NORTHBROOK CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION
P.O. BOX 260
AMESBURY, MA. 01913
Northbrook Open Board Meeting March 5, 2017. This meeting was held at the Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank at 10:00 A.M. There were 13 unit owners present.
Board Members present: Don Silva, Doreen Silva, Chris Lamkins, Cathy Morrison, Mike Marshall and Chris Guarino.
Absent Board Member: Wilma Bybee.
The meeting was called to order at 10:00am by Vice President Chris Lamkins who acted as the facilitator.
First order of business was to update the community. The first item was the termination of Rob Provencher from maintenance. Because of this, Northbrook was put in an awkward position, without a snow removal team. Chris apologized for this. He stated there was good news, however, on how the board was going to deal with this.
Chris Lamkins then gave the floor to Treasurer Doreen Silva, who wished to address everyone about the petition that was sent to the board regarding Rob Provencher. The petition that was received in the mail, was dated January 28, 2017, and signed by 7 people in the community. Doreen stated that she wanted to clarify what the board felt were misleading statements. On Friday morning after having been alerted to the arrest of the maintenance employee, Rob Provencher, by 8am all board members were notified by phone and we did vote unanimously to terminate said employee. Then we scheduled an actual meeting in person on Monday evening, January 30, 2017 to formalize the vote. On Sunday, in between our voting and our meeting, some people in the neighborhood let us know that a petition was circulating which contained some, kind of misleading, information concerning the board’s response to this incident.
The first statement was concerning the previous involvement with police by Mr. Provencher on August 2, 2016. Early in the afternoon Don Silva was informed by phone by the Amesbury Police what had happened; that Rob and a neighbor had had a verbal altercation and he was snapping pictures of her swimming pool and the junk in front of her garage. Words were exchanged and Facebook posts. Don told the officer that he would contact Rob and tell him to cease and desist. Don attempted to contact Mr. Provencher four different times but got no answer. Later in the day the police were sent to Mr. Provencher’s home. At that time, Don was not present. He did not witness what happened. He was working and did not even know the police were there or that Rob was arrested until much later.
In the second statement, Don is referred to as the Maintenance Director. He is not. He is the liaison for all real estate transactions, 6Ds, applications, and questionnaires. He talks with mortgage companies, when people are refinancing or purchasing/selling.
The other thing that was mentioned in the petition was that the board does not create a transparent environment, an openness to information concerning critical events that have transpired in relation to our community. This board has no knowledge of critical events that we should have made aware that has kept the community unsafe. This board does all that’s necessary to maintain safety and harmony for all and we will continue to do this to the best of our ability.
Chris Lamkins resumed by saying that he thinks the petition is democratic and that’s great, however when he read it, it gave him the impression that there is no confidence in the board. If a phone call had gone through, the second we had seen Rob’s name in the police notes, whoever started the petition would have known that we’re on it right away. Previous maintenance personnel were mentioned and how none have worked out. John Locke was specifically mentioned, that various board members had problems with John. As a professional landscaper, Chris was not impressed by the amount of work that he was doing. Chris asked Cathy Fournier, if Henry Fournier had problems with John. Cathy said not to her knowledge. She said that John is the type of individual who needed to be reminded more than once. He had a small issue with comprehension. Chris mentioned that one of the issues he had with him is that John could not follow orders. Chris often hears from people in the community questioning why John was let go. John could not follow instruction. It got to the point where the board was really upset with what was going on, sat him down unofficially and told him he needed to improve. It did not happen. It was speculated that after John received his substantial raise, he thought he was a manager, and that he could stop working and tell the other associates what to do. John was seen just driving around the neighborhood on a regular basis in the Kubota or the truck. This was not cost effective. It was typical to see him downtown not working. He was finally given a written notice from the board, twice, and had written complaints against a couple of things that he did. One of them was when we had a break-in at the maintenance garage and John was the contact person for the alarm and didn’t take the call. The other thing was the over-fertilization of the lawn, costing us nearly a thousand dollars in wasted product. John Locke is not coming back, for anyone that wants him to come back. Chris stated that John Locke did tremendous snow removal but he was on overtime for most of the time he did it. Two years ago, he cost us $15,000-20,000 in labor costs on top of the plowing costs just for one month.
Dave Fortune, of 8 Pamela Lane, stated he had a couple of questions. He stated that Rob Provencher was in his facility, but he recuses himself of all that because it’s a conflict of interest, however when you read that, I have questions to Don Silva. Dave spoke of the time that he and Don discussed John Locke’s termination at the mailbox. Don stated his side, and Dave did not agree. Dave stated that Don said the police were too brutal with Rob Provencher and that they had slammed him into the house. Dave wanted to know how he knew this if he was working at this time. Doreen and Don both stated that they had been informed by Rob Provencher’s next door neighbor, Joan. Chris Lamkins and Cathy Morrison stated that they had watched the whole thing. Chris Lamkins stated that he thought the police handled the situation really well. Dave stated he didn’t know why Don knew that. Don stated that he had gone over to the building much later and you could see the dents in the building. He was not there at the time it happened.
Chris Lamkins stated that the board is not trying to be the enemy here. The board’s mission statement is to continually improve the neighborhood and to manage the repairs that we’re facing. Our neighborhood is getting older, with no assessments and no increase in condo fees. Last year we had $30,000 in water main breaks and repairs to units and it really wasn’t a problem. The water main breaks ranged anywhere from $1,500 to $6,900. If there had been an assessment, this would have been quite a hardship on the unit owners. No assessment has been necessary. The board is trying to make things better for all of us.
The second item was discussion of what to do next. Should there be a management company? What was decided is to sub out the landscaping, carpentry and snow removal. Three bids were put out to three different contractors. All bids have been received and are within $1,600 of each other. There will be an executive session after the open meeting to vote on which bid will be accepted. Chris stated that the company will be the unit owner’s direct contact if anyone has a problem with snow removal or landscaping and that contact information will be sent to homeowners. Chris stated that there was a professional landscaping company who came in last Fall and removed all the leaves/cleaned the property. It was the first time that Chris has been impressed with the work that was done. That’s what we want.
Chris Lamkins continued, speaking about having hired the wrong people to do maintenance, or the “non-pro” guy. It was finally recognized that for approximately the same money the board could have a professional do it. Former maintenance worker, Gino Provencher, was discussed briefly, regarding his work effort and that although his work here was good, he did not inform the board of his moving to New Hampshire or getting a part-time job, called three days in a row to say he would not be able to work and had no car for transportation. All of this made it impossible to rely on him to be here. It was reiterated that the board made a mistake by hiring the guy next door. We need pros.
Chris Guarino stated that the previous and present board presidents have mitigated any sort of assessment or condo fee increase and the board has successfully done this. It is the same fee from eight years ago when Chris moved in that it is now. Part of this was due to keeping the small items in house. At this point, where it went from Chris Taylor, to all of these situations, getting the cream of the crop to work here full time for the salary given, getting the bids for the three professional companies seemed feasible. The cost difference is negligible and we’re not farming out the whole thing to a management company.
Mike Marshall agreed, stating that this is not about how hard people worked; it’s about the way the board manages, and that we kind of allowed employees like John Locke to be complacent. The board needs to step up what they are doing. Having a professional company do the snow removal, for example, will prevent the overtime situation that occurred with John. We will get more for our money.
Jim Brewer, of 78 Cynthia Lane, asked if the snow removal, carpentry and landscaping were bids from one company or three separate bids that went out. Chris Lamkins stated that one company will handle all three items. Bids were received from Bob Almon, GCS and Green company. It was stated again that the unit owners will have direct contact with the company. If anyone has an issue, they can contact the company directly.
David Olsen, of 19 Pamela Lane, asked if we’re going to be contracting out, where does that leave the community with a brand new truck and all the equipment in the garage. Chris Lamkins stated that the equipment likely will be appraised and then consigned to sell. The board still has to vote on that. We really want to get out of the equipment owning business. The truck will be kept, because we will still be purchasing supplies such as loam, bark mulch, grass seed. The truck gets driven at least once or twice a week for trips to the bank and accountant’s office. We’re also having per diem workers on site to fill in the gaps.
Dave Fortune asked if the per diem workers would be doing the painting and other small items. Doreen Silva stated that the per diem workers would be basically during the summer for painting the light posts, and placing new globes for the light posts. Also sometimes after the trash trucks come, there’s debris and we need somebody on site sometimes to do these little things. But the painting of the buildings will be done by a professional painter because of the height of the buildings, the fact that they have their own insurance, equipment, etc. Dave then mentioned that he had previously asked the board about a landscaping company being hired. Mike Marshall stated that this was brought up and discussed by the board many times, but usually in the context of hiring a management company. Doing it this way gives us the flexibility that we really didn’t have before.
Doreen Silva also mentioned that when John Locke was on board, and we had a water leak, many times they don’t happen at an opportune time and John lived 40 minutes away. A lot of damage could be done in that time and we would have had to pay John a minimum of 4 hours to come down and turn the water off. Thankfully, Al Stuart, who Northbrook has a longstanding business relationship with, will be the one to turn the shut off if there is a water leak, for minimal charge. He’s given the board a list of contact people. He is available 24/7.
Ryne Morrison, of 37 Pamela Lane, asked to speak and stated that he has been here since 1997 and spoke of the history of previous boards and what a bad situation it was back then. Back then there were hostile relations with the board. Ryne feels like people are still treating this situation like its politics in Washington. When the petition was circulated, the people purposely skipped all the board member’s homes. Ryne was home and watched it happen. That’s not an appropriate way to go about it. We’re a community. This board is the most open board. They will answer any of your questions. All you have to do is ask. Don’t call up and scream at them. Call them and ask “Hey what the hell’s going on?” They’ll tell you. This board is not the enemy. Stop treating them like they’re the enemy. They will help you because they’re community people. This is not the shit that happened before. There are still people in this community who are doing things behind the board’s back. That is insulting to them. They’re taking their own time to help us. Ask them. Don’t sneak up behind them and jab them in the back or make misleading statements. They’ll tell you the truth. You may not like it, but they’ll tell you.
Chris Lamkins thanked Ryne and stated that the majority of the community likes what the board is doing. He also stated a quick note about Henry Fournier. Chris stated that he knows at the last meeting there were some bad things said about him, but he honestly feels that Henry was the guy that had the vision for our neighborhood. He started the forward motion.
Candy Hayford, of 69 Cynthia Lane, added a few statements regarding Don Mackarel, a previous board member President, who was not thought of kindly. Cathy Morrison then made comparisons of raising kids back when Mackarel was President and how it is today. Kids are outside playing and not being fined for doing so, as was the practice years ago.