What Owner’s Talked about Feb 1 Meeting 2024

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            Director Jack Fishman joined the meeting to answer any questions he could. 

1.  Bike Storage:  An owner complained about the bike cage and the dangerous, dirty conditions.  Hard to get bikes out of the cage, tripping hazard, stuff sticking out all over the place. Jack explained the plans to expand the bike cage capacity and add more cameras in the area.  He will check on the schedule.  

2. Garages: While on garage subject, Donna noted that the rules and regulations are not being enforced. Bicycles and other personal items are not permitted in garages because they attract thieves and create parking obstacles; however, they are being stored there.  Also, non-resident members are complaining that day workers, commercial vehicles, and residents are parking on the upper floors, making it difficult for non-resident members to find convenient parking places.   Once we get the EV charging stations, that will take away many guest spaces (approx. 20), so it’s going to get worse. Jack said it’s an issue and they are looking into.  According to the Rules and Regulations approved by the 2019 board, “All residents must park in their assigned spaces only”,  and “only conventional  passenger vehicles shall be allowed in the visitors parking area”.  Jack explained that in the next 2 weeks some of these things will be addressed. Everything will need to be removed from parking places; bikes, carts, etc.. They will also be checking the size of vehicles in the garage. 

Once again, we suggest decals for outside members and another color for day workers so they can be spotted when parking in visitor’s spaces.  Otherwise, property services personnel have no way of identifying the improperly parked vehicles.  This would be an inexpensive solution to a lot of the problems. 

3.  Nearby Homeless Encampments:. Beaches and Harbors wants a plan from Essex.  Its vacant building next to the West Towers attracts homeless. Cameras are being added to survey the building  but the trees must be trimmed for cameras to capture the vulnerable  areas,  and we can only cut them between October and December.   Donna suggested a task force of owners to monitor areas where encampments pop up, report them to the proper authorities, and follow up to make sure action is taken.  Sheldon Fisher had agreed previously to do that; however, he  explained that he has not done that.  Bill Bryce was approached by an owner who said yesterday he saw a couple walking around suspiciously.  They went into Promenade garage looking into cars. They were obviously casing the place.

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4.  Pet Problems:  Fred responded to Tina Oswald’s questions regarding large dogs and owners not picking up their big dog poops.  According to management, we cannot restrict weight of dogs. However, after the meeting, Donna checked and found that HOAs cannot have a “No Dog” policy, they must allow one dog.  However, she could find nothing that stops HOA’s from putting restrictions on pet breeds and sizes.  Unless a new law has been passed, we suggest larger dogs need to be legitimate support dogs. Businesses (particularly airlines) are cracking down on so called support dogs that aren’t.  

5.  Safety and Security:  Cameras will be installed in the breezeways per Jack.  West Tower south 9th floor- Sandy says they have a fire pit on their balcony. This is dangerous. It was reported at the COA meeting and to property service a week ago but nothing has been done yet.  Fire heat lamps on the patios are also a hazard.  Needs to be addressed.   Jack says in these cases we need an incident report. Then that goes to Jennie, then they talk to owner and then there is a hearing.  Sandy worried about the building being burned down. It needs to be dealt with ASAP.

6.  Housekeeping & Small Fixes:   Floors don’t get vacuumed frequently. – Jack said to ask Jennie what is the cleaning schedule is.  Perhaps a cleaning schedule can be sent to all residents.  

     Window cleaners are coming back in April. Can the window cleaners steam clean certain areas? Can we see how much more it may cost? He thinks this would make our buildings look better.

     Jammed paper is shoved under doors to keep them open.  *Please see attached photos.  This makes our property look like a third world tenement building.  Low cost, permanent door stops are available and can be easily installed by staff.  

7.  New Laundry Machines:   Washing machines are very nice. Doors need to be reversed on the dryer.  Jack says to send email to Jennie, Katina, and board too.   Linda-P asked why we haven’t gotten a directive on how to use the apps and what to do with the old cards. Jack addressed this. Email was sent. You can get refunded. Shauntee can help with loading the app and helping figuring this out. . A blue card will be coming out soon for the new washers. Ask Shauntee. Joannie S- Impossible to read new laundry machine remodeled schedule. Jack will have management send out a notice to owners.  Note: New readable schedules were posted next day.

8.  Newsletters:  Joannie- newsletter- Andrea is not doing it anymore. A few people have been asked to help out with the newsletter but none are in the position to run the newsletter. Someone needs to

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step up to run it.  Jack said a survey just went out. Once we get this back, we should know what the consensus is. Monthly cost per month to produce the physical newsletter- $1500- Essex refuses to pay for any amount.   Sheldon- suggestion, it should be digital or email instead.  Fred suggestion, articles about our workers very nice, interesting, and make Newsletter worth reading.

9.  MCC-owners Website:  There is a buy and sale page and an area to chat. There is also Maureen Hunt’s MCC FB page where people can check on things.

10. Racquet sports:  3rd party running it, all pros will remain. 99% done. User-friendly software to reserve courts. Realistically March 1st it will be running. Jack checked references. All stellar references. Initial contract is 2 years. If something is wrong, we can terminate the contract.

11. Upcoming COA Election:  Announcement of people running in the election. Asked that the board have a special meeting to introduce the nominees. Donna said that we never got info on the previous directors who were appointed to the board.  You will be getting a notice to meet the 5 candidates.  The board is setting this up.

12.  Sky Market Eyesore:  Why are windows not covered up at the ex Sky Market? The board has asked Essex. Essex has done nothing..

13. Update on Retrofit:   Back story- assessment was done, only the large laundry room was red tagged. NHP has been hired to do substantial analysis on this now. Within 4-6 months we should have a report regarding our structures.

14.  Update on 3.7 Million Annually:   Mid February there will be a meeting.  Slowly getting to the finish line.  We are acting as though this is in place. Funds will go into our COA MCC account. 5.2 million to fix all 12 elevators.

Minutes taken by Linda Ellrod

Report Prepared by Donna Bryce and Fred Krogh

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