Last
week I had the privilege and pleasure to exchange with a gentleman named Tom LePage FRI, CPM, RCM, ARP,
emails centering on the issue of transparency in condo governance, the mockery
of democracy that takes place very casually every year during annual general
meetings, where lawyers chairing meetings exploit loopholes in The Condominium
Act to argue that it is legal to destroy ballots at the end of the meeting, and
The Board is fully entitled to shroud numbers in total secrecy and refuse to
announce the number of votes obtained by each candidate,…
For those
who are not familiar with the professional background of Mr. Lepage, his
exposure to The Condominium Industry started back in 1982, and during the last
34 years he acquired a wealth of knowledge, expertise, and wisdom that promote
the central argument that condominium governance should be based on the
principles of Swiss style direct democracy, meaning a stronger participation of
unit owners in the decisions shaped by The Board, the highest level of
transparency in publishing budgets and spending, and last but not least
elections procedures that rest on the standards used in municipal, provincial,
and federal elections, in other words Boards should follow the Golden Rules set
by Elections Canada instead of improvising elections rules that enhance their
solid grasp of power.
The following is an excerpt from
the first email I addressed to Mr. LePage on July 24, 2016:
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Dear Sir,
You are one of the rare voices of sanity that advocates direct Swiss
style democracy in an industry (The Condo Industry) where greed reigns supreme,
and where the key actors (developers, builders, management companies, lawyers)
sacrifice casually on the altar of greed every sacred principle promoted by
democracy, from accountability, to transparency of elections, to…
I am convinced, based on the years of experience you have had in the
industry, that you endorse the view that the existing big picture in almost
every condominium in the province is nothing but a travesty of democracy…
Do you have any practical advice on how owners can liberate their units
from the clutches of an industry determined to destroy democracy, one principle
at a time, to satisfy its greed no matter how much damage it inflicts on the
common good.
Any advice you might be able to provide will be highly appreciated.
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Here
are the comments made by Mr. LePage in an reply dated July 24, 2016:
After reading your email and checking out your
blog, there is no doubt we are on the exact same page with one major
exception; I am not in agreement with your statement "almost every
condominium in the province is nothing but a travesty of democracy". Every single condo corp. I managed was governed as a
Direct Democracy regardless of what the ACT stated; I know there must be
many condo corps. and managers similar.
Solving the issues which you have mentioned can
only be done by owners directly creating practical and easy to understand
general (governance) by-law. A link to an article of mine "Holy Grail
Explanation for Poor Condo Docs."
FYI - I have attached my Standing Committee Re:
Bill 106 presentation handout which you find interesting.
Once again, thanks for getting in touch.
Tom LePage FRI, CPM, RCM,
ARP.
LePage Condominium Consulting
Founder of Condo-Ology®
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For
our readers, I would like to highlight the following portion of Tom’s
reply:
“Every single condo corp. I managed
was governed as a Direct Democracy regardless of what the ACT stated; I
know there must be many condo corps. and managers similar.”
This
clearly means that in The Province of Ontario two categories of Board of
Directors exist: A) The ones that exploit loopholes to stay in power and
run the show based on questionable ethical principles. B) The ones who
adhere to the highest standards of ethical governance and remain loyal to
the letter and the spirit of the law, and the democratic heritage of the
province where The Condominium Act was passed by democratically elected law
makers.
Many
unit owners have accused me of being extremely biased against the practices
of The Board and the management company that provides the technical
assistance to enforce the will of The Board. Often those same unit owners
have stood up during annual meetings and praised the “Excellent” work done by The Board and the management company,
and according to their wisdom, both parties should be above any form of
reproach.
Any
person familiar with the basic rules of logical reasoning, will agree that
when someone claims that he/she is getting an Excellent service from a management company, it unavoidably
means that the claimant was exposed to a minimum of two different
management companies, and one is bad or mediocre and the other one is
excellent. In the case of our complex, the current management company was
selected by the builder when construction was completed, and ever since,
Boards for a number of considerations, stayed with the same management
company. Had we relied on the services of another company, with proper
merits we could have said company X failed to provide adequate service for approx. $330.000 (current amount paid by the complex for the three full time
employees of the management company), and company Y did an Excellent job. As a possibility we all know well
that other management companies do exist in The Condo Industry that may do
a better work for less than $330.000. But since the current management company has
enjoyed the exclusive right to service the complex since 1999, we don’t
have any other source of reference, and owners/cheerleaders of The Board before
announcing a value judgement such as Excellent, Very Good, Impressive
should ask themselves Excellent compared to what, Very Good compared to
which competitor,…
I
strongly encourage all unit owners to visit Mr. Tom LePage’s web site ( www.condo-ology.net ) and familiarize
themselves with the high ethical values and principles he advocates that every
Board and management company should adopt.
Admin
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