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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