TEN THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE PRESIDENTIAL, Summer 2015

This is the Summer 2015 issue of Ten Things To Know About The Presidential. It’s been designed to be easy to read with just the quick facts you need to know. When there’s more to tell, we’ve included a link to PresidentialSouthBeach.com to read the rest of the story.

  • On July 21, Pat McMahon resigned from the board. George Guerra was nominated and confirmed by the board to fill Pat’s seat at the August 1 regular board meeting.
  • On August 6, Ted April retired from the board. Jeff Locke was nominated and confirmed by the board to fill Ted’s seat at the August 7 regular board meeting.
  • The board voted for new officers at the August 7 regular board meeting. George Guerra was elected president and Maria Farmiga was elected treasurer.
  • Our water bills are roughly double what they were last year. This appears to be from a number of factors, but mostly because the rates for water and sewage are higher than they were in the past. There’s also reason to believe that we may be wasting water from leaky toilets and faucets — which people have not paid much attention to because unit owners pay for water as part of their condo fee. However, through June, our water bill was $92,000 higher than budgeted based on last year’s usage — so if you have a leaky faucet or toilet, please try to fix it, or call the office to get help diagnosing the problem. A little leak can add up quickly and cost all of us a LOT of money.
  • Budget Shortfall: the board will discuss a revised budget shortfall amount at the August 20 Special Assessment meeting. The budget shortfall, chiefly due to higher cable TV fees from Atlantic Broadband and the high water bill accounts for $70,000 as part of a $120,000 total Special Assessment (see below for more details on the special assessment).
  • The Presidential has an $11,000 lien which has been placed on the building from the City of Miami Beach for outstanding fire code violations. To be clear, we understand that the outstanding violations do not threaten the lives or safety of our owners or guests, and the owners are still able to sell their units (albeit after paying for their unit’s portion of the outstanding fine). At the August 7 regular board meeting, the board voted to hire an administrative consultant pursuant to a service agreement, pending legal review by the association’s attorney, to assist the association in working with the City of Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County in curing the outstanding violations, including coordinating efforts with contractors to resolve the pending issues. Time is of the essence as the local governmental authorities have informed us that if we do not come into compliance with local code and ordinances by mid-September, then the fines will resume at a rate of $500 a day.
  • The consultant approved by the board, Mr. John Rodriguez, serves as a Property Manager at The Royal Atlantic and Ocean Point condos, which are the apartment buildings located on either side of The Presidential. Although Mr. Rodriguez will not be serving the more-extensive role of property manager at The Presidential, and will only be assisting the board on a part-time basis with limited administrative tasks, including coordinating compliance with local ordinances and laws, it is worth noting that The Royal Atlantic and Ocean Point condos have lower monthly maintenance fees than The Presidential, expected to be the result, in part, of Mr. Rodriguez’s guidance. This finding, in addition to the apparent excellent condition of these two neighboring buildings, made Mr. Rodriguez a prime candidate to be the association’s part-time administrative consultant.
  • Following the August 7 meeting, where the board voted to hire Mr. Rodriguez on a month-to-month basis as an administrative consultant (agreement pending legal review), some unit owners expressed concern that the scope of work contained within the consultant service agreement may closely resemble a property manager’s scope of work. We understand that there may be some owner concern about the scope of work because our governing documents require approval by 75% of the owners before a property manager may be hired to conduct all powers and duties of the association except those specifically requiring approval of the membership or board. Given the owners’ concern, following the advice of counsel, the board has decided to proceed as follows:
    • The scope of work within the consultant’s service agreement will be restricted such that the consultant will only be responsible for assisting the association in resolving pending violations with the City of Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County (including coordinating with contractors to conduct work in connection with coming into compliance), assisting the board in procuring effective insurance coverage, and advising the board regarding preventive maintenance.
    • Notwithstanding the fact that the consultant’s scope of work will be much more limited and different than that typically associated with the scope of work and services performed by a Community Association Property Manager, in an abundance of caution and considering that the board may wish to consider engaging a property manager to manage the association’s affairs in the future, beginning in September, the board will canvass unit owners through a proxy vote in an attempt to obtain 75% of the owners to agree to remove the requirement to obtain unit owner approval before engaging a property manager.
  • There will be a Special Assessment Meeting on Thurs Aug 20 at 7:30p. This meeting will be held via conference call.  This meeting is being held because the board did not reach consensus on two required items during the Aug 1 Special Assessment meeting: funding the administrative consultant and the existing budget shortfall. Anyone who does not have a phone or prefers to listen to this meeting in a public place, can go to the Card Room on the 2nd FL and listen to the meeting on a speaker phone which will be available at that location. There will be a short Q&A session when this meeting opens to comment on agenda topics. To ask a question or make a comment after the Q&A is announced, press *6 and then press 1 to be placed in queue to ask a question.
  • At the Aug 1 Special Assessment meeting, the board voted to approve a special assessment for replacing the pool motor, upgrading handrails in the stairwells as required by the fire department, plumbing repairs, engineer services required by the fire dept, construction services to address dryer venting as required by the fire dept and an outstanding fine/lien on the building by the City Miami of Miami Beach re: fire code violations. All of these items are included in the $120,000 on which the board will vote during the Aug 20 meeting.
  • If you observe any nuisance behavior by guests, tenants or owners which rises to a City of Miami Beach Code Compliance violation, please document these instances by emailing the Main Office. Be sure to include the date and time and any information you can share about why you think this was a nuisance. The Main Office will be compiling a list and will use this information to look for patterns in this behavior with the goal of curbing it in the future.