May 28, 2023, 10:16 PM
To george.simon, denise.snyder,
Hello Ms. Snyder & Mr. George,
Rochdale Village is a small city, we have 5,860 shareholders in Rochdale Village, less than 50% of our shareholders chose to get involved in selecting the board of directors that will 100% affect all shareholders, for better or worse.
The loudest voices in my community are just that, loud voices, loud is not synonymous with correct. A great deal of the negative narrative is on a Facebook page that blocks those that dispute their narrative. The Facebook page Real Deal Rochdale is administered by Jean Hall, the Board President and Shawn Chandler.
An uneducated board, led by grievances and greed is dangerous for the housing company, contract professionals and the shareholders, and the only remedy is the annual election. We need an option to replace the entire board. Currently any shareholder who is up to date with their carrying charges can become a Board member. However, a PhD or GED doesn’t matter if the individual doesn’t have the willingness and humility to learn. We have a lot to lose with naivete, arrogance and all-around lack of business acumen. We have board members that are chairing meetings and will repeat incorrect information, is the difference known to them. We have several board members with their own agendas, this is a dangerous position for the housing company.
In Jean Hall’s first president’s message she states that she will be transparent to what the board has found and inherited. Jean has been on the board for a decade, she is fully aware of all of the initiatives taken by the board, she has spent most of the last decade abstaining or voting against all the progress made in Rochdale Village. Many years ago, the board passed a resolution that new business cannot be voted on at a board meeting without prior discussion at Legal and Management, however, currently new business is being voted on at the board meetings, the board is disregarding its own rules.
Jean has also taken over the Rochdale Village Bulletin, she has assumed editing and instructing employees, citing that the paper belongs to the shareholders. Everything in Rochdale belongs to the shareholders, however it is doubtful that she will be monitoring temperature gages in the powerplant, waxing floors in the community center or removing trash from the compactor rooms. Instructing employees is not a board member's responsibility.
There are seated board members with conflicts of interest that the board needs to take action to resolve. Family members of the board of directors cannot be employed by the housing company. Current board member Mariam Hubbard hires her husband former Rochdale Village employee Royal Hubbard for catering for her committee meetings. First, it is against the Rochdale Village occupancy lease to run a business out of your apartment and a cause for eviction, second shareholders are paying the bill submitted by her and her husband. A shareholder may question the need for an in-person meeting that provides food versus a zoom meeting.
Although information discussed on the board should be confidential, Rochdale Village board doesn’t have an NDA, current board member Khedda Hayden-Ryan, is a shareholder but works for a competitor managing agent. After becoming a board member Khedda and the other members of the JOJ (they have dubbed themselves the moniker of Rochdale Village, Jewel of Jamaica), spent a great deal of time asking for information that has nothing to do with learning more about the development or any upcoming resolutions. Within Khedda’s first term on the board, she requested that we go out to bid for a new manager. Never acknowledging that she works for a competitor managing agent, so are the requests legitimate or intel for her employer. If Rochdale were to go out to bid, her current employer could be bidding on the opportunity to manage Rochdale which is tantamount to insider trading, Khedda and Prestige should be excluded from any future process. Rochdale has the problems of a 60-year-old development, the complex is in a continuous rotation of repair and upgrade. However, Prestige has their own concerns with the Jewel of the Bronx, Concourse Village with the shareholders calling for the removal of the board and the managing agent for the deterioration of the parking lot due to lack of repair and insufficient notice to the shareholders. It is my opinion that Khedda and Prestige should concern themselves with the Jewel of the Bronx.
The board recently passed a resolution that the management company should add more to the reserves and that the board be notified of the reserved balance (the board is given this information monthly). The general budget is used for the needs/work of the cooperative. The request to increase reserves could slow down repairs and upgrades. The bigger problem is that the board has carved out $300,000 from the general budget for discretionary spending.
The manager has the responsibility for the upkeep of Rochdale Village and has the discretion to adjust line items in the budget as necessary, the request to add more money to reserves, should also mean all discretionary monies ($300,000.00) needs to be placed in reserves first. This board has also hired additional legal counsel, this also is an extra expense which will impact the general budget, no other board has done this. Fiscal responsibility as a board member is in conflict with discretionary spending and it needs to stop. Community events can be taken care of by the Community Center Director within the Community Center budget. The board is consumed with matters that should be the responsibility of the Community Center Director. The board should remove itself from any actual or perceived bias and remain neutral. Everything in Rochdale Village has an expense associated with it, there is no such thing as we are giving back to the community, the board is spending our money in a manner that they feel is appropriate, I feel a great deal is spent frivolously which impacts our budget and future carrying charge increases.
To be fair this is not the first board that in my opinion has gone overboard in event planning and discretionary spending. When I started as a board member, our meeting refreshments were Entenmann's cake, tea and coffee, today it's catered dinners and I have said it is wrong to anyone willing to listen. Enough is enough the current board needs to be scrapped and replaced with a board focused only on the business of Rochdale Village with the experience and business acumen to support the needs of the cooperative.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to my concerns, your assistance and feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Best regards,
Lisa Stark
Former Board Member
Concerned Cooperators
DATE: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2023 PLACE:
ZOOM CONFERENCE TIME: 3:30 PM MEETING ID: 879 5444 2279; PASSCODE: 718 328; CALL IN #646 558 8656
AGENDA
1. Update on Board of Director’s Election
2. Your Vote Counts-Importance of Voting
3. OPEN Yearly Dues is now $10, Donations are accepted.
Please send to CONCERNED COOPERATORS P.O. BOX 340-241 Rochdale Station – Jamaica, NY 11434 JOIN YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS We’ll KEEP YOU AWARE OF THE IMPORTANT ISSUES IN ROCHDALE VILLAGE
VISITS OUR WEBSITE WWW.CONCERNEDCOALITION.COM
Hettie Powell-President * Talib Bey - Vice President * Lisa Stark – Secretary Jean Randolph Castro - Treasurer
If you need assistance to vote on Wednesday October 11, 2023, please leave us a message or text 917-245-8954 * 929-569-5362 * 917-245-8966
