Co-op Board Succeeds in Banning Smoking After Persistent Efforts

The chorus of complaints was growing. At a 50-unit landmarked co-op in the West Village, complaints about smoking and other odors prompted the board to look at altering the governing documents to ban smoking. Amending your bylaws, however, typically requires a supermajority of at least two-thirds of the shareholders — a high bar to clear, and one that proved a big hurdle for the board. 

Raising a Stink

Resident dissatisfaction about smoking was steadily increasing at the prewar co-op  — comprising four buildings with an interior courtyard — which allowed smoking inside apartments but was prohibited in the common areas. Responding to growing grievances, the board wanted to extend the ban to private apartments to improve the quality of life, which was no simple task. “When you update a core building document that's not the house rules, whether it's the bylaws or the proprietary lease, you have to do it in a certain fashion so that it can actually come into code within the building,” says Mark Levine, a principal at EBMG Management. 

Getting Shareholder Support 

The first challenge was winning over those shareholders who protested an outright ban — and had been very vocal about it. In order to garner support, proponents convened a special meeting. At that initial stage, “communication was key,” Levine explains. “We had to give people notice as to why we were having a special meeting and what was on the agenda.” But at that first meeting, there wasn’t a quorum. “When you don't have that, you're absolutely not going to meet the minimum threshold for approval from a super-majority of the shareholders,” he says. “So we had to do a series of meetings.” 

Strategy for Success

All too often, low attendance due to shareholder apathy is a stumbling block. High participation is far more likely if the issue affects many people in the building and will impact either their quality of life or the value of their apartment. If this is the case, a special meeting may not be necessary. “If you have an annual meeting coming up, you can say in the written notice of the meeting that the issue is on the agenda and will be put up for a vote,” Levine says. “That way you can kill two birds with one stone.” 

That wasn’t a workable approach at the co-op, but the board’s persistence eventually paid off. Thanks to the multiple meetings, and by allowing proxy votes, in which shareholders submit  forms stating a vote can be made by the proxy holder on their behalf — the board succeeded in getting approval for the smoking ban. 

New Leverage

What helped to bring about the smoking ban was the co-op’s small sponsor contingency. “This meant there was a block of shares that we were able to get quickly, so that helped in adding up to the 66%,” Levine says. In order to achieve the remaining votes, one-on-one conversations were needed with individual shareholders about the risks and health effects of secondhand smoke. The ban gives management recourse if shareholders are troubled by odors and smoke infiltration into their apartments. “Now we have a mechanism where we can go to those people that are not abiding by the policy, and whether it's with penalties and violations, go through the legal process,” Levine says. “Before that, our hands were tied.”

—Emily Myers