The Royal Board of 5 board members

by Mark Zeltser, #301N and 204S,  mzeltser1@gmail.com

I want to thank everyone that voted to keep the same 5 members on the board of directors.

The Royal Board of 5 thanks you as well, as they need the complicity of their uninformed “peasants” to stay in charge.

They saunter around the property, having achieved full control over our association. No checks and balances. Full authority and zero accountability.

Using association resources to intimidate a small website meant for convenient owner communication. Which has been around for years and beneficial to all members. Until they unilaterally decided it wasn’t a good thing to have and tried to shut it down. After all, why would they want owners communicating any possible frustrations with their governing?

Broken promises. New front desk replacement was supposed to be started the week of elections, according to them, and the lobby fountain was supposed to be completed that same week. This is what they stated to help secure your vote. Months later and their word has not been kept on either. Both remain undone.

Same for the large construction project, which has not been completed on time. No deadline and no cap to change order costs. Why would anyone sign a contract like this? It certainly isn’t beneficial terms for the association. Another situation that has blown past deadlines repeatedly. I just hope we aren’t left with a large bill as well at the end of the project, since they have no cap.  I just hope the board has been mindful of change orders.

Vague communications. Arbitrarily enforcing rules to create owner hardships. Vaguely mentioning new rule changes. Which and why? Instructing owners to ignore rules that have been observed for years. What are they up to? They won’t tell us. It seems that we will not know until the last possible moment. That is not how things should be done. I wonder how much of association funds are needlessly going to the association attorney to enact their will for changes. Should they not have asked owners first?  No meetings to discuss this issue. Transparency is vital to the well being of the association.

After all, who could we ask anyway? The property manager shields the Royal Board of 5, and they shield the property manager. It must be why they ignore the pleas of many owners, to find an adequate replacement while we deal with a difficult and unpleasant management office situation.

It is why we live in filth now. We have no recourse at the moment. Unlike the election in 2025, where they won because nobody else ran against them, they won a contested election in 2026 and now feel emboldened. That 5 new candidates chose to run a year after none did shows the concern of other owners for their management. They will use our own association resources against our own owners. I was receiving unwanted emails from those campaigning for the Royal Board of 5 which was very concerning with regard to how they were able to access my information. Apparently my and others information leaking out is ok with everyone in charge. Please remind them their terms are yearly and they must still answer to us, the owners. They seem to have forgotten that. They have forgotten they are our neighbors first, and board members second. I remember when they were just regular folks around the building, before they crowned themselves royalty. At the meet the candidate meeting, one member was so secure, they felt they only needed to speak for less than a minute at the meeting, and were able to secure the needed votes for reelection. Well done, fellow owners. I am sure that board member brings a lot to the table, only we will never know it because they didn’t bother to tell us much of anything. The type of member just filling a seat, so other members can continue unchecked.

Why bother when your partners campaigned so hard to ensure the team was kept intact. To ensure no new member can provide any checks and balances. That to me shows their first priority is not the association. Every member should contribute something to their board role. As owners, we did ourselves no favors that election. However, we can remind them that decisions have consequences and we are paying attention.

Just like I was paying attention to the yearly raises to our maintenance. Only this past January did our maintenance drop a bit finally. However, that was only due to the reduction of one line item, our insurance. The savings elsewhere has not been realized. So what is their role then, I ask?

During their tenure,  they did not save us money on our yearly budget most years. They don’t sign proper contracts with caps on costs and deadlines. They have created an unfriendly us versus them mentality in the management office.

They have even stated to expect increases in line with inflation. There needs to be efforts to minimize that, before we find our building in an unenviable position of much too high condo unit costs that could hurt our property values.

This current methods of their governance does not do the owner’s any favors. If anyone would like to speak or share, I can be reached at mzeltser1@gmail.com

We must continue to remind them we exist as more than their peasants and hold them accountable!!!

Thank you!

-Mark Zeltser unit 301N & 203S

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Laughing matter:

Hilarious Road Signs

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