BEING BOARD PRESIDENT: TWO PORTRAITS, PART 1

Michael Herzog, a retired accountant and finance manager, became president of the board of Cedarhurst Park, his 68-unit co-op, at its birth in 1988. The 1950s-era building is a two-story garden apartment complex in Cedarhurst, Long Island. For the first 17 years, monthly maintenance remained the same – which is not necessarily good news since , often, when buildings go for many years without increases, the building's reserves and general upkeep bear witness to long-running neglect. But in this case, the building is well-maintained and boasts a strong reserve fund.

In 2006, however, rising fuel prices necessitated a five-percent increase, followed by a one-percent rise in 2007. Seventeen years of stable maintenance can leave residents unprepared for even minimal changes, but an added factor is that a number of the shareholders are retirees on fixed incomes. For some, the most aggravating part of the change is that the increases were imposed, in the words of some residents, "without consulting the shareholders."

Herzog, unfazed, seems adept at deciphering the hidden messages of the complaints. He conceded that with over a million dollars in the building's reserve account that it may seem extravagant to ask shareholders to add anything to their monthly outlays. But he also pointed out that the board was elected to make these decisions and that funds in the reserve account cannot be used for operating expenses. And he gently noted that 17 years without an increase is almost unheard of in co-ops and condos and that the 2007 increase was below the inflation rate.

Herzog's World

When Michael Herzog took office, his building was in chaos. The roof was shot, there were no security procedures, no locks on the front doors, no intercoms, broken windows and decrepit hallways. But following some astute negotiating by Herzog, a couple of major renovations (a new boiler and an aboveground oil tank) were financed by the sponsor. New windows were financed by requiring shareholders to pay for their own installations. Some equally astute financial moves netted a record-low interest rate on a refinanced mortgage. This, together with a substantial windfall in the form of a tax refund, established the co-op's very comfortable reserves.

Herzog attributes much of his success to the close partnership he has with the managing agent hired 18 years ago. Herzog and Steve Greenbaum, director of management at Mark Greenberg Real Estate, speak every day and have tremendous respect for each other. Greenbaum sees Herzog as the "perfect board president." If that sounds overenthusiastic, Greenbaum specifies three components:

• the total lack of any personal agenda;
• the ability to learn, listen and ask the right questions;
• and the enthusiasm, after so many years on the board, to continue looking for creative new approaches.

Herzog is a problem-solver, Greenbaum says. "Michael will stay with an issue until he exhausts every option." Herzog, for his part, describes himself as "a pretty hands-on person" and a strong believer that management can't be expected to take on every issue.

For all that, Greenbaum adds, Herzog has " a thankless job. Michael is the first person whose bell they'll ring when they've got a complaint. With all the hard work he's done, people will still come and complain to him about the most minor thing."

One major complaint of the area around Cedarhurst is the heavy concentration of iron in the water. Everything — from pipes to laundry — gets rusty. Herzog has had pipes replaced in the building, installed filters, researched every possible avenue and even persuaded the water company to flush the main. Nothing worked. Then last autumn he managed, through extensive phone calls and follow-up work, to get a water-company supervisor to come to the building and see the problem for himself. Herzog had the super collect a bottleful of the water and presented it to the inspector.

"He was appalled," says Herzog. "He said the water company must have been flushing the wrong mains! He flushed the main directly across from the building for three hours."