Page 7 - CooperatorNews July 2021

COOPERATORNEWS.COM
COOPERATORNEWS —
JULY 2021
7
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Co-Chair of the Brooklyn Mitchell-Lama Member of Mitchell-Lama United, “When
Task Force, Mitchell-United, Cooperators a Mitchell-Lama cooperative leaves the
United For Mitchell-Lama, Lindsay Park program and becomes a private for-profit
Housing Co-op, says, “The provisions in entity, a select few people walk away with
A7272/S6412 will help us address some a windfall profit. Everybody else in New
of the issues that we have been trying to York State loses. Mitchell-Lama coopera-
get addressed for many, many years, such tives are the product of substantial public
as the misuse of proxies, corruption, lack investments in the form of low-cost land,
of transparency, and non-supervision of low- or no-interest mortgages, and decades
boards of directors. We lobbied in Albany of abated real estate taxes. The taxpayers of
for many, many years to get policies and New York, who in the final analysis have
legislation to help us address these issues all contributed to Mitchell-Lamas all over
confronting shareholders and renters to no the State for the purpose of creating and
avail, but thanks to Assemblywoman Linda sustaining affordable housing for working
Rosenthal and Senator Brian Kavanagh—
our unwavering supporters of Mitchell-
Lamas—we can see a light at the end of the ed which represents those thousands of
tunnel.”
Christine Fowley, founding member of ed a campaign to make sure that social and
Committee to Preserve Cadman Towers, economic justice—the ideals baked into the
Cooperators United for Mitchell-Lama, Mitchell-Lama program—triumph over in-
and Mitchell-Lama United, adds that the dividual selfishness and greed.”
bill “helps to correct many of the outra-
geous problems we have seen when a pro-
privatization board of directors moves to nor Cuomo signs A.7272/S.6412 into law,
take a development out of the program, I believe it will be the most important
and it makes the process harder by raising Mitchell-Lama legislation since 1955, when
the vote percentage to be more in sync with Governor Averill Harriman signed the
other similar votes in publicly supported Mitchell-Lama program into law.”
housing.”
According to Richard Heitler, Presi-
dent of the Board of Village East Towers,
Board Member of Cooperators United for
Mitchell-Lama, and Steering Committee
families, lose their entire investment. I am
proud to be part of Mitchell-Lama Unit-
Mitchell-Lama residents and have mount-
Adds Sharon Torres, a shareholder of
Cadman Towers in Brooklyn: “If Gover-
n
MITCHELL-LAMA...
continued from page 6
dollars on an attorney or an accountant and enough attention to the division of respon-
expect top shelf service.”
According to Karen Sackstein, principal associations.
with The Condo Queens, an accounting firm
in New Jersey, “Financial leakage can come that owners should pay for and it’s not billed
from two directions: the income side, and back correctly, we have substantial and costly
the expense side. On the income side, asso-
ciations sometimes absorb costs that really are ties such as water and sewer, electric and gas,
the responsibility of individual unit owners. as well as other issues with recording those
This is more common in high-rise buildings. billings; are you being charged correctly? In
Associations should always look at their gov-
erning documents to determine what their bill in one building we manage. It wasn’t clear
common elements are, what the association if it was a leak or there was a problem with
is responsible for maintaining and repairing, the meter. We had the meter recalibrated, and
and what should be paid for by owners.”
That said, Sackstein continues, “The larger turns out that was the source of the actual
piece of the puzzle is on the expenditure side. physical water leak that led to the financial
Contracted vendors may be performing ad-
ditional work and charging for it—and that
should be covered under the contract. It’s
critically important to be specific in contracts
so you don’t get overcharged. Another area to
consider is competitive bidding. If you’ve had
a contractor for a long time, check the market.
Are you getting maximum services at the best
price? Every so often, go out into the market
to check bids.”
Dan Wollman, CEO of Gumley Haft, a
Manhattan based co-op and condo manage-
ment firm, adds that “leakage occurs when we
spend more than we budget for or anticipate.
Waste can figure in when we overuse sup-
plies, for instance.” He points out that leakage
also occurs when management isn’t paying
sibility between owners and corporations or
“When we do work within apartments
leakage,” Wollman says. “There are also utili-
one case,” he says, “we had an excessive water
then found a leak in the condensate tank. It
leakage.”
Audits
The best way to determine if your prop-
erty is suffering from financial leakage is to
complete a thorough audit of your financial
records. “We look at it from two perspectives,”
says Zanjirian. “The first is at what the pro-
jected or expected amount of an item was—
or what it should have been—and if it’s out of
line with projections. If it is, we go to deter-
mine why. Let’s say a project should have cost
‘X’ dollars, but it cost 10 percent more—or
WHERE DOES IT GO?
continued from page 1
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