List of Articles

• Superintendent of TSCC 1446
• TSCC 1446 First Board Meeting
• MTCC 1113’s Weird "Candidates Elect"
• At the Grandview Tower (MTCC 1132) AGM
• At the Parkside (TSCC 1446) AGM
• At the Casitas (MTCC 1113) AGM
• MTCC 1132 (Grandview Tower) AGM
• TSCC 1446 (Parkside) AGM
• MTCC 1113 (Casitas) AGM
• New Garage Door
• Frozen to Death, Almost
• Organic Waste Recycling
• Traffic Control at Gatehouse
• Gate Arm Repair
• Names and Numbers
• Kitchen Stack Cleaning
• Main Entrance Doors
• Guess Gas
• Exercise room door damage
• Visitor delayed calling
• What is Grandview Way?

---

Read more about living in a condo at ILiveInACondo.blogspot.com

---

---

Got comments?
Write your comments below,
or send your comments to GrandviewWay@gmail.com

---

MTCC 1113’s Weird "Candidates Elect"

MTCC 1113 (Casitas) passed at the AGM this year a motion to repeal and replace its old Operating By-laws No. 1, 2 and 3 with a new comprehensive by-law called the General Operating By-law. This new version of Operating By-law number 1, although passed at the AGM, still has to be registered on title with the Land Registry Office to become effective.

The new General Operating By-law of MTCC 1113 (Casitas) states: "Candidates elected pursuant to this provision shall be deemed to be “candidates elect” until such time as this by-law is registered, whereupon they will be constituted duly elected directors." (See the last sentence in Article VII (Board of Directors), Section V (Election and Term), Paragraph 1 of this new By-law.)

There are two weird things here in this sentence.

The first weird thing is at the beginning of the above-quoted sentence "Candidates elected". Owners don’t elect candidates; they elect directors. You were a candidate before being elected, and once you are elected, you are no longer a candidate.

The second weird thing is the creation of the term "candidates elect". Before explaining why this term is weird, let's digress a little:

On November 4th, 2008, Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States. He was sworn in on January 20th, 2009 at the inauguration ceremony, and officially assumed the office (i.e. the duties) of the president of the United States. During the period from November 4th, 2008 to January 20th, 2009, Obama was the President elect of the United States. Prior to the inauguration on January 20th, 2009, technically George W. Bush was still the President of the United States.

So, "President elect" simply means "this person has been elected to be the next president, and is waiting to officially assume the duties of president."

Similarly, we have terms like "Prime Minister elect" (meaning "the person has been elected as the next Prime Minister and is waiting to officially assume the duties of prime minister"), "Premier elect" (meaning "the person has been elected as the next Premier and is waiting to officially assume the duties of premier").

So, a "candidate elect" would technically mean "a person has been elected as the next candidate and is waiting to officially assume the duties of a candidate." One can easily see the weirdness of this term. This term so created is neither fish nor fowl.

Judging from the context, the proper term to be used is "director elect": a person has been elected as the next director and is waiting to officially assume the duties of a director.

Even though at times, the term "candidate elect" has been loosely used to mean the person being elected, yet it's not precise. Bear in mind that a proper and precise term conveys the correct and exact meaning, especially when it comes to legal matters such as a by-law.

Sources indicated that MTCC 1113 spent about $2,400 lawyer's fees on the new by-laws which were drafted by the law firm Deacon, Spears, Fedson & Montizambert.

Click here for a list of articles

Read more about living in a condo at ILiveInACondo.blogspot.com

Got comments?
Write your comments below,
or send your comments to GrandviewWay@gmail.com

At the Casitas (MTCC 1113) AGM

This year, the AGM of MTCC 1113 (Casitas) was held on Wednesday, June 16, 2010. In addition to the five directors being present, so were the usual invitees: Michael Doherty (Del’s on-site Property Manager), Maggie Yim (Del’s on-site Administrator), and a recording secretary from a minute-taking service company.

Usually Del will also send a District Manager to be present at the AGM. Last year, it was Catherine Murdock, Del’s District Manager, who was also present at last year's AGM. This year, surprisingly, Allan Rosenberg, Del’s Vice-President of Operations, condescended to be present at the AGM.

Another usual invitee is the auditor. The auditor for MTCC 1113 is Adams & Miles LLP, represented by John Warren.

An unusual invitee this year was John Deacon from the law firm Deacon, Spears, Fedson & Montizambert because there were four by-laws to be passed at the AGM: General Operating By-Law, Standard Unit By-Law, Mediation/Arbitration By-Law, and Insurance Deductible By-Law. These four by-laws are either new or replacing existing ones.

It is reasonable to assume that the these by-laws were drafted by the law firm Deacon, Spears, Fedson & Montizambert, and John Deacon's presence was probably to provide any clarifications if needed. The four by-laws were passed as presented at the AGM, and will become effective once registered on title.

This year there were two director positions open: one is the owner-occupied position, and the other one is a regular position. (What is owner-occupied position? click here to find out.)

Since there was only one candidate for each position, so the result was that those two candidates were elected: Debby Nathanson for the owner-occupied director position, and Alan Tam for the regular director position.

---

Got comments?
Write your comments below,
or send your comments to GrandviewWay@gmail.com

---

MTCC 1113 (Casitas) AGM

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) for Casitas or the Townhouses (MTCC 1113) will be held on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. at the Party Room of the 88 building.

The agenda this year includes the usual stuff such as:
• Approval of last year’s AGM minutes
• Director’s report
• Approval of Auditor’s report
• Election of Directors

This year there are two positions on the Board of Directors up for election: one regular position, and one owner-occupied position. The regular position is currently held by Alan Tam, the Treasurer, and the owner-occupied position by Debby Nathanson, the 2nd Vice-President. (Read more about owner-occupied position here.)

There are two candidates who have notified MTCC 1113 in writing of their intention of running for the positions. They are both incumbents. Alan Tam (the current Treasurer) is running again for the regular position, and Debby Nathanson (the current 2nd Vice-President) is running again for the owner-occupied position.

What’s special this year is the proposed four by-laws to be passed at the AGM:
• General Operating By-law
• Insurance Deductible By-law
• Standard Unit By-law
• Mediation and Arbitration By-law

The General Operating By-law stipulates the foundation on which the Corporation and its Board of Directors are to be governed and to operate. And the proposed by-law, if passed, will replace the existing General Operating By-law that has been in use since the registration of the Condominium Corporation. The by-laws were drafted by the law firm Deacon, Spears, Fedson & Montizambert.

The impact of these changes could be immense. However, the AGM package does not provide any explanations why these by-laws need to be replaced, nor a summary highlighting the differences between the proposed by-law and the existing one, thus making it hard for a unit owner to try to understand why such changes are necessary or are in the best interest of the condominium corporation, not that of someone's. Perhaps the current Board of Directors may feel that it’s best to leave legal matters to the lawyers.

---

Got comments?
Write your comments below,
or send your comments to GrandviewWay@gmail.com

---

---

New Garage Door

In March this year, garage door #3 (the garage door leading to the 880 building) broke, and the door had to be left open all the time, while waiting for repair.

In April, the garage door was fixed by Burrell Overhead Door Ltd. The new door is a white one now, different from the other two garage doors (and the old one).

The repiar cost was about $4,700 (including tax). Since the garage door belongs to shared facilities among the three corporations (MTCC 1113, MTCC 1132, and TSCC 1446), and there are 500 units in total in the three corporations, each unit spends on the average less than $10 in this repair.

The new garage door uses a different trigger mechanism, so it appears to be less responsive than the old garage door. Drive carefully, and a little bit more patience would much appreciated.

---

Got comments?
Write your comments below,
or send your comments to GrandviewWay@gmail.com

---

Organic Waste Recycling

The City of Toronto has instituted the Green Bin Program to collect organic waste and turns it into compost. The obvious goal of this program is to reduce the amount of garbage that goes into landfill sites.

Organic waste includes food leftovers, egg shells, coffee grounds/filters, tea bags, house plants including soil, pet’s waste, soiled paper towels and tissues, diapers and sanitary products, and certain paper food packaging. To people like us living in high-rise buildings, this could be somewhat challenging to implement. There are two approaches to deal with this.

The first approach is to have big green bins put at where currently the garbage is being picked up. Each unit will be given a small bucket to put their organic waste in. Once a day or once every 2 or 3 days, depending on the type and amount of organic waste collected, you will have to carry the bucket to the outside of the building to dump it in the green bins.

"That’s very inconvenient!" We hear you. So we have the second approach.

The second approach is to retrofit a bi-sorter into the current garbage chute. This is how it works: There are two buttons on each chute opening on each floor. You press one button for regular garbage, and press the other button for organic waste. Well, if you by mistake dump garbage into the organic waste chute, the entire organic waste will become contaminated and the City may treat it as regular garbage.

Sounds wonderful! What’s the catch? Obviously, it’s the $$$money$$$. The bi-sorter will cost us more than $40,000 to install, plus annual maintenance costs thereafter. Each unit in the 880 Grandview Way building, on the average, will have to shoulder a cost of close to $300.

So, the first approach appears to be the one that should be tried out first because the cost is minimal. If the first approach turns out to present major problems, then the second approach may then be the option.

So, when you take your bucket full of organic waste from your unit to the outside, please make sure the bucket won't drip; otherwise, carpet cleaning costs will soar drastically.

Update: The City of Toronto has provided, free of charge, small blue boxes for recycling. This small blue box can fit under the kitchen sink. You can pick up your blue box now at the Management Office (Tel: 416-229-4274).

---

Got comments?
Write your comments below,
or send your comments to GrandviewWay@gmail.com

---

Traffic Control at Gatehouse

The evenings of Fridays and Saturdays are the times that most visitors are coming to visit their friends and relatives in the Grandview Way residential complex. You probably have seen something like this: visitor vehicles form a long line in front of the gatehouse, blocking traffic on the right lane for residents.

In order to expedite the traffic flow at the entrance, delayed visitors calling was implemented in July this year. (Click here to read about visitor delayed calling.)

In order to further avoid traffic hold-ups at the gatehouse entrance, especially when it comes the time Doris becomes a thoroughfare to Finch, pylons (orange traffic cones) have been put at the entrance to divide it into two lanes: the left lane (the lane closer to the gatehouse) is for visitors, the right lane for residents.

New traffic control measures at the gatehouse.
(Click here to see a larger picture.)

Please inform your visitors of the new procedure. Also inform them that if the visitor’s lane is already queued up with cars, wait at the curbside of Doris (if you are coming from the south) or at the center buffer lane (if you are coming from the north), but please do not block the entrance of the resident’s lane.

---

Got comments?
Write your comments below,
or send your comments to GrandviewWay@gmail.com

---

Gate Arm Repair

Saturday morning, September 26, 2009. It was a bit cool outside. It is perfect to sleep in. Especially when most people don’t have to go to work.

Shortly after 8:00am, residents whose units face the gatehouse were awakened by a loud construction noise, even much louder if the units are on lower floors.

What was that noise? It was two construction workers using an electric saw to cut the floor tiles at the exit gate-arms to repair the malfunctioning exit loop that was buried underneath. The work was finished by about 10:00am. The work cost about $1,500 to the Grandview Way complex.

Two workers fixing exit gate arm
(Click here to see a larger picture.)

It has been noticed that the exit gate arm does not come down intermittently after vehicles have exited. So, the management office is initiating the repair work.

Some residents felt that, even though it is not against any law to start construction work after 8 on a Saturday morning, they would have appreciated it very much if someone could cut some slack and have the work started after 9:00am.

Some residents mentioned that they did not notice the problem with the exit gate-arm, but instead they had noticed that the entrance gate-arm on the resident side (not the visitor side) often do not come back down after a vehicle has entered past the entrance gate-arm. They wondered why the entrance gate-arm is not fixed first because vehicles can just go through when the gate-arm on the resident side stays up. This could pose a security issue.

---

Got comments?
Write your comments below,
or send your comments to GrandviewWay@gmail.com

---

Names and Numbers 2009

All three condominium corporations in the Grandview Way residential complex use the one and same management office. The property management function was contracted out to DEL Property Management.

The people working in the management office are:

Property Manager:	Michael Doherty
Administrative Assistant:	Maggie Yim
Address for service:	126 Grandview Way
Phone:	416-224-2373

The phone number for the gatehouse is: 416-529-6489.

*   *   *   *

The three corporations have had their Annual General Meetings (AGM) in June and July this year.

The Casitas at Northtown (MTCC #1113) had two incumbent candidates running for two positions on the Board of Directors. All candidates were re-elected. These are the members of the Board of Directors for MTCC #1113 for the coming year, and each director also holds an office in the corporation:

President:	Hamzeh Roumani*
Secretary:	Cathy Vendramin
Treasurer:	Alan Tam
1st Vice-President:	Amy Choi*
2nd Vice President:	Debby Nathanson
*Also serves as a representative to the Shared Facilities Committee.

Source: AGM package and "Board meeting highlights."

The 88 Grandview Way (MTCC #1132) also had two incumbent candidates running for two positions on the Board of Directors. All candidates were re-elected. These are the members of the Board of Directors for MTCC #1132 for the coming year, and each director also holds an office in the corporation:

President:	Susan Stormes*
Secretary:	Stephen Douglas
Treasurer:	Brian Ho*
1st Vice-President:	Sandra Sanguinetti
2nd Vice President:	Taraneh Foyle
*Also serves as a representative to the Shared Facilities Committee.

Source: AGM package et al.

The 880 Grandview Way (TSCC #1446) surprisingly had four candidates running for two positions on the Board of Directors.

It is very rare, possibly unheard of, that in condominium corporations there are more candidates than available positions on the Board of Directors. Most typically, condominium corporations have great difficulties in finding people to fill the vacancies on the Board. This, perhaps, may be a good sign as more people are getting more enthusiastically involved in managing the affairs of their own condo. After all, it's their homes.

Among the four candidates, only one was an incumbent: Thomas Kwong. The second candidate, David Grader, the former President, resigned in 2008 and declared his candidacy again in 2009. The third candidate, Bill Kay, was a recent new owner to the 880 building.

The candidacy of these three candidates were made known to unit owners in the AGM package which also included their resumes. However, only the resumes of Thomas Kwong and David Grader were translated into Chinese by the Management Office. Bill Kay later confirmed that he was never asked whether he would like his resume translated into Chinese. "I definitely would like my resume in Chinese," he added.

The fourth candidate, Audrey Wai, declared her candidacy at the Annual General Meeting, at which she handed out her resume in English. She was a member of the board for the 880 building since the inception of the bulidng in 2002. She resigned in 2007 to go back to school.

After election, these are the members of the Board of Directors for TSCC #1446 for the coming year, and each director also holds an office in the corporation:

President:	David Yung*
Secretary:	Simon Li*
Treasurer:	Johnny Hui
1st Vice-President:	Thomas Kwong
2nd Vice President:	Audrey Wai
*Also serves as a representative to the Shared Facilities Committee.

Source: AGM package, Annual Genreal Meeting and notice posted in the lobby.

---

Got comments?
Write your comments below,
or send your comments to GrandviewWay@gmail.com

---

Main entrance doors

Of the two doors at the front of the 880 Grandview Way building, the pivot and closure of the south-side door (the door to your left when you are looking at the doors from outside the building) was damaged.

South-side entrance door cannot closed properly
Click here for larger picture

Possible causes include the strong northerly winds in the winter and blow slam open the south-side door, as well as careless use by residents and visitors.

One can use slide bolts to make it stationary but can be opened to make way for large items going through. This will cost about $350 (including taxes). Another way is to repair the close mechanism; this will cost under $1,200 (including taxes).

However, this is being put on hold temporarily because the Board is actively considering installing automatic door openers on the main lobby entrances (as well as at the P1 and P2 entrances). When and if it is decided to install the automatic door openers, it may not even be necessary to repair the south-side door.

Meanwhile, residents should use the door with care, as always should. Careless use and misuse will result in unexpected repair costs that end up becoming part of your monthly management fees. Please pass the message to your children and visitors.

---

Got comments?
Write your comments below,
or send your comments to GrandviewWay@gmail.com

---

Guess Gas

Our current gas contract with Provident Energy Management will expire by the end of October this year. The three Boards of the three Corporations (the Casitas, the 88 Grandview Way building, the 880 Grandview Way building) have been investigating into new and better commitments.

The Management Office invited two suppliers for a presentation on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 in the party room of the 88 building. The first one to present was Mark Burtniak from Superior Energy. The second one was Ata Malick from Comsatec Inc.

Shorter-term contracts (e.g., 1-year or 2-year contracts) have lower rates and longer-term contracts (e.g., 3-year or 5-year contracts) have higher rates. One-year contract will save us money if gas price does not increase significantly next year, because it will allow us to continue to commit to lower prices next year.

However, if gas price increases significantly next year and in future years, then lock-in multi-year contracts now are better even though they have higher rates than one-year contracts.

During the presentation, prices for future natural gas starting November 1, 2009 were quoted as follows:

• For 1-year contract: 20.8 cents per cubic metre
• For 3-year contract: 24.3 cents per cubic metre
• For 5-year contract: 25.9 cents per cubic metre

(Note: natural gas prices, like stock prices, fluctuate every minute, if not more frequent. You may check energy prices on www.ino.com.)

To go long, or to go short? That’s the question.

The price for 5-year contract is about 25% higher than the 1-year contract price. That means if we go for 1-year contract, we already have (in a way) 25% immediate savings, but we risk of paying higher prices if natural gas price increases in later years. We don’t know unless we have a crystal ball, but unfortunately that’s something that we don’t have.

So we turn to the experts. Mark Burtniak of Superior Energy recommended to go long term (5 years), but Ata Malick of Comsatec Inc. recommended to go short term (1 year). Well, looks like they don’t have the crystal ball either.

---

Got comments?
Write your comments below,
or send your comments to GrandviewWay@gmail.com

---

Visitor delayed calling

The current procedure dealing with visitors in cars are like this:

When visitors in cars come to visit residents of Grandview Way, they have to stop at the gatehouse, tell the security guard which building and unit number they are visiting. The security guard then has to call the unit to get confirmation that they are expecting the visitors. Once confirmed, the gate-arm is open to let the car pass through to visitor parking.

Sometimes no-one in the unit answers the phone. This could happen for a number of reasons. Perhaps the visitors show up a bit early, and the resident is running some errands nearby but not at home. It could also be that the resident is not expecting visitors but the visitors just show up. The visitors may ask the security guard to try some other phone number (such as a cell phone number). This delays the processing, and if more visitor cars arrive, the cars could queue up and spill onto Doris Avenue, and you probably have seen such a situation.

As you may know, Doris Avenue is currently being extended from Byng Avenue to Finch Avenue as a bypass route for Yonge Street traffic. The construction is scheduled to complete before the end of this year. Then the traffic will be expected to be heavier than now. If visitor cars queue up and spill onto Doris Avenue, traffic would be messy and even dangerous.

The Shared Facilities Committee has decided to implement a new “delayed calling” procedure on a trial basis:

During rush hours (4pm to 7pm, Mondays to Fridays, holidays excepted), visitors cars after giving the building and unit number they are visiting, will be let through to the visitor parking so as not to clog up the entrance. As soon as when it is less busy, the security guard will then call the unit to confirm that their visitors are legits.

This new “delayed calling” procedure has already been in effect since July on a trial basis until September this year when it will be reviewed. A notice is supposed to have been put up to inform residents the change of new procedure.

---

Got comments?
Write your comments below,
or send your comments to GrandviewWay@gmail.com

---