Page 12 - CooperatorNews New York August 2021

REBECCA SCANDALIATO Mackoul Risk Solutions provides training for the employees and board members who have direct interaction with those employees. For more information and to avoid costly fines for non-compliance contact Mackoul Risk Solutions today. OVERVIEW OF THE LAW NEW YORK STATE MANDATED WORKPLACE HARASSMENT PREVENTION TRAINING MACKOUL RISK SOLUTIONS OUR LOW COST SOLUTION GET IN TOUCH DID YOU KNOW... Mandated training provided for Property Management Firms as well. rscandaliato@mackoul.com 516-279-1215 | www.mackoul.com NYS has enacted several significant measures regarding harassment in the workplace. All NYS employers are required to adopt written workplace harassment prevention policies and institute annual anti-harassment training for all employees. Employers are liable for the actions of employees immediately upon hire and therefore the State encourages training as soon as possible. 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Security of that information and com- munication remains a top priority. Very sensitive information must be handled appropriately, no matter what format it’s in. “We do our best to keep things as se- cure as possible,” Wollman says. “Board packages are sent through Dropbox or BuildingLink. Nothing with sensitive in- formation is sent by attached email any- more. There’s no security there.” In terms of what might be necessar- ily kept in both digital and print formats, Wolf says he takes a ‘belt-and-suspend- ers’ approach with some types of docu- ments. “There’s nothing I can think of that cannot be digital,” he says. “But there are documents which are mandatory to be signed and sent to the Registry of Deeds. We keep a paper copy of these, and when they become official, they are saved electronically as well. Initially we saved legal documents, insurance claim information, and items like that—but over time, we realized we didn’t need any paper at all. We used to keep leases in a hard copy in Massachusetts, but not any longer. From a condo standpoint, every- thing gets digitized. The majority of new paper we receive today comes from new business inherited from other companies sending their stuff to us as new manage- ment.” An Accountant Weighs In Avi Zanjirian, a partner with the Manhattan-based accounting firm of Czarnowski & Beer, sees digitization as a positive trend for accounting in the co- op and condominium sphere—but he does note some points of concern. For example, digitized information is easily accessed, and can be accessed from any- where—which is extremely convenient, but also poses some risks. “No one wants cabinets of paper for seven years,” he says, “but if everything is digitized on a server and you have closing statements, bank statements, transfers, etc., personal information must be secure. If you keep that on the Cloud and you get hacked, that’s a potential problem. “We do live in an age where we can digitize everything,” Zanjirian continues. “In terms of workflow, especially this past year, we didn’t have to go into an office and we could do all our auditing work digitally. That provided for more efficient work, and clients didn’t have to make room for us in their office. But still, anything with personal information must be kept securely. These documents should not be open to everyone in the of- fice.” DIGITAL DOCUMENTS continued from page 11 “Although the reader did not ask, the reader should also want to know that dangerously assaultive apartment occu- pants, whether they are family members or not, can be grounds for eviction. Fre- quently under such circumstances, the actual cooperator is permitted to remain in the apartment provided the dangerous person is excluded. If the dangerous per- son then comes back and it can be shown that the cooperator was tolerating the re- turn, the eviction will proceed. “Readers may wish to know that while this answer deals with Mitchell-Lama cooperatives, privately funded coopera- tives without governmental supervision Q&A continued from page 5 Lastly, Zanjirian points out that with the possible exception of mortgage docu- ments, nothing really needs to be kept in both digital and paper forms. Scanned documents stored online are protected and more secure than paper—but Zan- jirian stresses that when scanning docu- ments, it’s vital to make sure the entire doc is scanned; those doing the scanning should make sure to check for double- sided sheets, and that pages aren’t stuck together. If someone feels the need to keep paper copies, one year should be enough time to retain most documents. As more and more of our administra- tive and personal lives move online and into the Cloud, building and association managers, attorneys, accountants, board members, and—when appropriate— residents need to have access to crucial documents, while also being assured that those documents are stored securely and appropriately. With everything in one easily accessible place, tasks like audits and reviews become easier to complete. The key is security and conscientious care when transferring and storing re- cords. n A J Sidransky is a staff writer/reporter for CooperatorNews, and a published novelist. With the new change in the law, an in- dividual could put up a half or full year of maintenance in an escrow-security ac- count giving the co-op confidence that future maintenance payments would be made and therefore be approved by the co-op.” “It is great to see the NYS Legislature correct the unintended consequences for co-ops in the Tenant Protection Act,” said Mazel at the conference. “It is a great ex- ample of good government at work.” n CO-OPS NOW... continued from page 6