Stratus Management Takes Over

Stratus Management is taking over as the new management company for Playmor Terrace as of this Saturday, 9/1. The management team consists of Susan (sue@stratusmanagement.com) and Katie Besek (katie@stratusmanagement.com). They can be reached for any common area concerns/problems by phone at (619) 233-0553, and by fax at (619) 233-7972. The 24-hour emergency number is (619) 692-5903.

The monthly Board meeting is being rescheduled to the second Wednesday of each month, but still at 6pm in the Doyle Recreation Center on Regents Road. The next meeting will be on September 12.

More information, including how to set up automatic electronic debiting for the monthly dues can be found in their introductory mailer.

Board Meeting Report: New Management Company Announced

Wednesday’s Board meeting was not as well attended as some of the more recent ones, but there were at least ten owners present, in addition to all five Board directors and three representatives from the resigning management company: our community manager Sean DeFreitas, CEO Adrian McKibbin, and recording secretary Samantha Kollman. Interestingly, the owners were well behaved this time, but the directors got involved in a few unpleasant discussions among themselves. In particular, director Cathy McVey seems to have developed an intense dislike for her recently elected colleague, Marius Ardeleanu.

As for actual association business, several topics came up:

• Our new management company is Stratus Management. No further information was provided about the company, its community manager(s), or how the transition is going to take place (e.g. where to send the checks), so we may have to wait until September 1 before we find out more. The company appears to have a web site at www.stratusmanagement.com that is worth looking at for its old-school design.
• The financial status of the association remains a reason for grave concern, as neither the ongoing special assessment nor the increased dues were able to contribute much to the reserves. The total assets at the end of July were $177,635 with most of the unanticipated expenses due to legal fees – treasurer Glen Lyons stated that the legal expenses in July alone were more than $11,000! One long-time owner pleaded for more information about where the money is going and how to read the annual audit that was recently mailed out, but the Board preferred to discuss the following topic at length.
• The paving project has been completed. All present agreed that AMcKibbin&Co and Sean DeFreitas in particular deserve our gratitude for bringing closure to a project that started many years ago and required mediation to resolve. Some owners didn’t follow the directions and parked their cars in their spots too early. They will get to enjoy the resulting tire marks for years to come.
• We don’t have a treasurer. The Board chose new officers: Marilyn Dupree was re-elected unanimously as president; Sam Goldberg was elected as vice-president; and Cathy McVey as secretary. The office of treasurer, however, was declined by both Glen Lyons as well as Marius Ardeleanu and remained unassigned at the end of the open session. If neither director can be convinced to change their opinion, the Board could ask for a volunteer owner to become treasurer. Our association’s Bylaws state quite clearly that officers need not be directors and vice versa.

If you are wondering about the recall meeting that was requested … the Board did not discuss the issue. It will be interesting to see how the owners behind the recall proceed in the near future. California Corporations Code Section 5511 (c) states that a Board must announce when and where the meeting will be held within 20 days of receipt of the official request. Failure to do so allows the requesting owners to organize their own meeting or to ask a court to do so.

August Board Meeting on Wednesday, 8/15

The regular monthly Board meeting for August will be held this Wednesday (8/15). The meeting will be from 6pm to 8pm and will take place in the Doyle Recreation Center on Regents Road. Likely agenda items are the announcement of the new management company as well as the date for the recall election meeting.

There is actually legislation being discussed that would require HOAs to announce the agenda items before each Board meeting (more information can be found on this useful site). This seems useful, though the restriction that items which were not on the agenda cannot be voted on may be problematic in practice.

Board Meeting Report

Ezra Van Everbroeck posted a long report of last week’s board meeting on the Buzz page, but there are three topics worth mentioning here:

• The association’s assets are still at about $175,000. I.e. no change from last month so the reserves weren’t funded.
• AMcKibbin&Co is resigning because Playmor Terrace is giving the company too much trouble. Opinions differ as to whether this trouble is caused by the Board’s own actions or – as the Board claims – by the actions of a small group of owners. It is worth pointing out that the previous management company also resigned, although these same owners were not active then. At any rate, new management companies are being interviewed by the Board right now so the transition to a new company on 9/1 will hopefully go smooth.
• There will be a Board recall meeting in the next few months. Recall that a group of fifteen owners recently mailed out a letter saying the association’s bad fiscal situation and the voided proxies at the last elections prompted them to initiate the recall process. The institution of term limits for Board members will also be on the ballot. On a related note, it appears at least one of the proxies that was voided at the last election should have been valid. This is currently being investigated but it could lead to new elections.

There has also been quite some activity on the Buzz page in the last few days, so check it out and contribute. For those of you who didn’t receive it, Corey Goldstein refers in his post to this card. Please keep the tone civil and suggest ways to improve things – insinuation and rhetorical questions are of little use.

Finally, let’s hope we can all agree that the new blacktop in the parking spaces is making Playmor Terrace look much nicer than before. For those of you who are still waiting for the work to begin on their spaces, please remember to park you car(s) in a different location or you will be towed at your expense.