Wayne condo owners mutiny in effort to unseat board members over looming $3M repairs
North Jersey Record
Philip DeVencentis
19 November 2018

WAYNE — Unit owners at Brittany Chase have launched a mutiny to unseat two of their neighbors from the condo association's board of trustees, which they say is to blame for the community's financial woes.

The 395-unit complex of condominiums and town houses has endured months of turmoil, breeding suspicions among a dissident group of owners that the upcoming election is being rigged to keep the current board in power.

Many unit owners at the complex, off Berdan Avenue, were irate over suddenly being notified in May about a multimillion-dollar emergency assessment to fix a "construction defect" at two town homes where foundations are cracking and sinking into the ground because they were built on top of tree stumps and other organic debris.

While the assessment is delayed until next year, unit owners are turning their attention to the election at the condo association's annual meeting on Dec. 6.

One of the candidates, Francine Ritter, said she and her running mate, Gerard O'Neill, want to bring a sense of transparency to affairs of the five-member condo board.

"Everything is shrouded in secrecy," said Ritter, an attorney.

O'Neill said he does not trust the method by which the condo board came up with the price for the assessment, initially pegged at $3 million, or up to $11,044 per unit owner.

they're working on the symptom, and they're not really getting to the problem

"It sounds like they're working on the symptom, and they're not really getting to the problem," said O'Neill, who lives across the street from the problem town homes. "They're talking about treating the broken town houses, but they're not talking about what to do about the shifting of earth."

O'Neill, a construction and property manager, and Ritter are trying to depose two longstanding condo board members: Jack Boydell, its president, and Linda DiMezza, its secretary. A pair of two-year terms are at stake.

"Wake Up, Brittany Chase"

O'Neill and Ritter are backed by a grass-roots faction of unit owners, called "Wake Up, Brittany Chase," which has taken the campaign to the streets of the complex, knocking on doors and handing out fliers.

"There's a great response because it's a common issue — no one is spared from contributing to the assessment," said Gopinath Sathyanarayanan, a unit owner and manager of O'Neill's and Ritter's campaign. "Everyone is concerned about whether the current board was able to make the right decision."

According to DiMezza, however, the upstart crusade by "Wake Up, Brittany Chase" is founded on "lies and untruths" about the repairs needed to the problem town homes.

"These new people are going to come in and they're going to perform a miracle?" asked DiMezza, an adjunct professor of counseling and educational leadership at Montclair State University. "Like Moses, parting the Red Sea — it's going to be a miracle? It's not going to change the outcome. It is what it is. It has to be fixed."

DiMezza would not specify further about the "lies" she claimed were spread throughout the complex by members of "Wake Up, Brittany Chase," and she hung up the phone.

Boydell did not return a call seeking comment.

Election process
Letters were sent to unit owners to advise them of the election process, which allows three ways to vote: in person, at the annual meeting; by absentee ballot; or by proxy.

"Wake Up, Brittany Chase" has tried to form a voting bloc in recent days, dispatching canvassers throughout the complex to collect proxy ballots in support of O'Neill and Ritter. To vote by proxy, a unit owner delegates his or her right to vote to a different owner. In this case, everyone loyal to the group has named Sathyanarayanan as their proxy. The group also meets regularly at the condo association's clubhouse to talk about its campaign strategy.

past elections were uncontested or drew little enthusiasm

Unit owners say the "Wake Up, Brittany Chase" movement is unlike anything they have ever seen at the complex, where past elections were uncontested or drew little enthusiasm from voters.

Part of what has energized the campaign is the inception this year of secret ballots, or the ability for unit owners to vote anonymously. "Wake Up, Brittany Chase" members say anonymity should guarantee a fair election process and level the playing field.

"It was something that was asked for for many years," Ritter said about secret ballots. "We have old-time owners that said they've been asking for this."

The group's barnstorming effort is facing some resistance, however.

fixing the election

"Wake Up, Brittany Chase" members claim one unit owner posed as a supporter of their team to collect proxy ballots, when, in fact, that person backs the incumbents. They also allege that the condo association's attorney, Jennifer Alexander, is fixing the election — by ensuring the incumbents win — to secure her job.

Alexander did not return a call seeking comment.

Voting instructions for unit owners ask that absentee ballots be sent to Alexander's law office in Randolph. That directive is a violation of guidelines by the state Department of Community Affairs, according to members of "Wake Up, Brittany Chase," who claim the attorney unjustly inserted herself into the election process.

But in an email sent to one of the candidates, Alexander wrote that she will not "get involved in opening, tabulating and/or counting of ballots."

Ritter and other members of "Wake Up, Brittany Chase" also take issue with Alexander's alleged refusal to disclose names of unit owners in "good standing."

According to a 2017 state law, named the Radburn bill after the planned community in Fair Lawn, only unit owners in "good standing" can vote. That definition generally means they are up to date with payment of fees assessed by the condo association.

As of Friday, Ritter said, Alexander had not promised to allow voters to inspect those names throughout the entire annual meeting. State law requires unfettered access to that list.

Ritter said the list is important because, without it, unit owners not in "good standing" might not know they are in arrears. That means they could think their votes counted, when they did not.

In a letter sent to unit owners on Nov. 12, Alexander addressed a message printed on "Wake Up, Brittany Chase" fliers and defended the current board's actions. "The notion that the board has not been transparent is simply not true," she wrote. "It is unfair and untrue to assert that there has been an absence of transparency."

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