were both wrong. In fact, electric space heaters (one of the few things consuming electricity only when it's cold, apart from heat strips to prevent pipes from freezing, however they are only drawing power when the temperature drops below freezing) are almost certainly adding significantly to electricity usage during the winter months. (Continued...)
But the homeowner was wrong, too. Approximately $4,000 a year is not the amount that could be saved - the actual annual amount is probably closer to $10,000 - or 2.6% of the entire budget.
According to the detailed investigation into the matter by the Blog (see data table and graph, here), Stuart appears to have been more interested in coming across as nothing less than a complete expert about everything and perhaps also more interested settling a personal score by putting the homeowner's very well-founded suggestion in the worst light possible, than he was in saving homeowners money. Go figure.
Is it just me or does anyone think it may be a bad idea for our Association - which is essentially, a nearly a half a million dollar a year enterprise - to entrust the stewardship of its business operations to an attorney and his self-described 'neighborhood activist' wife for the last decade? There are probably a hundred ways our money is being pissed down the toilet as a consequence of that decision.
It's way past time for our Association to be run by people with some business sense and not people with scores to settle, egos to protect and, allegedly, their own investments to look after at the expense of Glen Iris Lofts homeowners. The financial stakes are just too high now a days.
Editor's note: Apart from the fact that our electricity bills are higher because of stairwell space heaters than they would be otherwise, it should be noted that during the most recent month for which there is available data (December, 2011, see below) our electricty usage (not cost - usage) was up 21% over the same month for the prior year (2010). No wonder the Sutherlands never want to share any information. Homeowners might discover how poorly the financial affairs of this Association are being managed.
[December 2010 usage: 20,600 kWh; December 2011 usage: 24,920 kWh]
Be sure to check the Glen Iris Blog tomorrow for Part 3 of the Suther-spam fact-checking series titled 'Suther-spam: Part 3 - Stuart's watered down truth hoses homeowners
I've been out of town for 3 weeks, and today, I've had the pleasure of reading these extremely interesting posts. Having been an owner for 6.5 years, several key topics I've heard "rumored" in the past, but this is the first seeming substantiation presented, to my knowledge. One would have to be without any of the 5 primary, tangible human senses, however, not to have questioned at some point the very odd persistence of our "dynamic duo's" representation on The GIL Homeowners Board. Fact or Fiction? Who is to say, at this point, and I pass no judgement one way or the other. I will say, however, that I have been extremely passive in my attention to Board meetings, budgets, etc., and my suspicion is that many others have as well. I know that I will not be in the future, and plan to attend as many future meetings as possible to become more educated on matters, first hand. I hope, and even ask, others to do the same, for truth's sake, if nothing else. Perhaps one thing to consider would be the institution of term limits on board representation, in any capacity, of no more than 2 consecutive years, and no possibility of re-election for at least a 4 year period, thereafter. It only makes sense to have fresh views and opinions on things, in general. At the very least, stagnation breeds laziness, but far more often there are born things far more damaging, if not dangerous. John Sandidge, PII, 508
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