Belvue Apartments Crosslease 93132

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In August 2013, unauthorised payments were found in our bank statements and reported to the Owners Committee. The mail sent out to all committee members is here. The response? Mostly silence; one member trying bullying tactics. No direct reply from Graham Smith until 23. October. The facts of the matter are in our accounts. See the files accounts130228.pdf and accounts130731.pdf (both part of the archive protected.zip on the Privacy page), which contain our interim financial accounts to the end of February and the end of July 2013, respectively. Also contained in that archive is a trail of related e-mails called "manager_pay.pdf". Please read for yourself.

For your information: the cash amount of payments to the building manager is only part of the remuneration. Usage of the ground floor "office" apartment as a personal home for the manager is another significant component of the payment.

I would encourage owners to contact their representatives on the Owners Committee and ask some serious questions why the AGM-authorised budget limit has been so blatantly ignored and what committee members intend to do about this. Certainly, silence is not a good enough answer. It is your right to demand explanations.

On Wednesday, 23. October 2013, only a 2-sentence statement has been recorded in the minutes of a hastily re-scheduled OCM meeting that only a minority of OCM members could attend:

Christoph Pasyna had asked for written explanation regarding Katrina James' pay appearing on the accounts for an amount higher than normal. Graham Smith explained that this was a catch-up payment as calculated by BCA Ltd and paid by Graham Smith.

This statement is simply the first admission after a long uncomfortable silence, that Graham indeed increased Katrina's net wage payments by 40% plus a one-off payment of close to $5,000.00. But it still does not say why no proper authorisation was obtained, it only asserts that BCA Ltd was complicit in this matter. Calling it "catchup" is no different than calling it "gravy", which might be a more appropriate term.

Budget decisions are supposed to be made by the AGM. Within the budgetary constraints set by the AGM, it is the Owners Committee's responsibility to make financial decisions during the year. It is true that individual budget positions may be exceeded at times, but this is generally only the case, where costs are unpredictable, such as for repairs. BCA Ltd does NOT make payment decisions for us. They may help us re-calculate numbers, but only if we tell them what we want re-calculated. And individual Owners Committee members (even if they think of themselves as having special powers) are not in a position to make substantial changes without obtaining prior consent. My request for explanation remains unanswered.

There is more material to be revealed on the topic of how we (i.e. the formal entity "Belvue Apartments Crosslease 93132") deal or fail to deal with matters related to our building manager.

AGM 2013 update

Prior to the AGM, the following requests were submitted to be replied to by BCA Ltd and Graham Smith:
Justify, why wage payments to our building manager were significantly increased beyond the AGM-approved budget limits, why it was believed to be OK to do this, even without discussing this within the OCM and how the PAYE tax was calculated.
The written reply in the AGM handouts was:
Refer attached spreadsheet calculating shortfall in Katrina James' wages. Background: At every AGM there has approval of an increase in Katrina James' wages via approval of the proposed budget. The automatic payment to Katrina was never adjusted to reflect the increase hence a one-off catch up payment was required.

The referred spreadsheet was NOT attached, so the justification cannot be properly assessed. NO explanation was given by Graham Smith, why he excluded other OCM members and made the payment decision himself. And NO word on the calculation of PAYE tax was supplied.

During the AGM, when the 2013/2014 proposed budget was discussed, I raised the point that the budget position for "Caretaker - wages & expenses" should be based on the previous year's authorised budget plus CPI increase rather than the previous year's actual (unapproved) spending plus CPI. Graham claimed that the increase in monthly wage payments and the back-pay made in May 2013 was related to the past 2 years and was authorised by the AGM as part of authorising the previous 2 year's budgets. Still, the corresponding spreadsheet is outstanding and the issue could not be progressed. David Lee suggested to clarify the matter through e-mail exchanges.

I have requested that the missing spreadsheet be supplied by BCA Ltd and am waiting for a reply:

From: Christoph Paszyna
To: Alana Augustino
Subject: Belvue - AGM notes
Sent: 28 November 2013 9:42

Hi Alana,

the supplementary agenda notes distributed on 12.11.13 say under point (1): "Refer attached spreadsheet calculating shortfall in Katrina James' wages", but no spreadsheet has been attached.

Would you please e-mail the missing spreadsheet?

Thanks,
Christoph Paszyna