November 5, 2005

My name is Ken Zangla. I own 308 and have been living at Harborview for about 13 years. I regret that I cannot make the meeting today but I would like to express an opinion based on my conversations with Michael George. Granted, I am not there to hear the full arguments pro and con on the ideas being presented.

Over the years, the Harborview building has been terribly neglected to the point that we had to do major, expensive work, or it would have been uninsurable or uninhabitable.  Additionally, when some work had been done in the past (such as painting and the pool’s surface being replaced), the work was poorly done and had to be repeated. Who was responsible for letting the building decay? There is more that one entity to point at. One is the previous boards, which were responsible for making the decision necessary to maintain the building and its integrity. I emphasize that I do not believe the neglect was intentional, but a lack of expertise, as well as an attempt to save the home owners money by going with the lowest bids. It is difficult to get people to run for the board and we depend upon those willing to be scrutinized by unhappy homeowners. So, I do not want to offend with my comments because I have never been willing to run for the board either. And in this way, I, too, as a home owner am responsible for allowing the building to decay. I could not have done a better job myself, as those who have served in the past.

With that, I turn my comments toward the current board. Based on the quality and expertise in which the current construction is being done on the stairwells, rails and support pillars in the parking lot, it seems to me that this board, the engineer and this construction company that we used for this project have demonstrated their ability to produce a credible product.

I believe the expertise of the current board has been proven. If we choose to have a construction committee to oversee this board/construction, then that committee MUST have the expertise to make credible, reliable decisions and not just present us with proposals that will slow down progress, or worse, produce the type of work that was done in the past. If the construction committee is composed of the people who were overseeing the previous projects, will we have the same results that we had in the past?

It is my opinion that, if we have a construction committee, that we continue to use the same engineer as a consultant and the same construction company because they have my confidence. Again, I say, it sounds good to have a construction committee, but that all depends on who is on that committee and their expertise in making decisions.

Also, if the homeowners decide to have a construction committee, their authority needs to be clearly defined.

That is my opinion. Thank you for listening and again, I am sorry that I cannot be there today.