Seems the president of the coop never informed his fellow bod of anything. Note that the president has no more power than the function of conducting the meeting. He is also supposed to recuse himself as any BOD member is, from anything he has a interest in or it could be perceived he has an interest in. If for some reason he has not recuse himself,he usually cannot vote, or if his vote would be a deciding vote, he cannot vote.
I sent quite a few letters to the BOD that involved the self dealing of the president and vice president among other issues that i feel warranted the removal for cause of the vice president,who was the president's mother in law. The president refused o have the managing company send the faxes to the the other board members, even though i faxed a second time stating they were addresses to the BOD not the president,as i found out that they had not been sent to the bod in over two weeks. I have no idea on what was read to them, or if items were skipped, since it was well over a month from the occurrences to the meeting. Most people would ask why i didn't fax or email the BOD the letters myself. Since before 2008 in letter /FAX since i have a receipt and at annual meetings i have requested the contact information of the BOD , i have been refused , i was only given the info of the president, but since he self deals constantly at the expense of the shareholders.i don't deal with him. The managing agent who is paid to act for the building, the company has received raises for the last four years while neglecting the building whereas fire violations were issued for rusted shut fire doors. My Picture shows common areas that if any prospective buyer saw, it would be an lost of sale due to the dismal lack of maintenance, not due to any blogging, unless you wanted t commit fraud. I also have picture of trip and fall holes in common walk areas that were left that way for over 6 months, some had even been called in but no repair. I could have filled and fixed the holes in 30 minutes using redi patch or hydraulic cement. We had a n elderly woman using a cane and a walker who used this path to avoid the stairs. i used this pathway and i am disabled and i twisted my ankle.
When i was on the board when the building was good in the first 10 years after conversion. I and other board members received a memo from the managing agent stating that it was customary to tip the MA and he quoted a price he should receive. I fought to remove any tipping of him, how as IMO a bum a provided a subpar candidate for a super that we ended up scurrying hard to have him terminated before he passed the probation period.. Lucky we won ,mainly due to my work ,which i have a letter thanking me from the new managing. The one requesting a tip was replaced, i did give his boss a copy, who was a stand up guy ,unlike his son who took over the business. For approx the last 15 years the managing agents have had no supervision, the building is in disrepair and as in all maint work., they make a lot more money replacing stuff vs doing maintenance. A rental bldg will have at he owner who is trying to make money and a bottom line,so he will check on his staff, if they don't perform, they are gone. In the land of the co - op with no checking and where the managing company president refuses to speak to the share owners, There is zero accountability, except for the courts.
Beware the recent buyers were told the building was 90% owner occupied, it never has been, i have been here since the conversion. The management company and board of directors refuse to provide me with the BCL authorized, copy of all share owners, they also refuse to provide me with the ability to look at the financials as provided for in the proprietary lease.
The last time i saw the shareholder list it was about 60% owner occupied and that's being generous, now i would Say it is under 50%. Most banks have a cut off of owner -occupied to renters. If the owner occupied is lower , they will not provide a mortgage. I would assume due to the boards actions, including past board members that your apartments are nor saleable, except for total cash , unless you commit fraud with the managing company. However besides them losing the real estate license, the private sellers may also be liable if it can be shown that they knew that there was a reason they believed the ration was way off and they stuck their head in the sand, Majority of the few owner occupiers here are spineless and will not work to correct the problem, i have been at trying to get people involved by showing hard facts and they do not want to get involved. This goes directly against the foundation of cooperative apartment living .
In fact the president of the board has not lived in his apartment in over 5 years and is illegally subleasing, per the proprietary lease, without paying sublease fee's, as are about 12 to 15 apartments here. There may be 20 pus years of uncollected sublease fee's due to the actions of the managing company and the BOD.
Board of Directors 1 Hawley Terrace and managing agent Richard W.
This fax is to inform the Board of Directors and Management
company that I am contesting the distributed annual minutes of 2011.
You did not mention that I stated that one of the board members Gino
has never lived in this building and does not live in this
building. Your refusal to provide contact details for him is against
the Business Corporation Law. This sham by the Board of Directors is
a fraud and all Board of Directors are liable. Since this is fraud
and exemplifies another instance of non due diligence by the Board
of Directors. I doubt it will be covered by the officers and board
indemnification insurance . The management company is also heavily
involved in this. The Board of Directors officers have been involved
in self dealing since they gained power. Some details I faxed over a
couple of years ago and john Holzinger tried to push it off as
parking stuff, when it was clearly labeled as self dealing by the officers, and
the refusal to further discuss the $27,000 budget mistake. The owner of the managing company, member of board of westchester bank refused to talk to me, one of his customers, concerning the illegal self dealing, a $27,000 zero drop budget mistake , and other fraud taking place in the coop, particularly the fact that Gino, has never lived in the building, should never have been allowed to buy 2 apartments he was going to sublease. and the fact that the board president with the full support of the manging company, refuses to provide the correct contact info for this board member, instead stating he shares a ! bedroom apartment with his adult son.
I also asked the last two years when the voting was changed. I do
not remember a separate meeting or an addendum on the annual
meeting stating that the Board of Directors was planning to change
the voting from our original cumulative voting as stated in our by
laws, one share one vote. There is a very specific process to change
the voting procedure. I do remember a meeting in which the managing
company brought in a person who stated they were the buildings lawyer, and that NYS had changed the coop voting and had removed cumulative voting, the voting method we used since day 1 which is the ability to combine all your votes for 1 person even if 3 are running.. This is the voting we had since day 1 and our by-laws also state, one share is one vote.
I doubt that this scam was pulled on the 37 plus other coops that Barhite and Holzinger own.
For the record, no such changing of voting by the state took place, cumulative voting is still the #1 voting method for coops.
I have also brought up at the last three annual meetings that the
building is in effect approx 50% owner occupied. In 2010 I gave mike
Foley a copy of case-law from the new york law journal showing the
paragraph 14 "and" and "or" case law., which has to do with the right to occupy
the apartment, not owner occupied status as i previous incorrectly stated here.
. Many of our board members including mike Foley do not live here and have not
got over 5 years. Advertising this building as 90% owner occupied is
what the new owners have been telling me. I will be following up on
this .
I also requested to see the books as stated in the proprietary
lease and for an updated copy of the share-owners. Rich pollack has
refused me, and has written me a letter stating I am not to contact
him anymore. He also stated that my questions about our monies going
over the reserve fund limits as I stated in 2010 he was not going to
answer. In 2011 I spoke to the auditors and they confirmed what it
has stated in black and white in the audit that our monies exceed the
FCIC insured limits a couple of times a year. I brought this up in
2010 since it was prominent in the auditors report then. And no one
in a years time, when the banks were continue to fail , bothered to
check and continued to put us in a position to lose $50,000 and more
due to the Board of Directors not doing their fiduciary duties and
due diligence. I would think the insurance company would make the
Board of Directors pay for the losses out of their pocket, I would
make sure not the shareholders. I spoke to Jason a Board of
Directors member and he was unaware of this letter and may not have
been told of the lack of FDIC coverage.. Talking to Jason I found
out that the managing agent had also lied to him about the
proprietary lease ch14 concerning the right to occupy and the “AND
-OR” terminology.
Jason stated he told you to give me what ever is required by
law, referring to the shareholder list and financial statements.
The Business Corporation Law states that every shareholder is
entitled to the shareholder list.
All Board of Directors members are responsible that the law is
followed.
The proprietary lease states that any shareholder or their agent
may inspect the book with adequate warning. You have received
adequate warning as I wrote last summer before the annual meeting.
Rich P please provide me with your email address as Mindy in
6A stated at the meeting that you provided to her. This is not a two
tier building, what is good for one shareholder ,goes for all.
I heard about the fire door in the lower level. It looks like it
has not been inspected in many years.
Also the voting was improper as I believe all the voting has been
since Mike Foley became president.
At the 2011 ammunition meeting Mike F's son was at the table
where the votes were being counted shuffling proxies around and
moving proxies on the table. Mike F son is a renter in an
apartment he is not a share holder,he had absolute no reason nor
right to be at the table with the proxy’s. He is allowed to hand in
a proxy for a shareholder,but that is it. He is not allowed to speak
on behalf of the shareholder look at the proxies ,which he was going,
all in front on the managing agent Rich P. Who was acting
as meeting secretary Richard P should have stopped him
immediately and told him ti either take a seat or do anything but be
involved or looking at the proxies. It should be noted in all the
years that mike F and his mother in law June K were running
for board positions, June K who was the vice president , her
daughter Barbara who was also Mike Foley wife, Mike Foley being
the president , Barbara F was appointed the election chairperson
and counted all the votes and proxies. I consider it a conflict of
interest to have the daughter and wife of both the president and vice
president involved in counting of the votes .
Mike F's son who is not a shareholder yet was handling and
looking at many proxies at the table that the acting secretary and
building manger was sitting at was totally out-of-order.
Also the note in the annual minutes where it states that more
proxies will be mailed out to try to lower the number of Board of
Directors from 7 to 5 is contrary to our by-laws. We had enough
shares present and by proxy to hold the meeting and the proposed
change in Board of Directors failed. Final .Next year you can do the
same amendment,but you cannot have a special secret proxy vote.
It has always been customary to ask for volunteers at the annual
meeting if they are short on Board of Directors
That is how Jason became a Board of Director member. This was
not asked at this meeting . I believe for fear I might rise to the
occasion and they know I will look at the books and all the self
dealing,and correctly have the owner occupancy ratio quoted. I will
not be a puppet like the rest of the board and not know who has check
signing powers, where the maintenance money is being sent, and not
think anything of it. I informed previous board members many times
that moving out of the building does not get you off the hook for
items that happened on your watch. Since mike F was scared that
I may stand up and the rest of the board present never uttered a word
to suggest it. It was predetermined to come up with this non by-law
double proxy voting thing and the managing company agreed to it,
further showing their involvement. In the Business Corporation Law
illegalities.
Since the Board of Directors voting was illegally changed there
is no way that an outsider can get on the board, yet one board member
has been fraudulently stating he lives in a one bedroom with his
adult son. How these two got on the board, the same time the
apartment were bought, will be another issue that needs to be looked at
Very carefully.
mike p
