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So much for owners' once-a-year opportunity to be heard or to direct council pursuant to the Strata Property Act.
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The Notice to owners of the Annual General Meeting on January 28, 2010, advises in part that "No new items of business may be added to the agenda...every owner has the opportunity to submit items of business to the Council for consideration at the AGM ... submit in writing any resolutions that they may wish to be considered... make a petition of demand with 25% of owners...No new resolutions may be introduced from the floor..."
Every owner does, indeed, have the opportunity to submit resolutions for consideration - and, council has the duty to consider the request, vote on it, and record a decision in the minutes. This notice goes beyond saying that council is not obliged to place any extra item of business on the agenda for the AGM - unless there is a petition of demand - it says that no new resolutions may be introduced from the floor.
On November 5, 2009, I submitted 9 items of business to the council to consider placing on the agenda, including a list of proposed resolutions, and none of them were put on the AGM's agenda.
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I am not complaining about them not being on the agenda. The problem I am complaining about is that the minutes of the council meeting of November 26, 2009, provide not a trace of evidence to indicate that my letter was ever submitted to or received by council, and making matters worse is the AGM notice that no new resolutions may be introduced from the floor.
With respect to my letter, it seems like either someone forgot to present it to council, or there was a decision to exclude it, and its contents, from any votes, or my letter was stolen from the strata corporation's on-site mailbox. Three possible explanations - none of them good.
The Strata Property Act requires that letters to the strata be kept in the strata records and provided to other owners upon request. It further requires that all decisions must be made by votes of council or owners and be published in the minutes.
I suspect that a decision was made by someone but not disclosed to owners, and possibly council as well, due to the "items of business" I submitted.
The letter I submitted for consideration says in part,
"Please make the following motions and record council's votes in the minutes for deciding on whether or not to place the following remedial items on the next appropriate agenda to:
1. amend the bylaws-to require a secretary and ...
2. motions at meetings ...
3. provide documents for income tax...
4. plant replacement birch trees ...
5. vine maple tree...
6. repair the damage to strata lot 25...
7. extend strata lot 25's deck...
8. replace swing-out doors...
9. seek compensation for damages from Al MacLeod
I was thinking the most appropriate agenda would be the AGM, however, all the items were excluded from the agenda and my letter to council was made invisible. A decision was made which tampered with the rights of owners and council to vote on items of business submitted for consideration, and this action was taken anonymously and excluded from the minutes, which in turn tampered with the strata records.
From my experience in the past I think that decisions not reported in the minutes are usually made arbitrarily, most often by the strata manager or the strata council president.
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The most practical solution that I can think of for preventing continual tampering with strata records and other misconduct may be to adopt strata bylaws that control not just owners, but strata management also. Generally accepted practices through the strata agency industry are a fundamental cause of strata strife and violations of law and democracy that are so common that they are normalized.
Having a strata secretary with standard duties, guidelines for recording decisions, and more transparent accounting; as well as a parliamentary guide, such as Roberts Rules of Order, to assist with procedural matters at meetings could be a good start. Describing in the minutes the factual data, scope of work, and instructions provided to professional advisers, and publishing written reports to the owners paying the money could make a big difference in reducing the mistakes made over the years.
Instead of functioning secretaries we got Al MacLeod and his girlfriend, Cindy Norman, who worked in the accounting department of Teamwork Property Management when Mr. MacLeod arranged for their strata management services. Al MacLeod chose Teamwork in Abbotsford for our strata in Coquitlam in a clear conflict of interest
In 2010 and 2011 Teamwork was $7,000 for professional misconduct.
http://www.stratawatch.ca/directory/411/SR-News/special-report-teamworkpm.html
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