Happy Holidays!

While there hasn't been too much activity on the blog, I hope that this forum continues to grow-not just as a place to air our grievances and dissatisfaction, but also as a place to swap services, products, and news.

I hope everyone has a restful holiday season and enjoys the new carpeting in the elevators-along with the giant stuffed (and singing!?) horse in the lobby. ;-)

~Donna

Voting Results

The following are the voting results from the past board election:
Votes Proxy Total
David 26 44 70
Del 25 44 69
Sydney 25 44 69
Milan 15 44 59
Olga 17
Erin 11
Janet 19

The 44 proxy votes represent the votes that owners have signed over to David. While the voting results would largely have been the same if David didn't have 44 proxies, Milan wouldn't have been re-elected without them.
I will allow you to draw your own conclusions about what happens when we surrender our vote to someone else.

We need to remind the board that they must represent our interests and govern accordingly.

Follow-Up

I was not able to attend the annual meeting, but given what I've heard, I think it's important that we continue to be persistent and follow-up with the board with regard to the issues that were presented. I think paramount to the condo owners being informed is the distribution of board minutes.

Given that the board is unwilling or unable to manage the task of distributing/posting minutes, has someone taken on the task of getting minutes and scanning into a pdf? If I want to receive these pdfs, who is managing the email list?

As an aside, I think it's odd that the building is paying for internet in the manager's office if the managers are unwilling to receive/send emails as part of their duties.

Annual Meeting

I missed the annual meeting due to insufficient notice. I read that K-M stated that 10 days notice is all that is required - that may be true due to a specious rule written somewhere, but it would require little thought or action to correct it. Annual meetings are often set a year beforehand, and notice published with the meeting minutes. Since a meeting room must be reserved that far in advance, why not notify homeowners of the date as well?

Speaking of minutes, good corporate governance calls for all board minutes and actions to be documented and distributed freely and promptly among homeowners. The current board "appears" (I don't really know) to not want to distribute monthly and annual meeting minutes. In the interest of professional governance, this should also be corrected. It may require a little more work, but is absolutely critical to open governance. I'm sure there is some homeowner willing to take on this task for the board, if management does not have the resources.

Another necessary reform: annual and monthly meeting agendas should be freely shared with homeowners. In this electronic age that is easily accomplished. Nominations for board membership must be publicly shared ahead of time, and the nomination process open to all homeowners interested in participating - not just through write-in ballots. The current situation "appears" to be be somewhat secret - I'm sure this is an oversight that can be corrected.

Finally: there is an ugly rumor going around that a board member told a homeowner at the meeting that "the board can do anything it wants - it's written in the CRR's - and if you don't like it, hire a lawyer" - or something to that effect. I find that incredible and hope that it's an exaggeration. Every Board of Directors (outside of Communist China) serves at the pleasure of its association, and should not be in an adversarial relationship with its constituents.

Kappes Miller Response to my Letter

Here is their response. Very cold and impersonal with no attempt to be inviting, warm, or understanding. And as far as I know, it's next to impossible to change to bi-laws, so even if the board was asked nicely to give us all more advanced notice of the annual meeting, I could see them rejecting that idea-as they have this year. I don't mean to overreact, but it just seems that there is so little attempt to create a relationship between the board, Kappes Miller, and the tenants. They seem to promote the cold/keep at a distance/us vs you vibe. YUCK.

Please be advised that the notice of the upcoming Annual Meeting, scheduled for October 21st, along with relevant annual meeting information, was mailed to all Sutton Place Owners this past Friday, October 1st. Please also note that although the Sutton Place By-laws require that such notice be distributed to all owners not less than 10 days in advance of the scheduled date of meeting; the Board, desiring to provide owners even further advance notice of the meeting, directed management to prepare and mail the notice, sooner than that required.

Sincerely,

Mike Gordon, CMCA®, PCAM®
Community Association Manager

News about the Marlborough House

According to the Seattle Journal of Daily Commerce an investment group has purchased the Marlborough House for $12.8 Mil. The investment group (Trinity Real Estate and Helix Funds) plans to finish the interior renovations and open the building as rentals early next year. With average rents of "somewhere North of $2 per square foot".

Letter to Kappes Miller

Here is a copy of the letter I just sent to Kappes Miller. I believe it is their job to keep us informed of the annual meeting (according to their web site).

Hi! I'm writing on behalf of several condo owners here at Sutton Place on Minor Avenue in Seattle. We have heard through the grapevine that our annual homeowners meeting is to be held less than three weeks away and have yet to be officially informed and invited to attend. One condo owner has attempted several times to post a notice on our only public bulletin board (the other two were removed during renovation and have not been replaced or relocated) only to have them removed-I was told my condo management, but I'm not certain of that.

Regardless, I find it disturbing and unprofessional that the ONLY meeting we are encouraged to attend (we have been told we are not allowed to attend monthly board meetings unless we submit a request in writing and the board finds the request worthy of inclusion in the meetings) has not been advertised at this point. A large number of homeowners are professionals with busy schedules, and some others live out of town. Both require advance notice of meetings and I would think that as soon as the annual date is decided upon, it should be made public knowledge.

Will we be getting notice in the mail? Will the management post the information in obvious places? That means more than just in the laundry room as there are units that have laundry machines, therefore not all homeowners would be exposed to such a notice. Why have we not been informed in a more timely manner?

There is concern and speculation that attendance at the annual meeting is being subtly discouraged by not informing us of the time and date with enough advance notice, and this is during a time when there is growing dissatisfaction/distrust with the condo management in general.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and hopefully send out notices as well as post them in our building. I would also like to respectfully ask that my name be omitted if this email is being shared with in-house condo management, as I would like to avoid having a strained or uncomfortable relationship with those who run the building in which I live.