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’.

Dun & Bradstreet Credit Reporting also notes a Sutherland/Miller-Gallman affiliation

Last Monday, the Blog posted a copy of the Hoover's Business Report that noted the alleged affiliation between Kit Sutherland and Miller-Gallman Developers.  We have since been able to obtain a copy of the Dun & Bradstreet Comprehensive Credit Report for "Miller Gallman Developers", that, like the Hoover's report, supports an apparent affiliation between Kit and Miller-Gallman Developers.  Note: The Dun & Bradstreet report is included at the end of this post.

As with the Hoover's report, we wondered why no other executives (namely Jerrold Miller) were listed as having an affiliation with the company.  Upon further investigation, (Continued...)

Hoover's Company Report: Mary Sutherland is Secretary of Miller-Gallman

The Blog was finally able to get a copy of the Hoover's Company Report for Miller-Gallman developers that, does indeed, list Mary C. Sutherland as Secretary of the company (see below).  We wondered why no other executives (namely Jerrold Miller) were listed in the report.  Upon further investigation, the Blog discovered that information is contained in the company report for "Miller-Gallman Developers" (with a "-" in between the words "Miller" and "Gallman"), whereas the company report that mentions Kit was filed with the company "Miller Gallman Developers" (note the absence of the "-" between "Miller" and "Gallman").  If you combine the two reports, you would have the complete company information, at least as far as Hoover's is concerned.

You can judge for yourself, but in the Blog's opinion, it doesn't look necessarily like a "telephone marketing" roundup of random names.  Hoover's is a name that's well respected in the business world as a reliable source for corporate information, and there is no reason to believe that they simply concocted the information out of thin air.

At the very least, I think most would agree that it's a situation that certainly warrants a statement from Kit herself as to whether or not the information is accurate.  To-date, Kit has not denied the allegations that she has financial ties to the developer of Glen Iris Lofts.  Doesn't it make you wonder why she hasn't?

Join your neighbors in support of change by sending an e-mail to gil@go.to with the simple subject line ‘Count me in’ – and be a part of where Glen Iris Lofts is going.

Note: If you see the message "Sorry, embedding multiple documents..." below instead of the file contents, simply click the link below and open or save the file to your computer.

Hoovers Company Report

What's my share? A unit-level detail view of assessments from 2003-2012

WHATS MY SHARE?
Courtesy of: Chris Gordon (Ph II, 611)
A unit level breakdown of every budget line item for 2012, your unit's assessments for all years 2003-2012 and the total assessments paid by your unit since 2003. For readers who are into numbers or just curious, this is the file for you!

Note: If you see the message "Sorry, embedding multiple documents..." below instead of the file contents, simply click the link below and open or save the file to your computer.
Whats My Share

BREAKING NEWS: We’re broke.

2012 should be a year to celebrate – our Association will have its 10^th birthday.  But the guests to that party will have to bring their own kazoos, ice cream and cake – because, after nearly a decade of Sutherland control and domination of Board operation, we are, effectively, broke.  Yes, you read correctly, broke.  You could say that we are an island surrounded by a sea of Sutherland red ink.

We ended 2011 with total assets of $214,035 that are expected to be augmented by an additional $46,106 in reserve fund additions over the coming 12 months, for a projected total of $260,141. However, we also have repairs that have been identified and determined to be necessary expenditures (Continued...)

The $3,064 phone call...

Given that we pay nearly $25,000 a year for the services of a professional management company and given that we have a treasurer on our Board, who, presumably is given the freedom to do her job by her supervisor (which is doubtful, so I would remind folks to be careful and not lay too much blame at Jennifer Keir's doorstep), it's vexing that one can hardly turn around in our budget without bumping face-first into wasteful and unnecessary spending or instances where costs are higher than they would be if we weren't paying a 'stupid tax'.

Although the Blog shouldn't have to tell our Board and professional management company about it, we are on the wrong rate plan with Georgia Power.  Pick up the phone, call 888-660-5890 and tell them that you want to switch from the 'Small Power and Light Plan' to the plain old 'Standard Residential Service' plan.  We'll save 8.63% on our electricity costs by doing so.  And with this year's expected spend of $35,500 on electricity, that comes out to about $3,064.

Look into it.  Do the math.  You'll see.  We could have $3,064 more in our pocket at the end of the year without having to give anything up in return.  It's free money.  It doesn't get any better than that!

Whomever is baking all the cookies ought to share!

Not that the Blog would presume to do the Board's job - because certainly they are capable of doing that themselves. Or, are they? Natural gas usage - which only our stoves are supposed to be consuming -  has increased steadily between the 2003 to 2012 budget years - partly due to errant under billing by the gas company that went undiscovered for a time and partly due to rate and usage increases.  The Board carved out $15,500 for natural gas costs in 2012, a modest increase over the prior year, because, according to Stuart Sutherland, 'gas prices are going up'.

But has Stuart or anyone else on the Board stopped for a moment long enough to do a reality check? At the current price of natural gas, to consume $15,500 worth, every single unit at Glen Iris Lofts would have to have their stove top burners going all out for eight hours of every day for the entire year! And I mean all 110 units...8 hours...every day, seven days a week.

Perhaps there are units that have installed gas water heaters or gas heating appliances? Who knows, but the Board needs to wake up and pay attention to business and get to the bottom of this issue, rather than have the hand-off of thier out of control spending to homeowners every year continue to serve as the poor substitute for the management of our Association's affairs that it is.

Suther-spam: Part 3 – Stuart’s watered down truth hoses homeowners

As anyone in attendance at the Annual Meeting can attest, there was a lively discussion about water.  All that seemed to be flying around the room there for a while was water: prior water billing, water meters, water conservation, water budgeting, current water billing, water, water and more water.

And no wonder - 13% of the 15% increase in dues for 2012 is directly linked to the Board's budgeted item of $70,000 to pay for water and sewer service for the coming year.

But what was also flying around the room, as it turns out, was a lot of bullshit about water, too. So, if you left the meeting a little bewildered by all the assertions, proposals, claims and counter-claims going around that evening, you're not alone.  Many homeowners had difficulty making sense of it all.  So, in an effort to help homeowners separate the water from the bullshit about water (Continued...)

Suther-spam: Part 2 - Deaf ears and hot air cost homeowners $10,000

This is the second post of a four part fact-checking series brought to you by the Glen Iris Blog.

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...)

Suther-spam: Fact checking the Sutherland disinformation machine

This is the first post of a four part fact-checking series brought to you by the Glen Iris Blog.

Suther-spam:  Part 1 - Shut up and pay up

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. 

*Note: Many homeowners may be unaware of the manner by which our Association adopts a budget.  It's not so much an 'approval process' as it is a 'dissapproval process' - whereby the budget is whatever the Board says it will be.  The only way around that is to have the budget disapproved by way of a procedurally improbable scenario whereby members may disapprove the budget predetermined by the Board at the Annual Meeting.  It would require a minimum of 56 members to be present, in person, at the meeting (not by proxy) and all of whom are in unanimous support of not supporting the budget for the coming year.  Sounds like an attorney's dream come true, doesn't it? It is.

DISINFORMATION   In introducing the 2012 budget, the Board Treasurer - oops, my bad - our Treasurer didn't present the budget to those in attendance at the Annual Meeting (I was momentarily confused because that's the way every other Association on the planet does it, but given the reality that our Board is, and has been for years, more or less a clever democratic-looking disguise for the Sutherlands and their dictatorial hold on our Association, Stuart naturally presented the 2012 budget rather than it being presented by Jennifer Keir, our Treasurer).  Let me try again.  In introducing the 2012 budget, the Board - i.e. Stuart - claimed that the 2012 budget 'holds the line on expenses' and even went as far as to make the claim that, with the exception of the budget item for water and sewer, the 2012 budget contains several items of expense decreases over 2011. (Continued...)

It's still 'Kit's Board' and Fidel's Cuba...

You know how you can always tell when you've had a busy weekend going here, going there, shopping for this and dropping off that....compared with one where you sat around the house not doing much of this and careful to not do too much of that?  Easy.  You end up with a pocket full of receipts and paper doing the former and nary two cotton fibers to rub together doing the later.

And it's no different with GIL Board members as it is with anyone else.  That's how you know that despite their big put-on for the they've-fallen-for-that-crap-for-nearly-six-years-now-so-surely-they-will-again homeowners (you know the skit - Stuart pretends to be on-the-Board-and-In-Charge while
Kit takes a hiatus, sticking her nose into other people's business other than ours), Kit has never really gone anywhere.  She's right where she's been all along - running 'her Board'.
You know how I know? That's simple. (Continued...)

Board President left holding the bag...of bird shit

If, after nearly 10 years of what I believe to be the Sutherland’s stunts, dirty tricks, shenanigans and otherwise enrolling others in their favorite game – the one they excel at like no other – pitting one homeowner against another, there are any homeowners still naïve enough to think that the Sutherlands aren’t still fully in control of the Glen Iris Board - titles be damned - then one discussion in particular at the Annual Meeting would have surely convinced the last of the non-believers.  It was, of all things, the discussion about bird poop.  Yes, you read correctly, bird poop.

So, there everyone was at the meeting and the subject of the nasty bird nests in the ceilings of the Phase I and Phase II garages came up.  That’s when you saw Stuart slowly slink to the background and stand quietly by, allowing poor Yoel Bakas, the current Board President, to lead the discussion - and make a fool of himself by being only half-informed – just the way the Sutherlands like ‘em.

Here’s the 411 on the bird poop. (Continued...)

Way to hold down costs, Stuart!

Boy are we stupid! Stuart blamed the whopping 15% increase in HOA dues for next year on the ginormous increase in water and sewer charges...but did anyone notice that the budget for next year increased 2% without the extra $52,500 in water and sewer increases?  And that would be after the 11% increase in dues last year and the 7% increase the year prior to that.

Way to 'hold down costs', Stuart.  Great job.

Curiously scurrilous...

scur·ril·ous/ˈskərələs/

Adjective:

Making or spreading scandalous claims about someone with the intention of damaging their reputation: "a scurrilous attack". Humorously insulting.

In yet another denial by Stuart of Kit's alleged involvement with the developer, Stuart announced to all at the Annual HOA meeting that he had discussed the allegations with Jerry Miller (whom the...

Annual HOA Meeting Kabuki Theater...

Well, there we were again...Stuart pretending to listen and homeowners pretending that they are involved.  And what with Kit and her damned laptop?! She gets more abrasive every year.  By this time next year, she may even be as pompous and abrasive as her husband... Mmm....nah.  Not possible.

And, ah, show up an hour late, busy yourself with everything but what you're supposedly there for and then dart out the back door before anyone could ask you a question much?  She was no doubt late to another meeting...at 10:00 p.m.  And hasn't anyone noticed that Kit herself has said nothing on the subject of whether or not she is affiliated in any way with Miller-Gallman Developers?  Not a word.  In fact, she wrapped up her intrusive and disrespectful keyboarding session but fast once someone said that they would just ask her the questions about Miller-Gallman themselves rather than continue to pose them to Stuart.


All I know is that...I might be inclined to think that maybe her name popping up with Miller-Gallman is just some weird fluke - were it not for what seems to me as completely guilty behavior.