The 11th Management Council

This topic is about the 11th Management Council and its Councilors.

Doris Cheong is again the Chairperson. I thought that Navy guy Lionel would take over. He was behaving as if he was the Chairman during the meeting.

What does it mean?

She is going to get free car wash again?

Residents can use the MCST water to wash their cars instead of paying for the car washer to do it.

Residents can use the changing room for their daily shower, saving a lot of money on their water bills.

To follow-up with the work of the Council, you can request for a copy of the Minutes of Council Meeting to be sent to you via email. Send your request to hillbrookscondo@gmail.com

Mr. Ng Kien Aun

Reading from the latest Minutes of the Coucil Meeting, the Managing Agent's fee has increased by $500/mth. This was not budgeted for in this Financial Year. In the last Meeting of the previous council, the M.A. budgeted for an increase of $1000/mth but this was turned down.

In the AGM, an increment of $6/share value/mth was approved for the Management Fund. The total share value for the condo is 1099. For simplicity, let's round it to 1100. This means $6600 more per mth for the Management Fund. Now $6000 per year has gone to the Managing Agent. This was not made known to the assembly during the AGM. We were told that that the increment was to meet maintenance expenses.

Based on d budget, which does not include any increase in M.A. fee, d increment should be $11 but only $6 was approved. Yet they increase d M.A. fee. Straightaway, d deficit has worsen by $6000 for this Financial Year. What Financial Management is this?

Sorry, my mistake. Looking through the budget in the AGM report, the M.A. fee budget is $138K, compared to $124K previous Financial Year, an increase of $14K. This must have been slipped in without council's approval. During the last counicl meeting before this, it was decided that there be no increment to the MA. fee.

Budget aside, the council should be looking at ways to cut cost, not increase it. As was suggested, council should look into reducing the number of office staffs. Instead, it increases the M.A. fee. I wonder how much of this increment goes to the salary of the Condo Manager?

The mistake is to let them have the increment. With that, they have no reason to cut cost. With the same old gang in the council, expect the same extravagant way of the previous council. Don't be surprised they will come back for another round of maintenance fee increment next AGM.

I know a one-year contract with the current M.A. was signed on 25th June 2012. If the M.A. fee was increased by $500 effective 1st Apr 2013, that means a new contract was signed before the expiry of the old one. This morning, I have raised this with Management via an email as follows.

"The contract with ECC was signed on 25th June 2012 for a year. Has a new contract been signed before the expiry of the previous one in order to have the $500 increment?"

Still waiting for the reply.

Management has put up a notice with a new email addr for feedback. We should use that addr but also bring up any matter of concern in this forum. If we only write individually to Management, each of us don't know how many have written in. This forum will enable us to know how many residents are concerned about a certain matter and to act as a group, if necessary.

From the Minutes of the 2nd Council Meeting.

“LKN enquired as to why a same contractor would be used. MA replied that it is based on the quotations, the best cost value for the quotations given and would therefore recommend accordingly. "

It is not that simple. Suppose I want to give the contract to Company A. I can call A to quote and then purposely find two other companies which quote higher.

The important thing here is how open am I in sourcing for the contractors. MA will only source from its list of preferred contractors. A better way may be to use the Internet for more sources.

I fully agree with you as I am in this trade, building materials. At times they will just find any 2 companies to quote higher so they can award to the company that they have already plan to award to.

First, they deprive we SPs the right to enter via the back-gate without access card. Now they are going to deprive us of hot water shower in the changing room. Reason given: "It was noted that most of the public pools and private pools do not have hot water supply in their toilets/changing rooms. " That is not a good reason. They were build without it. Ours came from the developer.

Does council have the right to do this, taking away facilities which come originally with the condo? While our maintenance is increased, the facilities available to us are reduced.

Which councilor proposes this and how many agree to it? The Minutes only mentioned "majority of the councilor". This councilor is getting high-handed.

Reading the latest Minutes, the store at B2 car park and the pavilion beside Blk 92 are to demolished. These structures have been around since the beginning of the condo. Does council have the right to demolish them?

kimkimhb wrote:First, they deprive we SPs the right to enter via the back-gate without access card. Now they are going to deprive us of hot water shower in the changing room. Reason given: "It was noted that most of the public pools and private pools do not have hot water supply in their toilets/changing rooms. " That is not a good reason. They were build without it. Ours came from the developer.

Does council have the right to do this, taking away facilities which come originally with the condo? While our maintenance is increased, the facilities available to us are reduced.

Which councilor proposes this and how many agree to it? The Minutes only mentioned "majority of the councilor". This councilor is getting high-handed.

I have written to Management as follows:

M.A.,

That facility, like the changing room in which it is located, is meant to be used in conjunction with the swimming pool. I don't think it is right to deprive residents of a hot shower after a swim. Instead of just switching it off at all time, why not switch it off only when the swimming pool is off-use?

Mr. Ng Kien Aun

Mr. Ng, don't forget. We have to cut cost.

I know that. I have proposed various cost-cutting measures in this forum but taking out useful facilities like hot shower is not one of them.

That's not d way to cut cost. Better not to increase the cost. Why increase the Managing Agent fee after only one year? Form what I know, the previous M.A. served 3 yrs without any fee increment.

SEK1001 wrote:I fully agree with you as I am in this trade, building materials. At times they will just find any 2 companies to quote higher so they can award to the company that they have already plan to award to.

Give you a scenario. If the Chairman wants his friend or relative to get a contract, say landscaping, he can work with the Condo Manager to make it happen. It is that simple.

From the Minutes of the 2nd Council Meeting:

"DC feedback that many of the holes at the roof top opened by the paint contractor for the purpose of suspending the gondolas had not been closed. MA to follow up."

Mr. Ng, why did you not know about this in your three years as Chairman?

Those holes were driled when Doris Cheong was the chairperson. She continued to be in the council after that. You should ask her why she did not follow up to ensure that they were all covered up.

I was against the drilling of those holes. So were some residents, esp, those at the top floors. The drilling created a lot of vibrations on the buildings which caused fine cracks to appear in units on the upper floors. The work was done without prior approval of the council or the BCA. By the time I called a meeting with the contractor to stop it, it was too late; the work was almost done.

Yeah, I remember this one. I was one of those living on a high floor unit who called up the office to complain.
The contractor was drilling through thick concrete at the edge of the rooftop.Such heavy work should not be allowed to be carried out on a completed building. And it was done without clearance from BCA!?

Hi, I am back. Been out of town for a while. What has happened to my condo since then?

I see. No hot water shower. Drill holes not covered up.

This is something we residents should raise hell with Management. We contirbute towards the maintenance of the facilities in the condo. If facilities are taken out of use, then there should be a reduction in our Maintenance Fund contributions. This move is more unreasonable considering that it comes after our MF contributions have been increased by 6%!

Those holes at the rooftop were drilled without BCA approval? Not surprising that this happened when Doris Cheong was the chairperson. I was told she had the cunning thinking that when things are done, they will be difficult to be undone and will be left alone.

From the Minutes of the 2nd Council Meeting:

"CCTV inside Management Office

MA explained to the Council on the rationale of installing CCTV inside the Management Office which is to deter any physical or verbal abuse. "

Have someone been to the office to physically or verbally abuse the staff?

Anyway, I think this is a good move. It will also monitor the staff in the office, how often they are in the office and what do they do when they are in the office. Better still if the camera can zoom-in on their computer screens to monitor how they are using the computers. In the industry, I hear about condo managers using the office computer to play games, checking on the stock market, etc.

I am curious. Why use a plastic cone placed at the end of the barrier arm to prevent people from walking into the condo? It is not effective. I have seen people easily walk pass it to enter the condo.