July Board Meeting -

MANAGEMENT CONCERNS, POOL COMPLAINTS & BYLAW BACKTRACKS . . .

Opening comments at Makaha Valley Towers' July 21, 2017 Association Board meeting (held in MVT's conference room) questioned the timing of swimming-pool closure notifications, while later in the gathering, major projects, a recently mailed notification letter and architectural-modification decisions were topics of discussion.

The issue looming largest, perhaps, was given only brief mention at the meeting, before a full discourse was entered into behind the closed doors of executive session.

MVT Gen. Mgr. Joanna Miranda told the gathering the Board would be discussing issues of concern regarding MVT's relationship with Associa Hawaii, the Towers' management company.

A few months back, Associa had appointed a new account representative, who, in her initial appearance at MVT's general membership meeting in February, had presented a well-received financial discussion to the meeting's attendees. Apparently, since then, however, the management company has been tardy in forwarding successive financial information in advance of Board meetings, so that the Board, administration and owners would have that information in a timely manner.

At Friday's meeting, Associa sent two of its employees, a new account representative, as well as a more senior representative, to help explain the financials, while February's representative was nowhere in sight.

Like many condominium complexes on Oahu, the Towers contracts with Associa (at a cost of many thousands of dollars per year) to act as its financial clearing house, and for advice in administrative, operational, and governmental-policy information, among other issues.

From time-to-time, different owners have expressed concerns regarding Associa's services and its relationship with the Towers, so, perhaps, Friday's executive-session get-together will lead to a better understanding of expectations regarding that relationship.

Back to the meeting's opening moments, an attending owner shared her view of a recent pool-closure notification which, she believed, left folks without time to prepare.

“People need advance notice,” she stated.

The attendee told Board members that the three week notification period wasn't enough time for several people she knew, who had guests already scheduled.

The subject, made a little less pertinent this time around – the pool reopened the very next day, will still be an item of importance in the future, as Miranda explained switching the swimming facility to saltwater means it will need to be drained on an annual basis.

Moving to financial matters, Associa representatives outlined significant expenditures connected to two, major on-going projects, upgrading the Towers' hot-water system and installation of a new chiller unit for the air-conditioning system.

Even while the outlays were in the tens-of-thousands of dollars, the Associa reps noted that bottom-line collections for MVT's reserve fund continue to run ahead of projections, maintaining the reserves at about $3.2 million.

As for the hot-water system, meeting attendees were told part of the old system – the heat pumps – have finally been dismantled, leaving water-heating duties to the gas-fired boilers exclusively. This makes for a less efficient system, causing a recent rise in MVT utility bills.

MVT Board Pres. Michael Targgart said the new system's copper tubing is mostly in place, and, soon, the on-demand units will be installed, completing most of the major hot-water work.

Transitioning from hot to cold, audience members were told that on July 25 the Towers will have a day-long traffic contraflow in place for the unloading of MVT's new high-efficiency A/C chiller unit.

The chiller will arrive on a flatbed semi-trailer and will be unloaded by a mobile crane, making for quite the inaugural appearance on Towers' grounds.

The unit will arrive fully assembled, but is too large to move inside the A/C equipment building as a single piece, so it will have to be disassembled and taken inside section by section.

From construction to comments, two recent pieces of correspondence are having an impact on Towers' administration.

The first item, a letter mailed to all owners regarding the Association's stance on short-term apartment rentals, was a statement of clarification, according to Targgart. The correspondence was formulated by MVT's attorneys as a caution to owners who rent their apartments for 30 days or less per tenant, and urging those owners to seek their own legal and tax advice in doing so.

“They are breaking the law if they rent for less than 30 days,” Targgart stated, explaining that there are no city/county permitted short-term rental units at Makaha Valley Towers.

Discussion then ensued regarding the tax implications of any rentals, including the payment of General Excise and business taxes, which require license applications, and the potential that any apartments not utilized as primary living units could be subject to differing property tax regimens.

The second letter was correspondence to the Board from an apartment owner objecting to the recent house-rule change allowing double-pane, sliding windows to replace the louvered, jalousie-type windows currently utilized in the kitchen areas of the one-bedroom units.

Again, after discussion with MVT attorneys, Miranda told audience members the Board may need to revisit the issue, as an architectural-modification to the buildings' facade may require a by-law amendment, rather than just a house-rule change, and thus any changes approved or in the pipeline are being halted until the matter is better resolved.

And, so, to that end, the Board adjourned the general-membership part of the meeting to reclusive themselves into executive-session.