Finance & Legal minutes: 2018-01-21

Minutes:

GO Finance & Legal Committee

Minutes of 1-21-18 Meeting



Present: Becky G., Debbi, Amy

Guest: Tevah





1. Hot Box wiring repairs



Tevah summarized the situation. A windstorm destroyed the fence behind her
and Daniel’s unit. They read up on the fence policy, hired a contractor,
the contractor called Miss Dig, started work, and on day one or two used an
augur that pulled up 10-12 feet of wire that connects the hot boxes.



The cost of the repair is not yet certain. An electrician has fixed the
obvious section, but the fact that it’s still not working means that
something is broken further down the line. The system is working on a
temporary fix because there is a work-around with extension cords. One of
these is plugged into Michael Pryplesh’s place. So there is probably some
small expense owed him for energy use.



The contractor called Miss Dig twice, but does not have the original ticket
number, and can’t get it. Miss Dig has said that they can’t see that they
came out. We could pay $75 to research whether they came. Tevah feels that
it’s moot and not worth it, because Miss Dig has said that if the wire had
installed privately, they would not be looking for it and are not
responsible for marking it. They are not going to pay for it whether they
found it or not.



The question that has not been resolved is who’s paying for the fix. So far
may be about $900. Tevah went to Buildings Com and there were different
opinions about responsibility. At their suggestion, Tevah contacted her
condo insurance company.



We discussed the issue of who laid the wire and if not DTE, then not their
responsibility. Do we have diagrams showing as-built maps of where such
wires are located? Tevah said that in their case, the map wasn’t accurate
enough, and they would have hit it anyway.



Tevah is not aware of any recent progress on the repair due to weather.



Debbi looked at the Bylaws and concluded that Tevah & Dan were making an
improvement to a common element and damage ensued. Article 7, 3a, vi,
suggests that they may be responsible. However, there is a section of our
Master Deed that suggests that GO might be responsible, but it’s ambiguous.



Debbi will send an email to Tevah’s insurance co and see what they say. If
they reject it, the question becomes do we send the question to GO’s lawyer
to see what he thinks. Debbi will cc Tevah on her email to the insurance
company.



We recommend that Buildings Com follows up to try to document where the hot
box lines are so we don’t damage any more of them.



2. Truck Proposal



a. Amy will send the draft proposal to Grounds, Erik (Truck Coordinator)
and Gayle Turner (Truck Administrative Assistant) for their input.

b. She has sent a message to Grounds asking them to devise a simpler method
for charging for personal truck use. In the past this has brought in about
$250-350/year.



3. Questions for our attorney



No response yet to our questions about how we have been collecting $ for
the reserve based on the matrix the community agreed to but which was never
put into the MD.



Debbi has a question for him. Our legal documents call for F&L to review
landlord leases but that is not happening. We would like to ask Rick to
write a model lease for us. Can an owner modify the lease?



4. Master Deed & Bylaws Changes


a. Debbi is working on a list of changes to the Bylaws (now 20 pages long)!
She would like to have Rick review the indemnification section.

b. Her plan is to send the doc to Elph and Patti, who will be looking for 4
categories of things: 1) items that would need discussion in the plenary
or committees; 2) areas where Bylaws conflict with our practice; 3) any
mentions of the developer, initial meetings, or transitional period; 4)
fixing information lost when it was retyped in the past.

c. There are already some areas that need community discussion. Do we
bring these up now or wait until Elph and Patti give their feedback? Why
wait? Let’s move forward.

d. While Elph and Patti are reading over the Bylaws changes, Debbi will
start reviewing the Master Deed.

e. Debbi is checking the Book of Agreements as she goes.

f. We don’t know yet whether Rick recommends amending vs. writing a new set
of documents. There’s still value in going through our current docs
because then we know where there are issues.

g. There are a number of items that need to be brought forward to the
community for discussion, and that need verification. Debbi will make a
list for F&L to review and decide if we should discuss first.

h. Becky H. sent the township a list of garage usage right holders; Debbi
needs a copy of this to see if anything has changed since then.

i. Debbi would like an hour on the 2/19 comty meeting. Amy will request it.



5. Bookkeeping Updates


a. Updates – Becky sent out 2019 reports today. We will be lenient about
late fees because it’s the first month of new, higher association fees.

b. Charging for Truck usage – Amy requested that Grounds come up with a new
plan for charging for personal use.

c. Arrears – it’s the middle of the month, nothing has changed. We talked
for a while about the late fee policy and how it we might consider changing
it so it is less harmful to people who are really struggling. We’d like to
hear how the community would like to see it change.



6. Insurance questions we are tracking


a. Garages explicitly written into policy

b. Treehouse insurance

c. Is it ok for a child to ride in the truck with a parent who is plowing?



7. Other Business


a. Becky G. and Amy are going to the Condo Managers Bootcamp on Tuesday

b. When broken agreements lead to liability concerns (Debbi’s report on
conversation with Process) – still pending

c. F&L calendar of routine tasks – may not happen for a while

d. Becky agreed to help bring forward a discussion around what is the
community’s wish around access to walk-out basement apartments. We talked
about how she might move forward with this.





8. Next meeting: Monday, February 12





Cooler doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_dmnNJmHmrwwFIfnscnRbPK-_8_kmahfFsOTn_fEvTY/edit
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