Category: Meetings

Board Meeting July 12, 2016

Regarding our parking lot overhaul, the last board meeting included planning to approach West Palm Beach city employees with our plan to see what they would require to meet code. Our landscaper went to the city and reported back during this board meeting.

Changes will be required to the west guest parking lots as well as to our main property. Trees and a hedge for the western lot will be $12,000. The removal and replacement of trees along Washington Blvd. at about $2,000 per tree was discussed. These charges will separate from Keshavarz & Associates’ (engineers) charges.

P.R. said the manager had given him a parking lot project estimate of $1/2 million.

Some of the uncovered parking spaces on the main property will be reduced in width by six inches to accommodate required islands with trees every ten spaces. No parking spaces will be lost in the current plan.

Possible changes to handicapped spaces were discussed.

The secondary bike shed will be relocated slightly to meet code.

The area around the fountain which currently has tiles over river rock will be paved to improve pedestrian access.

The engineer wants to put in a fence surrounding the recycling bin storage area (near bike shed and south parking) to meet code. The engineer wants to put in a fence on the very east side of the property to enclose the pool from public access. This is a health and safety issue.

May 17 2016-Board Meeting, Portofino South

Present:  Officers:  Martha Lee, Pam Kittinger-Fuller, Greg D’Elia, and Helen MacDonald.  Members present:  Margie Daley, by phone, Betse Gori,  Keith Gornick, by phone,  Parker Reid,  and John Schaefer, by phone.  Frank Lagalante, Property Manager and Brigette Muglia, Office Manager.

Meeting called to order at 7:05 p.m. by Martha Lee.  She called for approval of the April, 2016 meeting minutes which were approved by the Board.

Greg D’Elia gave his Treasurer’s Report

Frank Lagalante gave his Manager’s report.  1) Cooling Tower still being looked at by engineers.  He suggested postponing the project till the fall. It will cost $800 to shore up the structure itself.  Recommended to just refurbish the existing unit.  What will the total costs for this project be?  Big Expense.  Let’s get what we have to do in place.  What will the remodeling encompass versus a new tower? The remodeling would involve taking the present tower apart and rebuilding it so it would basically become a new tower    2) Asphalt Drainage site.  The survey prepared by the engineers is waiting to be signed off.  3)  Elevators.  Met with new Company (Shindler) who promised him they would pay closer attention to our elevators in the future.  Frank to stay on them. 4) Sauna:  New materials expected week of May 31st.   5) In anticipation of the Hurricane season Frank did a lot of tree trimming outside himself.  6) He mentioned that the Tower’s concrete walls are being restored. Valerie Barto asked him about the information she gave him regarding fixing the tower.

Credentials Committee:  Margie Daley said there was no report.

Pool Committee: no report.

Decoration Committee:  Barbara Tattersfield spoke on behalf of the committee, additional reports from Doug Cochrane on the acoustical ceilings and Greg D’Elia on the lighting.  She talked about the areas in the building being looked at.  1) Lighting in Hallways which are long and dark.  2) Acoustical Ceilings.  3) Elevator vestibules on each floor as well as Elevator interiors.  4)  Refurbishing the Card Room.  Different committee members looked at specific areas and came back with plans and costs.   Barbara asked a question regarding funding costs so as to be able to move forward on these projects.

Greg talked about the three lights on order at Capital Lighting.  They will be installed on the first floor so that residents can see and vote on the one they like.  Prices ranged from $155 to $210.  Want to stay in the $200 range as we will need 240 units as a total order, 212 installed, remainder as backups.  Current lights very old and we do not have parts to fix them or backups.  New ones use LED lights which burns at 6 watts, a huge savings over current costs for building lighting.

Doug showed us a larger smooth ceiling tile sample.  We will need 26,000 square feet of new ceiling for the entire building.  Betse Gori asked what else could be done at the same time.  Answer a new chair rail and baseboards.   No room for trim at ceiling levels because we have low ceilings.  Going down the hallways they are trying to do the best they can with the money we have. Both the replacement of the ceilings and lighting will increase the longevity of the building and make it more attractive along with the cost saving factor.  Money is the issue, again where does the money come from to do these things?  ADA mandates that the light fixtures themselves cannot protrude more than 4 inches from the wall.  Lighting and ceiling tiles will be done first.  Helen MacDonald said some of this is maintenance for the building.  Totals cost estimate is approximately $215,000 to $225,000 for all the capital improvements.  We will need to assess to pay for them.  There have been no assessments in for eight years.   However, we still need concrete numbers for the cost of lighting, ceiling tiles, paving and drainage for parking lot.   Residents will have time to pay for this assessment by spreading it out. Greg said the building is 45 years old, everything is original, and it needs to be maintained.  Betse Gori suggested assessing for parking lot, cooling tower and roof, painting, lighting and ceiling projects.

Once again this assessment figure is based on getting more concrete numbers for lighting, ceiling tiles, cooling tower, pavement/drainage and painting.

Meeting adjourned.

Note:  These minutes were taken by Joan McAuliffe, as accurately as possible, any omissions or mistakes in their original content is solely my responsibility.

 

 

May 3 2016-Manager’s Meeting, Portofino South

Discussed:

Background checks for residents

Background checks are performed for all new residents. However, the association does not deny anyone on the basis of having a criminal record. The association’s next condo legal documents will have a provision that ownership can be denied to anyone with a felony within the last ten years.

Assessment

There will probably be a special assessment for owners, but the amount and date have not been decided.

Work on roof

Concrete restoration will take place on the roof next week.

New entrance

A new pedestrian entry gate to S. Flagler is being prepared.

Complaints about service animals and swimmers

Residents complained of wetness and feces in elevators from dogs and swimmers. The office will send a letter reminding residents to please stay dry in the elevators and use the service elevator if possible.

Pet regulations under the next condo legal documents

The next condo legal documents will make Portofino South a “pet-friendly” building. The association can then set rules about where pets can enter and exit the building and which elevators they can use. One cat or one dog will be allowed per unit. Service and emotional support animals regulations will not be affected.

Next condo legal documents approval

Board member GD thinks our new legal documents cannot be put to a vote by owners until November due to many people leaving for the summer.

Blog mentioned

This blog was mentioned by GD as “detrimental” to unit property values. Several people wanted the blog removed and several people had never visited the blog and wanted the web address for it. The blog’s most popular post appears to be “The Miramar”  my investigation of the history of the hotel that was here before the condominium was built.

PS Condo Meeting April 19,2016

PS Condo Meeting April 19 2016

Members Missing: MD,KG,ML

PK conducted the meeting
Our insurance agent came to give us another option to our present policy with Citizens
Which has to be renewed by this Tuesday. He apologized for the lateness but he said
He was waiting for quotes.
The other insurance policy would be with American Coastal. The yearly fee would be much less
But there would not be any guarantee that next year they would not raise it surpassing what
Citizen would charge us. We got a$10,000 raise from last year. At Citizen we are considered
A grand father client so we have some guarantees that we might not have with a new
company. The deductibles are different
The board has to decide whether to switch or stay with Citizen. Our building is valued at $29 million and the appraisal was done in2013
IL from the audience suggested that the agents should make a spread sheet of the two different
Policies. Good idea !
JM from the audience asked if he considered any other insurance companies- answer United
andHeritage declined.

Manager’s Report:
The forum on April 5th was successful and the next one is May 3rd

Cooling Tower: still on going investigation

Asphalt and Drainage the same as above

The manager is not pleased with the new elevator company. They are even more expensive. each month

Sauna – GD suggested a carpenter to do the installation. He will charge $ 1900. The board said ok except BG who abstained then changed to nay.

There was a core study of the roof and it might not have to be totally redone but only patched.

The Decorating Committee:
Has met and will be ready for the May meeting

Condo Docs are at the attorney and ready soon

A basket on the door – is my door – the discussion went on for a long time and will be reported on separately in this blog.

TV for the card room. H M proposed the buying of it by the social committee approximately $1000 for a 55 / 60 inch but the monthly cable fee is to be paid by the association-$900 per year

there was a vote and it would not have past if GD had not changed his vote from nay to yea

BG said there has to be a set of rules in place.

PS Meeting March 22,2016

Portofino South Condo Meeting March 22, 2016

 

All officers attending, KG on the phone

 

The Parking Lot Redo

The board was given two site planners and GD recommended Gentile Glas Holloway O’Mahoney & Associates

PR asked if the proposal/ contract was given to the lawyer for review. No was the answer.

It was mentioned that this particular site planner had a good relationship with the city. Their purpose would be to try to get less restrictions from the city concerning code in remaking the parking lot.

Concerning using a lawyer to review the paper vote the vote was 6 to 3 not in favor of using the lawyer.

There was a discussion of when to use the lawyer to review contracts and if it is below $75,000 they might not use the lawyer.

This contract was more an advisory type so that was the rational.

BG wanted to make sure we communicated with the condo owners. About each step of the renovation. As we might have to loose spaces as the city wants an 8 ft. width instead of our 10 ft. widths, they want berms every 10 spaces that should be landscaped and addition of handicap spaces near the entrance. Someone mentioned that those spaces should be used by really handicapped people not just those that have decals.

BG mentioned to form a parking committee

The board assured the audience that the whole process would be story boarded and up on the wall of the card room.

 

Review of Condo Docs

One of the changes that is significant is there will be no noisy construction noise between Dec 15 th and March 15th. Some other buildings have Nov I till May 1.

When the docs are completed the lawyer will come for one meeting to go over them and there will be a yes or no vote on the entity of the docs.

We have had 2-year rule that after you buy an apt you cannot rent it for 2 years. It was discussed to change it to one year but it stayed with 2 years to discourage transients.

They added trucks that are for personal use, not commercial, to the lots across the street. One owner got special permission to have one presently.

Parking decals will be switched to front windows upper left corner.

Discussion about deeded parking spots. Frank said that the association should run the spaces

Much discussion about that in the audience. Nothing resolved.

The condo owners will have 14 days to vote on the new docs.

Lawyers will be asked to highlight the new additions and changes.

PR asked if the By Laws were also amended those changes should also be highlighted by the lawyer

There are also Articles of Corp and maybe The Statues have been changed by the attorney

 

GD brought up the Discussion of an Assessment

He asked it should be for the paving and not touch the loan yet?

The loans interest is at 4.25% but not till we start to use it.

We have 6 large projects to do in the near future and the loan will not cover all of it.

BG said to spend the loan and wait to assess.

The condo is about half a million short in the next three years

Cooling tower seems to be in immediate danger also

If we put an assessment through owners will have 2 years to pay.

Valerie from the audience said she spoke to someone that she knows and he is on the board at 2 City Plaza and they also had cooling tower problems. She was going to give the information to Frank and to Gregg

Legally they can have an assessment every 6 months – Fla law does not allow any incentives to

Condo Meeting March 15, 2016

Portofino South, West Palm Beach, Board Meeting March 15, 2016

All board members present except K G who called in around the middle of the meeting.

It was announced that the first Tuesday of each month at 7:00pm going forward, Frank the manager will hold an open meeting. He invites all condo owners to come in and ask questions or voice complaints.

Martha board president mentioned that the four white boxes surrounding the entrance fountain were removed since nothing will grow because of the wind and chemicals in the fountain.

Martha also mentioned that the board would be willing to take questions or comments from the audience after the board has discussed a topic

A letter from B L about the website was brought up by BG. She said she had not seen it before she saw it in her packet before the meeting. H M said she had received it a week ago and took it upon herself to answer it. She read her letter saying the board had chosen the least costly option and the purpose of informing the owners was achieved. BG said the website was inadequate and that it was not generating that much info. GD mentioned that they had looked at much more expensive websites and rejected them. He had not been on the website yet. BG mentioned that condo owners should be automatically notified with new postings….one service which does that is called Constant Contact. The office said they were looking in to it.

GD gave financials: two condos in arrears for two months

Pool Discussion:

The total cost of repair was around $31,000. Still holding final payment as there are four missing tiles.

BG wanted a full accounting for the pool.

Pool project is complete and the temperature is holding at 86 degrees. Seems there is no more water leaking. Before it was leaking 3 to 4 inches a day. Auto fill is working.

Cooling Tower:

As it is so old that the whole thing might have to be rebuilt, we are talking about a large amount to repair. Engineer is being sought for this project.

Redoing the parking lots:

Redoing the parking lots is complicated by drainage problems. The board was given two engineers to choose from.

As there are three coats of sealant already on it, to fix sinkholes the ground must be dug up at least one or two feet for it to be refinished. The drainage problem could be handled in two different ways either by laying new pipe or by blowing new pipes into the old ones.

The city will get involved and will demand handicap parking on this side and dividers every 10 spaces. We will have to conform to current city code. We will lose some spaces.

We will have to hire site planners and landscapers who hopefully can deal with the city

This project could run about $500,000.00. Timeline is about 4 months.

M L asked if we could appeal some code requirements. It was mentioned that is what the site planners can help us do.

WE COULD BE ASKED FOR EACH CONDO OWNER TO BE ASSESSED

Sauna:

Frank’s work to clean it up was not successful so it has to be redone. Estimates were given for the special wood and the installation which is separate. Labor would be around $ 2500 ( Designer Builder)and cost of wood ( Finlanda) is about $2525. Board did not approve the expense as only one carpenter bid had been submitted.

A guest in # 912 was interviewed as she is staying longer than a month.

Decorating committee met

The audience asked:

Do you have flip or transfer taxes in Florida?

We should have a project manager as these jobs are so large and technical. We have three large jobs to complete and coordinated.

We are lucking to have Greg doing as much as he does.

PR said if we are thinking of spending such large amounts of money we should try to get good estimates for the projects and then tell the condo owners, who might want to sell their apartments.

All these contracts must be sent to the lawyer for review. The pool contract wasn’t sent to the lawyer, as it adds expense up front.

Frank called the insurance people and the pool lighting is sufficient for extended night hours. The pool is now open till 9:30 along with the barbecue.

Hopefully people will be respectful of noise. Doorman should be called with noise complaint and to check if the grill is shut off.

Status of the Docs:

BG deferred to PA

Once the docs (containing bylaws, rules & regulations, articles of incorporation) are finished the lawyer has instructed the board to give them to the condo owners for a yes or no vote, all or nothing. They have been in the works for about three years. The rules and regulations must be in your declaration of condo by laws, not separate, or they have no teeth.