I'm a newbie to the board and just found out that the shareholders of our 50 unit building are paying for our part time super to have his various licenses (boiler, etc.). Is this common practice?
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Is it incorrect practice to have non-shareholders present at annual meetings. We have several shareholders with live in partners and/spouses. I understand they cannot vote. They are privy to confidential and important business. One of these non shareholders once sued the board and corp. for discrimination (HUD case). The case was dismissed. But, ever since then I've become uncomfortable having nin shareholders present and privy to co-op business.
Any thoughts?
Good day:
I am recently elected to our board.
In the course of our last meeting I discovered that the building's superintendent receives a substantial bonus each year – equivalent to 20+% of his highly competitive annual salary.
The rest of the building staff also receives bonus; however, I consider these reasonable amounts. By any standard, a 20% bonus is beyond generous, and considering his competitive salary, exorbitant.
The superintendent is not in the union. His perks include a fully paid, family medical plan; a completely free multi-bedroom apartment; multi-week paid vacations; etc.
The boards rationale for the bonus is that he does good work; however, I see him doing nothing extraordinary, only what I would construe as normal and usual duties.
They also operates in fear that the superintendent might quit his position if he doesn't get the bonus they have been awarding, seemingly without justification, for several years.
The board does not announce the bonus. Owners, unaware of the bonus they are already providing through their maintenance payments, give additional holiday gifts.
As a shareholder, I want to know how my maintenance payments are put to use.
In this case, I contend that the shareholders should be made aware of the superintendents bonus, both the amount and as a percentage of his salary.
I believe this should be done early enough for shareholders to decide if they wish to give additional holiday gifts.
What say you?
If you agree, how should the board announce the bonus to the shareholders?
Thank you for your interest and your responses.
D
We are looking to upgrade our 10 security camera's around our building. I'm very interested in hearing what you have to say about your current security systems for your buildings. We are open to security company recommendations as well.
Thank you,
Pres
There are a total of 5 shareholders in my building when 2 of us found out that the then President which is the now Treasurer withdrew over 30k in cash from the building acct with the debit card and even withdrew from Yonkers Raceway Casino's ATM $500 in addition to that wrote over20k in checks to her son and memo stated he did paper work, We wrote to her asked her to step down and explain she refused by not responding and her and the other 2 shareholder pulled together and voted for her to be a Treasurer mean time me and the another shareholder was out voted and now one of the other board members which is the secretary dont want anything to do with the building she said she is on the board in name only she the other board members dont tell her anything they do what they want what can we do about this lady now Treasurer just let her and her kids continue to take from us its only 2 shareholders that care in other words do you need the majority when you have proof of corruption and stealing from the buildings account
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i have seen many articles w2here the attorneys are mainly working for the board or managing company. I have seen articles in the cooperatoe where the answer was slanted towards the boars/sponsor /managing company, they conveniently left out the option of the shareholders ability to call for a special meeting if they get the number of votes stated in the bylaws. Plus the attorneys i have talked to , worked primary for the board,
Also even in the habitat , the info one attorney has in print concerning getting fellow shareholder address info, is not what the attorney general states in their web site..
Are there any Attorney that mainly work for the shareholders?
looking for westchester here.
Also if there is no quorum at the annual meeting and 2 spots are up for reelection, are the incumbents automatically reelected
I'm writing a story about co-op boards that have found ways of working with a really, really objectionable shareholder to avoid evicting him/her under a Pullman action.
I'd like to speak with a couple of such board-members to get your firsthand, real-world experience in this.
Anyone interest in helping other board members learn from their experience or mistakes, please contact me at flovece@habitatmag.com and we can set up a time to talk by phone. Thanks.
Our board has frequent meetings whereby they order lunch not only for themselves but family members are seen carting multiple take out bags back to their apartments. This is not the only means of corruption they have and because I have exposed much more serious corruption, I am constantly harassed by renters banging on floor above me and lifting weights in middle of night – the last renter who did this was rewarded by a seat on board. If this continues, I will be posting more of their corruption.
Has anyone installed water meters to monitor apt water use? Has anyone done this and actually billed the shareholder for their prorated water bill amount? We are just thinking out of the box, but wanted to see if this is common.
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1. I am looking for a consultant to review my Co-op's property tax assessments, the City's comparables in its database and our offers for reduced assessment we have received and accepted. I am not looking for someone to take over our property tax challenges. Any ideas?
2. A related question is I am looking for a third party database of reduced Assessments for Co-ops since nearly every co-op challenges its assessment and probably receives some offer of reduction. There must be a systematic database of that. Hopefully a consultant I would hire would be familiar with that.
3. i'd like some suggestions for new counsel to challenge our 2014/15 assessment but more importantly I'd like to know how one can measure their performance if every co-op challenges and gets an offer of reduction.
thanks for any help you can bring on this subject.
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It is common practice for his employer (the building) to pay for all licenses pertaining to maintaining your building systems (sprinkler/standpipe, boiler, central ac, etc). If you do not have a licensed person (certificate holder) on site you risk getting fined. In addition many building pay for additional licenses/courses as it makes the super a more valuable asset to the property.
Bob.
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