Week In Review April 27, 2012

Week of April 20-27, 2012

Hello neighbors, friends, newly formed enemies! This is the week in review for Friday, April 27, 2012.  If you like suspense novels, this was your week.  There were so many twists and turns it started to feel more normal the crazier things got! Hang on, here we go! (Because of the complexity of the Management company situation some of this information may have already been mentioned, but something this complex needs context for full comprehension.

• The management company (Nuclear Option)
• The vote by Israel, Joel, and Todd created a very awkward environment
• Joel publicly complained about Homeowners Advantage (current management co)
• While Israel was the one who asked Homeowners Advantage to consider acquiring AMG 
• Net result if things happened as it all seemed it was going to happen would be Homeowners Advantage purchasing AMG, and other than a quick blink no one would hardly have noticed
• Our budget would have noticed though
• I call this the nuclear option because no one really wins, oh except for Jay/Jason Fink, the owner of AMG.
• Current Status
• Homeowners Advantage must be given a 30 day written notice of any deficiencies
• This is a result of an amendment to the current HOADV contract that the last board got passed last November\
• Joel seems to think that is suspicious, as he has mentioned it more than once.  
• I have not had deep discussions with Lew,Mike,Diana about it but it is my understanding that it was on advice of council to bring that contract up to standards, since it was originally written in 2007.
• Attorney's have legal opinions that are just that opinions.  Court, the assn attorney must have felt that it was necessary in his opinion.
• Let's even for argument's sake give Joel what he is hinting at, that it was done as a pre-emptive measure to protect the association from exactly what is happening now.
• The amendment was done in an open member meeting and was not kept from anyone. 
• It was not illegal
• It did not put the association at risk.
• It mearly gave a cure period, which is a good thing for both parties. 
• NO WRITTEN NOTICE as of today has been given to HOADV
• Board Meeting Agenda is properly posted with the agenda items on Monday
• Our new property manager Mike, started training with Greg Mark of HOADV.
• Mike's office is where Robert Neal's office was in the front of the building
• I learned that Mike is a small plane pilot, licensed but is not current.
• He has a lot to learn, in a short time.
• If you get a chance, stop by and say hi
• Promenade of the Arts update
• Work is progressing nicely on the opposite side of Zack
• Almost all of the poured concrete surface has been installed
• Light poles have gone up
• The shape of the crossing facilitator making more sense now.
• Walkway juts into the intersection at the ends where pedestrians will cross , narrowing the roadway.for the approaching cars
• Design is a vast safety improvement over 90 degree traditional cross walks
• Because the actual paved concrete pedestrian walki8ng bulges out at the crossing positions, it will allow for the traffic to see pedestrians much more clearly
• Tampa is one of the highest pedestrian kill cities
• CSX Tracks on Pulk St.
• About another week for some of the roads to open.
• As of yesterday tracks were in
• Plan your morning and afternoon commutes around heavier traffic on Ashley, as there is noticable increased congestion due to Tampa St being closed at Polk
• Horns are still as annoying as ever.  (Don't forget to look in the contents area of this blog for the link to complain about the excessive train horn blowing at 3am)
• Traffic detours posted in the elevator lobbies for each floor
• Zack Garage street resident ramp
• If coming from the WEST/NORTH accessible Via Polk and Ashley, right turn, limited resident only traffic on Tampa St to Zack OR
•   If coming from the South/East plan to wind up on Zack no sooner than Nebraska, often times you will have to extend past Marion to get onto Zack.
• President of the Association, Israel Diaz resigned his position
• He cited health reasons and retirement as his reasons for leaving
• Since he was the president, the executive authority that he had to have creates a slightly more difficult transition for the other board members.
• Checking accounts, lines of credit, anything that the President would possibly have to exercise his executive authority have to be changed to either a temporary acting President or a board member that could be voted in as the new president
• The board can fully operate as a board of 4 but their plan is to replace the board seat within two weeks
• The 4/25 board meeting was held in the 8th floor clubroom
•  Setup is a work in progress, but was very comfortable for everyone, with some minor adjustments for next month
• The remaining board members were there, Todd, Joel, Laurice and Karen. Along with Greg Mark, chaired the meeting assisted by Kathryn Pankow (HOADV).  Court Terrell, our association attorney was there as well .
• Approximately 11 residents showed up for the meeting and nearly everyone actively participated in one way or another. I think almost everyone spoke at least once.
• The meeting lasted almost two hours (to hear the audio from the meeting check the sidebar of this blog for the link
• Collections
• Collected nearly $59,000 since January
• The board contemplated making some rule changes for the Clubroom rental and removing some restrictions in place with coordinating use of the North Garden Terrace with adjacent clubroom rental. 
• Court Terrell suggested after listening to the board deliberate their ideas, that he write up a legal version of the changes and then go from there.  The issue will be addressed in the next meeting
• MASTER PROPERTY INSURANCE RENEWAL
• Current policy expires at the end of May
• THIS IS A CONSIDERABLE part of our operating budget
• To ensure competitive proposals there are already around 4 or 5 company that the board is courting, which includes our current provider.
• Need an apples to apples comparison
• Joel wanted to discuss increasing the residential board members from 3 to 5 total.  
• Bylaws do allow for this to be accomplished
• Require a 67% of the members in the affirmative to pass IF the Retail and Commercial parking specifically agree to this 
• SUMMARY: What an incredible waste of time including that on the agenda.  
• Joel also expressed concern over the voting share that she commands with her ownership of:
• The entire Retail area of Skypoint
• All the commercial parking spaces plus
• One residential unit.
• Laurice and her husband, hold the most combined and condensed amount of voting shares through virtue of their ownership interests
• They hold a grand total of around 206 shares of 506
• There is no one else on the board or in the building that holds such a high combined risk
• Often times the residential class board members would mention over and over again, using considerable time resources that residential issues have nothing to do with Laurice, Retail director and Karen, Commercial Parking Director.
• Their assertion is incorrect and although the interests that they represent are clearly different than the interests that the Residential class board members represent,  they still all have one equal vote and to never intentionally harm the association.  
• Reserve Study
• Every 5 years a reserve study is accomplished by the management company that adjusts for changes in use of an item or facility. 
• Currently there is around a $57,000 surplus that should more than offset the increased reserve requirements
• THE BIG IF
• Remember last week I talked about the exterior "slurry" that was evaluated during the past year or so?
• The specs of the exterior of our building, apparently were changed after initial deployment and more importantly will require that this slurry be applied in a special way to all exposed concrete parts of the exterior
• This is one of the last remaining items from the building turnover.  
• Cost of the entire building anywhere from 500,000 to well over a million
• HOADV is actively working with the former developer to try and obtain a commitment from them on the financial part of the deal
• IF they don't pay we will be stuck paying for it most likely in the form of a special assessment
• Elliptical Machines need replacing
• Two machines are nearly beyond repair and will need to be replaced.
• Agreed in principle to purchase the elliptical equipment after some evaluation
• RNC Event
• Republican National Committee will hold their convention in Tampa, steps from our building in August
• The Tampa Police Department recently submitted a 100 page report detailing the recommended changes to our building or procedure or both  to minimize the risk to the building and residents. 
• These changes are NOT funded at the moment and would have to be paid for by the association, hence through us , in the form of higher dues or assessment
• HOADV is exploring the availability of Federal and state grant monies that would offset the cost of these items
• There are rumored to be over 30 protest groups already registered with the city with the Curtis Hixon Park one of their designated areas of protest.
• Because of the complexity and demand of our resources the board voted into existence a committee to assist the board in getting ready for the convention.
• I am definitely interested and I encourage you to consider it. Here's why
• It is of a finite duration, there is an end to it!
• The implementation of whatever plan is adopted will be so critical I think the building needs us all right now,.  
• SUMMARY:
• The week of the convention has the potential to be THE most difficult week in the history of Skypint.  If you have the means and time and you don't plan on volunteering on the committee it may be best to just head out of town and let it be someone else's headache.  That will be one of the first things I will recommend to the board and get a tentative commitment by each resident as far in advance of the event as possible.  That could be one way to lessen the impact for everyone.  
• Remember short term rentals aren't allowed.
• Resist the temptation by remembering that we have to come back here and all live together when the RNC is long gone.  We need to protect our building and every resident against any possible hard.  Think Gasparilla on super mega steroids. Sounds like fun! YEA!
• Since the garage lasers and entry systems were a big part of the discussion two weeks ago I just wanted you to know that Bruce recently had the lasers re-calibrated.  Please post if problems with the gates are not improving
• Don't forget to subscribe to this blog if you want posts to be sent to you automatically 
• twitter.com/myskypoint is also linked automatically with facebook.com/myskypoint and this blog:  http://myskypoint.blogspot.com  For downloads, streams, or audio of any kind of the board meetings etc visit:  blogtalkradio.com/myskypoint 

 If you have a few monents would you please add your comments to this information good or bad they are both equally as important to me.  Also if you know something that I didn't mention either comment and add it or shoot me a quick email and I will add it if you would prefer.  


Have a great weekend,
Jeff 

I believe in the power of a good team!

 

Board of Directors Meeting Recap for 04.25.2012

Hello neighbors. Tonight was the first night in years that the Board of directors meeting was held in the 8th floor clubroom.  There were approximately 11 residents that showed up in addition to our board members; Todd Williams, Vice President; Joel Burt, Secretary; Laurice Hachem, Retail Director; Karen Lillie, Commercial Parking Director.  Noticeably absent was Board President, Israel Diaz.

Mr. Diaz turned in his resignation earlier citing health reason and plans to put his condo up for sale and "re-retire"

 Assisting the Board members were our Greg Mark, of Homeowners Advantage (HOADV), Kathryn Pankow, HOADV administrative assistant, and Court Terrell, our legal council.

The meeting started promptly at 7pm with the call to order and determination of a Quorum (Minimum of 3 Board members, there were 5 present).  The proper meeting notice was confirmed (that by the way if you are interested has to happen 48 hours prior to the meeting and the posting is hung in the  mail room, in the case with all agenda items to be discussed).

The minutes from the last meeting were approved unanimously, and the board promptly went into closed session to discuss  these requests.  Ultimately the request from unit 1512 was approved, while the request from unit 3011 was denied (It was their third renewal request).

Lew Sibert kicked off the Resident open Forum with a question directed to Court Terrell, Association attorney to clarify that all board members, regardless of the class that they were elected from hold and EQUAL vote in all matters of the association.  Mike Miller, and myself, having submitted requests to speak two weeks ago prior to the agenda being made public, opted not to contribute anything to the forum.   Because I didn't record the meeting, but I will obtain a copy of the official recording, I am doing this update from memory and notes so I am unfortunately omitting some other resident comments, not on purpose, but just at the interest of getting this update out tonight.

Collections efforts since the beginning of the year have resulted in approximately $58,760 in lost revenue.  Unit 2508, a short sale could also be close to a sale, which will net even more past due association dues.

Many different combinations of rules and regulations changes were contemplated for the Clubroom and the Garden Terrace, but ultimately it was tabled for a later date as Court Terrell, council will be assisting in the legal wording of the new revised rules.

Our Master property insurance policy will be up near the end of May, giving us almost a month to solicit bids from competitors for an efficient insurance policy.  There are numerous companies, most of the Florida Companies, included in the proposed review.

Laurice, Retail Director asked management to please include her and Karen Lilly, Commercial parking Director in all mailings from the association that are addressed to the other three board members.  There was no opposition.

Joe Burt, Secretary proposed increasing the residential class directors from 3 to 5, therefore diluting the voting shares of the Retail Director and Commercial Parking Director.  Court Terrell, assn attorney stated that that could only be done as directed in our bylaws.  Those state that the owner of the Retail and Commercial parking would first have to agree to the change, and that they would be crazy to do so.  This denial would prevent the vote from being placed with the association members (unit owners) since it would be a moot point.

Our required 5 year reserve study was just in.  Skypoint is in a great position as far as reserves, roughly $57,000 over, but that could quickly change as the last hand over item from the developer was addressed.  This item, called the exterior slurry is a coating that would need to periodically be applied to the concrete portions of the exterior surface of the building, to prevent the crumbling of the concrete.  The cost could range from hundreds of thousands to over a million.  The cost of this preventative maintenance looks to be absorbed by the developer, but the final word is not set in stone.  This is a major item to keep an eye out for and has the most potential to impact the budget, hence causing higher monthly assessments in the future.

Two elliptical machines in the cardio room will need to be replaced.  A proposal by a local company is due tomorrow, and from that a decision will be made in the future.

RNC Report.  The Tampa Police submitted their recommendations in over 100 pages of what they think Skypoint should do in preparation for the upcoming RNC convention in August.  These items could be costly and federal/state/local grants as well as other funding sources were contemplated to offset the dollar amount of these recommended items.  Greg Mark will review this document and cost the items out.  The Board also created a RND preparedness Committee that will work to have the items implemented and to work with sources as the date approaches.  IF YOU ARE A RESIDENT UNIT OWNER AND YOU WOULD LIKE TO SERVE ON THE COMMITTEE PLEASE LET MANAGEMENT KNOW.

Greg Mark presented the management report and highlighted the improvements to our community website, BuildingLink.  If you haven't gotten your access to BuildingLink, you are missing out on so much.  Sign up with management to get your pass to explore this great source of information.

I did not hear the date of the next meeting.  Please stay tuned for that.  I hope you enjoyed this synopsis of tonight's board meeting.  For the audio of the meeting please check youtube.com/myskypoint or http://www.blogtalkradio.com/myskypoint.

Thanks for reading my blog, please consider subscribing to it so you don't miss anything or pass it along to another resident that you think may find it interesting, or need sleep!
Jeff

Promenade of the Arts (Zack St) photo update

The south side of the promenade is taking shape between Ashley and Tampa St.

 

Existing Zack Street (Bad pic of a pic)

 

Zack St. Looking toward Tampa St. 

 

Zack St. Looking out parking garage

 

Proposed Layout

Week in Review, April 20, 2012

Week Ending April 20, 2012

It's been a busy week at MySkypoint.   Here is a breakdown of what happened and what we are keeping track of for you. 

• Request to management for copies of the proposals that other management companies submitted along with AMG so that we could directly compare the costs and advantages of each.  That review is still ongoing as there is a lot of information to go through.  In case you didn't know at the last board meeting the President, Mr. Diaz, Todd Williams, Vp, and Joel Burt voted to replace Homeowners Advantage, our current (since Skypoint opened) management company with a very small company named AMG (Affordable Management Group, of Tampa)
• Homeowners Advantage will only be replaced after a written notice of deficiency is filed with them and they do not cure each item within 30 days.  
• As of today NO notice has been sent to Homeowners Advantage of any deficiency
• Mr. Israel Diaz approached Homeowners Advantage some time ago to request that they look into purchasing AMG. 
• AMG is owned by Skypoint resident Jay aka Jason Fink who rents a unit on the 5th floor.  
• AMG currently has an unpaid unemployment tax lien outstanding
• AMG owner Jay aka Jason Fink is good friends with Joel Burt, our Secretary
• Homeowners Advantage has confirmed that they are in the beginning of exploratory talks with AMG to see if they would be a strategic asset to purchase
• Mr. Diaz's cleaning service, SkyMaid, LLC does common area and for hire cleaning at the Ventana, AMG/Jay Fink's biggest property. 
• There is implied pressure for Homeowners advantage to purchase AMG due to the vote that hangs over Homeowners Advantage to have a company named to replace them even before any deficiency has been identified. 
• All the complaints by Mr. Joel Burt, Todd Williams, And Mr. Israel Diaz about Homeowners Advantage seem suspect since Mr. Diaz initiated the request to purchase "AMG , and if AMG is merged into Homeowners Advantage how would that satisfy all of Israel's , Todd's , and Joel's concerns when in the end Homeowners advantage would be the surviving company? 
• Although unproven and alleged only I suspect that this is a favor that was pre-planned for AMG and Mr. Jay aka Jason Fink to rescue the company from hard times.  That is my opinion and unproven.
• Why go through voting to replace Homeowners advantage when in the end AMG may simply be absorbed into Homeowners advantage and for us at Skypoint, there would be NO DIFFERENCE AT ALL.
• THIS IS A BIG DEAL and we are on this for the obvious illegal activity that would have had to take place to make this happen.  That proof is yet to come and as yet there is only very suspicious actions to go on. 
• I've heard this week about why AMG is better than Homeowners Advantage because they are local.  Until recently due to board member conflict, we have had Robert Neale, who worked Monday through Friday in the management office AND owned a unit in the building.  In addition Donna Baran was a full time local employee of management , you all remember her from her weekly updates.  Her office was also behind the glass wall.  In addition Greg Mark, was on site from the home office in Atlanta for 2/3 of every week.  I have no idea how that bad information propagated at truth.  Homeowners advantage is based in Atlanta, but we had 2 full time on site managers, Greg, a floating manager, and let us not forget Bruce who I have seen at midnight when an emergency required him to be on site.  In this case going local would be the worst thing we could do.  Homeowners Advantage yes yes yes was and is a division of novare, the builder of Skypoint but that also gives them a unique perspective on our building.  Skypoint was more or less the prototype for many similar building that were built using similar plans.  homeowners Advantage is uniquely placed to take advantage of that pool of knowledge. 
• Announced the addition of Blog Talk Radio a live streaming show with guests that will be of interest to Skypoint.  I chose them because of the ability to also archive the audio of the past Board meeting and then stream them and syndicate them on itunes for greater availability.  Right now look for the Blog Talk Radio Box next to the i-neighbors site where at the bottom of the box you can stream board meetings of your choice!
• I have requests in to the following guests to interview live on the show where you can call in and ask your own questions
• President of the Board, Mr. Israel Diaz
• Board Memeber and owner of the Retail and commercial parking at Skypoint, Ms. Laurice Hachem
• A general request was sent to all the board members. 
• The president of Homeowners Advantage , Rich Hagan
• BuildingLink, thanks to the efforts of Greg Mark, of homeowners Advantage added a staff page that is evolving.  There are pictures of our new concierges there with a short bio, so if you are trying to learn our new concierge staff names go to Building Link, and under my building, look for staff.  Thanks Greg Mark for your efforts. 
• Broken lower garage gates and meg-shift repairs
• On April 19th the very first member posted concern was posted about the shape of the lower access arms at the street level leading up to the 2nd floor. 
• It was theorized as to how the arms were getting broken which turned out to be all true, and then there was discussion about what cameras are there and how aggressive we have been at recovering damages from the responsible party.  
• The camera system has been recently upgraded but
• Bruce has formulated a new arm from PVC, at a very very low cost.  That is why it is being used instead of say a wood or plastic arm.  
• Whenever there is damage that affects other more expensive items we have the ability to go after the culprit with the video.  
• With minor damage the cost of litigation is more than the cost of the repair. 
• I added that the commercial parking is not owner by Novare. It was sold about a year ago to a private party that contemplated removing the lower gate.  
• Several members objected to removal of the lower gate in fear of pedestrian danger.  A possibly solution would be speed bumps on the way down and at the bottom of the ramp, but this didn't seem to be popular. 
• I surveyed the area today in great detail, and there is only one mirror on the east wall, and non on the west wall.  There are NO mirrors at the exit onto Tampa St. for the short term lot.  I think this is a hazard to pedestrians, and I will follow up with the board and management. (Red indicated follow up will be accomplished and reported on later)
• Another member mentioned the bar code errors that are happening, meaning they are not opening the gates without a few passes. Management was consulted as well as concierge sources for the following information:
• An audit is nearly complete making sure that there are not too many codes out there that shouldn't be out there. 
• One reason for gate not opening is either the system is 
• bogged down with too many transactions
• The bar code is dirty
• the bar code is of the old type
• It is suggested that a new type clear bar code be traded out to solve the problem with the gates not opening. 
• Posted pictures of the railroad CSX and road work on Polk
• Posted on my blog here the CSX complaint process for the loud horns at early hours of the evening.  please go to my blog and file a complaint. They will only act if they get a certain percentage of complaints. We all know how miserable the train can be.  It's been 60 years since regular residents have lived downtown, especially the amount that live here just in our building and Element.  We need to ALL complain to stop the heavy handed engineer that things no one lives in downtown Tampa! Please take a moment to do this!
• Posted a report on the Zack Street construction on Zack Street..  It is an ambitious plan call the Promenade of the Arts that eventually be a 1/2 mile long promenade from Curtix Hixon to the Fire Museum that will feature local art and a tree lined, wide promenade.  This is a BIG DEAL for us.  It's a pain right now while they are constructing it, but trust me it will be worth it.  On my blog there is also a pdf of the final plans.   It's going to be very nice
• On april 19th. I began to tie together the public sites (facebook, twitter, etc) with the private site so that everyone knows that there are many sources available with information about Skypoint and Downtown.  These sites plus the member site is not just for bad news.  By all means please add construction notes, rumors of new businesses, anything that is great news to us at Skypoint. 
• On April 19th Homeowners Advantage allowed me to post an ad for i-neighbors (www.myskypoint.info).  Immediately people started joining and noticing the efforts of over one month of constant work and adding of information, not just me, but other fellow neighbors.  I put the container together, now it's your job to fill it with information.  Everyone is a reporter.  Discuss whatever you want, and I can't speak for others, but I promise to investigate every concern until we either change what is causing the problem or find a way to solve it another way. We are all in this together.  The greater our numbers the greater our influence.  No one is any less important in here than anyone else!
•  Also on April 19th I began standing on the city right of way near the garage giving out flyers to make residents aware that we are here.  IT was a great success.  
• We will be doing a direct mailing to every unit in the building to drive our membership to 50 by the end of April. 
• Building Link only has just over 160 and it's been open since November!
• Please pass along a recommendation to join to your Skypoint neighbors. 
• Improvements are in the works and YOUR input is VITAL to the expansion.  We are so far from where it is envisioned.  Help us help you and tell what you want to see, access, do, etc. 
• Further integration of additional sources into our members page for greater reference.

Remember there is a Board Meeting coming up on April 25th at 7pm in the Management office conference room.  PLEASE plan to attend.  I know they can seem boring but there is so much happening in these board meetings our numbers will show that we will stand for nothing that is not in the best interests of Skypoint, the association, and all it's members. 

Thank you for reading and Welcome on board! 

Jeff Zampitella

Promenade of the Arts (Zack Street)

Hey if you are looking for a full master plan for the new Promenade of the Arts, formerly known as Zack St just click the link I will provide for a pdf file that details the three phases and what they include with a timeline.  Right now they are on phase I which of course effects Skypoint directly and runs from Ashley east to Florida but is expected to be done by mid August for the GOP Convention.  Skypoint will definitely be better for this project.  Take a look at the full pdf and many really cool things are planned that will only benefit all of us unit owners at Skypoint.!

Zack Street Promenade of the Arts plan

Let me know what you think.

Fireworks Show at the end of Chillounge, Tampa, Fl

CSX Horn noise complaint info for Ashley and Tampa crossings

Skypoint is all grown up.  380 units sold and most either owner occupied or rented out.  Our sister building, Element has 395 units and I understand they are at least at a 75% occupancy Ratio. 


I recognize the importance of this vital rail route through our city, but for the last 60 years looking back from 2007 there were NO residents directly adjacent to the Ashley, Tampa, and Franklin railroad crossings.  Our two towers alone places anywhere between 1200 to 1700 residents as little as a half of a city block away from the ear splitting horn blowing at a frequency inversely proportional to the speed of the train.  If it's moving more than 5 MPH I'll go down and lick the tracks.  I sleep walk faster than the speed of the train.  


I believe this issue is not one CSX won't take seriously or ignores but simply lacks a focused and coordinated effort through complaints by us on a consistent basis.  


If this is something you feel strongly about and seriously want to solve take a moment right now to click the link to follow and leave your complaint:

CLICK TO FILE A QUICK ONLINE NOISE COMPLAINT

An alternate means to file your complaint would be to use this number: 

 904-359-3100

Better yet do them both if you have the time for maximum effec!!!!.