ISSUE 5 August 09
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
The problem here is PCM/GRF. They are running through our money. They have to go. We need to get PCM OUT OF HERE. They should be fired. Gone. Done. Outta here. I’m not talking about the employees who are below the executive staff. I’m talking about PCM in Lake Forest and then Milt Johns, Janet Price, Jerry Storage, Kurt Rahn, Russ Ridgeway, Cris Trapp and Judy Zoerhoff. They need to not just leave Third Mutual. They need to be GONE from the property completely. This is EASY to accomplish. There are a number of WELL QUALIFIED companies who can step in and take over immediately without a single pink flower wilting. Those who think we live in paradise because of the landscaping and the employees they are so fond of will never notice a ripple. There will be an adjustment period and it will have some learning curve but it is by no means the Herculean task that those who are vulnerable to losing their jobs in a rather terrifying economy will tell you. The mutuals other than Third can take their lawyer with them.
The employees should be absolutely safe as long as they are willing to work for the new employer. YOU will be the employer. Not the managing company. They would be paid and their salaries, wages, benefits through the new management but the new management would not be the employer. We own the equipment, rolling stock, nursery, that stock. There are even several options for us for management.
We should have an executive director. An Executive Director is actually a wonderful option. Non-profits usually have Executive Directors. The present general manager here has insinuated himself into a corruption of what an executive director should be but he has by no means demonstrated the actual and active properties and qualities of a real one. J. Steven Ott has literally written the book(s) on Non profit management. The boards should get a clue.
We can have a city manager type structure. We are, after all as large as a city and a person educated and trained in that capacity would be fully capable of running LWV.
GRF should be dissolved. The power is in the hands of the people who are stake holders here. WE are the ones to whom the boards are answerable. WE must put pressure on the boards to behave properly, lawfully, civilly, ethically. How often do we have to remind Milt and others that GRF is a trustee. They don’t OWN things. They hold them IN TRUST for the real owners!!! Obviously GRF also has to go. They are trustees. We can dissolve them and replace them with trustees who will do the job properly.
Milt spoke today about PROSECUTION during a discussion of disciplinary action by mutuals vs. GRF. Milt, neither YOU nor any board here has powers of PROSECUTION! This man has got to go. He thinks he’s a lawyer. He spouts legal opinions. Unfortunately thinking and being are two completely different things. I don’t know about you but I’m so sick and tired of Milt Johns sitting at the GRF board table and telling whichever ventriloquist’s dummy is titled “president” of that organization how to act and what to say. Harry Curtis, George Portlock, Bob Miller and Erwin Stuller have not made an original statement as president of GRF. Their material all comes from PCM.
Third Board Antics….During Third meetings Carol Moore seems to be physically incapable of not speaking constantly. No matter who is speaking or what the topic she can be heard in the background talking. She frequently interrupts the speaker (particularly residents) to interject and then fails to allow the speaker to continue speaking! (She did it to Harry Curtis during the plumbing discussion.) The PRESIDER at a meeting simply directs traffic. Her continual, compulsive, non-stop blabber is not only unnecessary but it is disruptive, annoying and demonstrates her greater inability to function in the capacity as a board member. I wonder if any of members of the boards who insist on talking to one another or even just making snide side comments to themselves can frequently be heard. Sometimes all that is heard is the buzz and hum of somebody else’s conversation in the background which makes it very difficult to hear and understand anything else that is going on and is supposedly important. I’d like to know what part of listening all this blather constitutes. Moore and Muennichow sat on the dais today and entertained themselves during the entire meeting.
I find it interesting that the BOARD, according to the Treasurer, requested information about sales of manors in this community over 3 months ago and there is NO response yet from STAFF. My question is WHO IS IN CHARGE HERE? Is it the BOARD or is it STAFF. Perhaps if Boards would not request permission for something but TELL staff what is to be done they would DO it. The tail is wagging the dog and the boards are allowing it to happen. This started with Freshley personally when she began taking her instruction from Janet Price. This is not restricted to the Third board but applies equally to the other mutual boards. PCM is NOT supposed to be in charge here. The BOARDS are.
For the board’s information: The time before a dunning notice comes out from compliance is THIRTY DAYS. Believe me, it’s THIRTY days and nothing approaching any longer. Not only is it impossible to reach somebody telephonically to talk to about an error, one must cancel the entire day, march into the community center and go through the shredder while STAFF goes through their dog and pony show. Once again it is STAFF running things. When a bill is sent “in error” the behavior associated with getting it straightened out is harassment and strangely coincidental to other things occurring in time. I believe even Carol Moore got one in error in about January or February. The Treasurer, Finance committee chair and obvious self nominee for presidency (of Third) should know this. It’s pretty basic.
Again, Robertson is so busy making sure she is heard that she doesn’t pay attention to what a resolution says and what it refers to. The roofing resolution was perfectly clear particularly after several rounds of discussion about the additions, contiguous and continuous roofs, etc. Nobody made it clear to residents until a RESIDENT stood at the podium and told the board to clarify charges that there are CHARGES associated with calling property services and having a PCM plumber come in.
WHY DO WE HAVE PROPERTY SERVICES which name is an oxymoron since they won’t work on anything other than PCM installed equipment? Why does Souza only say “It’s being looked into.” And never seems to have any conclusion. Paulus and Freshley say the same thing, “it’s being looked into.” When will the boards get the idea that they need to DRIVE the questions and not sit back and wait for staff to get off its duff and DO what it has been told to do.
Congratulations are due to Isabel Muennichow for her sad choice of language in her report of the rules ad hoc committee. SHAME ON YOU. It’s part of the public agenda package. Maybe Souza’s disparaging has rubbed off on her. It will be lovely to see them both GONE from the third board. They will both, surely, run for the lowest level of shame there is and that is the GRF board.
I have a question for Carol Moore. She talked today about how the evaluation of PCM (as is to be done on an annual basis by management agreement) is just being discussed informally. OVER A YEAR ago there was the threat of a recall of several Third Board members. In order to avoid the recall the BOARD PROMISED to accomplish a number of things with speed. ONE was to review the management agreement and revise it with the input of the community. Another was the REVIEW of PCM. WHY are you saying now that this review is “just an informal discussion?” Basically the board lied to the membership and we would like an explanation for the promises not being kept. Would you prefer that the recall be brought back up again? YOU PERSONALLY were in favor of the recall action when it came up. Now you could very easily be a target of one in the unlikely event you are re-elected.
Abut the Third Finance V3 budget meeting…..This year GRF, oh hallowed body of fools, increased Operating Expenses and so lo and behold the mutuals are now being billed for more money. Well, seems Janet has to make the changes to our budget too! Funny how if it’s GRF it’s okay to have to change the mutual budget during V3 but if it’s the mutual she makes financial threats.
Larry is running fast and hard for a seat on GRF and he is trying to curry favor by “leveling out” the increases over the coming years for elevator funds. He’s involved right now in adding funds to the budget so our assessments will rise. Larry likes nothing better than to spend our money for the people coming to live here in the future. Larry, WE LIVE HERE NOW. YOU ARE SUCKING US DRY. Get in your oversized, gas sucking, pig ugly RV and go someplace where we don’t have to hear from you and you don’t have to put up with those of us who don’t have the ability to change our own “damn” faucets and install thousands and thousands of dollars with landscaping to surround our single family home.
Why would we want to have excess reserves? The people who move in in the future need to pay for their part as we are paying for ours as well as THOSE WHO LIVED HERE BEFORE US AND DIDN’T include adequate reserves. Why should we be penalized and pay for those who will come in here to live in the future?
Larry, there is a 30 year plan. The plan can be adjusted along the way. It is inappropriate and frankly, bad business, to over reserve when there is already a plan AND a cushion. If you want to donate several million dollars to some reserve fund feel free. But sit down and quit trying to overspend. Maybe you could invest in a pair of long trousers to wear to court. “Hooray for me and screw everybody else.”
Alan Cohen even admitted we have “bitten the bullet” and recommends we leave the reserves alone this year.
I am highly amused that Mary Robertson had a smarmy remark to make when Stan Feldstein interjected a moment of humor appreciated by everybody in the room and on the board. She whined about having to raise hands before speaking and yelled at Moore that Oh, it’s okay if he speaks without raising his hand but “I’m a loud mouth.” Well, Mary, you called it. Frankly, you need to get a clue. As I recall, last year you had trouble following along as the budget was presented and had to get up to the podium and ASK where they were in the discussion. Is there a little lack of financial understanding? Is being a 30 year cubicle bureaucrat not serving her as well as she thought? Robertson has absolutely NO idea what she’s looking at or even appropriate questions to ask.