Board Recall Meeting Rescheduled

Stratus Management just sent out a package to all owners about the recall meeting. It has been rescheduled for Monday October 22, and will now be held at the Jewish Community Center. Owner registration starts at 5:30pm; the actual meeting at 6pm. There are two issues to be voted on: (1) whether to recall the entire Board; (2) whether to approve an amendment to the Bylaws to institute term limits. The Board recall requires at least 85 votes, and the majority of those must approve the recall. The proposed amendment requires 86 votes in favor. Given the recent hostility between different camps of owners, it makes good sense to vote. Especially with respect to the Board recall proposal, a clear victory for one side or the other will make it clear if Playmor Terrace needs a fresh start or not. Make sure to read the voting instructions carefully so your ballot won’t be thrown out.

Two questions:

• What happened to proxies? California Civil Code says in Section 1363.03 (d) that proxies can be used if permitted by the Governing Documents. This is obviously the case for Playmor Terrace. On the other hand, the law also says that an association is not required to prepare or distribute proxies. So, owners will have to create their own proxies if they want to use this option. Given the success the pro-recall owners had with proxies at the last elections, their conspicuous absence from the official correspondence may not be an accident.

•   Who will be the Inspectors of Election? Last March, it was announced that there must be three Inspectors of Election and that the Board must appoint them before the balloting material is sent out. Presumably, one of the three will be from Stratus Management, but the other two must be either owners or independent third parties. It is interesting to note that the pre-stamped ballot letters now mailed out were originally addressed to the Association’s new law firm, Peters & Freedman, before a label addressing them to Stratus Management was placed over the old address.

Whose Sides Are You On? (Part 1)

The report of last week’s Board meeting has received several comments that are worth reading. They raise a number of issues which share a common theme, namely hostility between different groups of Playmor Terrace residents/owners. It would be naive to expect everyone to get along without any kind of friction, but at the same time the only way this community can be successful is if we agree to disagree in a civil manner.

There are many ways in which the owners and residents can be divided in groups, and people who belong in the same group along one division may well belong in different groups along another one. Today we consider two such divisions.

• U.S. Citizens vs Foreigners. In an email message to director Marius Ardeleanu, treasurer Glenn Lyons has made it clear that he wants foreign owners to “go back to where [they] came from & allow US citizens to govern their own destiny”. One can only speculate about the motives for making such a xenophobic statement, but it should be obvious that many current citizens of the United States of America have recent ancestors who were foreigners. It’s the basis for the common view that the U.S. has been a “melting pot” of nations and cultures. For a Board member to state that foreigners aren’t welcome in Playmor Terrace is simply reprehensible. What’s more, such statements are in violation of the Fair Housing Act and our own Governing Documents. As summarized on this U.S. Government web site:

It is illegal for anyone to:

• Advertise or make any statement that indicates a limitation or preference based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or handicap.

Similarly, section 5.3.14 of the CC&Rs states that owners are not allowed to

Engage in any type of harassment, illegal, noxious or offensive activity toward any Owners, residents, Association representatives, Board members and/or vendors working in the Project.

• Young vs Old. In their comments on the report, D.J. Capelis and Steve point out that the ‘tip on how to deal with a noisy party’ could be abused to get your neighbors arrested. One would hope that the police officers responding to the complaints would provide a fair assessment of whether any noise violations were actually taking place. In the absence of an actual violation, it is unlikely that anyone would get arrested. More generally, everyone’s take on how much of a problem the noisy (student) parties are is probably correlated with how close they happen to live to a unit where such parties take place. The students have the right to be young and have fun, but not at the expense of other residents or in violation of the CC&Rs. This entails observing quiet hours or being willing to face the consequences. One idea would be to approach the residents pro-actively and let them know about nearby venues where they can continue with their parties after 10pm.

The following three group conflicts will be addressed tomorrow in Part 2 of this post.

• Resident vs Absentee Owners.
  
• Long-time vs Recent Owners.
• Owners vs Tenants.

September Board Meeting Report

This month’s Board meeting was well worth attending. It started with a new ‘look’ — i.e. a round table arrangement of the chairs that effectively stimulated discussion — and ended in unusual fashion as president Marilyn Dupree had to close the open session early due to an owner who wouldn’t stop talking. About fifteen owners were present, in addition to three Board members (Sam Goldberg and Cathy McVey were absent), as well as Sue and Katie Besek from Stratus Management. The latter are the mother-and-daughter team that has started managing the day-to-day affairs in Playmor Terrace. They didn’t say much at this meeting, but did mention that they are also the association managers for University Woods, the adjoining community.

•  Glenn Lyons has been re-elected as treasurer, following a fairly lengthy discussion in which director Marius Ardeleanu again refused to accept the position. He mentioned that he has been insulted by Glenn Lyons in Board-internal communication and had no reason to believe director Lyons was nominating him in good faith. Director Ardeleanu in turn nominated owner Ezra Van Everbroeck as treasurer, but president Dupree said the Governing Documents state that all officers need to be directors as well. She nominated Glenn Lyons again, and the nomination was approved by two directors (Dupree and Lyons) and opposed by one (Ardeleanu). The discussion of the fiscal statement for the month of August was tabled till the next meeting.

• The Board recall meeting will take place on October 18. The meeting will be held at the Doyle Park Recreation Center and will start at 5 or 6pm. Information about the proposals to be voted on as well as ballots and proxies will be mailed out to all owners soon. If the Board is indeed recalled then there will be elections to choose new directors.

• There has been vandalism against cars, so please keep an eye out for the culprits. Several owners mentioned that their cars had been damaged (scratched, or a flat tire) in the last few weeks. If the problem continues, the Board will look into installing security cameras in the carports.

• How to deal with a noisy party: an owner shared a tip given to her by a local enforcement officer. It’s advisable to call the police department as soon as a loud party starts, especially if it’s still the afternoon. The police department isn’t as busy then so an officer can more easily be sent out to take a look and warn the offenders. Assuming the party continues into the night, five owners should call the police department again to report the noise. Because the party’s organizers were warned already, the officer that gets sent out later can now arrest the culprits immediately.

The minutes for the previous month were approved so we are hoping to have those available here shortly.

Recall Update and Board Meeting this Wednesday

The first Board meeting with representatives from Stratus Management will be held on Wednesday 9/12 at 6pm in the Doyle Recreation center. It would be a good idea for all owners to attend and meet the new community managers in person.

As for the Board Recall meeting that was requested by a group of about 15 owners, it turns out that the Board failed to follow the relevant laws by not announcing the date for the meeting within 20 days. The organizer of the recall effort, Daniele Pelessone, has thus notified the Board in an open letter that they will organize their own meeting (an option explicitly granted by the law in cases where a Board drags its feet) unless the Board announces the date for the special meeting at Wednesday’s meeting.