Homeowners hire attorney to obtain information from GIL Board

Although winter is not yet over and the drop in evening temperatures can still fall below freezing, things sure seem to be heating up here at Glen Iris Lofts.

The Blog has recently learned that a group of Glen Iris Lofts homeowners have hired Atlanta law firm Lipshutz Greenblatt, LLC in an effort to enforce compliance on the part of the GIL Board to provide access to information the homeowners claim they have a legal right to review, following the Board's latest denial of their request for information. 

According to a letter sent to the Association this week by the group's attorney, Mr. Randall M. Lipshutz, Esq., (a copy of the letter obtained by the Blog has been included with this post, below) the homeowners have requested; to review all ballots, proxies and other material related to the most recent election of Board members in December; to view the emails that evidence proper Board approval of the 2012 budget, given that the budget was not approved at a Board meeting where minutes were taken; all maintenance contracts maintained by the Association in excess of $25,000; all documents related to the Board's decision to seek a loan to pay for exterior stucco work and window repairs (the so-called 'mega-loan').

This is not the first time Mr. Lipshutz has been involved in the legal affairs of Glen Iris Lofts.  Most notably, he was the attorney that drafted the Association's By-Laws, Articles of Incorporation and filed the initial Declaration of Condominium.  In their selection of legal counsel, the homeowner group could probably not have found someone with greater knowledge and familiarity with the governing documents of our Association.

The Blog sent an e-mail to the GIL Board seeking comment on the homeowner group's action, but did not receive a reply.

The Blog will keep our readers abreast of any new developments that pertain to this story as details emerge...stay tuned!


Copy of letter sent to the GIL Board from Randall M. Lipshutz, Esq., the homeowner group's attorney, can be viewed, below.  Note that if you are unable to view the letter in-line on this Web page, simply click the link below to open the letter in a new browser window.

Document Inspection Letter

Brace yourself: Minimum 22% increase in HOA fees for 2013

We hope you are sitting down.  If you aren't, you should have seat before you continue reading.

If you thought the Board's rush to borrow $450,000 was something that won't have a dramatic impact on you, think again.  When you do the math, the loan necessarily means that monthly Association assessments for 2013 will have to increase a minimum of 22% in order to make the payments on the Board's mega-loan.  And that's on top of the 15% we just got hit with this year.

Here's why.  Our current year budget (2012) is $468,000, however, only $15,000 of that is for loan payments for 2012.  If you subtract the $15,000 anticipated 2012 loan payments of $15,000 from the total budget, the result is a core budget of $453,000.  Now, add twelve months of loan payments on the $450,000 Board advertised loan request, borrowed at the rate Stuart Sutherland gave homeowners at the most recent Annual Meeting - 7.75% - and amortize that out over the five year loan term.  You will arrive at a monthly loan payment of just over $9,000 per month.  But the Board will have to collect even more than that, because we are required to set aside 10% of monthly assessments for reserve account funding.  The result is that 2013 monthly assessments will have to be at least $104,000 over and above what homeowners are paying under the 2012 budget.  That's an increase of 22% for 2013, assuming that the core budget is flat compared to 2012.

No wonder why the Board has been so miserly with details about the loan and has been otherwise mum on the subject - they were no doubt hoping no one would put all the pieces together and realize the that it's not just a loan, it's a game changer.  

We will be number one on at least one list under the Board's proposed plan - we will be the most expensive loft building per square foot in all of Metro Atlanta.  That's quite a feat, although not entirely surprising given the Sutherlands' combined years of business education training and years running an actual business enterprise total precisely zero.

If you are okay with a 2013 dues increase of 22%, then do absolutely nothing.  That certain future will be here soon enough and you'll be able to pay what you do today, plus an additional 22%.  However, if you think what's coming down the pike is outrageous and completely unacceptable, then click here right now to send us an e-mail with the subject line "Count me in" and, together, we will work to restore sanity to this clearly insane Board.

There is no time to waste.  Get involved now - before the Sutherlands drive our Association straight over the cliff of their own ineptitude.

Your neighbors at the Blog

Board ignores homeowners' demand for loan approval

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.

When managers are mistaken for leaders

It's no secret that the Blog has been highly critical of the Sutherland's managerial performance of our Association - and for good reason.  Despite their near decade-long reign in dictating just about every facet of life here at Glen Iris Lofts, finding examples where traditional business management principles have even been discussed - much less implemented - is next to impossible.  The reason for this is pretty simple.  Despite the fact that they manage an annual budget that is now nearly a half a million dollars and that by the end of this year, will have enjoyed the unfettered ability to determine how and where almost $4 million dollars of Association funds will have been spent, the Sutherlands don't run our Association like a business.

More dollars burned...

Continued from A penny saved is a dollar burned...

6.  $21,600  The money the Sutherlands have spent to have our community Intranet hosted with WebEx and the most expensive options package they had.  Never mind that nearly all of the money spent for those features was for naught, as everything that would have made it a truly useful resource for homeowners necessarily also enabled them to sometimes criticize the Sutherland Board - and Kit wasn't going to have that - not for a minute.

A penny saved is a dollar burned

The Sutherland's are always eager to point out anything and everything they do or are responsible for that saves our Association money.  However, there are really two sides to that coin.  A more balanced assessment of their volunteer efforts and their financial impact on our Association would also have to include the less well known - and certainly less well polished side - the additional cost incurred as a result of their wasteful spending, mismanagement of Association affairs, their uneven pursuit of Association receivables and the additional bloat in the cost of contracted services borne of their cozy relationship with - and over-reliance on - our management company, CMA.

Use of surveillance cameras within our Association

Given the extraordinary amount of time required to both research blog content as well as author posts, the Blog now posts original content six days a week, Monday through Saturday.  However, every Sunday we will post other articles, blog posts, etc. that may be relevant to the Glen Iris Lofts community.

Today's post is a re-blog from the HOA Law Blog, titled Surveillance Cameras Within Your Association, authored by Steven J. Tinnely, Esq., posted January 26, 2012 and addresses the use of security cameras in HOA common areas.

Video surveillance cameras are now being installed almost everywhere, so why not in your homeowners association (HOA)? When used properly surveillance cameras can provide additional security, a greater sense of safety and a deterrent to would be criminals. Yet several questions and considerations are often raised with respect to the installation of surveillance cameras within a HOA.

Board's mega-loan poll results: 54 to 1

The Blog recently conducted an online poll that many of you participated in. We asked if you thought the Glen Iris Lofts Board should be required to get homeowner approval before proceeding with their plan to borrow more than $400,000. The results were an overwhelming fifty-four affirmative votes and only one ‘no’ vote. While not a formal poll, readers were only able to vote once and, given that fact, it’s a pretty clear message to the Board of Directors that homeowner sentiment is clearly and heavily weighted toward their inclusion and consultation before proceeding with obtaining a loan of this size – especially when doing so comes with so many ramifications for the members of this Association.

Surely, the GIL Board will respect the wishes of such an overwhelming number of homeowners and schedule a time and place where those that have questions can ask them and the Board can provide more specific information than it has to-date on the subject.

If not, then everyone would at least have to acknowledge that Glen Iris Board, indeed, serves only a community of two.

the Blog

 

Fix for all Phase II parking garage problems finally identified

It seems like the problems – and cost to remedy them – surrounding the Phase II parking garage never seem to end. Specifically:

1. Every effort to prevent birds from building nests in the insulation and spreading diseases and mold as a consequence has failed and birds continue to damage the property and leave behind copious droppings on people and their cars; 
2. The third floor lofts located above the second floor of the parking garage are adversely impacted during cold weather as the thin layer of patchwork insulation is insufficient to enable those units to maintain warmth; 
3. Cold weather has also necessitated the purchase and installation of an elaborate web of plug-in electric pipe heaters to prevent the exposed plumbing that snakes along the ceiling of the second floor parking level from freezing and bursting (potentially raining raw sewage onto everyone and everything below...yuk!) during winter months – driving up utility expenses for a ticking time bomb solution that has no way of being monitored for the mechanical failures that are inevitable as the heat strips age;
4. The northern and western sides of the first floor parking level serve as lawsuit in-waiting as there is no barrier to prevent a small child – or pet – from suffering as much as a ten foot free fall from the grass to the pavement floor of the garage below. While it is unclear if the lack of a barrier violates building codes, the Blog has confirmed that the deficiency would prevent our property from passing a housing safety inspection by the Atlanta Housing Authority; 
5. The lack of personal and property security inherent in the parking garages has been a persistent source of very vocal complaints from homeowners for the past nine years as their cars have been broken into repeatedly and a few have even been stolen from the property outright. 

Sutherland support dwindles as homeowners shut out of loan process

KNOW WHEN TO SAY WHEN  Being in the driver's seat of our association has its perks - just ask Kit and Stuart Sutherland; they've had their derrieres planted firmly there for the past eight years.  Not only do you get to bend and stretch every detail of the home lives of over one hundred of your neighbors until it can be shoe-horned into something more to your liking, you always have a steady supply of sycophant vendors and homeowners lined up to stroke your ego and whisper sweet yeses into your ear.  And best of all, the job comes with your very own girl Friday, who's commanded by your every wish.

She has your money to burn

About a month ago, on January 16, 2012, the Blog ran a post entitled the $3,064 phone call, where we pointed out that our Association was on the wrong rate plan with Georgia Power. In that post, we detailed our analysis of prior and current electricity usage, which indicated a minimum possible savings of $3,064 on the Board's budget for common area electrical expenses over the coming year. We even included the phone number so that they could easily call and switch our rate plan.

Hijacked

Outwardly, they have been the poster children for the archetypal community volunteer and concerned neighbor. But underneath their meticulously crafted public image, tireless self-promotion and thin veneer of volunteerism and community service, has been a nine year calculated endeavor to subvert the democratic will of GIL homeowners by engineering at least one election outright, contorting election procedures in every election, keeping a sharp eye out for new homeowners that can be easily manipulated and by making Board service so untenable for the ones that can’t be that they either resign or decide not to seek re-election.

GIL needs your vote TODAY!

Dear Neighbors-

Many of you have already voted in our online poll, and to those of you, we would like to say 'thank you'.  As of the time this post was published, about a third of you had raised your voice by voting 'yes' or 'no' on the question of whether or not the GIL Board should be required to get homeowner approval before borrowing up to $400,000 in your name.  So far, homeowners have overwhelmingly said 'yes', the Board should seek homeowner approval.

But many of you have not voted yet and we need to hear from you!

The GIL Board is preparing to borrow as much as $400,000 in your name but without any opportunity for input, review or approval by homeowners. And we think that's just plain wrong.

Our By-Laws require homeowner approval for the budget every year - and all but two budgets in the entire history of Glen Iris Lofts were less than $400,000. If the Board spent that money via a special assessment, it would need homeowner approval for a tenth that amount. The Board is exploiting a loophole in our By-Laws that does not restrict the Board's authority to obtain loans to circumvent the implicit requirement found throughout our By-Laws that homeowners should have a say in how much is spent by their Association.

Tell our Board how you feel about being cut out of the process but stuck with all the bills. Vote in our poll on the Main page - just to the right of this article - and SPEAK UP!

Do not forget to VOTE!

The GIL Board is preparing to borrow as much as $400,000 in your name but without any opportunity for input, review or approval by homeowners. And we think that's just plain wrong.

Our By-Laws require homeowner approval for the budget every year - and all but two budgets in the entire history of Glen Iris Lofts were less than $400,000. If the Board spent that money via a special assessment, it would need homeowner approval for a tenth that amount. The Board is exploiting a loophole in our By-Laws that does not restrict the Board's authority to obtain loans to circumvent the implicit requirement found throughout our By-Laws that homeowners should have a say in how much is spent by their Association.

New GIL Mega-Loan has CMA sharpening the shears

Editor’s note: Michele Richards from Community Management Associates was twice invited to comment on the subject of this post and have her perspective of events included. The Blog did not receive a reply to either invitation.

The Glen Iris Board is in a big hurry to borrow big – and guess who is celebrating? CMA. And guess who will be picking up the hefty party tab for years to come? You guessed it, GIL homeowners.  Most of whom would be surprised to learn how much they paid in fees and commissions the last time we got the CMA ‘hook up'.

The Blog’s review of accounting records for the $200,000 loan that was arranged by CMA in 2004 revealed not only hefty fees, but some rather amateurish attempts on the part of CMA to conceal the true nature of the costs as well.

The courage deficit

For those of you that couldn’t make the Glen Iris Board meeting Monday evening, you missed a good show. The usual cast of characters was there, and in a sign that the Blog is causing real and growing concern about their ability to remain so, they had their attack dogs in tow and their guile polished to a blinding gleam. 

It quickly became apparent that the Board had met in secret at some point before the meeting as the minutes from last month’s meeting had already been approved - proving that their pledge not to have secret meetings to do so this year lasted all of a few weeks. No surprise there. But things got more interesting when Stuart delivered his remarks about the authorship of the Blog. Acting as if he alone was this century’s only university graduate that learned more than they ever cared to know about the National Socialist German Workers’ Party – a/k/a the ‘Nazi Party’ - and their bottomless hat of slick rhetorical devices, subterfuge and demagoguery, he implored all in attendance to ‘come forward’ with the name of the Blog’s author if they ‘had any courage’.

AJC article may hold clue to Sutherlands’ developer ties

Both the Dun and Bradstreet Credit Report and the Hoover’s Company Report that claim an ownership interest by Mary “Kit” Sutherland in Miller-Gallman Developers – the developer of Glen Iris Lofts – noted that her involvement began in 2005. And, given that the Glen Iris Lofts development was completed in 2002, an involvement by Mrs. Sutherland starting in 2005 has been a bit of a sticking point.

But a recently discovered article written by David Pendered of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, dated May 23, 2005 (included below) may hold new clues to help explain the timing of the information reported by Dun and Bradstreet and Hoover’s. In Pendered’s 2005 interview of Jerrold Miller and W. Bruce Gallman, they shared an interesting detail about important changes being made to Miller-Gallman Developers at the time:

“Miller-Gallman Developers is poised to add a consulting arm. The aim is to advise other residential developers about the potential for adapting and reusing the innumerable old buildings that flank the Beltline and dot the inner city”

-Atlanta Journal Constitution, May 23, 2005

This raises an interesting question.  Who better to provide that additional talent than

Cart-Gate: No carts? Kit says just make two trips

It’s not exactly news to anyone who’s read Kit’s e-mail that she has a petty streak wider than The Home Depot parking lot, but what may be news to many homeowners at Glen Iris Lofts, is just how quickly she’ll throw them under the bus to accommodate it.

In a stunning display of just how little the Sutherlands really care about the needs of GIL homeowners, they announced yesterday that they intend to have the janitors throw the one brand new utility cart the Blog recently donated to the community into the trash and said ‘no’ to the donation of four additional carts!  And, in a year when we are staring down the barrel of over $400,000 in necessary building repairs with only $250,000 in the bank – and had to increase monthly assessments by 15% just to pay the regular bills – you think they'd have been happy to have the nearly $1,000 donation.  Yet they weren’t.  And that’s because from their perspective, when - and if - they decide homeowners can have more carts, they will just roll that cost into whatever increase they’ve got brewing for everyone next year.  Problem solved.

Isn’t it time that our community be treated like something more than a grade-school playground where immaturity reigns, petty trumps practical and all you can hear from those that are supposed to be leading us and setting a good example is ‘I know you are, but what am I?’

Might Glen Iris Lofts be a lot better off if the janitors left the new utility cart where it was and threw the Sutherlands out instead?

the Blog

Call the APD: Sutherlands steal funds from police, fire and schools?

[POST UPDATE: The amount of tax evaded by Stuart Sutherland's fraudulent filing to receive a homestead exemption on more than one property for each of the years between 2005 and 2011 totals $1,614.55.  Per Georgia Code, the Sutherlands currently owe $3,229.10 (twice the amount of the tax evaded) to the Fulton County Tax Commissioner]

Fulton County and City of Atlanta property taxes are a vital source of funding for a multitude of services provided by local government. They fund the police and fire departments, local schools, parks and recreation, county and city government administration, courts, and the list goes on. And despite the fact that many Atlanta taxpayers feel that property taxes are excessive, everyone understands the important role they play in keeping our community safe, healthy and vibrant.

Of course, most taxpayers can get a small break (about 9.5%) on their property tax bill if they qualify for the homestead exemption. Basically, If you own your own home, it’s your primary residence, your drivers’ license was issued in Fulton County and if your vehicle tag was likewise obtained in Fulton County, you qualify.

Like all tax deductions, the homestead exemption does come with a few rules – one of which is that you can only claim a homestead exemption on one property. (Continued...)

There’s a thief in our midst

All of the brouhaha that has followed 'Cart-Gate' has certainly brought one question in particular more sharply into focus for everyone living here at Glen Iris Lofts.

AND THAT QUESTION IS by what authority is Kit Sutherland running about investigating key finders on carts, authoring ‘community announcements’ in the name of the Glen Iris Lofts Board of Directors (in that headmaster tone like only Kit can do) summoning the Atlanta Police Department to ‘investigate’ delusions of ‘compromised security’ on GIL property, authorizing billable time by Association attorneys and, unbelievably, having the audacity to confiscate utility carts when they are in short supply and desperately needed, when she hasn’t even been elected to serve on our Board for more than three years now? (Continued...)

CART-GATE

Dear Neighbors:

The Blog recently donated a brand new cart for homeowner use, since they always seem to be in short supply.  Fully knowing that Kit Sutherland would sooner take it away and deprive every one of its use than she would have anyone who doesn’t already know about the Blog find out about it, we installed an RFID tag on the cart so that when it went missing, we would know who took it – and that would be unit 519, Andrew Mark Hicks.

But you know Kit – being a bit of a tech-not (by her own admission), she didn’t know what an RFID tag was and became convinced it was some sort of sinister plot to upset the security of our community, and sent out the (somewhat embarrassing) e-mail, below.  (Continued...)

Election fraud bombshell: 2003 rental cap amendment FAILED

For anyone that still harbors the quaint illusion that GIL elections are fair, honest and accurate, prepare yourself.  The Blog recently obtained a folder that contained the ballots from the February 13, 2003 Annual Homeowners’ Meeting, at which homeowners voted on whether or not to amend the By-Laws to include, among other things, a 25% rental cap.

But an audit of the vote count reveals a startling discovery - the amendment actually failed.  (Continued...)

High cost of free counsel: Stuart Sutherland's cost us $200K

The following is an intriguing timeline of events that surround Kit and Stuart Sutherland’s acquisition of the unit adjacent to their own that curiously unfolded at precisely the same time GIL homeowners found themselves the only ones left at the dinner table when the nearly $200,000 tab was delivered for a construction defect that no one – not even the developer – argued they should have to pay for.  No one, except Stuart Sutherland, that is.

HOW IT CAME TO BE

02/19/01

Kit and Stuart Sutherland purchase 660 Glen Iris Dr, NE, Unit 409 (their primary unit) for $342,000, of which $273,600 was financed via a conventional mortgage obtained from First Union Mortgage Corp.²⁹

05/30/02

While the Glen Iris Board was still under developer control, Jerrold Miller, of Miller-Gallman Developers – the developer of Glen Iris Lofts – appoints Kit Sutherland to the GIL Board of Directors publicly at a Glen Iris Lofts homeowners meeting.  The Board then consisted solely of Jerrold Miller, W. Bruce Gallman and Kit Sutherland. 

“Kit Sutherland of Phase I was appointed to the current Board of Directors by Jerry Miller and Bruce Gallman”¹

At the same homeowners’ meeting that Miller announced Kit’s appointment to the first homeowner Board, Miller acknowledges responsibility of the slope stabilization project when he responds to a homeowner question on the subject.

“Homeowner question for Jerry Miller:

3. What are we doing about the landscape at the rear of the building that washes away when it rains?

The landscape architects have been assigned to examine the erosion and give a plan of correction to us.”¹

10/02/02

In a meeting with the GIL Board of Directors, developer Jerry Miller again openly acknowledges responsibility for correcting the slope stabilization problem behind the Phase II building.²¹

02/11/03

At the Annual Meeting, held at 7:00 PM, Stuart Sutherland voted by proxy for Ellen Hines - the owner of the unit adjacent to their own that they would buy the following year.

06/04/03

Sandy Jones, the first President of the homeowner-controlled GIL Board, sends an e-mail requesting Gary Caruso, an engineer with Criterium-Caruso Engineers, to perform a forensic study of the failed retaining wall to determine if the developer should have taken steps to shore up rear retaining wall.²

06/12/03

In a noteworthy halt to the momentum to build the case that the Miller-Gallman should be held accountable for correcting the failed retaining wall, the GIL Board minutes note that it has decided to take the Erosion Engineering Control Study off the table for the time being.

“Bid for Erosion Control and Next Steps (Kit and Sandy) Kit will you please bring the letter from Craig Howell?

Erosion Engineering Control study is taken off the table”³

GIL Board votes to approve a special assessment to fund the slope stabilization project, although the amount of the assessment will later prove to be only about one-tenth the amount eventually required to remedy the problem.³ (Continued...)